Spavens Sweet Shop

We had fun yesterday. We all went to Spavens. It is, in my opinion, the best sweet shop ever. It is more than just a sweet shop too. You can paint pottery and other items, and they also serve pancakes and ice cream etc. So, you can just go and buy sweets but when we go, we always do a 'spavens special'. There are two types...a jar (which you then fill with sweets), or pottery painting, followed by a pancake, and an ice cream (you can have slush puppy instead of one of those but we usually don't).  

Yesterday, Child #3 chose to do a jar and fill it with sweets and the rest of use painted pottery. A couple of years ago (I think) the owners converted the shop cellar into this fantastic painting area, accessed via the fairy castle stairs...

It's lovely down there, there are plenty of sofas too for those parents (unlike me) that prefer to sit a watch rather than take part. Parent's always get offered free tea or coffee too (which is served in little tea pots, jugs and cups which have been painted there previously...oh its just so lovely I could quite happily live there!).

This is child #3 eagerly awaiting his jar to paint (the jars are done with paint pens rather than paint and brushes so, thankfully, a bit less messy too)

Child #2 chose a little trainer money box...she was so careful and didn't rush any part of it.

Child #1 chose a penguin, and I chose a mug (you can never have too many coffee mugs!). These were our finished creations which will now get glazed and blasted and come out all bright and shiny. I have to pick them up next Saturday (and will no doubt be tempted by a bag of sweets while I'm there...and then feel guilty as the kids won't be with me, and buy them some too!). I will show you the finished items next week.

I chose something simple so that I could help child #3 fill his jar with sweets while the other two carried on painting. I didn't get pictures of this bit because I cannot multi-task. The jar filling works in this way...children over a certain age can do their own but child #3 is too young and therefore I have to help. They give you a plastic glove and explain which sweets are allowed (pretty much all of them except things like jelly beans (the posh ones) and all the crazy kids things like wham bars and bubble gum tubes etc. I wouldn't like to guess how many jars that leaves to chose from but its got to be in the region of 200. So you just get the tub of sweets off the shelves yourself and, using the glove, pick out sweets and put them in your jar until its full. The staff don't interfere (even when you help wander behind the counter for sweets), they just leave you too it and work around you...its great. This is the jar...(and you can fit loads in if you squash them down and pack it well!)...

So afterwards we all ate pancakes and ice cream, below is child #3 scoffing a pancake with golden syrup, the others had chocolate spread but I stuck with the traditional sugar and lemon...there is no better filling, I don't think. Then we had ice cream...the girls had cookie dough flavour and I had real cherries flavour - it was beyond delicious. I can't remember what #3 had - it was gone to quickly to notice maybe!

Its was a great afternoon, as always, and not very expensive either - the pottery is dependant upon the item (I think ours were all between £8 and £10) but the jars with sweets are only £6 - amazing value for so much fun.

If you are tempted by it yourself now, Spavens is in Mold, North Wales. This is their website...

www.spavenssweetshop.co.uk