'I loved the singing, the atmosphere and my hot dog'
How to do a Euros match at Old Trafford, plus hamsters wearing party hats
Readers, hello! Good week? It’s been busy here, with a mid-week adventure for my 9yo to the first game of the Women’s Euros. More on that in a sec.
We had a great time at InflataNation last week for the birthday party (apart from a heart-stopping 6 minutes when we couldn’t find my youngest, who’d got lost in a ball pit). The kids all loved flinging themselves around on the obstacles and had a birthday brunch of pizza, chips, muffins and ice cream afterwards.
We ordered these amazing biscuits as party bag favours from Sugar Cat, run by a lovely lady up the road in Horwich:
Both the birthday girls love their pet hamsters so she made biscuits of hamsters wearing party hats with the girls’ intials on them. I can’t even.
Anyway, onto this week’s adventure, my 9yo’s first ever football match, to a packed Old Trafford for the first game in the Women’s Euros to see England play Austria. Not bad as first games go, especially as England won 1-0.
I didn’t go (I stayed at home with the little one and we had a chippy tea) so I asked her to report back for you. here’s what she thought.
BTW, if you’re here from somewhere other than my list, click below and you can subscribe for a weekly email in your inbox at 1130 every Friday, with things to do and places to go for families in the North West.
This week’s adventure… The Lionesses kick off the Euros
Last year my husband bought two tickets for England v Austria at Old Trafford, the first game of the Women’s Euros which are being hosted in England over the next few weeks.
We then pretty much forgot about it till a couple of weeks ago, and on Wednesday evening they set off with Maeve super excited to be ‘at the football.’
Here are her top five highlights, in her own words:
1.The first and only goal. I got to hold up my ‘goal sign’ and jump around. It was exciting.
2. The score at the end being 1-0 to England and all the celebrations. I liked the atmosphere and we sang Sweet Caroline really loudly. I was probably the loudest out of everyone in the stadium.
3. The fan park. I got transfers on my face that said ‘Lionesses’ and there were lots of people there. There was a trophy made of Lego too.
4. The food trucks. You could get EVERYTHING. Some things I saw were donuts, hot dogs, burgers, chips, candy floss, fish and even lasagne. (Editor’s note from my husband: ‘there wasn’t any lasagne’). I got a hot dog and I stole some of daddy’s chip butty, delish.
5. The stadium itself. It was so big and cool and the atmosphere was really fun. The biggest place Ive been before is Manchester Arena and it was way bigger than that and everyone was singing.
It was such a cool experience for her first big match, as there were lots of kids there and the atmosphere was really relaxed. Watching on the TV I saw groups of Brownies celebrating in the crowd and loads of families too.
The only negative my husband reported was that the queues for everything were massive - getting in, the fan park, food, everything.
There are more Euros matches coming to the North West at Leigh Sports Village and the training stadium at the Etihad, so if you get a chance then it’s a super fun trip out that everyone can get into.
That’s it for this week. What are you up to this weekend? My 5yo has got a Rainbows trip to Gulliver’s World and she can’t wait. And it looks sunny so I think a stroll somewhere might be in order.
Thanks as ever to everyone who’s got this far. My fave readers, innit.
See you next week,
Jenna