I managed to keep it a surprise

I am so used to planning out the weeks and days with the boys, that when I booked for them to go to the theatre, it has been difficult not to let the cat out of the bag.

J asked in the morning what we had to do, so I just said I had an appointment at 1 to pick something up in town, so we would have a picnic in the Winter Gardens.

We happened to be there in time for some dance performances from schools around the city which had been created for the children's festival.

After coming back from the Library, J began the interrogation, trying to find out what I was getting. Fortunately, it was cut short as D wanted to go to see the exhibitions at the Millennium centre.

Leaving J reading his library books, D and I went to see Timorous Beasties first. This was an exhibitions showing textiles designed using the John Ruskin collection as inspiration. It may have been strange to see bugs on fabric, but it was fun.

The next exhibition was so fascinating, we may have to go back for a second look. It was called Out of the Ordinary Spectacular Craft. The exhibits were made from a range of products using paper, metal, wood, glass, and lace. The time and effort that went into some of these pieces were amazing.

D and I both chose the same exhibit as our favourite. It was made up using pins, drawing pins, knives, forks, desert and tea spoon and small bulldog clips.

The bulldog clips were arranged to form a small circle in the middle, with the cutlery arranged in a larger circle around. The pins were then used to form patterns that were once used to decorate the cutlery that made Sheffield famous.

We had to cut short our visit so we weren't late picking up the tickets for the theatre. As soon as we arrived at the door J knew what we were seeing. We saw the Horrible Histories production of the Woeful Second World War.

The boys thought it was fabulous, especially the 3D effects in the second half.

It was well worth the effort of keeping it secret.