August 12, 2007

Well, the warm weather has held out for the weekend (although they're promising high winds and heavy rain next week!) and we spent a nice afternoon at the hot-air balloon festival in Bristol.

Charlie was very excited about the whole thing - one, because Grandpa was coming too, and two, because the event was backed by the Discovery Channel's 'Shark Week'! When we arrived, we found the shark stand, and he sat for ages, engrossed in a discussion all about the different types of shark. We were surprised how well he listened, because it wasn't really geared towards children his age, but he joined in, answered questions, helped the man giving the talk to pace out the size of a basking shark, and got his hands on a fossilised megalodon tooth (don't ask me - I'm just the typist!) and a whole jawbone from another shark complete with four or five rows of VERY sharp teeth!

There were also loads of rides and fairground stalls, which we obviously had to visit! The crocodile rollercoaster was a big favourite (see pic above) and we had to have several goes on a 'hook a duck' game, so Charlie could win a talking Puss in Boots from Shrek.

We found a prime seat in the shade, right by the main arena, and really enjoyed watching all the displays - although Charlie was most impressed by a man in a gorilla suit, riding a motorcycle. Well - I suppose he is only three! He'd decided to take his binoculars with him (or 'nocliers' as he calls them!) and entertained himself for quite a while by looking through the wrong end of them!

Although the weather was fab, the balloons were quite late taking off, so it was a late night for Charlie. In spite of this though, he really enjoyed watching them lift off, and spent the whole journey home spotting them out of the car window.

He's really had his appetite whetted by the rides at the balloon show, so now he's counting the days until we go to Legoland!

No more news really - I'm attaching a few more pics from Saturday.