I've been attempting to visit a maize maze for a couple of weeks now. It's on my 'autumn list of things to do'. Our local one was cancelled due to a poor crop. I found another one 40 miles away and tried to arrange a visit with a friend. The friend didn't want to go, so we went somewhere else instead. Today was maize maze day, with friends Caden and Miles. I checked the website for opening times. I packed a lunch, waterproofs and wellies. We arrived, the maize maze was closed. Nooooooooooo! Luckily, there was plenty of other things to do. The garden centre had a big sandpit, big Jenga, and some *extremely* expensive water features (£10,999 - eeek). Freddie and Betsy spent ages making a sand house.
There was a playground with an excellent roundabout, and £1 a go diggers.
There were lots of animals, inculding kune kune pigs, goats (with their own troll bridge!), alpacas, cattle, Jacobs sheep, ducks, geese, ponies and guinea pigs. There was also a falconry centre, but we didn't go in.
I've made a shawl for Rob's mum, using an alpaca/silk blend. It's her 75th birthday this weekend. When we were looking at the alpacas I told the kids about the shawl, and how soft it is. There was another filed beyond the last animal enclosure, and we walked through to have a look. We found some big sculptures. It was very unexpected and quite exciting. There were two big blue waves, and a large round moon-like face. The kids enjoyed walking around them and getting up close. It reminded me of the Henry Moore sculptures that were around Kew Gardens when Freddie was little. That was totally fantastic.
By now the kids were tired, so we walked back to the garden centre and bought Rob a little living stone plants - he likes desert plants and has a small cactus collection. So, a good day, even though the maize maze didn't happen.
We've had a busy couple of days. Yesterday we went on a visit to the London Transport Museum. It was a home ed trip and was free - the entrance fee is normally pretty expensive. We got the train. I usually get a bit anxious about this, as it's a whole hour and the kids have a tendency towards noisiness. I stash a load of things to do in my bag to help reduce boredom (and therefore the development of crazy loud games), sometimes this works, sometimes not. This time is was great! Freddie and Betsy - though especially Freddie - played with the awesome story cubes for most of the journey. They are totally brilliant. I might invest in one of the other packs, maybe the Actions one. Meg did some drawing, and was generally happy to chat. We had our lunch on the train, and journey passed quickly. Phew.
We got a taxi to Covent Garden. I find it difficult to wrangle the buggy and our bags and three kids on the tube by myself, with the escalators and fast moving busy people. The kids *love* London taxis, and we had a very friendly driver. We had a wander around Covent Garden and waited to meet up with the group. There was a string quintet playing some popular classics, and we listened to a couple of pieces. Our friends Caden and Miles came on the trip too, and we walked around the museum with them. The top floor is about 19th century transport, i.e. horse drawn cabs. The middle floor is about the development of the tube system, and the steam trains that operated on the underground. The ground floor was mostly the electric underground and buses. The kids enjoyed this the most.
Rob met us there after work, and the plan was to have dinner somewhere and get a later train home (I didn't want to take the kids on the train at evening rush hour). On the way, we stopped to watch a street magician. Betsy ended up being part of the show. It was fantastic! Rob filmed a few minutes:
The magician gave her a balloon dog, which she adored until it unravelled today. Many. many tears have been shed over the demise of balloon dog.
After the excitement of the show we went to Pizza Hut. It's very difficult to find a restaurant where then menu has something that all three kids will eat. Pizza Hut came up trumps. Freddie enjoyed the chicken strips, the girls had pizza. The salad was a winner too (if your definition of salad includes breadsticks). We got the tube back to Marylebone, then the train home. An excellent day. If yesterday was about the city, today was about the countryside. We headed to Wendover Woods, partly because Jarvis's mum has started a new job in the cafe there. I rarely buy lunch there as it's so close to home, but made an exception today.
Then we had a walk, played in the playground and the kids spent ages in the huge muddy puddle. Boots got stuck in the slurpy mud. We found beautiful leaves in different hues. Betsy found a leaf with all the autumn colours in it - lovely! A great muddy afternoon.
We had errand to run on a rainy day today. I had lots of bags to take to the charity shop, so after dropping them off we drove into town and parked in the multistory car park. We obviously *never* do this as we live 5 minutes from the high street. Freddie sometimes asks to though, and today seemed the right day to do it. The car park has a covered bridge linking it to the shopping centre. The kids loved it!
It's funny how doing something routine but in a different way can make it feel so novel. It was lovely watching the kids trying to work out where they were, coming into the shopping centre through a different entrance. We popped around town, Meg and Betsy with umbrellas up, all of us in raincoats.
Freddie and Betsy spent their pocket money. Betsy got a pack of Moshi Monsters, and Freddie got an excellent value car track for £8. He set it up so the car did a stunt jump over the row of other cars, and then so it jumped into a bowl of water.
Meg and Betsy have been playing with the cuddly toys, in between games on the laptop, and long bubble baths.
I've been offering up a a couple of more autumnal activities recently. At the weekend I dug out some wooden acorns I bought last year, and left them on the table with some little pots of acrylic paints. Betsy and Meg decided to paint them. I couldn't take any photos of the process, as I was holding an acorn in each hand! They gave them a coat of paint, and once that was dry they decorated them with spots and stripes. I finished them with a layer of mod podge to preserve them and make them shiny.
