One on one time with each of my children is something I try to do at least once a month. Obviously Lily gets a lot of my time while Tyler is at school. As for Tyler, time is limited to the weekend, and it’s also quite tricky as Lily always want to go wherever we go. Last weekend though, she chose to stay with Nana – so Tyler and I had an afternoon out in London. We got on a ‘purple’ AKA ‘TFL Rail’ AKA future ‘Elizabeth Line/Crossrail/whenever that will ever happen’ train. The train is still looking lovely and new, but by the time Crossrail is ever finished, it’ll probably look old. Anyway, I digress. We made our way into London.

At Paddington we got on the tube to Covent Garden, where a couple offered to take a photo of us on these Instagram-famous benches.

Being at Covent Garden, you can guess where we were headed to. The transport-themed Christmas tree is a big clue…

A place that has amazing architecture…

And creepy people from the past to sit next to…

And transport-themed artwork to look at…

The London Transport Museum is Tyler’s favourite place to go to in London, and because I already had annual pass and Tyler was free, this was a cheap activity.

We had never been in December before and were happy to see a festive lights area.

It turn out this was the area that led to the crafting room where we could make our own bunting. The museum supplied all the materials – stencils, card, pens, glitter, ribbons, glue. We made one with two buses and two roundels, and this bunting is currently hanging by the Christmas tree in Nana’s house.

The room also had a display of vintage toys which was quite fascinating to look at.

The lights area was so pretty, I would have loved to have taken more photos but there was a member of staff watching and standing there like the police, so it was a bit awkward haha!

It was late Saturday afternoon at this point, about 5.15pm, so it was very quiet. Usually there is a queue for this bus, but not this time. Tyler got on and started pressing buttons on the ceiling, as if he was typing in the driver’s password!

The play area was quiet at this point too, as there was half-an-hour until the museum shut. Tyler decided to try every outfit out while he was playing. I got to sit down and do some Instagram stories at this point. Perhaps that was a bad idea as my phone’s battery died an hour later.

When the museum closed, we went into the gift shop which stays open til late and bought the LTM Christmas jumper. Then we ate in the cafe upstairs – Tyler had train-shaped pasta and I had a latte. Then we looked around the shop upstairs, there are sooooo many transport books. We ended up buying Geoff Marshall’s Tube Trivia book, as he is Tyler’s hero and it’s a nice, small size that seems easy enough for a 6-year-old to read.

Once out of the museum, the lights of Covent Garden just catch your eye. At night it looks absolutely magical.

Tyler was particularly entranced by this ‘tree on a car’, as he called it.

Inside the market, the mistletoe lights are beautiful. If you are planning a trip to London, so come and see this.

It was busy in Covent Garden, being a Saturday night in London, and there were a lot of people dressed as Santa in the party mood, as well as families out and about.

When we got to the tube station, it was closed due to overgrounding. It had started to rain to, so we sheltered in a doorway and waited. After 15 minutes, the rain stopped but the station was still closed.

We walked to Leicester Square, and decided to keep walking to Piccadilly Circus. It was quite exciting walking through London at night with Tyler. It was about 7.30pm at this point. Here he is at Leicester Square.

And China Town!

And Piccadilly Circus… where the tube station was also closed due to overcrowding!

Tyler enjoyed walking to the different tube stop, it felt like an adventure, though his feet were starting to get tired. Here he is at Trafalgar Square, where we walked down the subway to Charing Cross tube station.

Finally on the tube, he settled in his seat to read his Tube Trivia book. He did not put it down all the way home – he’ll be spouting out even more random facts now!

We got back to Nana’s house at about 9pm. Lily was still awake and she ran to hug Tyler, and Tyler was buzzing to tell her and Nana all about his London adventure.

Have you ever had a night-time adventure with your kiddos? It does feel exciting!

Sabrina x