Last weekend we had a lovely, water-filled, day. We’d been invited along to the Sea Life Centre in Birmingham, to take a look around and enjoy their new Octonauts mission, which runs from 11th October until 30th November.
The Sea Life centre tells us that:
Fans will have the chance to join Kwazii and Peso in their discovery of some real live sea creatures and enjoy a host of Octonautical activities; including an all new quiz trail, fresh activity books, stickers, photo opportunities and much more.
You can read more about the Octonauts visit here, along with the meet and greet details.
As you can imagine, the children were excited about going. They enjoy nosing around aquariums (my brother runs an aquatic shop, and they get excited enough about just seeing his shop!), they were looking forward to seeing the new Penguin Ice Adventure (as was I!) and there was the added attraction of the Octonauts being there.
On arrival, we first went through to the Penguin Ice Adventure
We all liked seeing the penguins swimming up and down, up and down, and they move so quickly and gracefully in the water, really lovely to watch. (oh, and I couldn’t get a single photo of them that wasn’t really blurry, so hooray for this image I received!). The Gentoo spent the time that we were there all under water, though they also have an icy home above water, where you’d be able to see a few waddling about.
And then we were off to look at the many, many sea creatures that the Sea Life Centre houses…
Penguins aside (I so love penguins!), I really enjoyed the jellyfish area, where there were lots of tanks and tubes with these amazing looking creatures..
The Husband’s favourite part was the walk-through ocean tunnel, where we were surrounded by water and sharks and turtles, amongst others, swam over and around us. It is great to feel you can get so close to them. There were also friendly Sea Life Centre staff on hand in most areas to answer any questions or fill us in on what we were seeing.
The Octonauts mission that’s currently running includes a quiz trail around the centre. As Boo was meeting up with some of her blogger family friends, this kind of passed her by, as she raced round excitedly looking at the exhibits and laughing with the other kids. She was way too excited to stop and read anything! I think the trail really suits slightly older children, though Boo may well have had a better look if it wasn’t for the fact that she was ridiculously excited!
Both Peso and Kwazii were about for meet and greets, which I think is a fabulous idea for younger ones. Little Man certainly thought so as he launched himself at Kwazii!
After we’d explored, the kids discovered the soft play centre and as they can never pass a chance like that up, we lost them to chaos for quite some time! After they’d run around like crazy in there for a while, we departed, and given that we come right out onto the canals, we decided to have a stroll round them.
I love this part of Birmingham, and though the Husband and I used to roam around here, we’d yet to take the children. They enjoyed looking at the passing barges, Little Man was pleased to spot some geese, and Boo loved the tunnels.
We had fun and learning at the Sea Life Centre, fresh air and strolling down by the canals, and two happy and tired out children. We returned home to assemble Little Man’s brand new ‘big boy’ bed and then all played a new game together. A Saturday full of adventures and family time, just perfect.
Disclosure: We received entrance to the Sea Life Centre FOC, though all words and opinions remain my own.
It looks like an amazing place for children I love taking mine to the sea life centre their senses run wild
It was great, so many different creatures to see.
The Sea Life centre looks fab, and nice to round the day off with a walk by the canals. I am a big fan of canals, as my MIL has a boat and we’ve spent some time on it (although going with the kids is not easy!).
No, I can well imagine!
I love the Birmingham SeaLife Centre! I bet my girls would love to see the Octonauts there too. Love reading your blog and your photos are always fab.
My son loved giving them hugs! Thank you so much, so lovely of you to say x
I am with you all the way on your love of penguins, I even asked Nick if we could have them at Coombe Mill but we would need a zoo licence and all sorts of extras, it was worth a go though! Looks like a lovely day and educational too. thank you for sharing with me on Country Kids.
Ah, that’s a shame, but yes, worth a go! Thanks for hosting x
Aww love a good sea life centre, so much fun for kids! Sounds like a great day and fab to be able to meet a couple of octonauts too! Xx #countrykids
Always a bonus! Thanks x
You got better pictures than me! How did you get those jellyfish, all I got were blurs?! Anyway, we loved the penguins too and the canals are lovely to wander around. I need to get out there more with the camera 🙂
The Husband took that one – I told you the camera on his phone was good! It was a lovely change, and the penguins were just so cute!
The Sealife centre is such a fun day out!
We had fun!
Aww! Looks like you had a lovely time! When we were staying in Birmingham the rest of the family went to the sealife centre and said it was fabulous – sadly I missed it 🙁 I’m rather jealous seeing your pics! x
Charlie went on a school trip here but I’ve never been & it’s not far from us either! Lovely photos xx
Thank you, tricky to take shots in there, with everything moving and no flash! x