Child Friendly Outings

We went to Butterfly Creek this weekend and whilst I blinked Miss Houdini ran off from the playground and we found her down by the train! Most terryfing moment of my whole life!!!!

I totally admit that I should have been watching her with the eyes I have in the back of my head, but I emailed the Manager this morning to ask why there wasn't a gate to stop kids getting down there on their own and their reply was "we USED to have a pool gate there but because it was in constant use it was impractical to expect it to work constantly, it has now been removed awaiting repairs"

OMFG!!!!!!!!! It would also be impractical if my daughter got run over by a train!

I suggested that they might want to invest in a sturdy wooden hinged gate exactly the same as the one leading to the farm that keeps the animals in! I'm sure that would have equal amount of use and was working and locking perfectly fine!

**scared mummy rant over**

I used to love going to Memorial park as a kid! Do they still have the big outdoor skating rink?

I really like Vavoom in Parklands Christchurch. Great healthy selection of food for the children and the library is just next door.

I'm not sure the the rink is still there i'll have a look next time we go there.

The train now has a very long track that the PD boys made.

Just wondering if anyone's been to Scrummy Mummies in Papanui ChCh?

The Jan/Feb 08 Auckland girls just went to BANG BANG cafe in Ponsonby on Saturday and it was fab! (Thanks lilfatty for finding it).

It has one side of the menu just for toddler/children food and one side for adults. Heaps of room between tables to move a buggy through and a 'cage' (playpen) at the back for the mobile babies.

Coffee was great too (even though I had to have decaf soy *sigh*)

i went to frolic today on manukau rd and wanted to say how great it was for the kids too...
they were greeted at the door personally by one of the wait staff and she was really nice and friendly to them as well as me... they were kept entertained and the fluffies came with marshmallows and were a decent size too.

Well done frolic!!!!

(may even start a separate post re this...in case not everyone sees this.)

wow that does sound flash lol (spoonful of sugar)

One day I want to go to butterfly creek.

In warkworth - well matakana really is the country park. Its manily for older children (the playground) but has different things ie a pirate ship, buzzy bee, castle etc

The animal side is great too the cafe makes yummy hot choclates but is very pricey food wise.

We will have to do a meet up there Mel!

Bambinos in Cambridge is awesome, great prices and heaps of choices for kids of all ages on the menu, as well as heaps for them to do. Only thing is that if they go off to play in the ball room or the other play room you can't see them from the eating area, but there's heaps for them to do in that area anyway.

Lilypad cafe just out of Cambridge also impressed me. They had a seperate laminated mini-menu that they gave to DD1 so she could order like the grownups and a neat outside play area. Lovely staff too.

Most recently Grey Street Kitchen in Hamilton East has a pretty good kids section on their menu and they were really helpful, asked if I needed a high chair and set it all up for me. A bit expensive though, but lovely food.