Dippy the Diplodocus at Great North Museum

Dippy the Diplodocus has gone on tour! Having been a focal feature at the National History Museum in London for many years he is now on the road visiting museums all over the United Kingdom, he's already visited Dorset County Museum, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Ulster Museum and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow and he has recently taken up residence at Great North Museum in Newcastle!

When we first heard Dippy was going to be visiting Newcastle we got really excited as we had never managed to get to see him at his home of the National History Museum before and with two boys who are crazy about dinosaur's we knew we had to visit!

Great North Museum knew that Dippy coming would be a huge attraction for the museum, so for safety they decided to issue free tickets for time slots to prevent over crowding. Tickets were released at the end of January and we booked ours the day they were released! We managed to get tickets for the weekend after he arrived!!

In the days leading up to our visit, James was very excited! He was asking us some really funny questions such as "How did Dippy actually die?" and "Is Dippy a boy dinosaur or a girl dinosaur?"

Our time slot was booked for 1045, so we had to be up pretty early to get the bus into town to meet Nana and Gaga before walking up to the Museum. We actually ended up leaving for town much earlier than planned as both boys were up by six am and very excited!

When we got to the museum, the first place we went was to see the T-Rex, James always wants to go to see the T-Rex as soon as we get into the museum. Then it was off upstairs to have a quick look around before we went into see Dippy.

When we first walked into the room, it was amazing! Dippy was so much bigger than I thought he was going to be. James was totally entranced and couldn't believe how big Dippy was!! Mummy got very snap happy with the camera as you can see below!

Dippy is on show till Sunday 6th October 2019 and there are still many tickets available for the summer holidays! We already have our second set booked for the start of August and that was even before we had our first visit! 

After Dippy leaves Newcastle in October he will visit: National Museum Cardiff, 19 October 2019 - 26 January 2020, Number One Riverside, Rochdale, 10 February - 28 June 2020 and Norwich Cathedral, 11 July - 31 October 2020

**We were not asked to write this post, We just decided to document Dippy so the boys would always have the memories and photos**

Living Arrows 2018 22/53

Welcome back to another week of Living Arrows hosted by Donna over at What The Redhead Said. If you are new to this then the name of the linky comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth"

This has been another great week for the boys! Lucky for James he only had to do four days at school due to teacher training day on the Friday, So we took a walk to Tesco to get a few bits in from the free from range to take to Nana and Gaga's house!
James came bouncing out of school on Monday beaming as he had got a certificate in assembly from the head teacher for his academic achievement, although when I asked James what it was for his answer was I don't know!

Freddie has had another brilliant week at playgroup! On Tuesday he ran into the room and went to the door that leads into their little playground and waved to me!! He is doing so well and is so settled!! 

We again had our normal Thursday Sure Start group! Mummy is part of the parents group which is planning the activities for the summer holidays and we have come up with some really good ideas!! I love the fact that the summer events cover older children too as James would be totally huffy if Freddie got to go out and he didn't!

With James having a teacher training day on Friday we decided to venture to another local sure start centre to try out their 0-5 group. Both boys had a brilliant time so I think mummy and Freddie might try and go a bit more often!

We finished the week by going to stay with Nana and Gaga and having a BBQ on Sunday to celebrate Nana's birthday a day early!

Our Weekend Happy

Our weekend started on Friday lunch time when I picked up James from school early as he had a dentist appointment. We were staying at mum and dads house that night and James loves it especially as he got to play on his new scalextric. Freddie was sharing a bed with mummy and he took up so much room!!

 

Saturday started early when Freddie woke up at 6am, so it was peppa pig on the iPad in bed. Gaga and James got up and played on the scalextric and somehow James managed to shoot his car off the track and it disappeared into thin air! Nana and Gaga eventually found it once we were at home as it had gone sideways under their tv unit!

James had his hair trimmed by Gaga too! He also did his homework and his school reading book. Freddie was watching milkshake on channel 5 with mummy and he loved trying to copy the presenters dance routine for the Dinosaur song!

 

We got back home at lunchtime where Freddie actually had a nap. We had a walk down to aldi to look at the bedding in the special buys and buying a new duvet for mummy and daddy before it was time for tea and bed for the boys! 

 

 Sunday morning started with the boys jumping into our bed and watching peppa and paw patrol on the iPad while mummy and daddy dozed. Once we were up we had a walk across to the local tesco to get some vegetables. Once we were home the boys and daddy did some FaceTime with daddy's parents in Surrey. Both boys loved seeing the cats! While they were doing this mummy was in the kitchen making tomato and pepper soup for lunch! 

So that was our weekend!!

Mummascribbles

One Week Down, FIVE to go!

So week one of the summer holidays is officially over, and I have survived having both boys with me 24/7!!!

Now people will read this and laugh as of course I had both boys with me last summer too, but last summer (2016) Freddie was not mobile! I could quite happily leave him on his baby gym and go into the kitchen to make lunch or a cup of tea!

Now this year summer 2017 Freddie is very much mobile, in fact he's running all over and pestering James something rotten!

So week one has been pretty chilled out, we have pretty much stayed at home bar a doctors appointment for mummy's dodgy knee, a trip to shop and a fun morning at our local sure start centre!

We also had Nana and Gaga drop in for a couple of hours too! 

The highlight of the week though for James was our trip to Newcastle on Friday where we went for a pub lunch with Nana and Gaga!

Week two we are going to stay with Nana and Gaga. So there will be lots of walking into the village to go to the river, maybe ice cream and of course lots of visits to the play park 

Living Arrows 6/52

It's been a busy week for James and Freddie, even with a poorly mummy. Nana and Gaga had to come look after Freddie on Friday afternoon so mummy could rest. James had a busy week at school but was thrilled that Gaga came to collect him!

James successfully filled his reward box again, so was rewarded with a hot chocolate at Starbucks and then his happy meal at McDonald's. The week ended with James getting his new highback booster car seat, meaning Freddie could move into his old one! 

Freddie 'graduated' from his maxi cosi cabriofix into James old maxi cosi rubi. His first trip facing forwards was eventful! He loved being able to see out the windows, but he's still not a fan of traffic lights! As normal he winged and whined when the car stopped at traffic lights!

Nana's little helper

James is now at the age where he wants to help with virtually everything. His favourite job is going to put his nappies in the outside bins either at our house or at my parents house. He also likes to help nana put the washing out in the garden by handing her the pegs.

But his new favourite job is using the floor sweeper at nanas. Today James got his hair cut by his gaga and when it was nana went and got the floor sweeper to clean up the hair on the floor that James decided he wanted to do it. 

Later on we decided to go up to the local cemetery, to my mums grandparents graves. When we went up to put my nannies funeral flowers on their graves we saw the grave stones were in a bad state, really dirty and in need of a good clean. So my parents have been going up every few days with a cleaning spray and water and scrubbing them. The grave stones are so different now and can actually be read. Today James kept up his helping by holding the spare scrubbing brush and helping nana fetch clean water.

To get to the water tap you have to walk past the graves of the WWII soldiers. The photo below is James and his nana walking back with the clean water.