Last Thursday we headed out to Simon's Town again for our exploration day! Our destination was the Simon's Town Toy Museum. We arrived just before 10:00 and found that it wasn't open yet! There were no opening times on the door so we walked down to the nearest info office to ask if they knew if it would be open on that day. Well it turns out that the museum is privately owned and the owner opens it "in his own time". They said he usually only opens around 11:00-so if you're planning on visiting I'd suggest phoning before hand!
I didn't have a back up plan so I asked the lady there if there was anything else of interest nearby that WAS open. She suggested the Heritage Museum which is just around the corner from the Toy Museum. But luckily for us, as we were walking past the Toy Museum it opened up! (At 10:00! An hour earlier-definitely phone before hand for opening times). Well, it seemed that the Heritage Museum would have to wait.
The Museum is in a small building (one room actually) but it is one of those places that you could spend all day in because it is filled from floor to ceiling with shelves. And each shelf is packed with toys!
There are dolls from all different eras. Jenna and I thought these two were very cute!
I had to take a photo of this model ship-it's a reconstruction of Sir Nelson Horatio's ship. The goose in the story "Two Clever Geese" had been named after Sir Nelson!
This doll was handmade-every single part of it! Isn't she beautiful? Just how did those little girls play with their dolls? VERY carefully, me thinks!
And of course there were dolls from my era! Jenna was very interested in which type I had had. The closest to one of mine is the one with the frizzy hair! :-) I had one with an afro :-0
These two dolls reminded me of a pair of dolls which used to sit on my grandmother's bed. We were never allowed to touch them. I can remember that my gran had a boy and a girl and she used to change their outfits every now and then. I loved their clothes.
And then there are a few old doll's houses. These captured Jen's imagination so much. She's in that phase when little toys with intricate details are fascinating.
Finally we moved onto the boys toys! Michael had disappeared long ago in search of his own treasures-I could hear him in the distance all the time making excited little noises. I called him if I found something I thought he'd like and he came to look, to ooh and aah with me and then ran of to make his own discoveries again.
Can you imagine being the lucky child to play with this old circus?!
Michael's favourite cars are the Mini and the Beetle (he used to call it the Bug). So he just loved this one! When he climbed into bed that night and I asked him what was the best part of his day he said he loved the trains and he wanted an old fashioned beetle just like the one at the museum. He says he's going to give away his old cars so that he can now get a new one from the museum! :-) Try explaining to a 3 year old that you can't buy what you see at a museum.
Jenna had packed in some things for drawing telling me that she planned to draw something that she thought was lovely! Here she is trying very hard to draw one of the doll's houses. I'm sure if she had more time she would have produced a picture, but she was soon distracted by Michael calling her to see his latest discovery......
The electric train was voted as THE BEST toy of the day! Jen can't wait until the day we get to unpack Ray's old train set after seeing this little town and it's trains.
Besides oooh, aaah and wow the most regularly heard comment of the morning was: Oooh mom, I want one of those.....
After a lovely morning spent looking at the museum we decided to take advantage of the sunny winter day and stopped off at Long Beach. This beach is situated just before you enter Simon's Town-not the one on the other side of the coast. It looks onto the harbour and the Navy Dockyard.
While I soaked up the sun's rays and enjoyed the gentle, relaxing sounds of the waves on the sand, Jen and Mikey had a wonderful time playing.
But soon the wind started to pick up and we took it as our cue to pack up and head on home for lunch.
I didn't have a back up plan so I asked the lady there if there was anything else of interest nearby that WAS open. She suggested the Heritage Museum which is just around the corner from the Toy Museum. But luckily for us, as we were walking past the Toy Museum it opened up! (At 10:00! An hour earlier-definitely phone before hand for opening times). Well, it seemed that the Heritage Museum would have to wait.
The Museum is in a small building (one room actually) but it is one of those places that you could spend all day in because it is filled from floor to ceiling with shelves. And each shelf is packed with toys!
There are dolls from all different eras. Jenna and I thought these two were very cute!
I had to take a photo of this model ship-it's a reconstruction of Sir Nelson Horatio's ship. The goose in the story "Two Clever Geese" had been named after Sir Nelson!
This doll was handmade-every single part of it! Isn't she beautiful? Just how did those little girls play with their dolls? VERY carefully, me thinks!
And of course there were dolls from my era! Jenna was very interested in which type I had had. The closest to one of mine is the one with the frizzy hair! :-) I had one with an afro :-0
These two dolls reminded me of a pair of dolls which used to sit on my grandmother's bed. We were never allowed to touch them. I can remember that my gran had a boy and a girl and she used to change their outfits every now and then. I loved their clothes.
And then there are a few old doll's houses. These captured Jen's imagination so much. She's in that phase when little toys with intricate details are fascinating.
Finally we moved onto the boys toys! Michael had disappeared long ago in search of his own treasures-I could hear him in the distance all the time making excited little noises. I called him if I found something I thought he'd like and he came to look, to ooh and aah with me and then ran of to make his own discoveries again.
Can you imagine being the lucky child to play with this old circus?!
Michael's favourite cars are the Mini and the Beetle (he used to call it the Bug). So he just loved this one! When he climbed into bed that night and I asked him what was the best part of his day he said he loved the trains and he wanted an old fashioned beetle just like the one at the museum. He says he's going to give away his old cars so that he can now get a new one from the museum! :-) Try explaining to a 3 year old that you can't buy what you see at a museum.
Jenna had packed in some things for drawing telling me that she planned to draw something that she thought was lovely! Here she is trying very hard to draw one of the doll's houses. I'm sure if she had more time she would have produced a picture, but she was soon distracted by Michael calling her to see his latest discovery......
The electric train was voted as THE BEST toy of the day! Jen can't wait until the day we get to unpack Ray's old train set after seeing this little town and it's trains.
Besides oooh, aaah and wow the most regularly heard comment of the morning was: Oooh mom, I want one of those.....
and those....
or one of these!
After a lovely morning spent looking at the museum we decided to take advantage of the sunny winter day and stopped off at Long Beach. This beach is situated just before you enter Simon's Town-not the one on the other side of the coast. It looks onto the harbour and the Navy Dockyard.
While I soaked up the sun's rays and enjoyed the gentle, relaxing sounds of the waves on the sand, Jen and Mikey had a wonderful time playing.
They even tried to rescue a beached starfish.
And were brave enough to enter the cold sea!
But soon the wind started to pick up and we took it as our cue to pack up and head on home for lunch.
