During the half term, we decided to take the family out to the Natural History Museum in London. Most of the museums in London are free, though they are packed during the school breaks – it’s a good chance to get some learning into the break and have a day out with the kids! Getting to the museum was an easy journey, and though there was a bit of a queue, we lasted it with snacks and went right in. The Natural History Museum is one that could take several days to fully explore, but we spent some time in the Creepy Crawly bit, the Hall of Birds, Evolution of Humans and the Volcano area.
We both really love to visit the various exhibitions at Kew Gardens. After attending their Chihuly exhibition earlier this year, we couldn’t miss their Orchid Festival! The Orchid Festival aims to be an exploration of Indonesia, where there are over 5,000 different orchids – from small little flowers to vibrant, huge bundles. The exhibition is within the Princess of Wales Conservatory on the grounds. The cafe also has a themed menu around the Orchid Festival, and there are a few different Indonesia food carts that we saw dotted around. This event runs until March 8th.
After a quick walk through the park, we arrived at the Princess of Wales Conservatory. From the outside, it looked like a pretty small building, but that was nothing compared to what was within it! The first section took us through a small, almost desert like area that contained a few out coves to take photos at. This was more of an entry hall, that opened up to a much grander main area.
At the end of last month, I went along to the Toy Fair 2020 – I go each year, mainly to check out board games for Big Boss Battle, a site I am one of the owners of. As we’ve been reviewing toys on this blog, I figured I’d spend more time looking at the Toy aspect of the Toy Fair. Sadly, on the day we were meant to go to the Toy Fair, our car’s catalytic converter was stolen while parked in a parking lot – what a wild ride. Because of this, I ended up only having part of one day to explore the Toy Fair, but I booked a few appointments and checked out a bunch of different toys. I wanted to share with you what I found to be the coolest toys of the fair!
We are big fans of light based art. Dann loves walking around, Jupiter loves looking at art, so Lightopia seemed like a great event to attend, especially after the amount of fun we had at Chihuly exhibition and the Ashford Illuminations. Lightopia takes place each year at the Chiswick House in London, as well as several other locations around England. This year, this is running from January 22nd until March 1st, giving everyone plenty of time to stop by!
We went to Lightopia with Claire (who wrote up her own review) and Staurt as a double date. We all purchased tickets a while back, and they were a bit strange to purchase. The tickets themselves have the same opening time, but you’ll end up needing to pick a preferred arrival time, which doesn’t actually get placed on your ticket. We didn’t get the email stating our preferred time, so we went at opening, which was listed on our ticket. We were still let in and nobody pointed out that we were an hour early. Anyway, onto the exhibition.
Before you even make it to ticket check, you’ll walk down a large path of flowers and numbers, making your way closer and closer to the exhibition. Once we got through tickets, we started down the path. Like the Chihuly exhibitions, lights dotted the path moving you from each major point to another. There was a lot to see, but surprisingly, there were also a lot of interactive areas designed for children and adults alike. Everything also had music, with quite a few exhibitions that actually were timed to the music that was playing. The flowers, butterflies, humans, all looked like they were made of wire and tissue paper, but clearly it was made of fabric which had lights under it. A few exhibitions stood out above the others.
[Ad- gifted experience] Our entire family was invited to check out LIV, a contemporary restaurant located in Belgravia, London. This venue is bright, spacious and offers a lovely menu of dishes from British artisanal suppliers. Very much relaxed fine dinning experience, the menu is one full of beautiful plates, interesting ingredients and higher end meals. It’s a pretty limited menu, allowing the chef to focus on the meals set and made. The food is really the star, even with such a wonderful, well decorated venue.
LIV now has a children’s eat free offer, on weekdays from 4pm to 7pm on weekdays. If you’ve got some adventurous children interested in trying new foods, this offer is amazing. The menu children get to pick from is the same as the adult menu for dinner, but there are plenty of side dishes and small dishes that fit well for kids. We have a picky eater and two who will try anything, but there was enough to accommodate all of them and allow them to try some spectacular new foods.
