Happy pretend birthday girls

This coming week my girls turn 6, I really can’t believe time has gone by so quick but here we are and they are certainly very grown up now. As you’ll know Daddy has moved to our new house in the country and thus he won’t see the girls on their actual birthday so last Saturday we had a pretend birthday and the five of us celebrated as a family.

We had a great day and all three kids fell into bed and went to sleep without any fuss, always the sign of a great day out. Daddy was also asleep by 9.15pm so we wore him out as well, I’m a bit more hard core and stayed up to write this post.

The day started with breakfast in our new dining room and some present opening by the girls, just a few small gifts so Daddy could share in the fun and hardly any money spent but I was very impressed with their gratitude and enjoyment of the simple gifts. We then headed out for a stroll around the grounds and we found a hazelnut tree and some blackberry bushes, so later in the autumn we will have fun over there doing some picking and then of course eating too.

We all packed into the car and drove to Eastbourne and found that the Sovereign harbour has changed so much since we last went there 19 years ago. We had a truly superb lunch in the Harvester and the food and service was exceptional.  I’m normally pretty hard to please but I’d recommend this in an instant (and yes we were paying customers). The harbour reminded us of being abroad with the al fresco eating, boats and balmy summer weather.

After lunch it was time for a treat for the girls and we walked over to Cineworld, we had parked here earlier and there is a ton of free parking. The staff at the cinema were very nice and courteous and we had no issues with them, the cinema was clean and tidy and had a super display of pick and mix, as always with cinemas though it is a little on the expensive side. The kids loved the Sully and Mike display from Monsters University, after a quick photo opportunity we headed into the cinema and I was quite surprised how small the cinema was but the screen was plenty big enough.

The girls had grabbed a boaster seat each and we all settled down, the seats were comfy (none of that rocking nonsense you get in some cinemas) and there was good leg room, even for a 6 footer like my husband. We had about 30 minutes of trailers and a little film called the Blue Umbrella, it did feel a bit excessive and the girls were starting to get a bit tetchy by the time the film started. However, we all really enjoyed Monsters University and I’d happily recommend it as a great family watch.

The Cineworld in Eastbourne looks as if it is a fairly old cinema, the toilets look a bit tired but they were clean and well maintained and that is the important thing. I love that you can purchase your ticket and food items together, none of this queueing twice nonsense. The film we saw was in 3D and you need to either take your own glasses or purchase reusable glasses in the cinema for the cost of 80p per pair. Add that to the film cost of £33.71 for the 5 of us if I had booked online and enjoyed the current 20% family discount and it would in truth be a costly couple of hours. However I checked and it would still be abut £8.00 cheaper than seeing the film at an Odeon. So Cineworld are very competitive and there are no online booking fees nowadays. 

There are some great deals to be had at Cineworld, it is definitely worth checking out the Saturday morning Movies for Juniors, we go to this at least every other month currently in Stevenage and for £1 we watch a great film. We normally have to book in advance to ensure we get seats but in doing so we get discount as I registered for a Cineworld account. I do like Cineworld as a chain they seem to have some great deals, like the summer 20% off family tickets, you can also use Tesco deals vouchers, which is always a big plus with me and they have a fabulous unlimited monthly subscription for £15.90, I wish they had done this when dh and I were younger we would certainly have gone for that and seen a couple of movies every week.

We did not want the fun to end there and all bundled back in the car and headed home looking for what we might do next. On route the kids spotted a play park and with a quick U-turn from me it was time for a play - Mum and Dad included. The sun was still beating down and the kids were by now after an ice-cream, so we decided to explore Hailsham and see what we could turn up. Waitrose came up trumps with cornetto’s for all and Daddy had the great idea that we should buy some picnic items and then head down by our lake and have tea there.

So that is what we did – ham rolls, crisps and a few games of Dobble by the water and then a quick run around the field with the football. It has been a busy old day and the kids had great fun but bath time had arrived and now everyone is sleeping soundly, I think that is where I will head too….

Disclosure: We were provided with complimentary tickets and 3D glasses for Cineworld.

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