Bouyed by my recent makey-doo experiences with Harry, I jumped at the offer from a friend to take our children to the Cheshire Candle Factory. We thought we would spend a good part of the day there and paid for the package which consisted of making a candle, decorating a candle holder, making a sand ornament, and painting a clay figure. The first place we headed off to was the candle making section – the bit I’d been excited about the most. On came the plastic aprons, up went the sleeves, out came the wet wipes, and we were off.
Within two seconds, glitter, paint and glue were everywhere! I immediately regretted wearing a white top and sticking Harry in his new sweatshirt. I clearly hadn’t thought this through. But worse was to come. Once the candle holder was complete and set aside for drying it was time to make the candle to go in it. Now let’s just think about this shall we. HOT WAX and a TODDLER…my inquisitive toddler, the one who can’t listen to instructions, the one who can’t concentrate for too long, the one who can’t sit still for two minutes……..I couldn’t believe my stupidity but I couldn’t back out now. As we dipped the wick in to the hot wax I was as nervy as a long tail cat in a rocking chair factory. Our turn at the hot wax counter couldn’t finish soon enough. Considering that I had done most of it – and at break neck speed so that we could move on – the result was still good enough to give to Granny as a belated birthday present.
From there we headed upstairs to paint a clay figure – he went for the crocodile. He actually spent longer than five minutes on this activity and the result was quite impressive, if you like sludgy coloured crocodiles. Because he is by far the sludgiest coloured crocodile you have ever seen. Another lovingly handmade gift for a lucky grandparent.
By the time he had finished his friend was only half way through hers, so he did what any typical boy would do to pass the time – run up and down. As he ran the objects on the shelves would rattle due to the floorboards bouncing. Rattling shelves = broken stuff. Cue Mummy trying to grab small child to prevent paying for any breakables. But chasing after him only encouraged him to run faster, and my movements made the whole building shake never mind the shelves rattle!
To distract him I herded him towards the section where you pour coloured sand in to an object to make an ornament. He selected a dinosaur – yep another bloody dinosaur for the collection – and set about completing that task with the same enthusiasm as the others.
Due to the speed that Harry completed his activities, it ended up being a whirlwind visit and not the leisurely half day out we were looking forward to – just short of 2 hours and that included stopping for lunch! Harry tried to bite in to the candle (he thought it was a lollipop), ate his body weight in coloured sand and had more glitter in his hair than a 70’s rock star. If the snores in the back seat on the way home were anything to go by then he loved it. We will be going back. Just in a year or two from now, in older clothes and with a much bigger pack of wet wipes.