Giant inflatables and a proper summer Sunday at Mellish

We spent a morning at Mellish Rugby Football Club in Nottingham for our Inflatable Family Fun Day, a small daytime social for parents, grandparents and anyone bringing children along.

The setup was bigger than we expected. The whole pitch had been given over to inflatables, a Minions assault course down one side, enormous slides, a pirate ship, a couple of bouncy castles and a sweet stall in among it all. The children were off almost as soon as we arrived and only really came back for drinks.

The weather helped. Blue sky, hardly any cloud and grass that had clearly not seen rain in a while. Most people had brought camping chairs or a blanket, so the grown ups set up on the edge of the field and talked while the children wore themselves out.

Thank you to Sarah for hosting. This one was her idea in the first place, and it worked exactly as she described it: somewhere the children can burn off energy and the adults can have a proper conversation at the same time.

It was the last weekend of the summer holidays and plenty of people were away. It made for a relaxed morning and a smaller group often means you actually get to know the people you are sat with.

It was a free Affinity event, with just the venue's own admission to pay on the day, £10 per child and parents free. We will look at running another one, most likely in the next school holidays.

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