This last week has been amazing – one of the most fun weeks we’ve had in a long time.
We started last Thursday night with a last minute trip to the Circus thanks to a much reduced opening night price. There’s no way we would have gone usually as it would have cost £40 on a normal night even with the half price vouchers they were giving out in town! None of us have ever been to a circus before and it was completely different to what we were expecting. The juggler dropped his balls (oops)almost as much as he caught them, the tightrope walker looked completely terrified and the Miss Frugal could have probably done better than the Hula Hoop girl but, all in all, it was lots of fun and we really enjoyed it.
Engrossed in the actionThe next day was Master Frugal’s eighth birthday and he was over the moon with his presents – especially the monkey we adopted for him from London Zoo. We thought the monkey would be a good present for him as he’s monkey obsessed and we were so right. Just look at his face when he saw what we had bought him.
HappinessWe had a lovely weekend involving a trip to the beach (yes it was freezing) and a lovely Easter Egg hunt in the grounds of Rivaulx Abbey (even colder) along with some birthday balloon fun and a trip to A & E!
Weekend funMonday is where things got really good though.
We were given some tickets to go see the Harlem Globetrotters a while ago when I ran a competition on here to win a family ticket to one of their shows and Monday night was the night we were due to be going. I’d emailed the lovely lady who’d given us the tickets over the weekend to ask if it was possible that the announcer could say Happy Birthday to Master Frugal and she emailed me on Sunday night to say that she’s arranged a meet and greet with the players for us!
So when we got there on Monday night they sat us on the team bench while we waited for a lovely man to come and get us to take us backstage at the Newcastle Arena to meet the players. He took us upstairs to the dressing room and we met a few of the players. The guys were absolute giants and they were so nice to us, they singled Master Frugal out several times during the show and made him feel really special. Honestly, he’s not stopped smiling about it!
Both kids got to take part in the pre-show entertainment by playing musical chairs with the team mascot and then we took our seats (courtside, front row) to watch the most entertaining family show that I’ve been to with the kids. It was very different to what I thought though – really funny and the players involved everyone in the fun.
We came away that night with a very, very happy little boy who is now a lifelong fan of Hacksaw and the rest of the Harlem Globetrotters (along with a sweaty headband and wristband that his favourite teddy is now proudly wearing).
Thanks so much to Live Nation for organising the treats for us – it was a lovely, lovely thing to do and made Master Frugal a very happy little boy. Thank you to all of the Harlem Globetrotters but especially Hacksaw who has a devoted life long fan now 😉
Tuesday saw us on the train to London for a trip to the Zoo with Next (more about that in another post though). We travelled down the day early and despite a longer than usual journey and a hotel trauma (more about that in another post too), we had a great day together in the capital. We didn’t do the usual sights as we’ve done them before but we did do the M&Ms store which is four floors of awesome (not my words) and took us a good hour or so to get round.
I had a very proud moment on the walk back to the hotel when Master Frugal spent his own money on buying some food for a homeless man who looked freezing. He gave it to the man himself and the man looked so genuinely grateful when he thanked him that I felt very proud that he’s done something rather than just walking by. I did want to take a photo of the proud moment but thought that the poor man may not appreciate that 😉
After being woken up with breakfast in bed….
…. We headed off to the zoo where we had a pleasant morning with Next before having a few hours to wander around the zoo. Master Frugal was particularly excited to meet the actual monkey that we adopted for him. Bounty was quite hard to track down but with the help of the keepers and Jen and her boys we found him. The monkeys are free to roam about and there’s no barriers or fences between them and the visitors at London zoo so you can get really up close with them. Bounty was so friendly that Master Frugal even had a quick stroke before the warden told him to move back in case he got jumped on!
Needless to say that after all this excitement, we’re all ready to sleep for a week and I was very relieved to get home last night to this:
