Chugging along...

So in this week's news, Sprout rode a horse without a lead rein for the first time! He has a lesson every two or three weeks and enjoys it massively; he's had about five or six lessons in total and is really progressing. The pony he rides is called Sammy and has a heart on his bottom. Here's the proud boy...

It was our fifth wedding anniversary too this week so we organised a day out to the Midland Railway Centre. After getting ridiculously lost on the way we made it just in time to buy our tickets and leap on the train at Butterly Station. 

Sprout and Squidge loved how different it was to modern trains they've been on: the smoke coming past the window, all the old fashioned fittings (glass lampshades, wooden tables), the wheels and pistons.  We had a ride down to the other end of the track, then waited and watched as the engine swapped ends to take us back the other way.

  

At Swanwick Junction we hopped off to have a look at the miniature scale railways (manned by some enthusiasts!), for the boys to have a play on the railway-themed playground...

...and to have a wander round the museum where there were lots of engines and railway memorabilia. The oldest train we saw was from 1872!

I love these old suitcases!

Sprout and Squidge weighing themselves on some luggage scales, and asking me to convert it from kg into stone.

Finn loved this post carriage, and caught this episode of Come Outside this morning which he was excited about.

They both loved getting a close up look at the old fashioned engine here.

And they finished the day with a (bargainous 20p) ride on this little engine :)

Both boys are really into Skylanders again at the moment so they spent the evening pooling their figures to complete missions together and do battle against each other.

Once they were asleep I finally managed to get this Minecraft mod working so Sprout was very excited this morning to be able to get married and have a baby in his Minecraft world. He also discovered Bane of Arthropods today, which prompted a brief conversation about what an arthropod is.

He's now in the middle of making tiffin with Gruff, it's one of our favourite sweet treats...

Crush about 150g of biscuits, and mix a good handful of raisins in. Melt about 100g of butter with 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons of golden syrup and a heaped tablespoon of cocoa. Mix the melted mixture into the biscuits/raisins, and press the whole lot into a small loose-bottomed foil-lined cake tin. Melt about 250-300g of chocolate and pour onto the top. Refrigerate for an hour or so, then try to get some before the kids eat it all ;)