The rest of half term

I love holidays because it's a time to do different things that we can't usually do and take part in camps.  Every evening Nicholas went to swimming camp which he always seems to enjoy.  It's also a time when you can relax  - even though it may not sound like we did much relaxing, we did - and we had a couple of pj mornings which was great!

Our birthday present to Phillipa was a ticket to the theatre.  She came with us to watch the Nutcracker on Ice.  As everyone should know by now, Danny absolutely loves the nutcracker, and the music often plays in our house so it is all very familiar to us.  This always makes a big difference to the level of enjoyment at the theatre.  The fact that the actors were ice skating made it even more enjoyable and spectacular.  The extra special treat is that Phillipa stayed for a sleep over.  No midnight feasts though because all three kids were asleep by the time we got home!

One day Pete took us to a family day on space at the Royal Institute. It was an amazing event with so many educational things - including lectures, quizzes and experiments - all relating to space. The feeling of greatness is everywhere all around you, amazing being in the building where Michael Faraday actually lectured, and where so many great minds met. We had an amazing time and will hopefully be able to go to many more events there!

After dinner at a Chinese Restaurant in Soho we went for a wander through the heart of London (Picadilly Circus and Leicester Square).  It was unbelievable how many people were roaming the lit up streets.  We saw hundreds of people going to M&M World so we thought we would go and see what all the fuss was about.  A multi story shop all about M&Ms ... I just don't get it ... had to join all the tourists and take a photo though!

Half Term Jaunt

We decided to do a sneaky long weekend jaunt during half term.  Our destination was Warwickshire and we stayed in a caravan in Riverside Camping on the banks of the River Avon.  The main reason is because I wanted the boys do a bit of fishing, but fishing was out of the question because of 'the storm'.  We felt a bit like hurricane bait in our caravan but thankfully it was quite mild by the time it reached the Midlands.  Most of the chaos happened while we slept and funnily enough the days were sunny and mild.  We were joined by some friends which was a nice surprise.  We don't know them all that well but it was nice to have company (Alex is in Danny's music class so we see him and his lovely mum once per week).  You'll also see Kuri, Nick's class pet, in some of the photos.  All in all it was a lovely fun-filled get away!

The caravan

 

Walking along the River Avon

The calm after the storm

We had to visit some of The Shakespeare Properties since we were so close.  The first thing that struck us was that almost every building in Stratford is built in the Tudor style.  The tourism industry puts a big effort into promoting everything to do with Shakespeare.  The boys got a bit of archaeology experience at one of the houses - hands on - some excellent activities and props. We also got roped into taking part in a Midsummer Night's Dream skit with some actors outside another house. So it was fun excursion!

Stratford-Upon-Avon

We also went to a science activity centre which was awesome.  The boys got to choose 4 activities which they had to do without parents and then 1 activity for the whole family together.  They chose tower construction (spaghetti and marshmallow towers), space (portable planetarium), Roald Dahl (bit of acting and arts and crafts) and I-Spy (codes, invisible ink and finger prints) and then we all went to the lab for molecular experiments together.  It was loads of fun and sure did spike their curiosity!

We stumbled across a random mill on the way back to the camp site.  The boys thought it was amazing how the river flowed underneath the building and the road.  It was all visible.  The old building was rather spooky.  And that night everyone slept well while the storm raged outside!

Warwick Castle

The main reason why we picked the location for our half term break was its close proximity to Warwick Castle.  In my opinion it is definitely one of the best castles in England especially for children.  It transports you back in time with all the actors and activities that are continuously on the go.  We watched the birds of prey display, saw the trebuchet in action, learnt about the ghostly past of the castle, enjoyed an interactive show in the witches tower, watched a fencing duel, saw a headless horseman - the list of exciting things is endless - you really need an entire day there to make the most of it.  Since it was almost Halloween we also went on a Spooky Trail in one of the many gardens - it was so well done - the boys were intrigued and terrified at the same time.

Warwick Castle

The view from the top

Watching the trebuchet in action

Headless horseman!?

The Fencing Duel


A bit of sword fighting (inspired by the professionals)

Birds of Prey

Lots of interesting things inside too

The witches' tower

Pumpkins everywhere

The spooky trail

The view from a bridge over the River Avon