Father/Daughter activity

While I was busy with my son spending one on one time with him at the amusement park Diggerland, to see the post go here, my husband and daughter went to a Rush concert.  This was my daughter's first concert ever and one of my husband's favorite bands (this was his seventh time seeing them perform live, starting way back in 1981).  He has been slowly introducing the kids to his style of music over the years.

Since the concert was 2 hours away and would get out late Princess and Daddy  stayed overnight at a hotel.  So here they are relaxing before going to the concert later that evening

At the venue

Daddy bought them matching Rush t-shirts and of course a program 

they had great seats at the side so they could see all the activity going on throughout the concert

Princess reported the concert was awesome and it was so much better listening to music live than on the radio.   She was especially impressed with the lighting and the multi-media projections that went along with the concert.  My husband said Rush played for nearly 3 hours.  

Wearing their matching T-shirts the next day.

I love that we are able to have special one on one time with each of our children.  I just wish we could do it more often:)!  I hope the kids will remember these times when they get older and have families of their own.  I know my husband and I treasure these moments.

Mother/Son activity

In the midst of packing my husband and I decided to take some time out and just spend a day individually with the children doing something they want to do.  Packing can be so stressful for adults but even more so for children who are contemplating losing their friends, home and if only for a short while their toys and books.

I decided to take my son to Diggerland Amusement park.   Little Man loves amusement parks and I thought this might be right up his alley.  Not sure if they have this type of park in the states but it is entirely devoted to construction vehicles that the children can ride and operate safely and independently.

This was the first weekend that the park was opened!

Spin Dizzy ride that Little Man loved and must of ridden half a dozen times or more

Little Man got to drive a real car...and to my amazement this car was not on rail system or anything.  The park attendant did have a brake on her side of the car in case we went off the road.  I have a video of him driving and figuring out the brake and everything...Thankfully we have several more years before he is legally allowed on the road:)

Mud track to practice driving a bob cat again no rails or anything, the kids really did have to drive these things luckily
the speed for the vehicles was only about 5 mph or less.

go karting

Driving a front end loader with a little guidance...again no rails, I was amazed at how much the kids really got to do on their own

bumper cars

Not sure what this is called but again Little Man is in control of the machine

Lots of games to play--Little Man broke the record for knocking down these skittles, while I struggled and eventually time ran out:(  Little Man loved that he could do this better than me and faster too:)

Digging in a full size Digger.  This was the longest line in the park, and there were more Dads in this line than any other.  

Little Man loved working this machine, and I could tell so did many of the Dads who tried it:)!  My husband would have loved this park.

Every ride had a information board to explain the uses of the equipment, cost and weight, Little Man loved reading them

Seeing the grounds from the top of the 50 foot sky shuttle

Seeing the show on what some of the equipment can do -- kids were not allowed to do this

Once little Man drove a adult size car this one just didn't cut it for him:)

Meeting the cast of the show at Digger land

Resting in  the hotel after a long day of playing hard

This is a great park if you have a child who loves all things construction!!!
What a great park for younger kids, again I was amazed how much they let the kids do on their own.  While there were always staff to support the kids who had trouble it was awesome to get to really drive and operate these construction vehicles.  What a amazing day for a little boy...and his Mom:)

Visit to the Transportation Museum

The weather here is finally warming up and while we should be home sorting, purging and packing we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get out of the house and go on another field trip.  We have been told many times that the London Transportation museum is wonderful and it has  been on our list to visit for the past 5 years but we never got around to it until this past weekend.  It lived up to our expectations, Little Man is enamored with the underground system here.  I kid you not, he knows most of the rail lines by memory and we if we quiz him on the system, just for fun,  he usually gets the right answer about 95% of the time.  So going to this museum was a little slice of heaven for my youngest child:)

First we learned about the Watermen and found out they didn't have the best reputation for honesty

We saw a chair carrier used by the wealthy to travel short distance around London

Next came the  bus pulled by 3 horses

Inside of the buses

We read that during this period there would be nearly 1000 tons of horse poo on any given day.  We also read that it would take up to 3 horses to pull a bus carrying 22 passengers

Then it was discovered if the horses pulled the busses on a track (sort of like a railroad) they could pull larger loads and the bus would only need 2 horses 

Discovering how the London underground was built.  We have seen many documentaries on this as it appeals to my son

Completing the kids trail.  Princess has decided she is too old to participate in children's trails in the museums anymore.  

What the city streets would have look like during the building of the tunnels.  We also read that many houses were torn down and the government simply threw people out and they were homeless, no compensation was given

Originally steam engines were used and there needed to be places along the lines to release the poisonous fumes being built up inside the tunnels.  This could be down with street grates.

An original under ground steam train

Inside of the cabin for 1st class

Inside the cabin for 2nd class

The famous London Underground map.  Little Man has practically memorized this

They had a mini side exhibit on all the different posters done over the years to advertise the use of the underground.  Here are a few of our favorites

Next we looked at the buses

and the old way of ticketing

You know you are getting old when the bus you remember riding in the 80's is now in the museum:(

Experiencing what it is like to be a underground conductor

We couldn't pull Little Man away from this

Bomb shelter and how the underground was used during WWII was then exhibited

Sleeping in the underground

I loved this sign:)

The etiquette of entering and exiting of the trains.  I can attest that this is not performed nearly as well in the modern age. 

You never know what kind of street performer you are going to find in London:)

We had a great day out and learned tons about the underground and how public transportation has changed over the years.