Today saw the start of the National Railway Museum’s Half Term event… ‘Big Fun With Little Trains’, and my family and I were invited to the special bloggers VIP day that kicked off the whole thing!
Hubby wasn’t available today so the children and I took along Grandma & Grandpa instead to enjoy the trains, have a nice, family day out and teach them what this blogging lark is all about that I do, and what sort of things I review!
Here are all the bloggers and their families at lunch, playing with the Tomy toys that were displayed around the room. It was nice to see so many other bloggers around and I also got to meet Sara from Tomy’s PR company who kindly gave the children a toy diecast ‘Chuggington’ train to take home!
Taking ‘the Grandparents’ round the exhibitions was a hoot! It took my mum back in time, she even started reminiscing about her first boyfriend who she used to go and see on the train! I’m not sure I wanted to know, but once you start down Memory Lane, you find out allsorts! The bit us ‘oldies’ (ie; over 30s!) liked the best were the Royal Carriages where you could see Queen Mary’s trains and her cast iron bath inside the carriage and the bedroom portion that had a wrought iron bed in it! There was even signange on the floor to show you where the Queen alights the carriage, and where her entourage are positioned around her! My son was Colonel Legge, but I quite fancied being Princess Beatrice myself!
The kids liked the Scalextric racing display best and had at least five races around the track. I couldn’t get them off it- this is the great thing about the museum, they have plenty of opportunities to get involved along the way. There are the static exhibitions where you can stand and stare and then there are the parts where you need to roll up your sleeves. My family did more than roll up their sleeves here when they pressed a button to start a video feature in the Great Hall. Here is what happens to Grandmas and kids when they push a button to find music comes on!
We had to take some time out along the way to let the kids run off some steam (no pun intended!) in the play area. After that, we went on our own miniature steam train ride – you can really smell the coal and soot in the air!
I’ve been to the NRM before and I’ll go again- it is always a fantastic (and free) day out- something always welcome in the school holidays! (Entrance is free but there is a small charge to do some of the rides. For example, the miniature steam train ride we did was 50p per person)
The museum has launched a hunt for the nation’s favourite railway toy, you go here to enter your choice for the favourite toy and whoever wins will be invited to a special ceremony where their toy will be entered into the National Collection for preservation. See the website for more details. www.nrm.org.uk
My exhausted kids at the end of the day- thankfully I’d taken a drink for them in our new Ohyo space saving collapsabottles! (www.ohyo.me)
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[...] school Half Term where my kids and I visited the National Railway Museum, had playdays out, and got treated to Sunday Lunch by [...]