On Saturday we went to Chesterfield for the GUMI Sensory Adventure – our first ever blogger event, hosted by the lovely people at Frank PR and Dobbies Garden Centre to promote a range of growing up milk. I was a little bit nervous,as I’ve never met any other bloggers before.

It was a beautiful day and we set off at 8.30 to get the first of many trains. The boys absolutely love a ride on the trains so this was a huge adventure for them! We got to Birmingham City Centre, and after a quick detour via Primark (it had to be done!) we found ourselves in New Street Station. I may have lived in Birmingham for all of my 28 years but I don’t remember ever going to New Street, and it was HUGE! We grabbed some snacks from M&S and jumped on the next train, which took us to Derby. This was an interesting journey – it took about 45 minutes which is a long time to keep a three year old and a one year old entertained in a confined space. With the help of crisps and the contents of Mr Tumble’s Spotty Bag, we managed to keep them from causing absolute chaos. We got off at Derby only to miss our connecting train to Chesterfield. Stupidly, I thought six minutes would be long enough to grab a much needed skinny latte from the Costa at the train station – obviously not! The next train came about ten minutes later, and this was much calmer (or maybe the caffeine helped!).

Once we arrived in Chesterfield, which looks a beautiful town, we jumped in a taxi for the journey to Dobbies Garden Centre. I do love a mooch around a garden centre, so was glad when we got there a little early so I could have a look round, before meeting up with some other bloggers.It was lovely to meet up with Zena from Zena’s Suitcase, Emma from Brummy Mummy of 2 , Iona from Red Peffer and Jaime from The Oliver’s Madhouse I would have loved to have to chatted to more but never got the chance. We went outside for a drink and an introduction in the sunshine, before a lady from Dobbies took us and the kids on a fab sensory tour around the flowers and herbs. The kids all loved it, although Alex thought it would be fun to run off and hide! The kids bonded over a display of pebbles (!) and we heard about and smelt all the fantastic herb plants. I was amazed by the chilli plant – I’m not green fingered in the slightest but would love to have a go at growing one!   

We then headed back outside for a lovely picnic lunch. The kids ran off and had fun playing in the summer houses on display and the climbing frame, whilst the adults relaxed in the sunshine and had a chat. It was nice to talk to other bloggers and meet the people I talk to all the time on Twitter.

Eventually, we collected our fab goody bag and caught a taxi back to Chesterfield, and started our journey home. This seemed to take forever as we were all hot and tired but eventually, ten hours after leaving the house, we crawled through the front door. We all had an early night that night!!

A massive thanks to Frank PR and Dobbies for organising and hosting a lovely day!