Mondays are for dreaming: Surprising the kids at LEGOLAND

Update: It turns out that the boys weren’t completely surprised that we were going to LEGOLAND. This makes me feel better actually because it means they didn’t assume we’d bring them all the way here and then insist that we spend the day exploring the parish church and picnicking in the graveyard (as Matt proposed we tell them we were doing before we left for the amusement park). We spent a full 8 hours at the park – arriving when they opened at 10 and closing the place down at 6. I’ll write a full post later but wanted to add a few photos to share our day, which was as fun and LEGO filled as one could hope for.

This Sunday evening feels a bit like Christmas Eve with a twist, which is that the children don’t know that tomorrow is a holiday. A day filled with animated dinosaurs, themed jet-ski pods, an enchanted forest, battery-powered boats, and goodness knows what else at LEGOLAND Windsor.

The boys are of course not blind or stupid, and so having passed through the train station are aware that there is a LEGOLAND here. In fact, we got off the train in a flurry of excited children, all prancing like puppies and chanting things like “Hurrah for LEGOLAND!” (Because they were British children, they actually said things like “hurrah”.) I don’t know whether I should feel good or bad about the fact that Tommy’s reaction was merely to ask me casually at lunch if I happened to be aware that such a garden of paradise is nearby. He clearly had no expectation that he would get to go there and didn’t ask if we could and soon turned his attention to Windsor Castle looming large across the street (and where, I may add, we immediately after our meal spent a very happy several hours).

Although Matt and I are not big amusement-park people–when we do visit them, we prefer them to have a high charm quotient, like the Jardin d’Acclimatation–we realized some time ago that this trip would be a bit heavy on the castles, cathedrals, and city walking, with a healthy dose of museums and a few late meals thrown in. Thus our decision to spend our last full day in England eating miniature donuts and getting doused on water rides.

We were correct in our prediction, which may be why we’ve had our share of challenging moments over the past two weeks. I don’t mean to imply that it’s been all tedium and whining, but I’m really looking forward to giving the boys a day tomorrow that is 100 percent about them and their pleasure. I can’t wait to see their faces when we tell them at breakfast where we’re going. Because sometimes traveling with kids should involve a journey for the grownups too–right back to childhood.

What are your Monday dreams? Please share them below. Questions? See About Monday Dreaming.