Manchester City Art Gallery

The first serious spell of rain we have had in ages was leading to cabin fever. We needed to get out of the house and do something. We also needed to get FIJ down from her Easter sugar high and distract her from the eggs for a few hours.

Manchester City Art Gallery was perfect. This year it has been nominated for the Guardian Family Friendly Museum of the Year award and you can see why. It's the best gallery for children I have been to. You can get explorer work belts complete with magnifying glasses and in the Clore Interactive Gallery there are costumes to dress up in to recreate famous pieces of art.

FIJ's favourite was this prism that you can sit in. She enjoyed looking at it through her binoculars.

Being encouraged to touch everything in one gallery and then told not to in another was a bit much for her to understand though. We took that as a cue to have lunch. The Cornerhouse aubergine parmigiana. Yum.

A good day.