Folly Farm again

Sand Digger

We took Matthew back to Folly Farm again today, the second year in a row we've been on the August Bank Holiday, and probably the last time Matthew will get in for free!  It was busier this year because Thomas the Tank Engine put in a guest appearance, which I thought might cause a little too much excitement for Matthew but actually he was very good. 

After going round the barn to see the farmyard animals, we decided to see Thomas first as we thought Matthew would be more patient in the morning.  The "guest appearance" just meant a large model Thomas engine with a man dressed as the Fat Controller posing for photographs, but even for this we had to queue for 40 minutes.  Matthew was very good waiting and didn't moan or cry, though was a little scared of a clown who was handing out balloon toys and animals to children in the queue.  He ended up with a balloon sword, but we lost this somewhere in Folly Farm during the day (Matthew didn't notice, so there were no tears).  The Fat Controller was very friendly, but Matthew was scared of him too, so wouldn't smile for a photo.  He did have a chance to pretend to drive Thomas by climbing in the cab, and he enjoyed this.  He was very good leaving, too, and climbed out of Thomas without a fuss.

Desperately trying to pedal

Apart from the Thomas appearance and playing with some toy sand diggers, we mainly visited the attractions we saw last time: the diggers (I was useless this year); visiting the giraffes, zebras, meerkats, camel and other animals; funfair etc.  Matthew really enjoyed the miniature tractors again and went on them twice, though this year he left without a fuss both times.  He also had a go on the larger pedal tractors, but couldn't work out how to pedal them and after a good 10 - 15 minutes trying to teach him we gave up.  He also can't pedal his smart trike at home yet.  There were other children there pedalling away who looked of a similar age to Matthew though, as he's tall for his age, they may have been a little older and looking online it seems most children learn around 3½.

One extra thing we did today was go on the racing karts, which we've never done before.  This was when Matthew threw his only tantrum of the day, as we had to queue for quite a while (though not as long as for Thomas).  Once we were driving round, he seemed to really enjoy it, and because we were in the first kart it looked like we were winning until we were all slowed down because someone had an accident, when a few people passed us.  

A little scared of the Fat Controller

Matthew received a pack of dinosaurs from the toy shop for being a good boy during the day, but unfortunately one of them turned out to have a missing arm, and a leg has fallen off one of the others since they came home!