Warwick Castle

General 

Elliott was very good today. There was one point towards the end of our castle visit when he began demanding a toy sword and shield from the gift shop that I thought might escalate, but he quickly settled for a (much) cheaper toy Knight's helmet (I didn't want to buy him too much following on from all the presents he's had for Christmas). 

Activities

Today we went to visit Warwick Castle with Andrea and her friend Sarah. When we got there (about 11am) we met up with Andrea and Sarah's friend Laura and her children Izzy (Elliott's age) and Edward (just over a year younger than Elliott) - Andrea and Sarah are Izzy's Godmothers. The first thing we did after we'd gone in (and it magically stopped raining) was to visit the Merlin "experience". This consisted of an actor mixing a pretend magic potion and talking about Merlin, magic and the dragon in a room decked out like an old kitchen followed by meeting the dragon (an animation on a television screen) in another room. Towards the end of being in the first room Elliott got a little bit scared and then in the second room, just as he'd calmed down, the dragon got me to stand up and identified me as being a goblin which upset him again (which was quite sweet). He calmed down quickly afterwards but it was surprising as the experience was very tame and not particularly loud. Anyway after this we had a look around the state rooms where there were some interesting wax word dummies. Then we saw a bird of prey display which all the children seemed fascinated by before we headed for a picnic lunch to the Conservatory.      

After lunch we walked around the grounds and Elliott and Edward chased each other and started playing together with Elliott's foam sword we'd brought with us (from his Pirate's outfit). Izzy also joined in a bit. We climbed to the top of the front of the castle and then we went in to a display of what life was like in the castle in the middle ages complete with wax works and smells. After that we all climbed to the very top of the tallest castle tower which involved lots of steps. Then we visited the Gaol which was underground and not very nice. Finally everyone (apart from me as it was only one child per adult) went to the Princess Tower to hear a story about the Snow Queen. Everyone seemed to really enjoy this when I met them afterwards but by then it was 4.30pm and time to go. Fortunately we got home quickly and Elliott was in bed by 7.30 after tea (cheese on toast) and a bath.         
To see photos of today visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/elliottsweekends/.