What to do on cold Winter weekends?

Always a struggle to entertain wild children on wet weekends, particularly more so when all you want to do is stay in, stay warm, and finish your Christmas shopping on line!  This morning is blustery and we've got hail showers.  We've already watched the bestest film of all time, Labrinth, and have run out of cheese.

As I've been spending even more time on my laptop writing business plans and trying to finalise new business ventures and create a highly successful business empire to soften the blow of redundancy, I really owe it to TT to take her out somewhere!

So here's our choice that we're going to meander through....

Dean Castle has a Christmas fair on today with "crafted gifts, toys and food items you will find everything you need for the perfect Christmas celebration" apparently.  I've never been to Dean Castle before, so that's enough of a reason for me to go exploring.  Santa has a grotto there too today, and as TT is only just starting to understand what Santa is, that's just the ticket for today.

Then we might meet Daddy Native on how way home from work at Seamill Hydro which looks like it has plenty to keep a wild toddler entertained for a while, with the choice of Santa in his magical ice palace grotto, a giant bouncy castle in Rudolph’s play room, an outdoor ice skating rink  and more.

It's likely that I'll get lost on way to Dean Castle, so good to know also that Troon's monthly craft fair is on too.  I need to go check it out as part of research for my future business plans in any case!

Hopefully I'll have some nice discoveries and photos to share with you to come....

PS....Thanks to Visit Ayrshire-Arran and Explore AyrshireArran for their suggestions this morning via Twitter!

Wild Apple Tart

A few weeks ago I scrambled up an apple tree on the edge of the road near where I live and gathered these apples.  They were quite sweet, but a bit battered by insects etc so I decided to make an apple tart.

It was easy as pie.  I whipped up some indulgent short crust pastry to my mother's secret recipe.  I swear she'll kill me if I ever share it with anyone.  Suffice to say it's not for the faint hearted or whippet thin.  But sometimes I pick up a packet of ready made in the reduces section at the supermarket and keep in the freezer for such occasions as this.  Then I sliced the apples, chucked them in my Nana's tart dish lined with the pastry, sprinkled some sugar and a pinch of cinnamon over the fruit and topped with the pastry lid.

And then I got a little carried away with decorating it.

Popped it in the oven for about the last 20 minutes of cooking my Sunday chicken keeping a watchful eye on it as I'm rather prone to burning things.

I served it with some ice cream and my elderberry syrup.  And it was really rather good.

And almost free!  Shame it wasn't fat free.

Oooooo - edible finger paint recipe

I have just found this recipe for edible finger paint which should be ba-da-bing perfect for TT this afternoon and had to share it with you right away.  Trust me to only discover safe painting stuff on the very last day of my holidays! Boo hiss.

If you look closely it does indeed clearly state opening hours....

We also spent this morning in the rain at The Forgotten Island - at last! Hurrah this was our third attempt to get there. First time we discovered it didn't open on Wednesdays & Thursdays and were pretty gutted.  So details to come on how fab it was later in the week!

I'm off to iron my work wardrobe and cry while TT repaints her bedroom in whatever colour of food colouring I manage to use for the finger paints.....

Glasgow Riverside Museum, in pictures

Seriously great morning out.  If you haven't been yet, get your shoes on and go now. 

In fact, better still wait and go first thing in the morning, preferably not on a weekend as the place is jumping.  We arrived at 10am and had a blissful hour and a half of space and quiet before literally coach loads of people, mostly children emptied into the museum.  The ratio of children to adults is pretty frightening!  But hey, that's because we're bang in the middle of summer holidays, and this is Glasgow's newest free attraction. 

I've heard that a lot of people have been complaining that the car park is too small, and there are signs everywhere naming the overspill car parks nearby to deal with this.  But I don't believe that the museum will continue to attract such huge crowds once the initial buzz of interest calms down.  Also, the museum is well serviced by buses and ferries, so there's no need to drive there.

As well as being a stunning piece of architecture, by the wonderful Zaha Hadid, the museum is really cleverly put together and truly caters for everyone whatever their age and taste.  Even TT with her minuscule attention span was enthralled by some of the features.  We split up so that Daddy Wild could enjoy some of the displays in peace and quiet whilst I zipped around the place with TT.  The hour and a half we spent inside, and half hour playing outside was not long enough at all.  However we just know that we'll be back many times, probably more so when the weather changes and we are desperate to get out and about on wet afternoons later in the year!

There are two cafes inside the museum and three vans outside selling hot dogs, coffee, sweeties, sandwiches etc so there's good choice whatever the weather and the age of your party.  We were so lucky to be there on a hot sunny day so sat in the sun outside watching TT build sandcastles and silently stalk other children.

 I loved how interactive most of the displays are.  With games for children & adults to play with whilst learning more about some of the engineering and history of transport in Scotland.  Best of all, all of the interactive displays are voiced by locals with great big broad Glaswegian accents.

 We couldn't agree on our favourite parts on the journey home.  I can't decide between Arnold Clark's Wall of Cars, or the cinema documentary showing in one of the stalls.  Daddy Wild had to be torn away from Colin Macrae's rally car, and lingered by both the motorbike corner and the model ships.  I think making a display of model boats interesting is a pretty impressive feat! If TT could answer I more coherently I think she would be split between the model street and the old subway.

 Baby Wild was beside herself with so many cars. She's mad into cars at the moment, in particular tractors for some bizarre reason!  So maybe that was the one minor downfall - there were no tractors!

Inside, you are still aware of the stunning design & architecture of the building.  Everything is streamline and sleek & modern, with great attention to detail and is typical of Hadid's genuis.  The layout is clever and busy, so that I reckon every time we return we'll find something we missed before.  I paid a quick snoop around the small shop and saw things I would have liked to buy for a lot of friends and got plenty of inspiration for some upcoming birthdays!

Lots of toilets, baby changing, cafes, seats, easy access, tall ships, boat rides, interactive displays and things for toddlers to climb on and ride in, making it possibly the most perfect day out around Glasgow.  And it's FREE!

 Amazing!

Logistics / 10 baby friendly            10

toddler friendly         10

adult friendly             20

educational               10

toilets/changing         10
accessibilty               10
car parking              get there early or get a bus/ferry. Cheap parking though.

cost                         Free!! So do please leave a donation.

Glasgow + Rain = Kelvingrove Musuem

And so this is not the place to go on a rainy day if you have a head ache / bad hair day..... because every other bored parent will be there with there with their brood.

I took Baby Wild & my 4 year old god-daughter along a few Saturday afternoons ago (been too busy to post this until now) due to the shite weather Monsoon summer we've been blessed with recently. Already feeling conspicuous due to slight hangover, and awareness of my almost CBeebie perfect tone and accent in an effort to maintain control of the girls, I was none too pleased to bump into an ex boss and a present colleague.  Thankfully the ex boss didn't even recognise me, despite the fact that his youngest and Baby Wild were hand in hand trying to storm the barriers between them and the stuffed animals.  I managed to hide behind a pillar and coach Baby Wild away and managed not to get escorted from the premised by security for trying to steal all the swan's feathers.  The colleague, at 8 months pregnant really should have been at home eating cakes while she still can and been keeping such weekend child fuelled Saturday treats  at bay for at least another year I thought!  Maybe she was practicing...

Anyways... this was my first time at Kelvingrove and we did enjoy ourselves.  We didn't stray far from the creature features truth be told, as it was plenty enough hard work for me with the two girls.  We went upstairs to check out all the 'armies' and try to climb over the banister and climb onto the full size plane, which thank the lord I "ruined".  According to the 4 yr old, the highlights were the cheetah, and the chocolate brownie in the cafe down on the basement floor.  The staff were friendly enough, the prices more reasonable than I had expected and nobody bliked when I produced Baby Wild's snacks from my handbag rather than purchasing fruit & water from the cafe.  Bonus points also awarded for a splendid machiato, despite not offering it on the menu.  And there are loads of toilets on every floor with plenty baby change & toddler+mum sized toilets.

I can see why this is a popular bolt hole for those wishing to avoid the dreaded soft plays.

Logistics / 10

baby friendly            10
toddler friendly         7
toilets/changing         10
accessibilty               10
car parking              cheap as chips
cost                         free entry