At the start of the summer holidays, my son saw an advert for an animatronic dinosaur that would be visiting Palmers Garden Centre. Now anyone who knows my little monkey will know he loves Dinosaurs! Loves them to the point he believes he is one, but he is in disguise because people think they are extinct. He has a whole theory on where all the dinosaurs are hiding. Its incredible and yet crazy to listen to. However, no matter how much he believes he is a dinosaur, he is still a little afraid of them.
But on we ventured to Palmers Garden Centre on what was quite a cool Saturday, we rock up, and the car park is not too busy, there isn’t anybody else milling around. We proceed into the Garden Centre, its a lovely place but where are the crowds of excited children. My son, eagle eyed as he is spots a sign, “theres a picture of a trex mummy! over there!” He rushes over, and we slowly follow and he shouts “Mummy, it says its on Sunday!” So we have ventured out, braved the cold weather, and instead of coming face to face with a ferocious dinosaur, we have a nice walk around the garden centre.
But did we give in, I hear you shout! No we awoke on Sunday morning, and tried again. This time, the car park its filled with cars, we can hear the excited chatter of children, and we make our way to the Gazebo to wait for the adventure.
The young lady who is presenting is bright and cheerful, and despite the loud children and chatty parents, she tries her hardest to entertain the masses. She brings out small lizards, a big frog, snakes and all sorts. Poppet was begging to hold everything, Monkey was moving further and further to the back of the room, practically begging the young lady to bring out the dinosaur already.
Finally, the moment has arrived… anticipation is building. I should probably admit we have seen a robot dinosaur before, it scared monkey then, but it was still cool. The drama was too much, and finally the dinosaur appeared to the sound of parents laughing. The children were fooled and from far away, it probably would have passed for a scary TRex, it scared my son enough.
Not my poppet though, she was brave and wanted to touch it whenever it got close. But really, it was quite amusing. The animatronic dinosaur was probably a bit of an exaggeration. Man in giant dino costume would have fit better, but may not have looked so good on the adverts. The dino was a little naughty but the kids loved it. He danced, he played musical statues, much to my sons delight, he also pooped on the floor. From where we sat at the back, you could quite easily have been fooled, I thought at least the children would be.
But then….
He moved closer to us, and this is what you can see. How had this fooled all these children? My little poppet stands up, twenty children before her had cowered as it got close, not my little girl. She reaches over to it, the head snaps to her, and she strokes it! Wow! I thought Ive got a brave girl here, she sits back down and turns to monkey and says “Don’t be a baby, its just a man in a costume, I can see his legs!” I crack up every time I think about it. My girl, can’t be fooled by anything! But really, lets be honest was anyone really fooled?!
However, the morning was spent as a family having an amazing time. The young lady presenting really knew her stuff, the children learnt lots of new, interesting dinosaur facts. And they both got to play musical statues with a Giant Tyrannosaurus Rex, I would say this was a great morning. For after the show, if you hung around you also got the chance for some wonderful photo opportunities.
Monkey and Poppet enjoying some photos with some dinosaur bones and an egg.
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