Dinosaur Zoo, The Fairfield Halls - Review

On Saturday we went to see Dinosaur Zoo at The Fairfield Halls in Croydon. We decided to skip football and gymnastics classes for it as we love seeing shows and Noah is Dino mad at the moment. Every bedtime includes either a fictional dinosaur story - Dinosaurs Love Underpants is a big favourite or a factual book where I have to try and pronounce ALL the dinosaur names!

We arrived at the theatre and starting at the same time was a Frozen Singalong! All the little Elsa and Anna's were running around and looking very excited about the prospect of singing their hearts out to Let It Go (and the mums too I would imagine!). We went to a Frozen Singalong before Christmas and it was brilliant!

Anyway, back to Dinosaur Zoo. The show is really interactive with the kids, which is great - with each introduction of a new dinosaur a child in the audience gets invited up to take part. The whole show is about dinosaurs that lived in Australia, so that meant that we didn't see T-Rex but we did see his Australian equivalent, the Australovenator - he was fierce! Noah reassured himself that it was just a puppet when he told me that he could see the legs of the person inside! Aside from the fierce carnivore there were also some baby dinosaurs, some huge dragonfly type creatures that 'flew' round the audience and a really huge gentle herbivore dinosaur.

The presenter of the show gave the audience loads of factual information about dinosaurs throughout which was great for adults and kids and he was also really good with the children, poking gentle fun out of them to raise a laugh from the audience and with the little ones it felt like they believed the dinosaurs were real which was magic.

After the show the kids were able to meet and greet the dinosaurs, Isla touched the the Australovenator's nose and then got to stroke one of the baby dinosaurs. This was a nice touch as she is ever the child who wants to get up on stage, and this time she didn't so meeting the puppets more than made up for it.  

For more information about the show go to: http://dinosaurzoolive.com/

The Fairfield Halls always has a great selection of shows and screenings for all ages. This half term The Fairfield Halls are showing family films for only £2! For anyone who’s not seen Big Hero 6, then I thoroughly recommend it and it’s not long been released. Personally I think we’ll be going to see the Shaun the Sheep Movie, Isla is a big fan of the TV series and I hope to take the kids on the Shaun in The City Trail too. Going to the cinema can be such an expensive family outing, sometimes costing over £30 for a family of 4 but at these prices you could afford to go a couple of times in the holidays – particularly if we get typical school holiday wet weather! Details of cinema showings can be found on the Fairfield Halls website

 

Thanks to the Fairfield Halls for inviting us along to see the show, we look forward to visiting again soon!

Dinosaur Zoo at The Fairfield Halls, Croydon

Fresh from its success at the Edinburgh Festival and following a UK and international Autumn tour, West End hit show DINOSAUR ZOO is back by popular demand this spring for its fourth major UK tour, stopping at Fairfield Halls, Croydon on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 March 2015.

Australian-based creators Erth use ingenious puppetry to bring dinosaurs to life in this interactive and imaginative live show. Suitable for all the family (ages 3+), DINOSAUR ZOO introduces audiences to a range of creatures from cute baby dinos to teeth-gnashing giants, including a carnivorous theropod known as the ‘Australovenator’ – Australia’s version of the American T-Rex.

Intrepid audience members who are brave enough to get up close and personal with the dinosaurs are invited up on stage to assist the Zoo Keepers in their daily tasks - but be warned - not all of these ravenous reptiles are as tame as they seem! Each performance concludes with a post-show ‘meat & greet’ session offering every audience member a chance to meet the dinosaurs in person.

 

We will be going along to the show when it's on, so pop back here for our review. Noah is a huge dinosaur fan at the moment, every library visit yeilds another 5 or 6 dinosaur books to read. He loves finding out their names, knowing most of them off by heart and he knows if I get them wrong!  

If you've also got a dino-mad child then go to Fairfield Halls for tickets.

Running time: 50 minutes + post-show ‘meat’ & greet

 

Santa Claus and the Magical Christmas Journey - Review

Last Thursday we popped along to the Fairfield Halls in Croydon to see a special little Christmas production they have going on in the run up to the big day. It's called Santa Claus and the Magical Christmas Journey and it's a short, sweet festive show that's brilliant for pre-schooler age and upwards. 

When we arrived we were directed to the little studio theatre where a small stage is set up. It's a great intimate space where the kids can get up close to the action and right from the start the actors did come out into the audience, engaged the kids and encouraged them to call out. Mine love a bit of shouting out and joining in! It's also only 50 minutes long and so restlessness doesn't really happen, making it a pleasurable experience for parents too.

Both my kids were enchanted by the play and really warmed to both of the elves, Charlie & Kara who are a bit naughty! There was also Muffin the bear who Isla loved and felt very sorry for him when he lost his job navigating Santa's sleigh. There was also a familiar voice in the show, Russell Grant! He was the voice of the computer on Santa's sleigh. 

The story goes like this: 

It’s Christmas Eve, and Santa Claus is flying high above the clouds delivering presents to all the good boys and girls around the world. Hiding in the back are two naughty elves, Charlie and Kara, who have snuck on board for the ride!

All is well until suddenly, just as Santa Claus flies high above Croydon, the Sat Nav goes haywire and breaks leaving him stranded without his list of postcodes to deliver presents to! With the clock ticking and morning fast approaching it’s down to Charlie, Kara and Muffin the bear to come up with a clever plan to save Christmas!

Our favourite part was when Isla got chosen to go up on the stage to sing Twinkle Twinkle. She was a star! She loved every minute of it and actually may have been slightly put out if she hadn't been picked! And the next best bit in her book was getting to sit in Santa's sleigh and meet the big guy himself and they were both given a colouring book. There was also a lovely moment when snowflakes fell down all around us, Noah loved that bit. 

Check out http://santaclausonstage.com/christmas-journey/tour_dates_info for information and tickets. It runs until Wednesday 24th December. Tickets are priced at £12.50 & £14.50 for adults and £10 & £12.50 for children. Family tickets are £40 & £49. £1.50 booking fee applies. 

This is one Christmas delight you won’t want to miss!

We were given free tickets to see Santa Claus and the Magical Journey. All opinions are my own. 

New Digital Screen at Croydon Fairfield Halls

We were lucky enough to be invited to the Fairfield Halls in Croydon recently for a gala screening of Frozen Sing-a-long. I obviously haven’t grown tired of Frozen yet because I was as excited as Isla. I think it was the thought of being able to sing a long without people sshhing me or telling me to stop singing (Noah does this). It was promised to be lots of fun, with Elsa, Anna and Olaf in attendance and it really was. Isla donned her Elsa dress and not one to be left out Noah dressed as Spiderman (you mean you didn’t catch Spidey in Frozen?).

I’ve always loved The Fairfield Halls – it is an institution in my area. As a child I went there fairly often and feel sure that my first cinema experience was there for a showing of Disney’s Fantasia with my parents and for many years all the females in my family would go to The Salvation Army Carol Concert – where I also got to sing my lungs out to all the Christmas Carols. I also got to meet high calibre celebrities, Bob Holness, June Brown (Dot Cotton) etc., I know I’m stretching the celeb factor there….

The event was organised to showcase the new digital cinema screen and sound system. The new set up now means that they can screen live events, such as ballet and opera. Pretty cool and we got to experience it! Prior to the film starting the kids were treated to some face painting and goodie bags and LOADS of sweets. I say loads in bold because it was clearly too many as the kids demonstrated later on that day (I’ll leave you to work out what that means). Then came the sing-a-long and it was great. Isla was in fine voice and we were joined by blogger friend DadblogUK and his family. This was great as the girls know one another but hadn’t been together for a while, so excitement was taken to another level.

We had a great time that morning and it’s definitely reminded me of what a fantastic place Fairfield is and how I’d love my kids to also make some memories of their own there.

 Check up the upcoming programme of events and shows at Fairfield Halls here

We were given free tickets to this screening of the Frozen Sing-a-Long.

GYMBOREE!

Once Isla was 8 weeks old I decided that we needed to start doing an organised activity together and on the recommendation of one of my best friends I took Isla for a trial at Gymboree for a Baby Play class. Gymboree is designed to introduce your baby to new sights, sounds and sensory experiences. It's all bright colours, fun music, puppets and best of all as far as most of the babies were concerned lots of BUBBLES!

The one I went to is in Croydon and run by the lovely Emma. She adores all the babies that come her way and she was always able to give you the benefit of her opinion re anything kid related as at the time I joined she had 2 under 3's herself (mad, lovely woman!). The sessions are once a week and last 45 minutes. There is generally always a theme, so I think one week was disco and we all had to dance with our babies, it was really fun and when I came away it gave me ideas for when I was at home with Isla.

One of our best moments at Gymboree, and this is going to sound incredibly mummish (I know this isn't a word!), was when Isla had only just learned to roll over and she did it in front of the whole class and everyone cheered. I couldn't imagine being so excited over such things when I was pre-family but once you've had children, every milestone they reach feels like such an achievement.

I soon persuaded my NCT friends to join Gymboree, which was great as I got £5 per head referral fee and we used this as the start of our kitty for a mum's night out! It was brilliant getting together with my mummy friends on a weekly basis at Gymbo, as apart from the babies playing we all got to have a catch up too.

Gymboree is a brilliant way to have fun with your baby and also to make new friends. The web address is below, hopefully you will be able to find one somewhere near you!

http://www.gymboree-uk.com/baby_play.html