A fun afternoon at Brewers Fayre

We were invited along to see the newly revamped Fun Factory at Monkton Lodge Brewers Fayre last week, an opportunity too good to turn down, and I will let my daughter explain why. I can honestly say for all my daughter and the grandchildren use the place very regularly I have never been in the place before.

My daughter tells us;

When someone in the family suffers with allergies, like Bob, eating out becomes a military planned expedition.  I’ve lost count of the amount of places we’ve walked out of, empty-tummied, as there’s nothing they can feed Bob.  So, when you find somewhere safe, it’s cause for celebration.

Luckily for us, our local is fantastic.  The staff are very clued up on allergies, and there are a few different safe meals for Bob, giving him a (very rare) choice, and he can even have pudding! 

So we went along to the PR event having confirmed our places and chosen our meals beforehand. On walking in we were greeted by the staff and as hubby and I had hold of the twins they knew who we were, we were shown to our reserved table and left to have fun. We went along with daughter, the twins, Bob and their cousin A as well as Grandpa Tom. 

We took off the twins shoes and hubby and I headed into the play area. Grandpa Tom got to watch the bags and shoes as he wasn't up to running around after two toddlers. 

The Fun Factory has always been Bob’s favourite part of lunch at Monkton Lodge, and it has now been revamped.  The play area has been extended and rearranged, and the toddler part has been enlarged by quite a way.  It’s always been clean, but has been brightened up, and has a lovely new desk, the kids are provided with wristbands instead of bibs, and there is a seating area within the soft play for adults.  The “party room” is partitioned off from the main soft play slightly, and, the whole play area is now Beano themed.

trying the size chart on the way out

the new decorations 

So we took them in, by now Bob and A were off, we barely saw them all afternoon. There was a toddler area, which did not appeal to Minky as he is always off, every picture I took of him he was a blur running from here to here and back. Dinky and I played there for a while, then she went and did some colouring with Granddad. 

Dinky colouring

Had to chuckle as normally the minute a camera comes out Dinky is all sweetness and angelic, but at one point the professional photographer came to take a picture of her colouring, and this was the result. 

snuggled in becaue a stranger approached

Love the seating area in here, big tables and little tables. 

one of the seating area, great size table for kids

The kids had a great time leaping around the soft play for the afternoon. There are  They got to meet Dennis and Gnasher, and there were arts and crafts activities and face painting available. Bob and A got their faces painted, we did not attempt that with the twins. 

Minky having fun

Soon it was feeding time, they had catered for the allergy issues we presented them, not just for Bob. The food portions were good and the food very nice. 

fish and chips, chicken and cheese, and strawberry pudding

Have to admit she is rather cute.

Dinky playing to the camera

  They were given a helium balloon each, and a beano comic, full of activities, to take home.

Soft play at Monkton Lodge costs £3 for 90 minutes play, cheaper than most of the local soft play centres, and much more pleasant for the adults!  During term time, there are to be activities every day included in the price, from story-telling for the toddlers, to discos for the bigger kids.

Disclaimer - we were provided with the soft play and the meal for the privilege of attending with no obligation to write a post, but I am happy to promote a local company.