27/02/2022
Saturday morning started with Eloise catching up on one of her Gymboree sessions. We arrived fashionably late because when we were halfway there when someone realised they had left behind Foxie. This session was fully booked, so sadly, no sneaking in this time for Lachlan. It was still Teddy Bears’ Picnic themed. Eloise was very excited to take Dad on another bear hunt.
After Gymboree, we started to make our way back to the car when Eloise grabbed Liam’s hand and pulled him up the main street of Milngavie, “no home time yet Dad, come on cake, me need cake, cake after Gymboree, please”. Come on Dad! Stick to the program. Eloise then led the way up to Costa’s so she could get her usual post-Gymboree treat.
We rushed home to Mum and video called into Mr and Mrs Raggatt’s wedding, just making it in time for speeches. Good one Paris, nailed it! Big Congratulations from the other side of the world. It looked like it was a brilliant night, so happy for you two. They could not have timed it better with South Australia further easing COVID-19 restrictions that morning, “stand-up drinking, dancing and singing allowed at private functions”.
Super Mum, had the day planned out. She had noticed an interesting post on the Glasgow With Kids Facebook page and we had to check it out. We picked up an annual pass to the National Museum of Rural Life, the kids and Foxie were free.
Eloise was very quick to spot the tractors as we entered and had an excited bounce in her step.
Eloise has become a lot more confident over the past month, no longer needing to hold a hand and just runs off like she owns the joint. Now we really have to keep an eye on her, especially in supermarkets.
Throughout the museum, there was an interesting collection of rural and farming artefacts but the children were interested in just one thing, Tractors! We had come to the right place as there was “Scotland’s largest collection of tractors, combine harvesters and other farming machinery”.
We wandered outside to wait for our tractor ride when Eloise spotted a wee tractor she could play on. We were here for quite a while.
After burning some energy on the playground it was time for our tractor ride up to the operational Wester Kittochside farm.
After shaking off the black cats, turns out there were actually two. That can never be a good sign. We made our way around the wee farm. We did not spend much time with the cows, calves or horses as Lachlan was terrified of them, definitely a city boy.
Instead of catching the tractor back to the museum, we thought it would be a nice short walk, plus we wanted to see the coos. However, the coos were not very welcoming. The kids were excited to race the tractor back though.
The National Museum of Rural Life, previously known as the Museum of Scottish Country Life, is based at Wester Kittochside farm, lying between East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire and Carmunnock in Glasgow. It is run by National Museums Scotland. The project, opened in 2001, cost more than £9 million and was made possible through a partnership between the National Museums of Scotland, the National Trust for Scotland, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the European Regional Development Fund, South Lanarkshire Council, Scottish Natural Heritage and a number of private funders. The completed National Museum of Rural Life features a 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2) museum and visitor centre, the Georgian buildings of Wester Kittochside farm, the species-rich fields and hedgerows around it and a 24 ha (60 acre) events area.
On the way home, we took a wrong turn and ended up in the car park of the national stadium of football in Scotland, Hampden Park where the mighty Robbo and Rachael were looking down upon us. We still need to get to a football game.
This morning we were woken up by the sun. We managed to go back to bed for a bit longer however that just resulted in Eloise whacking Dad in the head with her hammer, lucky it was just plastic, “wake up now Dad, up time”. He won’t be trying that again for a while. Lachlan was ready for a busy day doing his morning shuttle runs up and down the coffee table.
Super Mum and Eloise had to finish off their Empire Biscuits and “the biggest pizza ever”. We had to get ready quickly, we were off to a flat pack party, this time it was not ours. Eloise made sure her tools were packed.
After quickly reminding Bill who is boss, Eloise was “on the tools once again” just like ScoMo. With all her flat pack assembly experience over the past seven months, she is probably qualified for a gig at IKEA.
Lachlan had been learning from his big sister and was ready to spring into action.
There was an interesting view from the balcony.
By the time Eloise and Lachlan had assembled all the furniture, we were getting peckish. It was a cracking day, would have been the perfect day to visit the farm. We enjoyed a nice stroll down the River Clyde back to the Riverside Museum for lunch. Eloise must have been hungry, she walked past all the bus and tram displays straight to the sunny cafe in front of The Tall Ship Glenlee. Where the sun, was threatening to put us all to sleep.
We got home just in time to watch “Liverpool clinch record ninth Carabao Cup at Wembley”.
It was getting late by this point and Eloise is eating more and more each day, so she nicked one of Lachlan’s pouches for her second course.
Paul will be pleased you are supporting the National Trust!! Thanks for your interesting blog adventures. Much appreciated over here.
We did think about Paul. Eloise would love to show him around.