THE CHRISTMAS EXPERIENCE AT BUTLINS: DAY TWO

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So, on day two of our Christmas Experience at Butlins we headed out bright and early from our chalet at the West Lakes Village to the Deck restaurant.  I should probably be honest and say that it wasn’t that early as we’d all slept so well – and so we arrived quite late for breakfast but everything was still very well stocked, very much operating and we were welcomed with open arms by the restaurant manager again.  I loved that no matter how late we were, we were never rushed in and leaving the restaurant, and seeing other people still arriving at the end of dinner time to eat [when they really should have been closing], it was clear that guests were still welcomed, and made to feel relaxed.  It was brilliant service.

Hero enjoyed eating whatever Grandad was having for breakfast and trying out his newly acquired knife and fork skills, and Jensen was in heaven, eating mainly breakfasts of melon and salami.  Lyoto’s only sadness was that he couldn’t get ice cream or breakfast as he could at dinner time.  I loved having a hot breakfast every morning with as many cups of tea as I could manage – and the mister loved not having to wash up!
After breakfast we went for wander and played on the huge wooden playgrounds and forts – one of which was SO big that I had to get on there with Hero.  I’m glad that I did since some of the older children seemed to think it was fine to shout at the smaller children and scare them off the forts and seemed more than a little shocked that I didn’t appreciate my two year old being told to “gerrof the ropes” or “move”.

Luckily for us, as we were visiting during the Christmas Experience at Butlins, we had an appointment with the loveliest Father Christmas at lunchtime in the Pavillion and so we walked over to the huge white tent dome with our little invites from our welcome pack and were welcomed by a Butlins Elf who tried to recruit the boys to help out as they were dressed in their little Elf hoodies.  The boys thought this was a brilliant idea and were chattering about it in the line for Santa which was a fantastically short five minutes.  We all loved the big jolly man, even though he tried to negotiate the presents with the boys, saying that he would keep two and they could share one if that was okay with them.  They thought he was hilarious.  After we’d seen him, they posted their little postcards by the giant Christmas tree with promises to Father Christmas that they had been super good boys all year.  My heart nearly burst when I saw them lifting Hero up to post his like a big boy.  If you were watching our twitter whilst we were there, you’ll have seen that this evening meal was Christmas meal.  We decided to head to the swimming pool to make sure we were super hungry for the evening meal, which is where the catastrophe happened.  The swimming centre is SO much fun – there’s a pool, rapids, and quite a few water chutes.  Me, the mister and our bigger two boys decided to have a go on the normal, one person chutes first of all.  All was good.  Then Jensen and I thought it would be fantastic fun to ride the chute with a big dinghy – and it was.  SO much fun as we bounced and whooped our way, screaming around the bends of the huge blue pipes.  We got off safely, and continued swimming – until it was time to get out.  That was when it was spotted. Christmas Experience at Butlins

I had ripped a HUGE hole in the bottom area of my swimming suit.  Around two inch diameter.  Granny noticed it as I was walking to the changing rooms and pretty soon my boys were doubled over laughing at mommy having, and I quote “flashed my butt” at everyone.  Thankfully the swimming costume was highly patterned with peach flowers and so it clearly wasn’t that obvious [or people were either too shocked or polite to let me know] but sad to say, my poor costume had to head to the bin whilst my boys tried to control their laughter. Christmas Experience at Butlins

After the snickering had finally stopped and we’d all enjoyed our delicious meal at the Yacht Club [despite Lyoto claiming he could only fit ice cream in for dinner] we spent the rest of the evening in the arcade, GAMBLING as Jensen repeatedly told us.  The big boys had favourite games of Kung Fu Panda and Luigi’s Mansion, whilst Hero enjoyed trying to fit his tuppences into the slots of the pretty lit up machines.  When the last coins had jangled through the penny falls, it was time for bed.  Hero claimed that he really wanted to sleep with Jensen and have stories with Granny and Grandad this night.  This lasted about 20 minutes and then two little feet came pitter pattering into mommy’s room for a snuggle [which mommy not-so-secretly loves]. Good night, day two- day three of The Christmas Experience at Butlins, coming up!