The Snowman and The Dog Grotto at intu The Trafford Centre

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I recently saw an advert on TV that there was a Snowman and The Snowdog grotto in intu Trafford Centre. When I went online I was gutted that it was pretty much sold out, obviously very popular. We were going to the Trafford Centre last weekend but there was no times available. I double checked the night before to see if any times had become available and I was so please that one time slot was showing green instead of the sold out red. 

I quickly whizzed through the booking form and secured our placed in the grotto. There was an option to book and pay for your photographs and other souvenirs online but I decided to wait until we got there.

The Snowman and The Snowdog is situated in Barton Square amongst lots of festive stalls and a lovely Victorian Carousel.

We arrived 10 minutes earlier than are booking time and joined the queue. Only 45 people can go through at any one time so even though are timed slot had past by the time we got to the front of the queue we had to wait a further 15 minutes to go through as it had reached full capacity. 

We left our buggy by the entrance and when it was our time to go through we were taken into a room that was set out as Billys living room and we were greeted by Billy's Mum. We took a seat on the benches provided and the children were invited to sit on the floor at the front.

Billy's mum told us all about the Snowman and The Snowdog and what had happened on one Christmas Eve when Billy had made them both and at the magic hour 12:00am they both came alive. 
There was a large TV screen and we got to watch snippets of The Snowman and The Snowdog. It really put us in the Christmassy mood both the Snowman and The Snowman and the Snowdog are our favourite christmas movies.

Once we had finished in Billy's living room (approx 15 minutes) we walked past all the snowmen until we cam to a place were we could write a letter to Santa.

We were actually first in the queue to walk through the magical walkway to see Santa but little J kept running back and forth and looking at all the snowman so we were actually last in the end.


Towards the end there is a huge display with the snowman and the snowdog. 


We managed to get little J to sit down for two minutes while big J wrote him out a list so we could post it in the big red postbox.

Once we had done that it was time to see Father Christmas. He was lovely and gave both big and little J a gift. 

The overall experience was lovely and it was well worth the wait and I can see just why it is so popular. We were inside for approx 30-40 minutes in total and it was truly magical.

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The Dinosaur That Pooped

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Its pretty obvious from past posts that I am a huge Mcfly/Busted/McBusted fan. As well as amazing singers, song writers and musicians, Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter have put pen to paper and created a trio of children's books featuring a Dinosaur that likes to poop. The Dinosaur That Pooped Christmas, The Dinosaur That Pooped A Planet and The Dinosaur That Pooped The Past all feature rhyming text, colourful illustrations, great fun and yes, a great big pooping dinosaur.
  


There is quite an age gap between my two monkeys so I decided to read to both of them and yes as you probably guessed it my 12 year old was grinning from ear to ear throughout all three books. Why is it boys just love toilet humour? Little J loved looking at the pictures and sat for the whole story which he hasn't done before.
 
I have to admit I did find them quite funny myself and particularly liked the pooped a planet story. 
The Dinosaur That Pooped Christmas
 
When Danny asks for too many presents, Father Christmas decides that Danny deserves a huge dinosaur. The Dinosaur is very, very big and very, very hungry and eats up all of Christmas and you guessed it what goes in must come out.
 
The Dinosaur That Pooped a Planet
 
Danny and his dinosaur are back and this time they are going on an adventure into space. Unfortunately Danny forgets his very hungry dinosaurs lunchbox. Dinosaur starts to eat everything in sight including the rocket to get them home.
 
The Dinosaur That Pooped The Past
   
Danny and his Dinosaur are sent back in time in their third adventure. Dinosaur gets to meet new friends and all is well until there is a huge volcano about to erupt. How will they get back to the future?
 
Lots of fun for children of all ages and adults too.
 
To find out more about Danny and his pooping dinosaur check out
https://www.facebook.com/TheDinosaurThatPooped
https://twitter.com/PoopingDinosaur
 
Have you read any of the Pooping Dinosaur Books? Which is your favourite?
 
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