Half term fun and frolicks

Still no crafting - sorry!

Now my gorgeous girlies are growing up I don't get to do the half term things that we used to do, being seen with Mum is seriously "naff"....

But I did persuade them that a trip to London to visit the National Gallery would be a lovely way to spend a day.  Of course we then had the "can I bring a friend" chorus.....so in the end 6 of us went.....Amber took 2 friends, Maisy took 1 and I was there to show them the delights.

I decided a couple of years ago to take the girls to London as much as possible in a bid to get them comfortable with it - it's a big place but very easy to navigate once you've got your bearings - I was always herded onto the underground as a child on days out and never really understood where I was.

The prospect of keeping 5 kids (even if they are teenagers) entertained on a train was a bit daunting so I popped to the local supermarket and raided their stash of "pocket money" toys.  Not having boys I wondered "Would 15 year old boys want to sit on a train playing with Thomas the Tank Engine Play dough???? " Yes they would - secret diary's, mechano style sets and iced gems also helped to get us through a 2 hour journey with much laughter.

We started on the bridge.

The view was amazing.

We went across to the South Bank, spent ages watching the street entertainers and having a cheeky go on the carousel before heading off for a quick bite of lunch.

It was hard to keep track of 5 of them whilst crossing Westminster Bridge - 3 of the 5 are very into photography and were stopping every few seconds...What I really needed was a cattle prod and a lasso.

We walked up past The Houses of Parliament, round to Westminster Abbey and then up Whitehall, past Downing Street and Horse Guards Parade where we saw some gorgeous uniforms and horses. 

We then reached Trafalgar Square, they climbed on Lions, they had a water fight (let's face it - they're kids, it's what they're supposed to do) and we made our way into the National for a wander.

It was packed, as I knew it would be but we still had an amazing hour standing awe struck in front of some utterly amazing art.

A quick refreshment break before heading off to Covent Garden to mill around and watch yet more street entertainers, visit a few shops and market stalls topped off with a visit to a proper old fashioned sweetie shop (we needed the sugar rush by then).

Fuelled by colours, sugar and all things fizzy we headed back over to the South Bank for a visit to the Aquarium (thanks to Mr T's club card vouchers)  We watched the sharks and turtles, ohhh'd and aahhh'd over the jellyfish and seahorses and came out to find it had got dark and all the pretty lights were on.  There's something quite magical about London at night.

A very tired and worn out 6 then headed back to the station and found a lovely warm train for the journey home.

Twas a lovely day, the girls friends were amazing and had me laughing all day.