We recently made a new discovery - the most amazing children's playground I've ever seen - and it is less than 10 minutes drive from my house. It's located in a small village near where my mother in law lives which is how I first became aware of it, but behind the hedgerow I had no idea of the full extent of it.

We always used to go to a playground in our little town, it is pretty good with swings, a climbing frame with slide, seesaw and merry go round - but its pretty much like every other playground in the area - as if the county council has a blueprint for playground and creates them all as more or less in the same image. It is quite small and is always busy so you quite often had to queue to go on the equipment - particularly the 2 swings.

One day, I decided to go and take a look at the new playground with Cotswold Kid. I knew they had a big slide, swings and a play frame with slide but when we finally went in and had a proper look around I was surprised by the amount and quality of the play equipment.

Park Play equipment:

2 x baby swings
2 x standard swings
Basket swing
3x climbing frames 1 for toddlers, one for slightly older children, and a much taller one for older children
3x 'rockers' including the horse pictured above
Monkey bars
Obstacle course (logs to climb on etc)
small playhouse/shelter
an angled 'wheel' that turns as you walk on it
2 large xylophones (1 of wood, 1 with metal tubes)
3 small 'stepping stone' style platforms that make different sounds when you step on them
1 very large sandpit (gated and elevated to try and prevent cats etc getting in) full of old buckets and spades etc.
Skateboard style board on springs

There are picnic tables too and we have had at least one picnic there so far and if the weather remains nice we may have more.

All equipment is well maintained, the grass is kept neat and trimmed - the whole park is maintained by the local village community and the flowers are regularly weeded etc.

It's so beautiful and there is a huge football field so Cotswold Kid can run wild as as he can't get onto the road without going through a gate which puts my mind at risk.

The other day after passing a happy hour here it was time to leave. I told CK we were going 'home' a word that he now recognises. His face fell, he shook his head and refused point blank to leave throwing a huge tantrum and I basically had to drag him out.

I can understand why he didn't want to go, after all it is probably the best playground I've ever known - I certainly don't remember anything anywhere near as good when I was a child.

I don't want to say where this place is - it's so quiet and lovely and I know that sometimes when playgrounds have makeovers they get very busy and I like not having to queue to use equipment.

Do you have anywhere like this where you like to go? Maybe you have a special memory of somewhere like this from when you were a child and you still take your kids there now all these years later. Please let me know in the comments below.

It's been ages since we went on a day out as a family, so when some friends of ours with children J's age contacted us about going to 'The Valley' (Formerly Evesham Country Park) we were very keen to join them.

This was our first visit to 'The Valley' and I wasn't sure what to expect or how child friendly the place would be. What follows is a full report and review on our day out.

We met up with the others in 'The Valley's' car park at 10.30 with 6 adults, one 2 year old, one almost 18 month old toddler, and one 9 month old baby. One particularly good thing about the valley is that you don't have to pay to park and there is also no admission fee so that was great. Initially, we walked through the main parade of shops. They have quite a few options including Fat Face, Mountain Warehouse, and The Works so there is something for everyone and they also have a farmshop and a garden centre as well.

We then headed up towards the railway.

Evesham vale light railway takes you on a loop of the park to the children's adventure play area and picnic area and then back again to the station. I thought the pricing was very reasonable at around £2.50 per adult and frequent services every 30 minutes. Unfortunately there is insufficient room on the train to take buggies but as the 9 month old was in a rucksack carrier, and the 18 month old could do short distances on foot, we left our pushchair in the parking section on the platform before boarding and then collected this on our return. The journey up to the play area and picnic area probably took around 10 minutes if that and also included a ride through a short play area and the children and adults all seemed to enjoy it.

At the other end, we walked up a small slope and 3 steps to the adventure playground.

As you can see from the picture this was in the style of a wooden castle with a walk way around the top, a slide, fireman's pole and numerous ladders. J's options for play were fairly limited as he was unable to climb the ladder or ride down the pole but he enjoyed crawling around the walk way at the top and going down the slide backwards.

The slide did seem a bit steep and fast but we had no injuries so it was probably just me. It's a pity they didn't have swings or the individual springy rocker things you get in some play areas as that would have been more appropriate. The 9 month old only got to go on the slide with his mum and sit in the bottom of the turrets, so I did feel a bit sorry for him. I think the play area here is really for older children and our little ones would probably have a bit more fun with it when they are older.

We took the next train back and then headed for the cafe in the garden centre. My partner and I didn't eat any thing and ordered some drinks and we thought the prices were relatively reasonable - £5 for 3 drinks. The deals on food also seemed quite good particularly for the children - there were several options either for a packed lunch or cooked food and on the day we were there they also were doing a carvery. Service also seemed fairly quick and from the food our friends bought it did look really lovely and we have said that we would like to go back again and try the food next time.

We left about one due to other plans but we thoroughly enjoyed our morning at the valley and I would go there again, but maybe when J is a bit older. The place really did have something for everyone but the only thing I felt was missing was a soft play area. Quite a few cafe's and garden centre's in the area have them but this one didn't so that was a shame but with new businesses opening up all the time this could very well be something that is added on at a later date.