24Mar08 - Eureka

After being cooped up indoors for so long we decided that we needed to get out the house and do something today. We started with a nice pub lunch and even ordered Lucy a soup (curried parsnip) which we thickened up with some "Thick and Easy". She quite liked it and managed half the bowl. It was a bit of a break through and I don't know why we haven't thought of doing that before. We then decided to take the kids to Eureka ( http://www.eureka.org.uk ) mainly because it is indoors and it was freezing cold today. Eureka has lots of touchy feely displays which Joshua has always liked and we thought Lucy would be able to get something from it as well. Lots of people had the same idea and it was very busy but there was still plenty to do. As usual when we go to places like this Lucy was feeling sleepy and we had to poke her a bit to wake her up so that she could join in. I know it sounds cruel but we didn't want her to miss out. She enjoyed making music with Josh which seemed to wake her up for a while.We were pleasantly surprised that they allow one adult in for free as a designated carer which is worth baring in mind. It is not cheap to go in and it made us feel less aggrieved that Lucy was not going to be able join in with all the activities (over threes pay full price regardless). There was still plenty for her to do and Joshua certainly got his moneys worth.Even with all the excitement and noise we still could not stop Lucy dropping off every now and again.The best bits for Lucy were the dark areas where she loved looking at the lights. In this picture she is sitting in a sea anemone.She was also taken by the secret passage which is in complete darkness apart from lots of tiny pinhole lights. We had to go through there a couple of times before we could move on. It was a bit inconvenient for everyone else because her buggy took up the whole passage but I didn't worry about it and took my time.We then found a dark area with stars and images representing star constellations which was nice because you can sit down inside it. We spent about 10 minutes watching the lights going on and off while the narrator told us what we were looking at.It was a good afternoon and nice to be out the house doing something. Lucy must have enjoyed it because she was ready for bed tonight and I haven't heard a single noise from her since I put her to bed.