Last weekend we were kindly invited along to Haydock Races to experience their family fun day. As huge The Greatest Showman fans (well, me and this kids are, my husband not so much) we were delighted that this was the theme for the day.
Looking at the weather outside at the moment it would be hard to believe the glorious sunshine we had last weekend but it was beautiful, the perfect weather for a day at the races. As well as the races itself the circus themed fun day had an inflatable assault course, face painting, a huge Ferris wheel ride and circus skills workshops, not to mention the pony trail that could be followed to win a prize on the day. Another highlight of the day were The Greatest Showman performances that took place regularly throughout the afternoon, made up of fire-eaters, jugglers and many more.
It was a day that promised so much fun and had my kids been a little bit older I think we would have loved it, but sadly we are at that slightly awkward stage with our two year old where he is getting too old (and stubborn) to be in his buggy but he isn’t quite ready to walk everywhere and isn’t old enough to understand the dangers of being in a busy crowd.
As the weather was so stunning last week the event was very busy, fantastic to see the event so popular but when your two year old wants to run around there was little room for him to do so and I was extremely nervous in case I lost sight of him, so we spent a lot of time trying to keep hold of him when all he wanted to do was roll around on the floor.
We had tickets in the County Stand which was lovely on one hand as it was a bit quieter but the fun events were in the family stand. The County Stand was made up of people dressed for the races, enjoying a bottle of wine with friends. I felt a little out of place in my flat sandals with two little boys in tow. There were a few families in Coolie’s restaurant within the county stand but we found that this was quite busy with no available tables to sit at.
We walked down to the family stand but found the queues were quite large and as our two year old was already not in the best of moods, waiting in line to have his face painted wasn’t an option. I have to admit in the end we decided to go home and enjoy our own garden in the sun.
In hindsight we should have been better prepared. Families in the family stand had brought picnics with them, and rugs to sit on, and had found themselves a spot on the grass and set up camp for the day. With older children this is a great idea as they can enjoy the events and rides whilst the grown ups relax, having a safe spot to return to. I think this would also work well with younger babies as they could stay with the grown ups too. Personally we found that our youngest just wasn’t the right age for us to enjoy the races.
The next family event at Haydock is on the 8th August and whilst we won’t be attending (maybe in a couple of years when G is older) I’ve definitely not been put off going to the races. However, next time we go I think we’ll leave the boys at home and who knows, I may get the chance to put a bet on!
Discloure: We were gifted tickets to Haydocks Family Fun day in exchange for this review but all thoughts and opinions are my own.
