Half Term

So, we have had a good half term.  It went too quickly of course, and we were all disappointed when Tom returned to school, but we made the most of it.

It all kicked off on Friday when Neil, Sharon, Rory and Lewis rocked up just as I collected Tom.  They had been at Center Parcs for the week (being Scottish they got cheap price as it was still term time here)  They dropped in for the night, so Tom immediately had two playmates (Rory and Lewis do tend to scrap so both want to play with Tom)  It was very noisy and manic for a while - all good stuff.  (We had hidden Tom's birthday presents for safe keeping).  They all hoovered up my bbq ribs for tea and then more playing before sleeping together in Tom's room.  It was very exciting, we gave them many chances to behave, but it was just too exciting so in the end Rory got removed from the room and it all settled down.

They were up early though (6am) and once up, that was it.  We put Star Wars on for Rory and Lewis and Tom played Lego until we were ready to get going (much later!).  They had to leave early as Sharon was meeting up with a family friend in Glasgow centre later that day.  (Sorry, forgot to take any photos!)

The new steed

We were left with a lovely day so decided to go for a bike ride - to try out the new bike carrier and the new bike.  It took a while to work out the new carrier (had to take a seat off and Tom's new mudguard off for it to work) but we got there in the end.  We headed to Bull Beck just outside of Caton, unloaded and cycled.  Wow!  The boy has speed!!!!!  I was quite worried to start with as he was going quite fast, but the distractions of his gears and his new speedo slowed him down (phew!).  He looked really good on the bike and under the tuition of his father, began to get to grips with his gears. He did really well.  We asked him where he wanted to go and he suggested Hest Bank, so we got ourselves onto the canal bank and cycled there.  It was a lovely day, not too cold, clear with not too many people cycling so we had the place to ourselves.  After only 2 rests we arrived at Hest Bank and a certain someone chose to have lunch at the Shore Cafe by the train line (surprise surprise!)  After an outdoor lunch (yes - in February!), a spot of trainspotting (slim pickings due to the main line being closed between Lancaster and Preston), and the compulsory throwing of stones into the sea, we headed back.  Tom, once again did very well, but he did begin to tire.  However, he never moaned once - determined to get to the end.  What a trooper.

An exhausting half term

We drove home, on arrival to the house, Tom collapsed in a heap on the stairs and requested an afternoon nap in his bed.  He was asleep in seconds.  He stayed in a deep sleep for over an hour.  When we woke him at 4.30 he was soaked - he was sooooo asleep he wet the bed and didn't even realise when he woke up as he was so zonked, poor thing!  We got him up, he had a bath, had dinner and then went straight back to bed.  I think maybe we over-did it with the sleep over and bike ride.  Oops.

Sunday dawned a lovely day - clear blue skies.  We decided to head to Hesketh Farm Park at Bolton Abbey.  Unfortunately the sky clouded over as we passed Settle and it didn't clear for the rest of the day.  Oh well never mind.  We arrived at the park and immediately made friends with some furry creatures.  Tom decided to cuddle a guinea pig, but the one he choose was a bit of a scamp and ran off, with the farm workers chasing him.  Oops.  Not to worry, he got another one who was more placid and had a stroke and fed him a carrot.  Then we had a look at the new arrivals to the farm - lots of calves and piglets.  Tom even got to feed a calf some milk out of a super sized bottle.

Handsome donkey

After a look around the hatching room, we found the John Deere pedal tractors and lost him in there for a while.  We managed to persuade him away from them with the promise of seeing a real John Deere, so headed outside where there were some sheep, donkeys and chickens.  Tom got the opportunity to collect chickens eggs which he did very carefully.  He also got to clamber on a monster sized John Deere tractor.  We then headed inside for lunch before going round the farm another time.  I tried to convince Tom to feed one of the donkeys but he wouldn't do it, too scared he would get bitten.  Ho hum....

Monday - we had a 'useful' day.  Tom's grown out of his school trousers, so we needed to get some new ones and we needed to buy some bits and pieces (cards to make thank you cards etc) so off to Kendal we went.  It was a miserable day, so I guess it was put to good use.

Tuesday we headed to Shildon Railway Museum for the day.  This meant a lovely trip through the Dales passing through lovely looking towns such as Leyburn, Richmond etc.  This museum is part of the NRM but very much its lesser known cousin.  We thought it would be packed with children, but it was eerily quiet.  There were some children around but most of them were pre-schoolers.  Oh well, meant we were able to amble around at our pace and play with all the bits and bobs.

Huge wheel

Patriotic Tom

The museum had made a number of hunts for the children - object hunts, word hunts, and proper comprehension hunts.  Tom did the first two types, which made the museum a whole lot more interesting for him.  The whole place was really well set up for children - with lots of activities for them to play with.  Tom was in his element as was I (I do love a hunt).  There were a good number of trains - from the Royal Train from Queen Vic's era, to the APT, a snow plough and a lot of others - mainly steam trains.  There was a huge shop (Matt got excited) and a cafe for lunch.  After lunch we explored the rest of the museum - it covers quite a big area and includes various buildings.  All in all it was a good museum and a lovely day out.  We drove back a different way through Barnard Castle which looked like another lovely Dales town to revisit at some stage.

Engine Driver

Wednesday we were up early to catch the train to Birmingham.  We were meeting up with Granma and Pop Pop for a couple of days - Birmingham is sort of half way and we could both get there by train rather than flog along on the motorway.  I had sorted out hotel and a visit to a new museum - the Wonderful World of Planes and Trains which holds a number of model railway layouts, and some plane simulators and a big Scalextric track.

Canadian Layout

It was unfinished but that didn't matter to Master Tom who was immediately in his element.  I'm sure if it was up to him, he would have stayed all day!  As it was we did stay for 3 hours and were the last ones there.  Once again it was quite surprisingly empty.  Tom got to play on all the things he wanted and didn't have to queue for anything (except the Scalextric which had been hijacked by some older kids who were not going to let anyone else have a go - however, they went home eventually - so we had a go - but most of the cars didn't work - they basically burnt it out!)

Pop Pop flying

Tom had a go on the aeroplane simulator - he got to fly a water plane - with myself helping.  We did quite well, managing to take off and land without incident (it was a proper adult simulator so unforgiving)  Pop Pop had a go too.  Mum watched a child who was about 10 have a go on a proper civilian aircraft circling a city etc - apparently she was very very good - maybe a pilot in the making - all it takes to create an interest is access to a simulator.  I'm sure if somewhere near us had a Shinkansen simulator we would be bringing up a train driver here!

Luckily the cafe in the museum was near to the biggest layout so we all had a sit down and a drink whilst Tom watching the trains, running round the front and back to see the trains do their circuits.  His interest didn't wain - in fact he needed encouragement to eat cake and then stuffed the whole piece in his mouth in one go in an attempt to eat it as quickly as possible.  We then had to do one more lap of the museum before finally leaving after a quick chat with the owner who suggested we should revisit twice a year to see progress.

Pop Pop playing with the Scalextric

We walked back to the hotel and went to Granma and Pop Pop's room to exchange birthday presents: Dad is 70 this month as well as Tom having his birthday.  Both boys were well behaved and said nice thank yous for their gifts.  We then had a rest before heading out for dinner.  We were in the posh end of town so struggled to find something close that was reasonable.  In the end we plumped for a Nepalese restaurant which wasn't as expensive as the others (although still pretty pricey!).  Tom fell upon the poppadoms and ate the rest (but a little under duress - by this time he was getting tired and a little bit naughty)

Anyway I think everyone had a good dinner and then we walked back to the hotel.  We all got ready for bed, Tom was asleep within 10 minutes so he must have been tired as having us in the room with him is a huge distraction.  Unfortunately he didn't sleep that well - he kept waking up with growing pains and shifting around which disturbed us.  Oh and my he can snore!!!!!!  Matt kept having to turn him over!

We met up for breakfast and then said our goodbyes.  Unfortunately it was a grim day - rain, rain rain!  Tom and I headed for the new library whilst Matt went shopping (he had his sights set on the Apple Store and other electrical stores that hold little interest for me or Tom).  The new library was pretty impressive, Tom immediately got into books so we read quite a bit - in the end we didn't have time for a look around, there is a view point, roof top garden, cafe and restaurant in it.

Three generations

We met up with Matt in town and had lunch at Yo Sushi!  Wow!!!!!  It was mega expensive!  In the end we had a snack rather than lunch as we couldn't bring ourselves to pay the price for the food.  They were wanting to charge £5 for 3 gyoza - wow that is double what they would charge in central Tokyo!  Judging by the amount of plates some people had - they were about to take out a second mortgage to pay for it!

Tom didn't mind though - he had been intently watching the Krispy Kreme machine making all the donuts earlier and had been given a free doughnut - so he wasn't hungry.

We then bought ourselves a new case (our previous overnight case died on the way back from Japan last year) then went back to the hotel and repacked everything into it and walked along the canals to the Mailbox.  Dipped into the BBC for half an hour and then back to New Street and home.  A quick, useful break. Tom said the best thing about Birmingham was seeing Granma and Pop Pop and the model railways.

Free Krispy Kreme Donut!

On Friday we decided to head back into the Dales to explore Leyburn.  We found ourselves a lovely farm shop cafe just outside where we had lunch (lowering the average age by quite some way) and then headed into the town.  We found a wonderful hardware / kitchenware shop - one of those shops that goes back and back and back.  We were both happy - Matt got lost in the hardware and I got lost in the kitchenware.  I could happily have spent a LOT of money there, but managed to restrain myself limiting myself to some plain cupcake cases which I've been unable to get from Asda.  We then walked about looking for a butcher and couldn't find one which we thought was strange.  After asking a few people we stumbled across a shop called Campbells.  It didn't look much from the outside, but what a shop!!!!!!  Another one that goes back and back and back, with a huge butchers at the back selling lots of things we haven't seen elsewhere (we bought two huge trays of lamb ribs for £3 each).  It had loads of different things in it - finally found some giant couscous (Mum and Dad - how do you cook yours again?)  Upstairs we found the most amazing wine merchants and a wall of single malt whiskies: the best selection we have seen out of Scotland.  I think we were in there over an hour.  I'm pretty sure we will now be unable to pass through Leyburn without stopping to shop.

Hornby Castle snowdrops

On Saturday we headed to Hornby Castle for their snowdrop walk.  This is a private castle that opens its grounds every now and again. It was a very pleasant morning.  Lots of snowdrops, a pond to explore, a river walk.  We wanted to go in the castle but there was a formal presentation going on about the history of the castle and we didn't think taking a 6 year old into it would be a good idea!  We then headed to Carnforth Station for lunch and Aldi for another quick shop - get this they were selling a whole goose for £10.  I have always been curious but they are normally so expensive, we picked one up.  Our chest freezer is now officially full - we need to invite people to stay as we now have a duck, a goose, a leg of lamb and a huge lump of gammon in it as well as plenty of cakes, fruit for making into jam and lots of others things.  Anyone fancy a good roast and crumble at ours?

Sunday was a dull day.  Stuart came over in the afternoon to see if he could mend our rainwater collection pump so Tom and I headed to Lancaster with the Atkinsons to see Shaun the Sheep.  Now you would think Shaun the Sheep would be a safe bet for Tom as it is aimed at pre-schoolers.  We gave him a good talking to before we headed out about trying not to cry during any sad bits because everyone will be happy at the end.  We did well.  He even leant over to me at one point and said, this isn't scary at all.  However, at the end it looked like Shaun and his friends were going to be dumped into a quarry and Tom went off!!!!  It is almost like torture for him as I made him carry on watching when he didn't want so he could see the happy ending.  He was OK in the end, but really crying at Shaun the Sheep?  He was the only one to cry!  We really do have the most sensitive boy in the world!