07/04/2023
Monday was a stunning day as the mercury continues to climb. Luckily Lachlan managed to find his special hat. Liam had nicked the car, but it was a lovely day for a stroll to cake. We had earned it today. Lachlan was in great spirits and even brought Spot along for another stroll.
It’s great being able to let the kids run free in the backyard again, especially now that Lachlan is literally bouncing off the walls. Eloise was enjoying making bubble art.
It was finally time to crack out the al fresco dining as we no longer have to worry about our table freezing and cracking. Just to make sure, Eloise lit the brazier for the first time.
It was a wild dinner with Lachlan scoffing his down before he stole some of Eloise’s with a chuckle and then turned to Dad’s plate for more. Meanwhile, Eloise was loving eating from her tongs.
Tuesday, the sky was not quite so blue but good enough for the PG. Lachlan had all the equipment to himself with Eloise at nursery and headed straight to his wheel.
After picking Dad up from work we crossed the River Clyde to Braehead Shopping Centre. We have a relatively long car journey coming up and Lachlan was in the market for a lunchbox to match Eloise. I am not sure who was more excited, Lachlan or Super Mum, when they spotted a heavily reduced Kangaroo Beach Bento Box, apparently, the show is a bit of a flop on this side of the world.
Lachlan then performed his pre-bed spiritual dance ritual before the kids crashed.
Wednesday started with baking, even Unicorn lucked out with a tailored apron. The baked goods were smelling so good it even summoned ol’ mate to return.
Lachlan cheekily requested an ice lolly and hid the evidence before it was time to pick up the Big Sister. This was the first time that Lachlan walked the whole way to Eloise’s nursery and back, harnessing the full raw power of the ice lolly.
Thursday morning started with the kids at full pelt, they must have had a good night’s sleep.
After Lachlan had completed his 10k steps in the first hour of the day it was time to put up the legs, click the fingers, and wait for his breakfast toast to be delivered.
Each day, just before 13:00 since the 26th March an A380 from Dubai has been flying almost directly over the top of our house and landing at Glasgow Airport for the holiday season. Thursday was the first time that Liam was able to catch it and it did not disappoint. The kids are always excited about the “mega plane” too, Eloise has been sad she has missed it the past couple of days but caught her first glimpse as well. Lachlan was not so phased as he always seems to catch it with Super Mum.
In the evening the excitement was building as we finally finished packing, all ready for our Easter adventure. The kids were jumping up and down and they did not even understand where we are going.
Friday morning Lachlan was a happy boy as he woke up to a new pair of leggings that Super Mum had whipped up.
There was not a cloud in the sky as the kids helped put the final bag in the car, it was holiday time, woot woot! After some serious decision making about which soft toys would be accompanying us on the adventure, the kids and their babies packed into the car and we hit the road. We had set off early and happily stopped off for a much needed coffee break. While cleaning the car yesterday, Eloise and Lachlan discovered their fold down cup holders, this was a game changer.
As we passed through Ayrshire we panicked as we realised that Lachlan had polished off his oat milk babyccino and then nabbed Eloise’s dairy babyccino and skulled it while she was busy counting cows. Uh oh, luckily we had a bit of time up our sleeve and had to bolt past the ferry to Stranraer for some Piriton. Now a bit more relaxed Lachlan was going to be set for the long trip we headed back full speed to board the ferry, the mega ferry, the Stena Superfast VII. It was an impressive German-made ferry, capable of carrying up to 1300 people and 660 cars, packed full for Easter. Eloise was keen to ring Xavier as she thought we were on a pirate ship and she knows how much that boy loves pirates.
The kids were having the time of their lives on board, it felt like a cruise ship with kids’ adventure rooms, a cinema, games rooms, a massage parlor, restaurants, etc.
Super Mum had preloaded the Bento Boxes and the kids were thrilled.
After buzzing about the Adventure room, Lachlan was out for the count. Eloise and Dad went off to explore the ship.
This was a much longer ferry ride than the eight minute ride to the Isle of Cumbrae but after a couple of hours, we had successfully slipped past the Russian submarines in the Northern Channel and it was land ahoy, our first sight of Northern Ireland, Belfast!
Just last week “MI5 raised terror threat in Northern Ireland to ‘severe'”, as today marks “the 25th Anniversary of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement”. Joe Biden recently announced he will be dropping through, seeing as MI5 and the UK can no longer rely on James Bond, c’mon you must have seen it by now, we thought we better make the trip to ensure it was safe for President Biden.
The mega ferry had ten decks, five of which were vehicles. We managed to survive the chaos of multiple decks disembarking simultaneously and headed into Belfast. We had a couple of hours before we could check in to our accomodation. There was one thing on Lachlan’s mind “dinosaurs”, so we headed to the Ulster Museum.
There were plenty of dino buttons for Lachlan but that was not quite what he had in mind.
Not before long, bingo! Lachlan was bouncing up and down “dino, dino, dinosaur, look, dino, MUMMMM, dinosaur”.
It was an interesting museum but it was too nice to be inside, we quickly dashed around a few floors with the kids chuckling.
The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasures from the Spanish Armada, local history, numismatics, industrial archaeology, botany, zoology and geology. It is the largest museum in Northern Ireland, and one of the components of National Museums Northern Ireland. The Ulster Museum was founded as the Belfast Natural History Society in 1821 and began exhibiting in 1833. It has included an art gallery since 1890. Originally called the Belfast Municipal Museum and Art Gallery, in 1929, it moved to its present location in Stranmillis. The new building was designed by James Cumming Wynne.
Luckily the Belfast Botanic Gardens was just out the back door, the perfect place to let the kids run free and blow off some steam.
Botanic Gardens is a public garden in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Occupying 28 acres (110,000 m2) of south Belfast, the gardens are popular with office workers, students and tourists. They are located on Stranmillis Road in Queen’s Quarter, with Queen’s University nearby. The Ulster Museum is located at the main entrance. The gardens opened in 1828 as the private Royal Belfast Botanical Gardens. It continued as a private park for many years, only opening to members of the public on Sundays prior to 1895. Then it became a public park in 1895 when the Belfast Corporation bought the gardens from the Belfast Botanical and Horticultural Society
As we stumbled upon the Queen’s University Belfast, Eloise happily declared, “yahhh is this our new home?” While jumping up and down celebrating, unfortunately, it was not Eloise.
It was a then short drive inland until we arrived at our B&B hayloft, the kids loved the novelty of being up in a hayloft and it was nice to have some extra space.
[…] ferry was not until the afternoon. We had already, albeit briefly, visited the Ulster Museum, our B&B host suggested the kids would love the Ulster Folk Museum. There were plenty of real […]