When Polly Pocket met Chessington World of Adventures (or the one with dolls, vampires and big fish)

Last week saw the annual "I can't believe my baaaabyyyy is X*" hand wringing that takes place around mid-April, with eldest daughter's birthday. We had already arranged a party, but when I found an email in my inbox inviting us to a Polly Pocket event at Chessington World of Adventures on the day itself, I couldn't really say no...My two have only relatively recently discovered Polly Pocket, having been given some figures for Christmas, but they were already big fans, so it seemed a bit of a no-brainer.

When we got to the hotel where the venue was, the kids totally conformed to type, as DD1 headed straight for the computers with the new Polly Pocket website, and DD2 got her face painted:

 ....but mostly they were just happy to play with all the Polly Pocket toys on offer:

When the fun was over, we were allowed free reign inside Chessington World of Adventures. I think I've blogged in the past about my love of theme parks and especially rollercoaster-type rides, so I suspect I may have been a bit more excited about this bit than the children...

We started off gently with a quick trip round the zoo, and the Sealife Centre, before heading towards the rides. To be honest, an odd number of people in a theme park is never the best idea, and we really could have done with Mr Tin being able to join us for the day - sadly he was shackled to his desk, so couldn't make it. Therefore, random adults had to be found for DD1 to pair up with on some of the scarier rides - both of my children being rollercoaster freaks like their parents.

Both kids loved the "Vampire" - their first experience of a "hanging underneath" rollercoaster - despite the fact we had to queue for nearly two hours, thankfully our longest queue. In the end, the combination of the park being busy due to school holidays and starting the day relatively late after the event meant that we probably only managed to see a third of the attractions. The cries of "please can we go again mummy" started on the way home, and I must admit the new hotel looked very tempting....

DD1 declared it the "best birthday ever" - I only hope I can live up to the next one!

Many thanks to the guys at Mattel and Chessington for a fabulous day.
____

(*7, in this case)

(P.S. Head over to http://pollypocketbestdayever.co.uk/ for a chance to win more fun days out, including trips to Chessington World of Adventures)