A couple of outings

It's been a busy few days.  We went to London on the train, visiting the Natural History Museum.  We saw the dinosaurs, and the blue whale room (I've never forgotten how BIG it was, the first time I saw it as a child).
The train from Aylesbury:

The tube:

The dinosaurs!  This is Allosaurus:

This is Tuojiangosaurus.

They have a live action T Rex, who is pretty scary.  Freddie really didn't like it, and Betsy wasn't all that keen either.

After a quick pit stop in the cafe we went to the big mammals room.  We looked at the blue whale, the whale skeletons, the stuffed elephants and giraffes.

Then we got well and truly fleeced in the gift shop before heading home.  It was a lovely time.

Yesterday we met up with some old friends in the woods.  No photos but it was great - picnic, playground, a walk, a game of football.  It rained, but it didn't matter.
Today we went to the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre with our home ed group.  We love it there - trains to play with and ride on. 

We pretty much spent our entire time there doing this:

We went on six times!  Then it poured with rain for a few minutes, making some big puddles to jump in.  The kids got soaked, and we went home tired and happy.

Tiredness, and trains

God we're tired today. Sleep has been very disturbed recently, with various kids coughing, feeling sick, teething and generally being unsettled.

Friday night was awful. Freddie felt ill, so I woke Rob up and got him to sleep in Fred's bed and Fred came in with me and Meg. I fed Meg during the night as usual. Betsy came in as she'd lost her dummy. Meg was sick in the bed. Twice. Then it was morning. Ugghh.

Last night was bad again. Meg was coughing and crying. I couldn't handle another night like it, so I sloped off upstairs to the airbed, leaving Rob to manage Meg. She was up till 3.30!

Anyway, so today we're tired. We went to the railway centre as I had a half price ticket that was too good to waste.


We all went on the miniature train, then Rob, Fred and Betsy went on again.


Meg was very excited to see the big steam train, and waved every time it chuffed past.



We went on the train, and waved at everyone!


Rob and Freddie went to the allotment this morning, making good use of the extra hour from the clock change. They did some tidying up of the plot, and picked a few more crops. We'll be having some of the pumpkin tomorrow, roasted with sausages yum!

Birthday!

Thursday was Freddie's 6th birthday. We went to Bekonscot Model Village for the day.

He loves it there. We've been every year since he was one. The weather looked gloomy on the way there, and I was feeling pretty bleugh about the whole thing. For the 1st time on his birthday we weren't meeting up with anyone, it was just us, and I felt that I'd really let Freddie down by not arranging something with friends. Then it started to rain, and I was in a baaaaad mood.

When we arrived, the kids raced around the whole model village very quickly, barely stopping to look at anything. Well, this was making me feel even worse! We'd be out of there in a hour at this rate. To try and make the visit last longer I got the picnic out, and went to get myself a cup of tea.

Freddie came to find me - Betsy had not made it to the loo in time. I could have cried. I had no spare clothes for her. Freddie only had choclate buttons and Hula Hoops for lunch. I wished we'd never left the house. Gloom and doom!

But.......I worried over nothing. I lost my entire sense of perspective. Betsy's clothes soon dried. We had a ride on the narrow gauge railway. We drove the remote control boats. We went round the village 5 times. We played 'it' in the playground. We stayed for 5 hours. We had a lovely day (or we did once I got over myself).

So, our day in pics.

Freddie's favourite train (it was the fastest):

Morris dancers - just like Grandpa used to do!

The house on fire:

A day at the races, like Daddy had last week:

The canal lock:

Fun fair:

Meg loved it, and then fell asleep:

The big kids train-watching:

Boating:

On the Thomas ride:

Betsy and Meg gave Freddie a dinosaur battle Wii game. He loves it though gets frustrated when he comes up against a tricky opponent. Then he deletes the dinosaurs and starts again!


The cake - this year a chocolate cake with no icing, just some melted chocolate on top.


We gave Freddie a lego fire station.


Balloons with LED lights in - how cool is that?

Happy birthday to our firstborn. Can't believe we've been parents for 6 years!

Steam and rain

Chris and Freddie's birthdays are 1 week apart. We celebrated their birthdays at Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, where there was a miniature traction engine event. Big burly men sitting on very small, steam powered vehicles. Brilliant!

Freddie was given a seriously cool camera from mum, Chris, Tom and nan for his birthday. He loves it, and has a great eye for photographs. I'll do a 'Fred's pics' blog post in the next week or so.

There was a very fine steam train in the visitors centre, that used to be for VIPs - Chuchill and Eisenhower both travelled on it. It had a fridge, with this sign on the outside - I guess it was a very early model:


Here is a rubbish photo of inside one of the carriages (from outside, hence the reflections)


I didn't check the weather before we left, and assumed it would be like the day before, warm and sunny. This was not the case. So I took sunhats and factor 50, and left the raincoats and extra jumpers at home. Poor Betsy was freezing. Thanl goodness there was a blanket in the car.


Meg was warm enough in her wrap!


Freddie was delighted to find a model railway set up outside, belonging to a very patient and generous man willing to let anyone play with it for as long as they liked. A loooonnnng time in Freddie's case!


He was persuaed away not by lunch (which he was too busy for), but a ride or 4 on the miniature railway.

Then we had time for a ride on the big stream train before heading home. It was a really lovely day.

Another unseasonably hot day

What another glorious day. The weather is more like June than April. Today we went to Waddesdon, a National Trust property nearby. The house is fairytale-beautiful.

The grounds and gardens are wonderful too. There is a woodland playground built on a hillside, with different areas as you go down the hill.


Betsy now likes to climb up the big kids slide and only needs a little help at the top. She is seen here modelling her new home made giraffe dress *woohoo!*


A particular plant was setting seed today. The air was thick with fluffy white floating seeds. You can see them here next to Freddie:


Then we got the land train back up the hill to the gardens behind the house. We found a tree to sit under for our picnic, and met up with some friends. I managed to get a smiley pic of Rob - he normally pulls odd faces at the camera.


By now we were all getting a bit hot and bothered, so the easter egg trail was something to get through as quickly as possible! The kids moaned, we ran low on water. It drives me crazy when something 'fun' is anything but. Once we'd completed the questions and picked up the eggs we went home to the cool and some telly.

Rob went up to the allotment to earth up the potatoes and water the seedlings. The kids played with the water snake again (it's a big hit here). I mooched about online - I've decided I'd like to knit a small shawl, after seeing some on Natural Mamas and Ravelry. I bought a pattern and some very special looking merino/silk blend sock yarn. Pics when it arrives.