How Hidai saved Mother's Day

As things went this month, I was a bit surprised when March 10th arrived and with it Mother's Day. I actually usually like Mother's Day very much. I think mothers deserve a day in which they get acknowledged for everything they do and for the fact that, let's face it, they are taken for granted every other day of the year. So I always make sure people around here knows that it's coming, are working hard on flowers, chocolates, cards and a day that is just for me. Last year Hidai got me a bouquet of candy and so combined it all together :)
But this year I was not in a celebratory mood. With everything that's been going on with Yon and the fact that I felt we were neglecting Ron as a result of it, I was all for cancelling Mother's Day. Bad mums don't deserve to celebrate. They don't deserve to be commemorated. They deserve to not get cards, or flowers, or chocolates. They deserve to do laundry on Mother's Day.
And that was exactly my plan, but for one thing...
Hidai wouldn't let me cancel mother's day, and he wouldn't let me sit around the house moping, and so we found ourselves going out of the house. Shocking, I know. The thing is, it's really tough finding things to do that everyone will love. If we go to something football-related then Ron and Hidai will be ecstatic and Yon will misbehave and I will be half-bored. If we go to anything science related then Ron and Hidai will be in geek heaven, Yon will want to touch everything, and I will be half-bored. If we go to anything animal-related then Yon will be in heaven, and everyone else will be half-bored.. If we go to anything shopping/art/baking related then I will be happy and everyone else will be totally bored and will not really try and hide it. It usually leads to one of two things - not going out, or choosing something the kids will like. But Mother's Day is, as is apparent by its name - my day, and I wanted to do something that I will enjoy (a choice that usually leads to no-one having fun because the kids misbehave and Hidai & I get upset). But this time... This time we had total success!
We chose the O2 Arena, because we wanted to see the mini exhibition that Sky Studios had of Harry Potter (and we thought Ron would love the chance to sit down infront of the camera and read the sports news). I am kinda ashamed to say that we've never been to the O2 before, and we were very impressed with the whole thing. Will definitely come back to see a show there (when Hidai & I are able to agree on the show of course). The good thing in a place like that (in our point of view) is having space for the kids to run around, and after almost an hour on the Tube, they needed some running time, and loved the fact that there were lines of color-changing light-bulbs on the floor that they could run around and jump on. We loved the fact that we don't have to run. After that we went strolling in the "entertainment avenue", which goes around in a circle and is full of places to run and places to eat. When we got to the end of it we found the British Music Experience, which is (surprise, surprise) a museum dedicated to British Music. We debated because Yon is not really good in museums (or anywhere else he can't say "just looking" while touching everything), but what sold us was the movie they have outside that shows the interactiveness of the museum.
I am not really good with the whole description of every minute thing, mostly I think because I find it boring to write, so how can you not find it boring to read? So that is why I am just going to say that if you haven't been there and you like music - go, go, go.
I find it surprising (in a good way) how interactive and child-friendly everything is in London. This museum has a room where you can play different musical instruments and a singing booth where you can sing and record yourself - the kids (including Hidai) played on the drums (while saying Jack Black said no drums...), the piano and of course the guitar (I always forget how musically talented Hidai is), and they both recorded themselves singing Bohemian Rhapsody (and made all the adults in the room smile). There is also a dancing booth, where we were taught how to dance the chicken dance and do some Rock-n-Roll 50's style.

Singing

Playing

Dancing

You also see 2 movies, at the start where they explain about the museum and the smart ticket that record everything and let you watch it at home, and at the exit where they do a little "live show" of the British Music classics, and Yon gave a bow to the crowd at the end :). The main part of the museum are rooms devoted to each era of it, where you can learn, listen, and watch everything music and culture related. We were there for around 3 hours, and each and every minute of them was total fun, and I think we already watched ourselves doing the chicken dance about twenty times...
When we finished there we had some lunch at Pizza Express, because the kids love it and we have yet to be in a branch that was not child-friendly. The dessert was a bit of a letdown, but truth be told I am very particular about my chocolate cakes, so it's really hard for me to find one I like, and Pizza Express is not a place to find good chocolate cakes...

Pizza time :)

We continued our day in the place we originally intended to go to - Sky Studios, which turned out to be  20 minutes of fun and laughter - Ron & Hidai got to read the news from a teleprompter to a real camera-man, we all got our picture taken in "real" studios with TV stars (like the Ninja Turtles in my case!), and we got to see the mini Harry Potter exhibition with some really cool things they borrowed from the Warner Brothers Studios, and as a result we decided to celebrate Ron's birthday this year with a trip to the Warner Brothers Studios to see the real "how they made the Harry Potter" thing (it was a HUGE relief as we've been struggling with his birthday celebration for the past 4 months, trying to figure out how to celebrate it with style and with no football).

At the Studio

I ended the day at home with a hand-made card from Ron and a store-bought one from Hidai, 2 very happy & exhausted kids, and a sense that maybe, just maybe I am not the worst mum ever to grace this earth and my kids do actually appreciate me (somewhat).
Happy Mother's day :)