Mummy Diaries | All the summer fun at The Patch MK

It’s becoming quite the annual tradition that we visit The Patch MK for both the sunflowers and pumpkins. This year marked the third time we went in summer season, and I have to say it’s been the best year yet. There were so many new additions, so you could really spend an afternoon – or even longer – exploring and making the most of the amazing weather we've had.

Of course, there were the gorgeous flowers: many different kinds of sunflower, colourful wildflowers and even zinnias this year. Plus, all the popular attractions too, including:

• Bale Mountain and Bale Maze
• Vintage Tractor and Combine Harvester
• Barrel Train
• Slide World
• Cast iron heart
• Patch Letters

As well as The Patch Pantry for all your snacking needs. We bought ice creams from the truck, and they were very nice.

But I really have to talk about the new additions to The Patch for 2022. We were really spoilt with lots of fun things to do and see (for the adults as well as the children), which included:

• The Giant Corn Maze
• Jurassic Maze
• Duck Racing
• The Beach
• Mini Golf
• Climbing Wall

An A-Maze-ing Afternoon

The main attraction for me were the mazes, and there were not one, but two to be enjoyed. They were incredible too. Included in a child’s entry was a small sticker pack and a game card, as there were checkpoints at the mazes.

One of the mazes was designed to look like the Queen on a stamp – in commemoration of the Jubilee. The numbered check points were on the game card, in the form of a map, but some of them were missing… we needed to find them and put the stickers back in place to complete the maze. But with my sense of direction and map-reading skills, we struggled. I think that we managed to complete the map, but weren’t able to complete the Corgi game, before (accidentally!) finding the exit.

The second maze was called The Lost World and it was dinosaur themed. Not only was the maze designed to look like a dinosaur head, but the checkpoints were giant handmade, hand-painted dinosaurs. And they were giant too – some of them could even be seen from the entrance, they were that imposing.

At each dinosaur, there was a fact/information board about the type it was – some of them included velociraptor, stegosaurus and triceratops – as well as a QR code to scan, which took you to The Dinosaur Gallery at London’s Natural History Museum. It certainly proved popular with so many children excited by seeing the dinosaurs and wanting their photos with them.

3, 2, 1… Quack!

And if that wasn’t enough, there was duck racing! There were four hands pumps to get behind, with drainpipe lanes to race the rubber ducks. It really was as simple as pumping the water and watching on as the ducks bobbed along. Sadly, when we visited, one of the pumps was out of action so we couldn’t all get involved and we actually waited five minutes to have a go.

Alfie loved it, especially watching how fast some of the ducks could go – and noticing that the bigger ones would move slower, no matter how hard you pumped. There was competition for the rubber ducks too… some children were using more than five at once!

Let’s go to the beach, beach

After all that ducking around, it was time to chill – and The Patch Beach was the perfect place for it. There were over-sized deck chairs to sink into, and I did just that while Alfie played to his heart’s content in the big sandpit. There were plenty of buckets, spades, and other toys. I think he made some ice creams and tried to get another child to play with him. I could have honestly sat there all afternoon just soaking up the sun – we had such lovely weather!

Sadly, we didn’t check out the Mini Golf or Climbing Wall, but there’s always next year!

I’m already excited for what The Patch will look like this October and I’m sure time will fly before then. I believe it reopens on October 1^st for Spooky Season, so I’d imagine tickets will be going on sale in the next few weeks. Hopefully there will be some sneak peeks on Instagram too…

Love, Lucy xx