Travelling with Severe Allergies...

So on Weds we fly to Florida for 3 weeks, OMG, how exciting!  I am filled with a mixture of trepidation and excitement at the same time.  When we booked the holiday we had no idea what the following months would unfurl though.

Unfortunately a few months ago Keani was diagnosed with a severe peanut and shellfish allergy.  It's not until you read up on these things and see various consultants that you realise how scary the allergy actually is.  It's life threatening.  Keani will have to carry adrenalin in the form of Epi-pens with her for the rest of her life.

So the fact we are going to be on a plane for 10 hours up in the air, with no hospitals nearby, fills me with absolute terror!  We are going to be well prepared of course, with all her medication to hand.  But it doesn't stop me catastrophising and going through the 'what ifs'.  Thankfully airlines have stopped handing out peanuts on their flights to ALL passengers, however, Virgin have told me that they will give peanuts to those passengers who ask for them.  The average person does not understand the fear this induces in me!  Keani will react to a minute trace of peanut - what if she finds one on the floor and picks it up? What if somebody touches something with their peanut coated fingers, and Keani touches that same thing - a chair, a door knob, anything....   What if Keani reacts to the airbourne allergen?! 

Scary stuff.  So it's not flying for 10 hours with 2 toddlers that terrifies me, it's her allergies that will turn me into a quivering wreck!

Cross your fingers for us.  It'll probably be fine............. here's hoping for a 'safe and pleasant flight'....

Snowwwwwwwwwww!

We were lucky (or unlucky) enough to have our first fall of snow this year - the brilliant thing about it was it snowed on Saturday, hung around on Sunday (bright sunshine all day) then melted on Monday in time for the school run - perfect!  Now that's my kind of snow!

The sunshine on Sunday meant we were able to take the kids sledging - for Dexter it was his first time and he loved it 'this is funnnnnnnn!' he kept shouting.  Keani loved it too.  They sledged for the obligatory 20 minutes or so before complaining of the cold and wanting to go home.  James and I were pretty hot from hoiking the sledges up the hill but weren't too disappointed to have to go.  We'd had our fun, and enjoyed seeing the kids happy even if it was only for less than half an hour! 

(Dexter and daddy played in the garden whilst Keani kept herself warm indoors - you can see where Dexter tried to hit Keani with some snowballs!)

Silent Sunday

Pepppppppa Pig... oink!

So we drove for 5 hours on Tuesday morning (up with the larks at 5.00am to get on the road!).  Peppa Pig World is near Southampton so for us (near Leeds) it is a massive trek, but the kids are huge Peppa Pig fans and James and I love theme parks so we figured it would be worth it.

We managed to get a deal with Paultons Park (where Peppa Pig World is situated) and got a night at the Holiday Inn plus 2 days entry into the park for £115, I reckon that's a pretty good deal - especially as we tucked into a full English breakfast as well!

As we approached the park we saw the signs for Peppa Pig World and James and I got a bit giddy - turned around to get the kids excited only to find them both fast asleep!  They had been awake the WHOLE journey down and decided to have a little nap minutes before we got there.  Little tinkers.  Anyway we woke them up (obviously) and headed straight to the Peppa Pig section of the park.

We went straight to the 'Windy Castle' ride - there was a bit of a queue so we were trying to wrestle with the 2 kids for the duration.  Queuing is not their forte unfortunately.  Dexter kept trying to leg it away from the queue and got most upset when we kept bringing him back.  We then had to resort to bribing both kids with bread sticks for the whole of the queue, that meant the whole packet had been eaten by the time we got to the front!  It was worth it though, we all loved the ride and we were able to see out over the whole of Peppa Pig World to decide what ride to go on next.... and so the day continued in a similar vein.  More queuing, more bribery but the kids did seem to get 'better' at queuing as the day progressed and we came up with more tactics to keep them amused!

 
Peppa Pig World is so lovely and colourful and exactly as it appears on the TV.  There are about 7 great rides, and towards the end of the day (around 4.00pm) people start to go home so you don't have to queue!  Throughout the park there are recordings of the characters and the theme tune playing and it is just so lovely and innocent.  The children even got to meet Peppa and George - little Dexter was overcome with excitement!

We were able to leave Peppa Pig World and go on all the other rides within Paultons as well which was great as Keani and I got to go on the Log Flume and some other really cool rides!

We were all exhausted at the end of the day.  James and I fretted about having the kids in the same room as us (we had a particulary bad experience last year!) but we needn't have worried as the kids fell asleep immediately and didn't wake up til 8.00am! Result!  When they woke up we asked them what they wanted to do that day and they both said 'go to Peppa Pig World!' which was fortunate as we had a 2 days for the price of 1 pass!  So another fun packed day was spent there.

We had a ball and can't wait to go again :-) I've got that bloomin' Peppa Pig theme tune in my head now....   :-(   !!