Easter Sunday

Woke up grumpy, I wanted to have woken up earlier but by 9am realised it would be a stretch to get showered, dressed nicely, get the boys dressed, make a picnic and load the car up for a day out by 10.30. I was right, we left about 11.10 having driven out of the drive way twice, first because I'd forgotten to change Leon before we left then second, I'd forgotten Reuben's muslin cloth. Then I left the keys inside and when Tob left me in the car with my head in my hands, informed me when he returned with my keys that I'd left the front door wide open. Not a great start. The boys fell asleep nicely as planned and I put the ipod on, first selecting Art Brut (imagine Sonic Youth and Carter had a love child in about 1990 and made Mark E Smith and Jarvis Cocker God parents). Then picked Arcade Fire, then Carter USM. Tob pointed out that I kept picking angry music. I realised this wasn't helping and finally settled on some early Cure which did the trick. The journey through Norfolk was nice, we didn't see any sun really all day but it didn't rain so nuff said about the weather. Bressingham Gardens and Steam Railway Centre was our destination for the day; an Easter gift from Ellen and Dan and a very impressive place it was too. First point we stopped was a picnic bench right in front of a beautiful Victorian Steam Merrygoround. The steam organ played a medley of Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang songs and I felt so happy and moved it was as much as I could do not to start blubbering as I thought about how much I'd loved riding the horses on merrygorounds just like this one as a child and now I was riding a horse with my 2 year old son who was completely in love with the ride as I had been. He must have gone on half a dozen times after our first ride. I love the music from Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I think if the music had been from The Wizard of Oz I'd have probably collapsed blubbering with joy and nostalgia. Lucky for us all it wasn't. We spent the day going on steam trains, walking through locomotive sheds, admiring trains and walking around the grounds. The place was buzzing without being too busy so it was a perfect day really. To top it all off I spotted an Ivor the Engine section in the gift shop and bought Leon some Jones the Steam socks, an Ivor story book (the dragon story) and when I showed Toby the Ivor mugs saying how much I'd love one but couldn't really justify buying one, he bought it me as an Easter present. So all in all a good day out. On the way home, Reuben shouted and blew raspberries with a twinkle in his eye (he's such a happy chappy) and Leon winged about more chocolate milkshake, in fairness, he was hungry judging by how quickly he ate his tea when we got home.