Day Out with Thomas 2010

Ben has had a growing interest in trains.  His collection of Thomas trains has been growing and for Christmas he received extra track from Grandma.  It seems to be a weekly occurrence that you have to watch your step in the lounge room so you don’t mess up the track.  Here are some tracks – not exactly mind blowing but  for someone who is spatially challenged I am a little proud!

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We are already regularly visitors to the Ipswich Railway Workshops.  We just love it, such a fantastic outing.   Their current attraction is ‘A Day Out with Thomas’.  You can meet Sir Topham Hatt, The Fat Controller in person. Also climb aboard Thomas the Tank Engine and explore the driver’s cabin. Our favorite is to visit the Thomas Play Pit and enjoy interactive Thomas the Tank Engine activities  in air-conditioning – a room full of Thomas trains and track.  Ben also loves to have a go with Thomas the Tank Engine art and craft.  To wind down we head to the adventures of Thomas & Friends screening continuously in the Theatrette.  But as well as all the Thomas attractions there is still all the favorites – Nippers playground and Cooking in the old train.  This year Finlay, Charlotte, Bree, Joseph and Baby Tom have all joined us for a visit.  We hope to go one more time before Thomas closes for another year.  Here are some photos of Ben and the boys!

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Railway Workshop, Steam Train and My Friend Joseph!

Our journey with trains began with my hunt for children’s activities in Ipswich.  You would be hard pressed to find a better facility for children than the Ipswich Railway Workshops.  Ben loves it.  We have been visiting nearly every week.  There is always lots to do.  More recently we have gone with Joseph and Oliver (Ben’s friends) and their mums Bree and Emily.  The boys are always busy.

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We thought we would take the boys interest one step further and take them on a train trip.  We decided on Ipswich to Indooropilly Shopping Centre.  The train trip was a success.  Ben eventually sat still and was amazed watching out the window.

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More recently we went on a steam train outing from the Railway Workshops.  The journey was about one and a half hours from the workshops at North Ipswich to Ebenezer via Walloon and back again.   Grandma and Poppy came along for the ride and to help chase Ben up and down the train.  The smell, the soot and changing a nappy on a crowded 100 year old train…..  it was great but I’m not rushing back!

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