Living in St Albans we’re incredibly luck to have Willows Activity Farm right on our doorstep. It’s close enough that plenty of kids from the children’s school go regularly. We tend to keep it as somewhere that we go on a special occasion or as a big treat though. Keeping it as a magical place to go for the kids and when they do go they always absolutely love it.
It has been a while though since our last visit and since then Willows have become home to CBeebies’ Peter Rabbit, so this was the first time that Little Miss C and Master C had been to the Peter Rabbit Adventure Playground or seen the live stage shows featuring Peter himself, Benjamin Bunny, Lily Bobtail and Squirrel Nutkin. We were invited along to the annual Willows Summer Spectacular and yesterday saw us have a lovely day there in the sunshine – although in fairness the team at Willows had thought of everything and sent us a box of goodies for the summer which included a handy emergency poncho for the rain shower that inevitably came at lunchtime! There’s a pack Summer Spectacular programme at Willows with things going on for the entire day.
A few spots of rain didn’t dampen the children’s spirits on our visit though. As soon as they were through the gate they ran off to their favourite bits of the extensive playground there and had an absolute ball climbing, jumping, swinging and sliding on the variety of equipment there is.
LMC particularly enjoyed the Peter Rabbit Woodland Play Trail whilst Master C spent quite a while in The Big Dig and the JCB Young Drivers Zone.
You could tell that he was having a good time by the fact that he didn’t once mention trains whilst we were there. Although he did refer to the point where we boarded Tristan the Runaway Tractor as the “Tractor Station”!
Before lunch we went to see the Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny and Squirrel Nutkin show which the kids were mesmerised by.
After that they explored the Peter Rabbit Adventure Playground which I was incredibly impressed by. The last time I was at Willows Adventure Farm this area was still full of owls and other birds of prey.
Now it is unrecognisable. There is a huge array of play equipment there which worked really well for both LMC and Master C age-wise. Both will keen to act out bit soft Peter Rabbit stories that they had seen on CBeebies as they went around.
We were lucky enough to time our lunch so that it coincided with the heaviest of the rain, but rain needn’t stop the fun at Willows. Woolly Jumpers is a fantastic soft play centre and entry is included in your ticket price to Willows Activity Farm. LMC and Master C had a brilliant time in there, in particular on the giant slide, which has always been a favourite of theirs. The had great fun racing each other down the slide with some of the biggest grins I’ve ever seen on their faces.
Of course, any trip to Willows isn’t complete without a trip to the Farmyard to feed some of the animals and LMC overcame some of her fears this trip to actually feed the animals herself, rather than just chucking the food at the trough and running away, as she’s done on previous visits.
We ran out of time to try everything on offer at Willows on this visit. The A-maize-ing Maze was spotted from the tractor ride, and the kids were sad not to see any goat or duck racing on this visit either, but I guess that just means there’s plenty more for them to look forward to the next time they visit.
The Willows Summer Spectacular runs from 22nd July to 3 September 2017. You can find out further information here. To get the best price on tickets head over to the Willows website to book online in advance.
Disclaimer: We were invited as guests to experience the Willows Activity Farm Summer Spectacular and sent a box of goodies from Willows. All opinions remain my own.
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