Bloomsbury Festival

We headed into London at the weekend to check out Bloomsbury Festival. There was so much going on for it that it was difficult to choose where to go and what to do. Given that it was a nice day we stuck to the outdoor activities. In fairness most of the museum and gallery activities for kids were for much older kids than Kit, so outdoors was probably better. We can explore places like the Foundling Museum and Grant Museum of Zoology when he is a bit older and can enjoy it a bit more, without me worrying he will break everything!

We started off in Russell Square for all the activities that they had going on. We were greeted almost immediately by a lady offering us a patch to decorate to go on the den!

We then headed through the Poets' Path: Poetry Under the Arbour, and wrote a line ourselves. You could pick out words and join them together, which was probably more fun for me than Kit, but he enjoyed looking at all the lines blowing in the wind. Our contribution was 'Oh let trees spread sun' (I won't give up my day-job - although I did get a poem published when I was younger).

They had a children's activity tent where you could do various activities. We joined 1A Arts etc and Kit did some leaf printing and decorated a picture frame. The activities were free but I noticed as we were leaving that they did request a recommended minimum donation of £10, which seemed incredibly steep for the activities on offer. I am more than happy to pay a couple of £s to entertain my son, but £10 seems slightly crazy.

We went to watch some of the music in Russell Square while we ate lunch and then headed over to Corams Field to play in the sand and visit the animals. We also got to listen, and join in with some amazing storytelling in The House of Tall Tales and Small Stories, and Kit got to make his leaf crown.

We were going to plant bulbs in a community garden, but Kit crashed out from all the fun so we jumped back on the bus and headed back to have dinner at Kit's Dad (so Kit could maul his brother and sister), and then home to get some sleep before we had even more fun the following day.

Pop Up Children's Literature Festival

Despite a challenging toddler day, we eventually made it to Coram's Fields for the Pop Up Children's Literature Festival

Kit was stunned at actually meeting Spot, I've never known him to be so much in awe of anything. He wasn't quite so taken by the Moomin though as he clung to my legs whining everytime it was anywhere nearby.

I was most impressed by Michael De Souza, one of the writers of Rastamouse, he definately knew how to work an audience, 'Irie Man!'. He handed out a strip of stickers to each kid at the end (and there was an opportunity to make your own t-shirt) I was mildly amused with Kit's choice of sticker, as he stuck one to himself - he had chosen 'Bagga Trouble'. It really summed up his mood today!