Hello, everyone! Today I’m going to tell you all about a really exciting day out we went on a few weeks ago.

ENJOY!

Mummy’s a blogger, so we were lucky enough to get some tickets to the Foundling Museum for the Hetty Feather exhibit, and we also got to meet Jacqueline Wilson, who is a fellow of the museum, in person!!!

We left our house quite early in the morning to drive down to my Nana’s house, just outside London. We got there about two and a half hours later, but we literally had to say hi and go. We walked to the station in their town and caught the tube. It was mine, Mimi’s and Lola’s first ever tube trip, and it was very exciting to us. It got quite busy, but it was fun standing up. The journey wasn’t actually too bad, about 40 minutes in all, with a minute or two at each stop. On the way, we stopped at Wembley Park, and we caught our first ever glimpse of Wembley Stadium! We got off at King’s Cross with plenty of time to spare, so we took a leisurely stroll through London to the Foundling Museum.

This is us outside the Foundling Museum!

When we got there and had got in, there was a small gift/souvenir shop packed with Hetty Feather, Jacqueline Wilson, and Victorian-style gifts. We were told we had about five minutes to wait, so we went down some stairs to a small room. There were some costumes that you could try on, for boys and girls, like the ones in the CBBC TV series of Hetty Feather. It was all so exciting! I tried on an ugly brown dress, complete with a bonnet.

This is me, standing next to Hetty Feather!

Next we went around some of the exhibit, which had costumes that the actual actresses and actors wore. I was looking at the kitchen maid (Ida)’s costume when I turned my head and…Jacqueline Wison was sitting there! It was one of my biggest dreams come true! We all went in and Mimi and Lola sat down to do some activities that were around the room. I was looking around, and it was like I had stepped into a Victorian classroom. The room we were in was designed to look like the girl’s classroom in the Foundling Hospital, complete with smart desk rows, inkwells and a blackboard and chalk. And there was Jacqueline, sitting right across from me!

When the talk started, one of the staff read out parts of the Foundling Hospital and Museum’s history, and about why Jacky is a Fellow of the Museum. Then Jacky herself talked to us, and read out the first few pages of her book, Hetty Feather. The day before I had bought a copy of it, and now I read it along with her. It was amazing to hear her own story come to life in her voice! Afterwards, we all lined up to get our books signed. I am going to treasure that book forever and ever!

My brand new book, signed by Jacqueline Wilson!

Jacqueline reading Hetty Feather!

Now, you guys know I like to write stories, and you’ve actually read a couple of them (hopefully!), so I put together a letter and a few of my stories for her. I gave them to her at the Museum,asking if she could possibly read them, and an extraordinary thing happened! Read to the end to find out what…

Me and Jacqueline, with my letter and stories!

After the talk and book signings had finished, we went to look round the museum itself, and oh, my, goodness! It is absolutely incredible!

You can see beds, actual tokens from mothers and the first 3000 children with their new names (foundlings were taken in as babies, and were christened new names). There are also several iPads around the rooms, so you can read particular pieces of information. And that’s just the ground floor…

One of the incredible rooms at the Foundling Museum!

After we had explored everywhere and done the Hetty Feather exhibits, we had a quick visit to the gift shop area and Dad bought me: a cool Hetty Feather T-shirt, a Hetty Feather pen, a Hetty Feather badge and Nick Sharratt’s How To Draw the World of Jacqueline Wilson.

These are the items that Dad very kindly bought for me!

So, after that, it was time for the workshop (they are open all summer for absolutely anybody, not just bloggers). The one that was on that day was called ‘Miss Smith’s Books’, and we made miniature books with marbled covers, as Hetty gets given a few marbled notebooks. So we made these concertinas (folded paper books) then created marbled covers by swirling together some ink and water, then dipping in the card/paper. It was sooooo much fun!

Making marbled covers with ink!

Afterwards, we went back to King’s Cross station for lunch at Costa Coffee. Then we caught the Underground again and walked back to Nana’s house. We spent a couple of hours there, talking, playing hide-and-seek, and looking at the cool gifts!

Finally, we got back in the car and set off home. We stopped at Sophie’s house for what we thought was a short visit to see her. But when we went into her room, she had a packed suitcase and Dad surprised us and said that she was staying with us for the rest of the week! When we got home, we had some KFC for tea, just to finish off the awesome day!

Now I guess you’re wondering what the last big surprise was…

A couple of days later the post arrived and I went to get it, and…there was a postcard…with Jaqueline’s picture on it!!! She had actually written back!!! And her message was super nice too!!

“Dear Ella,

It was lovely to see you at the Foundling Museum today. Thank you very much for showing me your stories.

I think you’re a born writer – you have a great way with words and some very original ideas. Good luck for the future!

Love,

Jacqueline Wilson xx”

I hope that finishes off my post and I hope you all enjoyed reading it! Please leave me a comment below!