Little Miss A’s first trip to Scotland

As a family we have a big connection to Scotland. Big Mr A’s family are Scottish and his eldest sister lives in Edinburgh. Every year since we have been together we have made at least one trip up, apart from 2012 as we worked out on our trip up this time. We even got engaged in Edinburgh!

Little Mr A had his first trip up when he was 10 weeks old and now Little Miss A has had her first trip up at 11 weeks!

Little Miss A was really good on the journey up, she slept most of the way! She was great for us the first night and enjoyed sleeping in her cousin’s Moses basket!

After a morning playing at Aunty L and Uncle N’s with cousins J and E we went to a soft play centre for the boys to let off some steam! The girls slept much to our annoyance as we had has to pay for them even though they weren’t going to play! Shame on you Scrambles!

After lunch we headed off to the Gyle Shopping Centre where we stopped at M&S for tea and a feed before doing some girly clothes shopping for Little Miss A. Lots of after Christmas sales meant lots of bargains and Little Miss A’s 6-9 month wardrobe now has more than 1 outfit in it!

Back at Aunty L and Uncle N’s Little Miss A decided to have a good old wiggle on cousin E’s playmat and almost managed to roll right over! Then she had a bath with cousin E before Little Mr A had a bath with cousin J, but I don’t think it will be long before they stop wanting baths together!

Little Miss A must have been very tired from all the excitement and wriggling as she slept through for the first time that night!

In the morning Little Miss A had her first bus trip when we visited the National Museum of Scotland. It is a great interactive place for children with lots of different activities and things to do, and best of all, it is free admission. Although the food was perhaps a little expensive it was very nice and seen as entry is free you don’t mind too much. If we go again I think I would be more organised and take a packed lunch with us!

After letting the children play for a while we got them to bed as early as they would go and had a lovely curry before we had to head home the next day.

It is great to have family up in Edinburgh, we have lots of happy memories of being there as a couple and now we are able to share that with our children.

Cousins

Review – Scrambles Soft Play EICA:Ratho Edinburgh International Climbing Arena

Whilst on our most recent trip up to Scotland we visited Scrambles Soft Play at EICA:Ratho, part of the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena.

Situated just 5 miles past Edinburgh airport on the West side of the City it is a large activity centre for all ages.

Today we visited the soft play centre.  Although fairly pricey at £4.90 for 1 hour and £5.90 for 90 minutes at over 18 months the actual soft play facility is better than some others we have visited.  I was however very disappointed to have to pay £1 for Little Miss A to go into the centre even though, at 2 months old, she slept the whole time!  I appreciate it is only £1 extra but feel this is a bit cheeky when the price for older children is quite expensive and it is unlikely that any child under 6 months is going to use the facilities, even though they have a baby section.  I almost woke Little Miss A up to get her moneys worth but decided not to be so cruel!

As it was very busy today we were not allowed to stay more than 1 hour and the time is well monitored by the workers.  It is very well restricted as to how many children are allowed in at any one time, which was refreshing as I can find soft play centres to be horrendously busy which is no fun for child, parent or staff!

There were plenty of seats and tables for us to sit at in view of the various play equipment so we were never far away from Little Mr A but could allow him to go off and play by himself without having to worry.  He went with his cousin J who is not quite 3 and he to was able to go off with Little Mr A to play with no worries.

Whilst there we had some lunch and I think this is where the centre stands out from others we have visited in the past.  Both myself and Big Mr A had a sandwich with crisps and a drink and for children they do a great lunch bucket where you can pick 5 different items for £3.95.  It was very reasonably priced and very tasty!

As for the play equipment itself it was very clean and really well laid out in the different age appropriate sections.  There was a baby play area, a toddler play area and then a separate play area for children aged 4-9 which was well separated from the younger children’s areas.  There was plenty to keep Little Mr A and J occupied for the full hour they were there including the usual soft play equipment and slides together with a mini climbing wall.  They had a great time chasing each other around!

Although it is a good place to take your older children I would say they really need to get rid of the charge for the under 6 month olds as I think that really if you have a young baby you would be able to find somewhere cheaper elsewhere that doesn’t charge for young babies.  This is the only thing that really lets the place down, other than the soft play centre being on the very ground floor which can only be accessed by a lift with a pram/pushchair and there is only one lift available.

When Little Mr A gets older it would be nice to take him back to have a go on the climbing walls it looked like good fun, however, I might have to get Big Mr A to take him as I don’t know whether my nerves could handle it!