I feel SO BEHIND with this week. I crashed Friday night so didn’t edit any photos or write anything, then Saturday came along with friends visiting so there’s been no time to really do anything WITL. Shame, it’s pretty hard work, but I do like the immediacy of getting a post out the next morning; my memory is terrible even with photographic reminders so much more gets recorded. It’ll be interesting to see what this entry turns out like, especially the end of it.

So Betsy has been asking to go to the “dinosaur museum” (aka the Natural History Museum) and as we had already been to one NHM (in Tring, on Monday), why not bookend the working week with more museums? Knowing how busy it got, we decided to leave super early and we travelled into London with Dave. That was super lovely, the kids sat on our laps, Betsy playing games on the phone, Arthur pointing out everything through the window and excitingly telling Dada about everything he can see.

It’s a wonky way around, but we changed at Moorgate to hop onto a Circle line train to get to South Kensington, a longer but quieter route and we randomly bumped into a friend (hi Ollie!) who lives in Nottingham and just happened to be in town on that day. Weird! Finally get to South Kens after Arthur and Betsy bicker over seats for most of the second half of the leg and Boo would spin around on the poles too, winding me up. I told her off quite a bit then (and with hindsight, I was being far too harsh. I don’t think she was annoying any other passengers, I was just too tired and stressed). Anyway, once in South Kensington, we stopped off at Fernandez & Wells for a hot chocolate and coffee.

Literally the best flat white I’ve had in a long, long time. Very restorative too, I was much less grumpier.

The queue to get into the museum was ENORMOUS. Luckily it didn’t take too long to get into the museum grounds (good timing for us), but then we had to queue again to get into the museum proper. The kiddos were wonderful, holding hands and sticking by me (and occasionally hiding under my skirt). Lovely happy moment.

Eventually in, Betsy decided to explore a bit wandering through a few corridors before deciding to see some dinosaurs.

The dinosaurs were fun and fascinating and the kids really liked it. The big T-Rex being the highlight.

More wondering after the dinosaurs. Ending up exploring the Darwin Centre which is amazing and very quiet too. There’s also a cafe where we had a much needed drink. Arthur watched the lifts and Betsy and I had a good chat about school.

We weren’t in the NHM for very long, Arthur needing somewhere to run and me finding it a bit too claustrophobic (there are some great quite spots in that museum, but Betsy wanted to be in the busy bits). Next door to the NHM is the Science Museum with a great play area for children in the basement. Arthur would have stayed there all day if he could have.

But people were tired. Arthur was knackered and fell asleep in the sling pretty much straight away once he was put in it and Betsy was so, so tired. Poor Boo. She had spotted an ice cream van next to the Tube entrance and demanded an ice cream (to be fair to her, I had promised her one). I was out of cash and couldn’t get any so a rather big tantrum ensued, I got shouted at all the way to the tube, and on the trains too. My temper is thin at the best of times so I probably didn’t handle things too well either. She fell asleep curled up in a ball on a tube in the Victoria Line.

Still upset on the train home, she asked Arthur for comfort.

That helped her and she was much happier and soon started looking through the bug explorer kit I got her. Arthur got all fascinated by everything outside again.

Once home, we headed out into the garden. Betsy caught a few ants to observe.

We also all cuddled up and watched Paddington together. It’s a really fun film and heavily features the Natural History Museum which was nice to see.

After-dinner dinosaur playing, and cuddles and game playing (Art- Duplo Trains, Betsy – Cbeebies Storytime) with chip eating for me.

Bedtime for me and Arthur. Today was very tough for me emotionally. I can’t put my finger on it, but it was super hard. I was short-tempered with the kids, I was distant with Dave. I couldn’t face getting out of bed after Arthur fell asleep, so I curled up in the dark and stayed there. Dave popped in and asked how I was and I replied “I feel miserable”. Not cool!

Ugh. Anyway, just so we don’t leave this post on a bad note, can we look at Arthur’s face again?

*heart eyes*