Days Out - Thomas Land at Drayton Manor

I decide just one post wasn't enough to cover Harry's fabulous birthday treat! The last post was about the Thomas-themed rooms at Drayton Manor Hotel - a big hit with the boys - however, the real treat was still to come - meeting the real Thomas and his friends!

Of course, first we enjoyed a lovely breakfast in the hotel and we headed over to the park at about 9.45 (it opened at 9.30). The rides didn't start until half past 10, so we probably could have left it a little bit longer before entering the park, but it was nice to orientate ourselves and figure out what rides we were going to go on when they did open! We left our lunch cool bag in the lockers near Emily's Play Area (a soft play area adjacent to the main part of Thomas Land) and headed off to the Zoo, which was open. Harry enjoyed looking at the animals, allthough I think he was a little bit confused about the zoo and theme park concepts. When we walked past the tiger he asked 'Is that a real one?!' to be followed by when we saw the exhibits on the prehistoric trail 'Are those real dinosaurs?!'

Just past the dinosaur trail was Spencer's Play Area. I love it when a play area is well judged and designed for its target audience and this one was perfect for 2-5 year olds, which is also prime age for Thomas fans I would guess. I am sure Harry would have been happy if this was the culmination of our day but we soon had to drag him (and Archie) off the play equipment to see what else this end of the park had to offer before heading back t the main part of the park on the train.

Harry was captivated by the magical Thomas exhibition in one of the nearby sheds. He thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the elements of the scene and waiting to spot his favourite trains come chuffing around the track. The Terrence Tractor Driving School is also in this area of the park, but sadly Harry was too small to drive his own tractor. This was probably our only disappointment of the day. We would have appreciated an option for te younger drivers - perhaps even just a Terrence model to climb on - but it was a minor disappointment in what was otherwise a wonderful day.

Before long there was an influx of new people which told us that a train must have arrived at the station, so we hot-footed it over there to find it was Percy, Harry's absolute favourite train! The train rides were, perhaps predictably, one of the highlightss of the day. Nothing beats wating on an actual platform, selecting your own carriage and riding the rails with your favourite trains. We were pleased to capture a usually camera-shy Harry standing next to his new best buddy, Percy the train.

The rides in Thomas Land are really well suited to Harry's age. In fact, at about 90cm, he was tall enough to go on even the bigger rides - the Troublesome Trucks rollercoaster and the Cranky ride. However, Harry didn't fancy those ones having never been on any rides before, and I don't really blame him - I'm sure they would provide plenty of fear factor for even an older child. He absolute favourite ride was the Vintage Car ride, which isn't specifically Thomas themed, but does fit well with the rest of the rides. Little ones sit in the car (accompanied by one adult) and 'drive' it along a track. Harry asked to go on this ride every other time! We were lucky to be there on a very quiet day, it meant that most rides were just waiting for people before starting, even your little family were the only passengers! Harry also loved the Diesel ride, and being able to ride the Blue Mountain Quarry trains. Again, because it wasn't busy he was able to ride on all his favourite trains by going on the rides multiple times. Archie also enjoyed the rides, but at 10 and a half months he was a little young for them. You aren't allowed to have children sitting on your lap, they have to sit on their own seat, which can be tricky with a wriggly crawler!

We ate our lunch on a picnic bench and although we'd held the soft play area in reserve, we decided just to go back and have a go on more of the rides. We also never made it into the main part of Drayton Manor. As we walked through it seemed like there were a few rides that the boys might have enjoyed, but, to be honest Thomas Land was more than enough for us for the one day. I couldn't recommend it enough for a great day out if you have a train- and vehicle-crazy little one like Harry. I think the memories are going to stay with him for a long time and it made his third birthday a really special one. Thank you, Drayton Manor!

Inventive Playdough

Harry's not great on messy or creative play. We're working on, and currently attending a course at the local Children's Centre to give me some new ideas. However, I can persuade him to spend some time playing with playdough on occasion. The trick, of course, as with anything toddler-related, is to be inventive and relate it to their interests.



I used to simply use the playdough and model it into cars. We also rolled and cut out shapes, but this never really grasped Harry's interest as much as real '3D' cars.

More recently we have started using his construction vehicles (and woe betide you if you call the 'backhoe loader' a 'digger') to build scenes. I coloured the playdough we made last week in appropriate colours (including black for the tarmac) and he loved making the road and filling in the potholes (hmm, wish there was someone like Harry locally to do this for real!) The only problem was that he lamented the lack of a 'grader' in his construction vehicle set to level his road!!

Today we went for something different. Thanks to the 'Harry and his Bucket full of Dinosaurs' books (Harry's new favourites), he has developed a new interest in dinosaurs (I seriously have to gen up on my knowledge of names and also on which are carnivores, omnivores and herbivores!) so we go out the dinosaurs with the playdough. He particularly like feeding Tyrannosaurus and making footprints. We discussed the difference between the herbivore and carnivore footprints and in their teeth. It's nice to find something new to grab his interest as otherwise our days are mostly spent racing and performing elaborate dramas with his car collection!

The recipe I use for playdough is from the Wonderplay book, which has loads of awesome ideas in it. 1 cup flour, 1 tbsp oil, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup salt, 2 tsps cream of tartar, food colouring.

Mix dry ingredients in saucepan; add wet and mix together; cook over low/med heat; stir constantly (about 5 minutes); knead until smooth; add colouring as desired.

I recommend gel food colouring, as sometimes the liquid stuff makes it too wet if you put enough in to create a vibrant colour.

Planning Play

As all the mums and dads out there will know, it's tricky to plan things with toddlers. They have their own minds, after all, and don't always what to do what we think they will enjoy or what we think they should do.

However, each week after reading what Harry does with the childminder on a Thursday morning I have found myself feeling a bit wistful that we don't manage to complete that much when we are at home. So I am planning a little experiment. By no means am I going to be removing Harry's 'free play' time, but I am going to try to make an activity open to him each afternoon that we might not otherwise have done. For example, Harry almost never instigates creative/messy play - by which I mean he is very unlikely to ever ask to do colouring, painting, play dough etc. However, as much as he loves his cars, by the end of the afternoon he does sometimes seem to reach saturation and ask for the TV on.

So, this week I am going to just think a little ahead and make sure I am prepared for a good play session straight after nap time. We are going to go for a dinosaur theme as Harry has really been into his 'Harry and the Dinosaurs' books recently:

Monday -  am: Daddy is on holiday - Soft play. pm: Track-making with cars and paint (or Daddy's choice).
Tuesday - am: Cousin Isla coming to play. pm: Playdough and dinosaurs.
Wednesday - am: Toddler group at Children's Centre. pm: Dinosaur sticking/colouring activity.
Thursday - am: Childminder. pm: Dinosaur swamp cakes (with green colouring!)
Friday - am: Messy Play Group. pm: Active play - stomp like a dinosaur! I plan to make a cushion fort/forest/swamp in his bedroom with all the blankets and pillows in the house.

Do you plan your child's play? Does it work? What do you think of my ideas? I hope to feed back to you next week how we got on!

Hallow'een Party!

We had a brillinat time yesterday with our Hallow'een party. We invited Harry's NCT buddies(3 other children, J, E and A) and their parents. This included baby S who is only 7 days old today! So tiny, I can't even remember when my snuggly little bear was that tiny and it was only 5 months ago! We also invited our next door neighbour, G who is 16 months and came with his daddy.

The older toddlers had a grand old time playing with balloons and toys in the lounge, they were really good and as there were lots of adults we were able to take playing with them in turn. Meanwhile other adults chatted in the kitchen, eyeing up the buffet!

We decided not to do any organised games this year, as, in my opinion they are a little young at 2 1/2. We did, however, have sparklers (for the adults to hold) at the end of the evening and they enjoyed a run around the darkening garden.

On to the food...
I made spooky spider chocolate cupcakes with a minty buttercream icing:

Pumpkin cupcakes - these were supposed to be ACTUAL pumpkin cakes from the hummingbird recipe book, but I failed at making roast pumpkin puree so they were vanilla with orange glace icing and a small green buttuercream stalk.

Gingerbread skeletons - recipe courtesy of Mama Owl and including baby skeletons decorated by Ian!

 

Shaped sandwiches (ham bats, tuna spiders and cheese ghosts)

Sausage spiders - These are simply half a sausage taken out of its skin and rolled into a ball with half-twiglets for legs! I used to make these as a kid and they are really effective!

We also had spooky crisps and some un-spooky pizza, breadsticks and other bits and pieces.

The party was a great success, Harry was so excited to be dressed up, even though he is usually extremely reluctant to do anything like that. We bought some light up balloons and sent the children home with one each as well as some baked goods (I fear I made have over baked!) and it was great to catch up with all the NCT group. I was pleased that we didn't invite too many more people (although I would have loved my friend's lovely girls H and J to come - unfortunately they were away). I think the number we had was a great number for our house!


I definitely hope to have another Hallow'een party next year! It is such a fun celebration to enjoy with your kids. Maybe I have posted this in time to be some inspiration for someone - have a great Hallow'een!

Bobcat - Opel

On arriving in Spain to pick up the car - an Opel Corsa. For those not in the know, Vauxhalls are called Opel in Spain and have a different logo.

H- looking at the badge on one of the wheels - What's that one, Daddy?
D - Opel
H - looks confused 
D - That badge means Opel, Harry.
H - No, that one's a Vauxhall! Walks around the front of the car to check.

Bear in mind it was dark and he saw only part of the car - my son is a crazy car genius!

The Land of Why

I was tagged in this post by Mama Owl in 'The Land of Why' which started over at Mummy Central.

As a mum of a toddler I am always dreading those 'whys' that are so difficult to answer - 'Why is the sky blue?' (or not, as is usually the case in my place of the world), 'Why is the sea salty?', 'Why can't I... (insert banned activity here)'

Harry's not really got to this stage quite yet, but I've no doubt it will come and although it's just a sign of their wonderful development, I'm sure all parents feel like snapping 'Just because!' when it becomes particularly wearing.

Here are a few of my whys:

Why does one of my children wake at 5.30am - then go back to sleep at 7.30am only for the other to wake at 7.45?

Why does my husband find it so easy to drop off to sleep at night even though I'm the one exhausted from night feeds?

Why do you hate the idea of going out, but love it when we are there? (And why, when I am too tired to fight you and agree to stay in, why are you a complete pain?)

Why do I have to go back to work, and why is it so so hard to find the childcare I want to suit my children?

Why do people always think Bob is a girl just because he has long hair?

Why do I feel the need to buckle to parenting peer pressure - why can't I just do things at my own pace?

Why is it that I never have enough room for everything even though I try so hard to fit to the mantra 'a place for everything and everything in its place?'

And the biggest one...
Why do you have to grow up so quickly and why, oh why does time go so fast?


The Rules

1. Post your whys – as few or as many as you like
2. Link up your post with Mummy Central and post a comment if you can
3. Tag 5 bloggers to keep this going
4. If you’re not a blogger, leave your whys as a comment below. We’d love to read them
5. Show your support by reading a few others and commenting on them.

Who I'm tagging

Mutterings of a Fool
Bare Naked Mummy
The Mini Mes and Me
Lakes Single Mum
My Darlings and Me

Painting Rainbow Footprints

Harry asked to paint the other day, so I got out our washable Crayola paints. we use a bun tin as a paint palette so we can get all the colours out and I recently found a pack of all different types of paintbrushes at Home Bargains. Our favourites are 'footprints' - little sponge 'stampers' on the end of a wooden stick. We have two sizes - the one used here is the larger one.

We dipped the stamper into different colours of paint to make a 'rainbow' effect. Rainbows are one of Harry's favourite things ever so this was very popular!

We talked a little bit about how mixed colours make different colours - not sure he quite 'got' it, but never mind!

Then he got down to some serious painting!

 



I love watching Harryenjoy messy activities because for a loong while he really hated getting dirty and didn't find it fun. Now it seems like he takes a real pride in his 'work'!

We also found some time to do some handprints.

The chubby little handprint closest to you is Archie's! The others are all Harry's - he pretty soon covered the whole paper so I had to do another Archie-print to save. Archie's first go at painting!!

Vehicles and Sticky Faces

I thought I'd try to get down on the blog some of the things we regularly do to entertain ourselves - I love getting new ideas of thngs to do from other peoples' blogs, and I also think if I keep a record of things we do I can look back and glean some inspiration from my own blog on those days when it just seems impossible to think of anything!

As usual, you'll have to forgive the poor quality of the pictures as a) I am not the photographer of the family (you'll want Ian for that) and b) I was using my BlackBerry.

As is probably obvious from most of my posts, my boy is a little vehicle obsessed so our craft attempts are usually heavily vehicle based. I do try to introduce other elements into our play though - today was emotions. I picked up these great foamy face stickers from the pound shop one day. They are very tactile and also easy for toddlers to use - although Harry can't yet peel off the backing by himself.

First, I drew the outline of some vehicles with circular windows: a car, a bus, a rocket and a plane. Harry stuck the faces into the windows. As we stuck them in we talked about the different emotions depicted on the faces. He is very precise about where he sticks things, although as you can see his motor control with drawing and colouring is not quite there yet.

 

We usually use crayons to colour, but as a special treat today we got out his (extra washable) felt tip pens. They are much easier to make marks with than crayons, so he does find them quite satisfying! Here is his completed bus - he was very pleased with it!

The Unbearable Braveness of Toddlers

I am forever grateful that Harry is cautious little soul - he didn't walk until he *knew* he could, he never climbed the stairs when little (or, on that note, the sofas, tables or bookcases). I could always leave him to nip upstairs or to the loo without too much worry of the mischief he would get up to.

There were times when I worried a little about this (I mean, it's the mother's prerogative to worry about even the good things, right?)- what if he grew up to be over-cautious, what if he never wanted to do anything exciting - what if he was a wimp?! But most of the time I recognised his caution for the blessing it was, and thanked my lucky stars.

Now he is a little older and getting a little braver - this has its pay offs - he is no longer permanently attached to my side when out and about, and his new found experimentation has seen him even trying new foods he would never have touched before. But, oh my god, I have never felt so terrified in all my life! I never wanted to be a 'helicopter parent', and always felt quite smug that I'd avoided that particular parenting sin - making sure I never rushed over when he fell over and bumped, so proud of my big boy bouncing straight back up. However, I fear that I have recently recognised that as much as I tried to disguise it, helicopter is probably my default.

I first started to realise my failings when out and about with Harry's little buddy from the childminder, P. Now, P is a few months older than Harry and a bit bigger so he ran over to the big slide and up the ladder. The ladder that is way too big for Harry (which I am kind of glad of because it leads to a platform 6ft up in the air with two sheer drops). Of course, Harry comes over whinging for help - unfotunately for him me and P's mum both have a feeding baby attached. This happens 3 or 4 times 'Mummy, HELP me!' and then all goes quiet. I assume he has gone to play on something else. Until my heart skips a veat (well, probably several) as I look up and see him on the ruddy platform! Waving! With a great big smile on his face! The first thing he does after whizzing down the slide is rush over saying 'Yay, did it Mummy!' and of course I feel so proud of his determination, but also a little wrench in my heart every time I see him up there willing him to be careful. Meanwhile P's mum calmly chats, seemingly unperturbed by the peril they are putting themselves in.

Since then, I've tried really hard to relax a bit and let him get on with the dangerous life of being a toddler, but I nearly reached my limit the other day at the park. We go to this park because there is a great climbing frame with fast slides that is perfectly suited to little ones his age. Apart from this one terrifying bridge thing that last time he went on I literally only managed to avoid a head-meets-floor incident by grabbing his ankles (in my defence I was heavily pregnant!) One of his little friends happens to be there - great I thought - time to sit back and enjoy a mummy chat. Oh no, no, no. How wrong was I - the next minute we look up and... no they are not on the scary bridge thing. They are at the other end of the bloody park on the big kids climbing frame! Climbing up a ladder that goes vertically and then horizontally up to a platform at least 8 ft high! Each of gaps between the rungs would easily fit one of our little cherubs and send them hurtling to their doom. Hearts in our mouths we race over, between us managing one mum at the top and one at the bottom, ready to catch. You know what? Neither of them so much as slipped! They climbed up there at least 10 times each without so much as a shake. I tried it just once and was nearly rendered incapable of movement halfway up.

I was really proud, no doubt about it - my heli-blades were whirring at the speed of light, but I was proud. Needless to say we soon ushered them back to the other play area - and for some reason, that terrifying bridge didn't seem so bad any more. I let him get on with it whilst standing at least an arm's reach away!