Easter Sunday at the Truck Show , Locomotion Museum and Church Service

I had been looking forward to this day for the whole week. My husband was working on the Saturday so a picnic was planned for Sunday along with a lovely walk around Hardwick Hall . 
All plans went straight out of the window however as soon as we woke up to find the weather was not playing nice at all.
We got up early ,made a mountain of food to ad to the picnic and headed straight for the park to get an early start . Not only 10 minutes down the road and the rain was lashing against the minibus windows .
I felt totally deflated and hoped that it would stop or clear up soon but as we drew closer to the park we found that there was no way the rain was stopping , not only that but it was very cold and in no way doable with little Joshua in tow.

While we were at the Easter disco we were told that there was a local Trick show on the previous day at the racecourse and so I quickly decided that this is what we should now aim to take a look at .
We googled the details and found that it was free entry and still on , luckily not even 5 minutes away from the park we all stayed in the bus and detoured from the car park to the racecourse to check it out.

The rain seemed to clear up but still not enough to go back to the park so we took a look at all the huge and fascinating vehicles that were on display in the field.
I think the rain sent some stalls and sale reps inside and away from the event which was a shame but the children were not bothered by it being a little dead to say the least. They were amazed by the sizes of the trucks and amazed by the fantastic art work displayed on them.

As we walked around taking in the fresh cold air we decided to give them a little closer look and after politely asking the truck drivers if they could have a sit in some , they soon made themselves warm  and were encouraged to press and honk the horns.
The children thought it was absolutely brilliant , the drivers wanted them to keep honking and the others surrounding the trucks joined in with honking theirs as if they were all cheering each other on , it was a lovely feeling  and needless to say it took us a whole 40 minutes to get little one out of the front seat , he loved it .

There were some amazing trucks , even one monster truck which was huge and my children even took refuge in one of the wheels just to stay dry for a short time , giggling away to herself , I could see they were loving it and that was our aim . I quickly forgot about our picnic plans going to pot .

There was a massive blue truck parked up right in the corner of the area but as the sign invited us all inside we took a tour . I have to say the children were over the moon , especially when they received bags full of sticky notes, pens, notebooks , car fresheners and lollies and paper hats, Lots of freebies to cheer them up and for them to take home . Joshua even bought himself his very own high viz with his pocket money and still now he refuses to take it off .

The weather started to turn on us again and we got a little too cold to keep walking so we jumped back in the bus and again started to feel a little deflated that it was only dinnertime and our plans were demolished again.

Giving it a quick thought , we took a quick 25 minutes ride away and decided that an indoor museum was exactly what we needed so the Locomotion Railway Museum sounded a perfect place to eat our already made picnic.

As we arrived , we did notice straight away that their were crafting activities freely available . There were also educational worksheets and pencils at hand in case anyone wanted to learn something new and take it home with them.

The good thing about this museum is it is completely free, free to enter and free to park . 
There were educational tools all around the museum encouraging them to join in and interact with the history and learning of trains and they enjoyed it .

It was very interesting to see how the trains of then have changed and how they are now a lot different to how we used to ride them. The seats are now more harder and you have less space . it used to be very comfortable to travel by train and there were so many different types and sizes.
I got a little shock when I turned to find some old travelers staring at me through the windows.

They all joined in on making their own badges and flags and done word-searches and colouring in .

They were doing a story time just before we left which the children joined in on and were offered fresh fruit . 

Although they had  a shop as well as a cafe which served hot and cold food there, We found that they were also happy for people to take their own food and had seating areas inside for us to be able to enjoy our picnic .
Just behind us was also a lovely little soft play area where the smaller children were able to play in.

We really enjoyed our time at the Locomotion . Not one for trains usually but it was a wonderful experience and saved a ruined planned out day and made it into a wonderful day.

As we made our way home we dropped into the church for the Easter Sunday Service to say thanks for the brilliant day and after a few hymns and readings , we went home and enjoyed a  hot cup of tea before making a lovely roast for our late tea.

What did you do for Easter ?