Reasons to be cheerful: The Gruffalo and more! #R2BC

Once again the lovely Michelle is hosting the happiest linky around! I look forward to seeing what everyone else is posting too.. Here my reasons to be cheerful this week:

1) Outdoor fun in the forest

I have already posted about my lovely time at Whinlatter with my son hunting the Gruffalo. We had so much fun at this lovely location with adventures around characters from one of our favourite ever stories:

2) Proud Mum #1

My son had his latest fell race this weekend and had his best finish position of the season. He is getting faster again and seems so much fitter with all his different sporting activities.

3) Proud Mum #2

#CountryKids Gruffalo Spotting at Whinlatter Forest

As Ambassadors for the Forest at Whinlatter we were pleased to be asked to try out the new Gruffalo Spotting app this weekend. These are an upgrade to the trails that were first introduced in 2014. We downloaded the app and took our Gruffalo Spotters' pack (normally £3 from your forest):

We then took the hour long drive across Cumbria to Whinlatter forest to start our trail:

First of all my son had to have a go in the basket swing as we passed it!

#CountryKids On a Hunt for the Gruffalo at Grizedale

Having thoroughly enjoyed the Stick Man trail during the winter we were keen to try out the new Gruffalo trail. For a change we were at Grizedale forest as we were going to be trying out Go Ape Junior later in the day. We were joined by a friend and her 3 year old to test it out. 

We were given the trail leaflet by a friend who had been 2 days before which saved us £2. She had also told us where the trail started so we just headed up the blue trail where we found the start of the information boards. 

The first challenge board asked the children to move like the various animals in the story. My daughter duly posed for me stomping like the Gruffalo:

To encourage little legs and keep us on track there were little signs along the way:

Reasons to be Cheerful: It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas #R2BC

Well my children broke up from school yesterday and I only have tomorrow to get through so it's nearly properly Christmas! So here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:

1) Proud Mummy

This week a couple of reasons to be proud of my son. First of all running his first race:

Then 2 days later he made his debut singing with his school (to hear them go here):

I am sorry I missed hearing my daughter in the school Christingle as her class had learnt Silent Night in Polish! It's great that my children are happy to perform in front of an audience.

2) Me time