The Little ones make a splash

If there is one thing all the Little Ones like it is putting on their wellies and stomping in puddles. I don't know what is it about puddles and making splash but the Little Ones think it is great when they are given permission to jump up and down and get totally soaked. When we heard there was going to be a Puddle Jumping Championship at the Wildfowl and Wetlands centre near us during half term I knew it was something the children would enjoy and I wasn't wrong.

Being members we just turned up in the middle of the afternoon and headed to 'Welly Boot Land' a play area with a running stream, a few water activities, roundabout, slide and climbing frame. The Little Ones love this area, great for wellies in the winter and in the summer we take a swim suit and a picnic and spend quite a few hours in there.

They had set up some tuff spot 'puddles' for the Puddle Jumping Championships and were scoring the children on their jumping style and the size of the splash, unfortunately despite being advertised as 2-3pm it was over when we arrived at 2.35 and the judges were deciding the winners so the girls didn't get the chance to take part in the competition but after promising them we would come again in the week they were happy just to try out the puddles anyway and have a play in the stream.

Little 3 is just beginning to master the art of jumping and can do a sort of hop where he can get his feet a centimetre or so off the ground, it looks quite cute and he says 'jump jump' while he is doing it. Little 3 has been watching his sisters jumping in puddles for a while now and is getting the hang of stamping up and down in them himself now in his cute little wellies. He loved having a good splash about in the makeshift puddles.

Little 2 wasn't overly interested in the puddles themselves preferring to have a jolly good splash in the stream and explore the water. She enjoyed jumping trying to get her face wet, moving water wheels and creating a dam.

Little 1 spent a great deal of time showing her little brother the fountain and guiding him through the stream, they have a really close relationship and it was lovely to watch them both exploring together.

We had great fun playing in the water but it was a really cold dark February day and only 1 degree outside. We had been playing around 40 minutes and I know that despite wellies, rainsuits and winter coats that the children were starting to get soggy and I didn't want them to get cold so we headed indoors to do some colouring and play with the games and activities on offer in there while we warmed up. 

After some time indoors we all went out again and had a short stroll along the boardwalk admiring the birds and visiting the flamingos before heading home for a nice hot bath.