days out Archives – Mummascribbles

As if our holiday last week wasn’t exciting enough for Zach, I had arranged an extra special treat for him on our return. I mean, coming home from hols is a massive downer isn’t it? It seemed only right to have an exciting weekend too! So on Sunday, we headed on up to King’s Cross to the theatre to watch Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo Live! Of course, this meant Zach got to ride on a couple of trains which he was mega excited about!

Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo is a live puppetry show that has been touring around the world since it began in Australia.

We hadn’t told Zach where he was going so when we arrived at the theatre and he saw the promo photos of the dinosaurs, he was instantly excited. ‘Are the dinosaurs in there?’, he said a few times. ‘Are we going to see them?’. He was so excited that he attempted to run straight into the main seating bit before we’d handed our tickets over and been told a bit of information (photos fine, no filming kind of thing!). Once we’d heard that, we headed on in to find our seats (2nd row…whoop!).

We’d only got there about ten minutes before it was due to start so there wasn’t much sitting around before the action kicked in. The whole time, Zach had been pointing to the side of the stage and asking if that’s where the dinosaurs were. Suddenly, the lights dimmed and it was time for the show to start.

The main presenter appeared on stage, an Aussie guy who started with a g’day! He filled us in on what the show was about, where it had come from and a message for the kids…to not worry if the grown ups started to cry in fear! Then it was time for the dinosaurs! They started out gently with the babies. Ahhh how cute everyone thought!

Children were invited up on stage to meet them and all was lovely. Then, it was time for the next! I turned to Zach and asked him if he thought the next would be bigger or smaller. ‘Bigger’, he roared at me!

It was!

Boy had they got his attention now! It was at this point that I realised just how awesome these puppets were. They moved like dinosaurs, made sounds like dinosaurs and looked like dinosaurs. I was impressed!

After they had finished showing us what they could do, these two left the stage and it was time for the next. An insectivore! Zach didn’t like these! We’ve been telling him recently that for obvious reasons, he needs to be a bit careful of wasps and bees. His response to this creature flying around the audience was ‘insectivores do sting me’.

What he did like though?? The T-Rex and its counter part which I cannot remember the name of! I mean, who wouldn’t like two massive dinosaurs on stage. Even though I understood that they were puppets, I still thought they were pretty scary – I have only just seen Jurassic World after all!

Finally we were introduced to the gentlest and hugest dinosaur. This one was a sweetie in comparison to the previous two!

Throughout the show, the Aussie dude had us in stitches. He was hilarious, cracking jokes that the adults would get and putting young children in ‘danger’ on stage with the animals. Equally, he knows his stuff and was full of facts that I have no doubt the slightly older children took away with them. 

The kids up on stage were great too but there was one wee boy who just refused to put his hand in the t-rex’s mouth!! The next boy obliged by putting his head in! Brave or stupid?! 

The show lasted for 50 minutes and was the perfect length for young children, handy since it’s aimed at ages 3+. Zach was engaged all the way through and even joined in with one of the jokes, copying the audience in laughter!

We the adults were also engaged throughout and thought the whole thing was brilliant.

After the show, some of the dinosaurs do a meet and greet outside. I am not going to lie, when you’ve got a T-Rex in your face, roaring at you and clapping its jaws, even though you know it’s a puppet, it’s blimmin terrifying! I was brave though and I stroked it…cautiously in case it bit me! Unfortunately said T-Rex also put its ridiculously scary self right in Zach’s face and that was it – he was petrified and cried! Fair play, like I say, I was scared! We then went over to the baby dinosaur but he’d lost trust in them all and refused to stroke it! I would definitely say to be cautious with the very young children in the meet and greet! It clearly had an impact on him when he came running into our room at 5.45 the following morning saying ‘mummy, the monster bit me’…oops!! Despite that, he and we absolutely loved it and I am so glad that we took him.

Dinosaur Zoo Live is on at the King’s Cross Theatre from now until 30th August and then tours the UK until November. Tickets range in price and are on sale here.

We were sent complimentary tickets to Dinosaur Zoo Live for the purposes of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Despite my last post being about how exhausting it is holidaying with kids, we did of course have a wonderful holiday last week! We went to Diss in Norfolk with the other half’s family and the in law’s had hired us a gorgeous holiday home to stay in.

I’d seen it online but the photos did not do it justice! There was a huge kitchen, a side room with a pool table, a big sitting room, five bedrooms and a swimming pool, all set within the most stunning grounds with gorgeous views!

The first couple of days were pretty quiet, opting to stay at the house with all the family having fun in the pool.

On the Sunday, my father in law had arranged for a couple of ladies to come in with a load of food that they cooked on the BBQ for us all! It was fantastic – they even did the washing up despite us having a dishwasher!

On the Monday we were supposed to be heading to Great Yarmouth with a friend of mine who lives nearby but sadly that couldn’t happen. We’d then planned to meet the bro in law & family down there once they were back from the doctors with our nephew who had suspected (and then confirmed) croup, but they got back too late so it was just us. We had lots of fun on the rides in Joyland…

Zach then had his first ever donkey ride and we ate fish and chips for dinner.

On Tuesday we stayed in while everyone went out. The dog was with us on holiday so we’d said that we’d stay home with her. It was nice to have a chill out day with just Zachary although he was climbing the walls by the end of it. Even with all that space to run around!

On Wednesday we’d decided to head to nearby Bury St Edmunds. I’d had a little look and it’s a historical market town and luckily has a market on Wednesday’s with around 80 stalls. I do love a good market town and I’d also discovered a brilliant looking park. As soon as we arrived there we fell in love! The town is beautiful with so many shops, all with their original fronts and a bustling market that sold everything you could need. I’d been looking for ages for a fruit bowl and suddenly I stumbled across a ceramics seller who was selling some real hand painted beauties! After spending ages trying to decide which one to buy, I went for this one and it is just gorgeous on our dining table

It was soon time for lunch so we found a few restaurants and chose one called Bill’s. When we walked in, it was the most gorgeous restaurant ever! With a little section selling all of their homemade lemonades, jams and other lovely things, a seating area was beautiful. And the food, oh it was scrumptious!

After lunch we headed to the park where Zach had a ball. They had so much there including a play area, a sand and water area, a treehouse and lots of historical ruins.

  

They also had some truly beautiful gardens and a stunning cathedral for us adults to appreciate!

Just at that point, it started to rain so we dashed to the car park and headed back. We were so impressed with Bury St Edmonds that the whole way back we were talking about how we could very happily live there. Maybe one day!

On Thursday we headed back to Great Yarmouth. We visited a lovely little miniature village which zach loved because there was lots of little trains moving around!

They also had a little mini golf of which he couldn’t quite get the hang of!

They also had a tea rooms there so we grabbed a spot of lunch and I saved some space for a scrumptious cream tea

While we were there, we met up with some of my family who happened to be holidaying in Yarmouth. My aunt, uncle, cousin and her two daughters joined us for some fun on the beach. The last time I saw my cousin I was 7 months pregnant and neither she or her girls had met Zach. They got on instantly

On Friday it was time to go home but we managed to squeeze in one more adventure, probably saving the best till last. Bressingham steam museum wasn’t far and it would have been wrong to not take Zach to a place full of steam train rides! He was in absolute heaven – it’s just a shame it was miserable weather.

  
  

They even had a magical carousel ride which we all loved

  

And that was the end of the holiday. We drove home in absolutely appalling weather and have spent the weekend trying to get back to our usual routine. We did have such a wonderful week, I was very sad that our family time was over and that work has started again.