#RailOpenDay

This past Saturday, 28th September, we attended the #RailOpenDay at the Northern Line Facilities, in Southampto, find more here. This is part of the rail week events, which are happening all around the UK.  We have to stress how our kidos that are absolutely crazy about trais, so this event was impossible for us to miss. This was actually my partner's idea, he was the one who stumbled upon on the advert for the open day, and signed all of us to attend. This was a brilliant idea really, as both kids absolutely loved it!

I had no idea that the open day would be offering so many activities. We arrived around 14h30, and we stayed there for hours! During the whole afternoon, we were walking around trains, learning more about them, and I have also to say that the staff that was working the Open Day was absolutely friendly and lovely...

One of the activities that we could do was having our names featuring on the trains:

No my name is not there, but as you can see Patricia had her name featuring on the destination for a few minutes! We had our kids name there, as well and they had a laugh when saw it and realised that it was their name showing on the train! "Its my name there", they were screeching with delight, pointing at their name!

The event obiously was all about trains, so there were trains all around and it was impressive to actually see the trains weals up and close! They are massive. However, a key thing is the actual surface of the wheel that touches the train line in the size of a 50p coin... Curious! I had no idea...

We also had the chance to learn more about the innovations that are happening on the locomotives to become more eco-friendly. Siemens is attempting to de-carbonize rail, hence the creation of 'Hydrogen Hero'. There was a small locomotive that the kids could ride on. Unfortunately when our turn arrived they had run out of Hydrogen so we couldn't try it... Maybe next year!

We also had the opportunity to walk under the train, and we where able to see up and close the ins and outs of the train...
Actually, I didn't went under the train, as we had to bring the buggy with with us, so I was the one that volunteered to keep and eye on the buggy. Dad and kids did go, and learned a lot about the train's mechanics!

We Love trains! Even when walking around, under, in, all trains are brilliant, even in photos!

LEGO! This was one of the favorite stops for the kids.There was a small area that had Lego trains, a small lego train line that being used as a prop for for reading measurements of both vibration and the noise caused by trains. The kids did not care much about the readings, just the trains really, though mummy was interested in the different measurements!

The marquee outside was offering a lot of kids friendly activities as well, as face painting and my kids favorite: wood train sets. This was their favorite activity and where in the end we stayed for a very long time, the final stop of our #RailOpenDay!

Overall we had a brilliant time. The suggestion that I would make for the organisers though, is to make these events more mobility friendly. We are still using a buggy for our youngest as I mentioned earlier. He is pretty active, however he still gets tired and very now and then he still asks for a nap after lunch, and the buggy is pretty handy for this. The paths that we were using in this event were not spacious enough for a buggy to pass whilst other people were walking in the opposite direction. I had to stop several times to let people pass by me and the buggy. A nice alternative would be the offering a spot for the buggies to be parked by the organizers... !We would then be able to do many of the activities together instead of having one of us volunteering to keep an eye on the buggy too... Another point is, if walking with a buggy was pretty difficult for me to do,  I won't even imagine how people with mobility issues could circulate easily this event.  Otherwise, we really had a brilliant day! Thank you for this #RailOpenDay! We will do the event next year if possible!

What about you? How was your Saturday?

My Sunday Photo || {The Ordinary Moments}

My Sunday Photo || {The Ordinary Moments}

We have a dollhouse!

Since a young child I always dreamed about having a little dollhouse... Even now, as a grown person I would endlessly stare at the dollhouses at any toy store, imagining which furniture would be better suited, how to rearrange it, daydreaming .... ! 

Recently an opportunity for us to buy a second hand dollhouse showed up locally and we did it, we bought a dollhouse!!! 

As it stands, this dollhouse is in need of loads of tlc, and we all are quite happily to providing it! Since we picked it up from the seller, both myself and kidos are quite happy to open it up, and having little toy figures moving through it! As it stands, the dollhouse is quite empty and cold. Nevertheless,   just its empty walls are providing  happy hours of  play time! 

Apologies for the terrible resolution of these photos. These were taken with my phone and I did not remember to take more pictures...

But, back to my dollhouse plans... I have already very happily sketched plans to how this dollhouse will be revived. It will definitely be a very long term project to 'fix it up', but we are all ( kidos included) contributing to this project.

I have already removed the front opening to give the dollhouse a thorough wash, and left it outdoors to dry. I  also started to sand it as I will be painting it all white. 

The pink colour however lovely it is or better, was, it is not our family's favourite.... particularly not mine! So I intend the house to feature mostly white or neutral tones. These neutral tones not only will be featuring outside as well inside. I also plan to  insert some new windows to have more light coming in, and change the door frames. I want the house to look more modern:

Not only I will be changing the dollhouse's features as I have also draw some plans about the furniture, which will mostly be quite modern. Whilst I searched online about 'modern dollhouse furniture', a whole new world was shown! I was completely stunned by the miniature world that I discovered.... Happily I found that I am not alone in up-doing Dollhouses! There are so many different blogs and Youtube channels featuring tutorials in how to paint, wallpaper and actually building miniature dollhouses and furniture. 

I updated my blog Library to feature these new sources of tutorials.  There is this 'modern dollhouse' world online that I was completely unaware! I was a bit daunted about  how I should venture into this new hobby, but I am not alone in this.... I will present my adventures in this new found hobby of mine as often as possible. This is a long term project, and hopeful I will be posting about my progress often....

Our half term: We went on a bear hunt!

How was your half-term? I know this was a couple weeks ago, but it has been really difficult to sit down and update my blog. Nevertheless I am catching up more often than use to!

Our half-term was spent at home, but we were able to do a lot of activities... The local libraries and our local art gallery were offering diverse holiday activities for both toddlers and young children. I do try to be creative and to come up with crafty things for both kidos to do, but if I can have the fun and have less mess up to clean up afterwards, the better. So we went to our local library, we read lots of books... And for crafty things we went to our local art gallery and made some pinatas! However,  our favourite activity was attending for the very first time the Nuffield childrens' theatre, which was featuring until the 2nd June 'We are going on a bear hunt'!

The kidos absolutely loved the show, and to be honest so did mummy! The activities and the excitment began even before the show. The Nuffield theatre prepared an actually 'bear hunt', a treasure hunt really. We could ask at the ticket office for a map to look for bears around  Highfield Campus. My oldest was so excited to follow the map and find the bears! My youngest, its just fun to run around tailing his older brother! The actual 'bear hunt' was a fun way to release some energy before the show! And it was also educational, not only had my oldest to read a map, as the bears had letters and we had to form a word. And after finding all the bears and the missing word, it as theatre time!

The show was really engaging, with catchy songs  -  which until today are sang 'we are not, not not, not not scared!'

The dog was absolutely delightful to hear sing, extremely funny  and so very expressive therefore it became instantly the favourite character for both kidos: wof...!

I was concerned that since my youngest since he is only two, that staying for almost an entire hour watching a show might be too pushy, particularly since he is really active. However, as the show was full of surprises, splashes and so engaging that the  hour went on a flash, and both my oldest and youngest were attentive following the show. The actors  began by asking what does a bear look like, which every kid was so excited to answer and explain... The contributions were dutifully noted... Nobody has seen a bear live did we? 

 Every now and then in the middle of the show we could hear a bear roar. A footprint was also found! All kids were eager to let dad, girl and boy about it! This kept my kidos inquisitive, so where is the bear? Did you see the footprint? Mummy did you hear a bear? Unsurprisingly, the best part for both was when we finally met the bear. My youngest screamed with delight when the gigantic Teddy Bear made his appearance on the stage.... He could not stop saying 'Its a bear' 'Its a big bear' 'Muuuuummmy its a bear' he was so happy! 

We all loved this show... And we are definitely going 'On a bear hunt' when given the opportunity again.  Here is a sample of the show:

Since we enjoyed going to the theatre so much we are also making plans to watch another show! Actually, it was the kids that when seeing the 'Gruffalo' said that wanted to see that show as well! And we most certainly will!

xx