Farming fun at Wroxham Barns

Every summer we have a day out at Wroxham Barns. It's a complex with something for everyone; junior farm, shopping, crafts, funfair, adventure golf and during the summer the Foolhardy Circus pitches up. 

We had Spree vouchers so it only cost us £12.50 to get into the junior farm. It's not massive but there are always activities going on throughout the day and you can pop in and out all day long. Looking back at the photos it's surprising how much they have in there.

We started off wandering around the farm to see the animals and to see what changes had happened since we were last there. There was a new marquee with craft activities, (free) face painting and play equipment but as it was such a lovely day we didn't spend long in there. 

The children loved walking around and looking at all of the animals. Harry even managed to get quite close to some of them. They're all well looked after and their homes are clean and they look happy (if there's such a thing as happy-looking animals!!) The staff were knowledgeable about the animals and also interacted well with the children. Some children's farms just appear to be in it for the money-not for the benefit, enjoyment and education of children but Wroxham Barns appear to have it all sussed out.

As it was very quiet in the indoor play area I let the boys in. Charlie is only just young enough to go in but I don't like him running around when there are lots of tiny tots around but he had a great time playing with Harry and they spent ages jumping into the ball pit. He was in a really good mood and quite enthusiastic about our day out, which is very unusual for him. The photo below really captures the fun he was having!

I encouraged them to play their own version of Total Wipeout where they had to get around the pit standing only on the soft blocks and not touching the walls or floors. It wasn't easily achievable but it was so so funny watching the boys try and falling over spectacularly . Charlie was in stitches and I had tears rolling down my face. It was so lovely to see him laughing. 

We took a picnic lunch and sat on the lawn near a small play area. The children spent a short while on there while I enjoyed a peaceful sit down and then we went back into the farm for some more of the activities.

 Harry really surprised me when he said that he wanted to hold a chick. He's not very good with fast-moving animals but he really enjoyed getting up close to the chick…until it tried to get away! 

They all wanted to stroke a guinea pig but only Molly was brave enough to hold one-she should be used to it as we had our own guinea pigs a few years ago. 

All 3 children loved grooming the ponies. It's not something Charlie would normally volunteer to do but he was really keen to go in.

The boys asked if they could have a few rides so we went to the fair to check out prices. The rides were 1x token each (1 token for £1) or you could get 14 tokens for £10. They had some money left from their holiday so they offered to buy them. Poor Molly had to watch with me as she's much too big for these now.

Harry was really disappointed that he was too short to go on the orbit cars, especially as he managed with the ones in Great Yarmouth. Hopefully he'll be tall enough next year!

We spent about 5 hours here and we didn't go the circus, shops or play adventure golf (which seemed reasonably priced) so it's very easy to spend a full day here. With Spree vouchers, taking our own lunch and the boys limiting themselves on the rides it was a really cheap day out for us…and lots of fun!