Thomas’s face!

After making a picnic for us and the boys, helping James to write a birthday card and wrap a present for his friend whose party he was going to later, we left daughter working in her office and took the boys to Whitehouse farm near Morpeth for a day of fun. (Just as well it was fun as it cost over £50 for the 4 of us). The place was very busy.

En route James (now 8) told us what he thought of Liz Truss (she was a bad prime minister who made everything more expensive and all she talked about was cheese). He told us if he was PM he’d make sure if anyone chopped down a tree they’d have to plant two. Also the rich people should buy dinners for the poor. He asked what we thought and listened to the answers.

A lot of Halloween activities were laid on but the boys just wanted to go through a spooky corridor then have lots of turns on the doughnut slide. Thomas and I went to see the meerkats get fed though he declined tossing in the live mealworms. Mr C and James went to the pumpkin patch where we met them. After selecting their pumpkins we had our picnic. James has a new favourite sandwich - lettuce and bread (nothing else). They spent ages climbing a tower and sliding down various tubes. They made friends with another boy so the game they devised went on and on till they decided they wanted to carve their pumpkins. They made a start but when I reminded them about the Birds of Prey flights and feeding they decided to finish the pumpkins at home. They loved the birds - James was quick to ask if there were any feathers going - and said it was the best bit of the day, especially getting the owls to fly to them and alight on the glove.

We got James to his party at a sports centre in North Shields for 4.15, then got Thomas home. His mum was still at work so he played a computer game while we got ready to go to Andrea and Pete’s for an early supper.

It was great to see them and we all chatted about their trips to Portugal and ours to Scandinavia, politics of course, art, film and families.