Big Blue Eyes

Today was an early start as usual, I got up around 5:20 to sort my bag out for driving down to Coldstream to pick up Phoebe, this time my Mum was going with me too so at least I had someone to share the driving with, and thankfully she prefers the motorway section, the bit I get bored on, and she doesn't like the A68 from Edinburgh to Newcastle, the bit i like, so it works out quite well!

On the way down to Newcastle we stopped in Longframlington, the place we got stuck in the snow in December, and popped into the butchers, we know about this place as the local hotel that we stayed in served meat from there, so now I will be making regular stops there, anyway we ended up with enough meat to feed an army, pork pies, fillet steaks which we consumed at night and were superb, lamb shanks, a smoked gammon joint, black pudding and some sausages, of which they list the ingredients of on the counter, just compare your local butchers meat content to supermarket bought and you may be in for a surprise!

Once in Newcastle we had lunch, some of the sausages we had bought, before heading out to find a play park as Phoebe asked nicely, the first being the Shiremoor Adventure Play Park although it seemed to be closed despite the council website saying it should be open, the next park was just like a bog so we headed to a soft play area in North Shields.

Kiki's Kabin is a play area we haven't been to yet, it's in an old church and when we walked in I got the impression it was all on the ground floor, including the cafe, however once we got further in to the building we realised the full area of the church, even up to the roof, is jammed with areas for kids to go mad in! It didn't take Phoebe long to start running around the place like a crazy woman, joining in with all of the other excitable kids running riot, I did my best to keep up with Phoebe but she is now at the point where she can manage most obstacles without help, although she still ask's me to go in to chase her around. On the top floor we found a bouncy castle, Phoebe immediately took to it, she was a bit wobbly at first, and with the other kids bouncing around she was sent flying a few times, landing on her face, but she just giggled and carried on! Phoebe also found a tunnel, which I was just slim enough to make it through behind Phoebe, screaming as I chased her through it, eventually Phoebe began to tell me off for following her through "No Daddy! Too big!! Don't chase me!!" before giggling again and trying to speed away! Phoebe also gatecrashed a little girls disco party, hearing some music coming from a dark room she led me in before realising everyone was dancing, so she joined in straight away, none of the mum's there seemed to mind us joining in though!

After an hour and a half of fun, I enjoyed it just as much as Phoebe, we left and took a sleepy little girl back to the house for a chilled night which was needed after all of the excitement, another brilliant day with my little girl.

Phoebe and Me