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On Saturday we celebrated Fin's 8th birthday, he never asks for much, he has also never had a birthday party! His birthday falls in half term so we have always chosen to take him out for the day instead. His request this time was to go to the Natural History Museum and have a Happy meal.
We live on a direct train route to Victoria station, from there it's a couple of stops on the underground to South Kensington and we're there. The ice rink is currently up outside the museum with a carousel and will be there until the New Year.
The queue can be huge but we lucked out today, we got there around 11am and walked straight in. The museum is free to visit but you can make a donation as you enter. The Diplodocus skeleton has moved on and has been replaced by a blue whale skeleton in the main hall - it's pretty impressive.
What my son loves the most is the gemstones and fossils - so we always head upstairs to see those first.
The dinosaur area is always busy, it can get pretty hot and claustrophobic in there so we had a little look as we have seen it many times and headed to look at the mammals. On our way there something caught our eye. The Museum of the Moon - again this is a free exhibition and has a huge moon which people were laying underneath, so we went and joined them. This exhibition is on until January 2020.
Seeing the mammals always takes me right back to my childhood, I used to be amazed by the displays and seeing how big all the animals actually are. Fin really was looking forward to seeing the narwhal again, so we spent a bit of time looking at the dolphins and whales and of course the huge blue whale.
We had a quick walk through the human body area - but the birthday boy was desperate to head to the gift shop - where he spent his money on four large pieces of aura quartz to add to his collection.
We had barely looked around the whole museum and asked if he would like to go to the Science Museum afterwards but he was hungry and wanted his Happy meal and to then head home.
You can easily make a whole day of the Natural History Museum - there are so many rooms and exhibitions on and you can also look on their website for special events like Dinosnores where you can have a sleepover in the iconic main gallery.
We are lucky to have so many museums in London, there are still many that we haven't visited yet. Out top tip is to get yourselves a Friends and Family Railcard - it costs £30 for the year and if you are travelling with children, you get 1/3 off adult rail fares and 60% off kids tickets. This meant we could get a kids travels card for £2.50 which can be used all day on the trains, underground, DLR and buses. It is well worth it if you travel on the train regularly.
I am hoping to visit the Old Operating Theatre museum soon, which is near London Bridge.