I have been writing all sorts of things on this blog since 2012. Mostly family travel articles of places we have visited, but a few other things thrown in – lifestyle, theatre and book reviews, and the odd competition entry! Looking back over the last 14 years and counting, I do have a few favourite posts and each for their own reason.

Here are my top 5 posts I have written over the years. Do you remember any of these?

5) Meeting Jacqueline Wilson at The Foundling Museum, London

What’s the point of being a successful family blogger if you can’t use it to meet your children’s’ favourite author? In 2017 we were invited to the launch of a new exhibition at The Foundling Museum in London and we got to meet Jacqueline Wilson, author of the Tracy Beaker books and many more including Hetty Feather. This was a really lovely afternoon with the team at the museum, a story telling session and meet and greet with Jacqueline, and then an explore of this emotive and informative little gem of a museum. We also got to spend some time with some of my favourite family bloggers.

My two older children, now 22 and 19, remember this day and we still have the books signed by Jacqueline on our bookcase.

You can read the full post at – Meeting Jacqueline Wilson at The Foundling Museum.

4) Meeting Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Whenever anyone asks if I’ve met anyone famous, I don’t have much to offer really (apart from Jacqueline Wilson – see above) but I can say “Well, I once interviewed Sir Ranulph Fiennes” and people either ask who that is, or they utter a little “oooooh”. He was very nice.

Myself and Sian from Helpful Mum met up at a stately home on the outskirts of York for about 30 minutes with the UK’s most famous explorer to talk to him about his latest adventure and his involvement with cancer care charity Marie Curie. I got to take along my then 10 year old for the experience. He kept calling her Madeline (that’s not her name!) but he did try and was very lovely in every way. At school the next day, the teachers didn’t believe what my daughter had told them she had done the evening before but I got photographic evidence.

Such a wonderful experience! You can read more at Meeting Sir Ranulph Fiennes and the Marathon des Sables.

3) Our second review of Sundown Adventureland, Nottinghamshire

Sundown Adventureland is somewhere we have been a few times. It has been around years and is still one of the best days out in the East Midlands. We drive almost two hours to get there and it’s worth it. For this second review, we were invited back by the team as they’d seen our first article and wanted to show us some new things, such as the Angry Birds play area. We have been fortunate enough to have been able to carry out complimentary visits and attend press and preview events across the UK and it’s a big perk of being a travel blogger. To go back to somewhere of which have had such good memories was a real joy.

A few weeks after I’d published this review, a reader got in touch to tell me they’d taken their little boy here solely on the strength of the article and they said it was the best place they’d ever been. It’s always lovely when you get feedback that you’re doing a good job in sharing days out and travel experiences and helping people to find new places. It’s why this blog exists.

You can read our review of Sundown Adventureland. I’m sure that since I published this one, there have been even more new things to experience.

2) Visiting Dynamix as part of Team Honk

Team Honk are a co-operative fundraising team of family bloggers across the UK who have raised tens of thousands of pounds for Comic Relief and Sport Relief through various events including a danceathon at Wembley Arena, a hike around Derbyshire and the Yorkshire Dales, and a mammoth Lands End to John O’Groats relay. I have been involved in all of these and in 2017 I had the chance to visit a local project which received support through our events.

I was privileged to be invited to Dynamix in Driffield, a social and support club for young people with SEND. We were included on their outing to the local fire station and we got a real insight into their wonderful group and how they use the financial support.

Writing up the article was a challenge. It is such a wonderful project and it’s not quite the same as our usual days out and travel reviews. I was determined to get across the spirit of the club while emphasising how amazing it is and how much support they really do need. I was worried about overstating the brilliant work that they do but, honestly, I’m not sure I could.

The parent leader who I consulted before publishing the article said that reading it was a bit overwhelming and the outside perspective made her appreciate just how far they had come and actually how brilliant they all are. There may have been a few tears. On both sides.

You can read the article about Dynamix Club in Driffield.

1) Exclusive sleepover at The Science Museum

One of the biggest and most famous museums in the world, sleeping in a previously un-slept in space, sharing time with other family bloggers and having an exclusive session with a fairly famous inventor-entrepreneur. What’s not to love?

Travel blogging has taken us many places and given us some amazing experiences but few match our sleepover at The Science Museum and meeting Mark Champkins. We still talk about this now. The older two children ask about it from time to time – “remember that time we were at the Science Museum….?”

Honestly, amazing. 10/10, would do again. Might try and get more sleep this time though.

You can read all about it – a Night at The Science Museum