Trains/ simple small world play

Whilst we still have Ma here, I made the most of having an extra pair of arms and decided to take a trip to see the steam trains. This doesnt happen often, but they were advertising steam train rides up the coast and having a son who is just obsessed with trains I couldnt really NOT go!

And so we took off, despite the bleak weather, to join the masses and have their first steam train ride.

Hot Fire! Was amazing to feel the amount of heat that comes out of this!

We watched it come into the station, it was very busy with lots of people and incredibly LOUD. Man do those things make the most incredible sound! Well, all three kids freaked out, but we pressed on and found seats and waited. We were right at the front of the train which I thought would be a good thing, but turned out the be the loudest point of the train. Oopps.

Jumeirah does a quick dash to see if its coming...

Amahli and Jumeirah settled pretty quick and started to enjoy the ride. Jared, on the other hand, was terrified and absolutely HATED it. ( sorry kiddo, I had to take this photo of you, you looks so very cute and worried).

On arriving in Telegraph Point, the train stopped. The engine had to detach and makes it way to the other end for the return trip. Once this noisy part made its way down the other end, Jared took his fingernails out of my skin and began to move around the cabin. Within minutes he was pointing things out to other passengers ( COWS! HORSES! and and other fun country stuff) and began to enjoy himself. He hung out the window for most of the trip back :)

I tried to take as many photos as I could, trouble is, that big black noisy engine spurts out a heck of a lot of grit and soot and I ended up with it up my nose, in my eyes and covered in it, so I took what I could but enjoyed watching without the use of a lens for most of the trip :)

"I cannot see, Mum!"

Happy at last :)

Well worth it really, it was such a different thing to do. And by the end, all three had really enjoyed it :)

We came home and read all the train books we own and talked about what we had seen.

In the afternoon, I got out a few new sea animals I found on special in Coles the other day. And, not wanting to make too much of a mess with sand and water inside, I set up three individual mini play worlds with my three.

Amahli ended up with all her animals in a huge pile, but she enjoyed counting them as they got piled up on each other.Jared, of course, didnt want the sand as it looked messy with Amahli in it, so he used his animals for sorting and then they had a play together.

Jumeirah set hers up to be a land vs sea play, all the jellyfish went into the water, starfish baked on land.

Then she took them all out to give the penguins some play time :)

I ended up giving Amahli a larger tub and she had a great time transfering them for one bowl to another.




Even though these worlds were so much smaller to play in, all three kids really enjoyed them. I thought it might restrict their play but it didnt much at all!

What do you use for small world play?