The Magical Christmas Experience at Titanic Belfast

On Saturday the four of us attended The Magical Christmas Experience at Titanic Belfast. I only saw it advertised on TV eight days before and straight away I was on the website to find out more. 

At four and two, C and E are very excited about Christmas and Santa and I felt that at a price of £15 per child and £4 per adult, it was very reasonable. The event runs from November 18th until December 23rd and when booking you can choose a date and time that suits you. We went on the second day, November 19th at 10.30am. Our reason for choosing that date was simply because Chris was off work and we wanted to go when it was reasonably quiet so 10.30am on a Saturday seemed perfect. I spoke to the kids a lot about it and they were so excited to see Santa, C even requested to wear his Christmas jumper to show him.

We arrived and we went into an entrance between black drapes. In front of us was a kind of check-in desk and to the side were two massive candy canes either side of the entrance to the actual experience. I'm really annoyed with myself that I didn't catch the name of the man at the desk because he was so lovely and great with the kids and really helped kick off the excitement for them. Firstly, he was dressed as an elf which I'm sure the kids thought was really cool and he asked their names, jotted them down in his book and had a few little jokes with them. I really liked him and thought he was fantastic. He gave each child a pencil and sheet of paper with a map of what to do and told them to look out for the reindeer stickers as we walked around and tick them off as we go. With E still being in a buggy when we go out, I loved that there was a little space for me to store it as we went around. There was also the opportunity to have juice, tea, coffee and cookies.

When we entered the experience, it was set up like a little old fashioned town with a lane to follow to each activity. Our first stop was writing our letters to Santa. We sat at a little picnic table and the kids got writing on templated sheets addressed to Father Christmas. At the bottom you can write your child's name, age and your email address, I'll speak more about this later. The children then ran over to post them in the postbox to make sure Santa received them and knew what they wanted for Christmas.

We then made stops at the dress up station, where you could try on traditional clothing (C was very taken with the top hat!), mini cinema where the kids adored the massive beanbags and cartoons shown on a big screen, decoration making where they glued eyes and a nose onto lollipop sticks to make a Rudolph tree decoration and a stop for giant versions of Jenga, Hoopla and Noughts and Crosses. We skipped on the storytelling unfortunately as C would never sit still for a story!

Once we had been to all the stops and found all the reindeer stickers, C and E's names were called - Santa was ready to see them! We made our way to the Old Curiosity Shop where we knew Father Christmas was waiting. Before we could enter, a lady dressed in traditional clothing had a massive 'Naughty or Nice' list and asked which list the children thought they were on. She had a look and happily said that they had been good all year and Santa did in fact, have their names on the Nice list. Both of the children were so happy. I really liked this lady. She stayed perfectly in character and acted like she was so happy and excited for the kids. She ushered us over to a spot in the middle of the room and told the children to close their eyes - it began to snow! Of course, it was a snow machine but the joy in C's eyes is something that I will never forget. I am so glad she had recommended that I take a photograph.

Now it was time for our Santa visit. C knocked the door and went on in, full of confidence, with E following shyly behind. C was totally blown away and got straight into a conversation with him. He showed off his Christmas jumper just like he wanted to and Santa even sang Jingle Bells with them. He really gave them a lot of time and we didn't feel rushed at all. C, who is usually shy with strangers, had no problems at all with jumping up on Santa's knee for a photograph. E did get a little freaked out but she is only two and had been a bit ill with a fever the night before so I had to sit her on my knee. The photograph was definitely the best part and C's little face is wonderful.

The kids came away with a toy each and little bags of sweets and we got two photographs with Santa. They had an amazing time and I do think it's got them excited for Christmas. When I first left, I did feel a bit like almost £40 for the four of us was a bit much for what it was but once I thought about how much a single visit, photo and present for each child alone would cost at a regular shopping centre combined with how amazed my children felt after it, it was totally worth it. Two days later, I received a reply to C's Santa letter to my email address in PDF form for me to print for him. Chris received E's one. Both letters mentioned the items that the children had asked for. I will definitely be printing them off and adding them with the post a little bit closer to Christmas.

You can book tickets for The Magical Christmas Experience at the Titanic Belfast website.

(We purchased these tickets ourselves and I was not required to write a review, I just wanted to share our experience.) 

 

The Kids First Cinema Trip

Before having children, Chris and I would go to the cinema at least once a week. It was one of our favourite things to do together and we'd usually grab dinner beforehand too. We went to see The Dark Knight Rises in August 2012, when I was pregnant with C and we didn't go again until we saw Deadpool in March 2016 - a long time!

I felt that C was always too young to go before his sister was born. He hadn't yet turned two. Then, when she arrived, she would have been too young to bring with us. Time was passing and before we knew it, we had an almost four year old who had never had a cinema experience.

We had seen advertisements for The Secret Life of Pets and thought we'd try our luck and take both of the kids to see it. I thought C would sit well but I worried about E as she was at the age C was when I thought he was too young. 

I made sure they were in good moods first and explained to them how exciting it would be to be in a big room with lots of seats and a massive TV screen to watch a brand new movie. C couldn't wait to go. We chose an afternoon screening so E napped on the way there and just woke up as we were going in so she sat snuggled on my knee with her dummy in. C chose some popcorn and chocolate so he was happy enough eating and watching.

About halfway through, E was fidgety and kept switching from my knee to Chris's and around 5 minutes before the end, they both got a little fussy so we decided to leave. E wanted down to walk around and was getting a bit annoyed with me trying to keep her sitting down.

I felt that our first experience went so well that I wanted to make it a regular thing. They both love Finding Nemo so when Finding Dory came out, I knew they'd be excited to see it too. This time round, I booked in for 10.30 so they'd be fresh-faced, awake and in a good mood. 

This time, we made it through the entire film! They were both transfixed on the screen and it was a lot less stressful than the first time. Chris and I have decided to take them every time a kids movie that we think looks decent is released. I don't know why we didn't just take C when he was E's age! We have plenty of making up to do.

Have you taken your little ones to the cinema yet? Do they enjoy going?

 

The Simple Things - Feeding the Ducks!

When I first planned on writing this post, I was going to start it with "Spring is on the horizon and the weather is getting better" but looking outside this past couple of days, that's only half true! Nevertheless, we did have a some good days recently so we've made the most of it and tried to have as many family days out as possible.

C has always loved feeding the ducks. We haven't taken him much with the colder weather (because the place we go is a bit of a walk away) so on our first visit of the year, I thought he'd enjoy it even more because he's a little older and I was right. This is also the first time we've been without C being in the buggy. He's a proper little nature lover so the gorgeous walk along the river really excited him. He was pointed out all the animals that he could see as well as the "big trees".
 

E got out to walk too - her first ever time walking outside! She was a little nervous and she fell over before I had a chance to put the harness on her but she was great. She got a little too cocky and tried to run but knew she'd be okay because I was there to stop her from falling.

We passed a docked boat on the way and C was in absolute awe when his daddy said to him, "Look, it's The Rainbow. Old Jack's boat!" (from CBeebies if you aren't familiar with the wonderful Bernard Cribbins-fronted show). The look on his face was priceless. In his eyes, it was the real deal and I honestly thought I could have cried seeing how happy and excited he was.

We finally got to the ducks and he just exploded with even more excitement. At one point I thought he was going to fall in because he kept jumping! I was a bit cautious about letting E near the water but in the end we just had Chris hold her in his arms and throw food in. She absolutely loved it and kept saying, "duckies! Quack quack!" and even waved and said, "bye!" when we were leaving. Ever since we came back from that trip, C has asked every single day if we can go back to feed them. I definitely think it will have to be a weekly trip during the Spring/Summer!

 

The Day That C Fed the Ducks

[This post is photo heavy!]

Chris had the day off yesterday and C is always either at home, out in his pram whilst we shop or at the park so we decided to do something a little different. It was a gorgeous, sunny day so we went for a trip to the Lagan Towpath as there are usually lots of ducks around. We packed a little picnic of sandwiches, fruit, cheese etc and set off with some bread for the duckies. 

Lagan Towpath is a bit of a walk for us so C had a snooze on the way there. At 24 weeks pregnant, it really took it's toll on me too! It's an absolutely beautiful place and it was lovely to have a family day outside. 

We got to feed the ducks but C wanted to eat the bread himself instead of throw it to them! They got very close to us and I thought he might be a bit freaked out by it but he just wanted to get into the water with them!

We then had our own little picnic and let C run loose in a massive field. He had so much fun picking flowers and finding sticks. It was great to let him blow off some steam!

We stopped off for a little ice cream on the way home - the perfect end to the perfect day!

A Family Day in the Sunshine

Chris had the weekend off which is a first so with the weather being relatively good for being in Belfast, we decided that we'd take C out to blow off some steam. 

Since he's learned to walk he loves being outside. He loves running around in the grass and collecting sticks. He holds them like they're magic wands and always drops the one he has if he finds a bigger and better one. He's a proper little boy and I love that he's into exploring. As a child, my mum hated when I got mucky and even now, I don't like getting my hands dirty. I don't want C to be the same way. I want him to have the freedom to explore. His clothes can always be washed and he can be bathed. 

I finally bought him baby reins last week and I thought he'd be a little funny with them but he's been great! We have had a few meltdowns where he's decided that he wants to walk in the opposite direction to where we're going and he throws the biggest wobbly and we have lots of people staring at us. I imagined that I'd be really embarrassed by this but I'm not. He's a child. Sometimes if kids don't get their own way, they strop. Big deal. I ignore his tantrums. The way I see it is, his tantrums won't let him get his own way. In fact, he won't get any attention at all. I hope he realises this and they stop altogether!