James at Belsay

We had an early start to get to Whitley Bay for a bit of child-minding duty as it is half term. We made a picnic and dragged them away from minecraft to drive up to Belsay via Fenwicks where I took back the high heels. By the time Mr C had dropped me off at one place and driven to the Eldon Garden exit of the mall I had done the job so nobody got bored waiting.

It was showery but warm - 17 degrees. There was a challenge for the boys at Belsay - they had a booklet to complete to get a badge and bookmark on the way out. We covered 3.5 miles of the garden, woodland and quarry to find various cards of Halloween characters to tick off. There were also riddles to solve. It was a new venue for them so the enjoyed exploring.

One task was to write down 5 things a wizard might use in a spell. Thomas wrote honey, cake, sweets, chocolate and ice cream. I was James’s scribe - rotten flesh, eyeballs, poo, bogies and stinky feet.

We took them for ice cream then home at 4 after a grand day out. We got Vietnamese take away from Omni for adults’ dinner then Mr C did James’s bedtime story and I did Thomas. An early night for all.