Reasons to be Cheerful: Back Home #R2BC

 
I have handed the reins back over to Michelle for November so I know we are in safe hands! Thanks to everyone who joined in with me in October. As well as having had a lovely half term break (plenty of blogposts on their way!) these are my reasons to be cheerful this week:
1) Safely Home
We drove at dawn to Heathrow from our holiday accommodation to meet my daughter's return flight from USA. So happy to have her back in the UK.

2) Frosty Start

We started off the new half term with a cold snap which added a sparkle to the garden:

3) Halloween Pumpkins

Hillier Gardens

On our first full day in Hampshire my mum chose the Hillier Gardens and Arboretum for our trip out. We were hoping that there would be plenty of colourful foliage like this:

My son was relieved to find that the gardens were well geared up to entertain younger visitors with a Spooky Halloween trail:

We got a trail and used the map on the back to follow the clues and to complete activities. The first of these was counting pumpkins in the Children's Education garden. Not the real ones like these but over 30 numbered plaques:

Halloween at Brockhole Lake District Visitor Centre

We went to Brockhole today for a family lunch and enjoyed a taste of their Halloween experience. Its the first year they have gone to town like this and it was pretty amazing. We didn't buy tickets as we had a 3 year old with us but got a chance to see what we were missing out on:

Even if you didn't buy a ticket you could see the effort that had gone into the event from sculpture:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Family, Friends and Fun #R2BC

Now we are in November I have handed the hostess mantle back to the founder Michelle. We will be in good hands until I am in charge again for December! Its been a pretty good week for me from the tail end of half term and then some glorious weather. Here are some of the things that had made me cheerful:
1) Catching up with friends
One of my school friends was up north with her family for the holidays and we enjoyed spending time with them and showing them our castle:

One of my single parent friends is also in the area for a break and we met up for coffee and cake at Yard 46. 

2) Time with my girl

We had a delightful day trip to Lancaster to spend birthday money and try out a vegetarian restaurant:

Such a pleasure to spend a laid back day with her. Then last night we were at the Brewery as a puppetry project she worked on had a showing for the parents. She had done an amazing job!

3) Time with my boy

#CountryKids Fell Foot Halloween Parkrun

Today it was the annual Halloween parkrun at Fell Foot today and my son and I had volunteered to be tail walkers. So we really thought we had better dress for the occasion:

It was good to see that other folks had joined in the spirit of things too:

It was a big turn out with 276 finishers so it was a big briefing:

Then we had the award for parkrunner of the year which went to one of regular volunteers:

Reasons to be Cheerful: November is here #R2BC

I have handed the baton back for the month to the lovely Jo at Ojo's World she will be taking care of us all until December! Please do pop over to her blog and say hello. Meanwhile here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:

1) Family fun

For some reason we didn't get up to much over half term but saved it for the Saturday with our fun morning at (full post Fell Foot):

2) Halloween Fun

Living in a new area its a bit worrying on Halloween not knowing what happens. Turns out both children went out with friends for hours and gathered loads of goodies and I had plenty of polite trick or treaters that I freaked out with my makeup:

3) A beautiful Autumn

We have had a glorious autumn so far and the colours are fantastic:

4) Blogfest

Oh and I'm off to Blogfest thanks to sponsorship!

Why are you smiling this week?

#CountryKids Halloween at Fell Foot

With Halloween coinciding with Parkrun our normal 5k at Fell Foot turned into something a bit different today:

My son got in to the spirit of things with the top half of his kit (the zombie trousers were too long for running in!):

The weather wasn't quite as spooky as it has been as the fog had lifted early:

This was the creepiest costume as he just stood there until the run got under way:

The whole atmosphere was a lot of fun with 177 finishers about half of whom wore costumes. This young man did well to complete his first parkrun in an all in one skeleton costume:

My daughter had decided it was too cold to wear a costume whilst marshalling so went for the minimalist Halloween look of a witch's mini hat and veil combo:

After getting our treat from the communal treat bucket we headed along the lakeshore to the cafe for a well earned drink:

They had a roaring fire going in the stove which was very welcome:

There were plenty of Halloween decorations like this National Trust themed pumpkin:

Back outside we decided to make the most of the special Halloween offerings as we had travelled across the county. My son and I opted for the spooky Halloween trail which was a £1. He was given a a map and we set off to solve the cryptic clues:

The clues took us to all areas of the park and we found places we had never been before such as Discovery Cottage:

It was a lovely day for walking around hunting for clues:

The final location was in a creepy graveyard:

He earned himself a sweet treat for solving all the clues! Meanwhile big sister had been spending her birthday money on wand making including peeling the bark off the wood before blinging it up:

Then she assisted with the manufacture of a broom stick:

I think she needs a few flying lessons from Harry Potter though:

All in all a good bit of healthy Halloween family outdoor fun!

Halloween Book Review: Once Upon A Zombie - Book One: The Color of Fear

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We were sent this book to a review as it is aimed at the 8-14 age group so fits in perfectly with my family. It combines fairy tales and zombies for an intriguing combination and an exciting story.

The heroine is 14 year old Caitlin Fletcher who is adjusting to life in London after moving from America with her father and younger sister. When you are scared of everything and prone to panic attacks then teenage life is hard to deal with. Especially when your new school is full of cliques and bullies.

Halloween is her birthday but also the school ball which brings back horrible memories of a dance at her previous school. She is trying to decide which would be worse 1) not going to the biggest social event of the year and being ridiculed or 2) going and suffering a panic attack and being ridiculed. Meanwhile her sister discovers chickpeas (garbanzo beans) on the window ledge of their 10th floor flat and finger prints on the inside of the window....

Caitlin is a reporter for Unexplainable News and she is keen to investigate after watching a video report about strange goings on at various cemeteries around the world. All of which include... chickpeas (garbanzo beans):

When they realise the connection to famous authors she arranges to travel to Guildford where the author Lewis Carroll is buried. Whilst there she and her sister are taken down a magical "rabbit hole" to the land where the stories come to life. However something is terrible wrong and she has to team up with a zombified group of fairy tale princesses such as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella to save them from an evil spell.

My daughter decided early on that this book was too scary for bedtime reading! It certainly has some horrible monsters and blood thirsty zombies. Caitlin and the princesses face many dangers but also help from other recognisable fairy tale characters. Can they stop the Queen of Hearts in time before she unleashes the final spell and dooms the fairy tale characters to forever be zombies?

I read this book to myself first and couldn't put it down so read right to the end in one go I found it so gripping. There are plenty of heart in the mouth moments and close calls. If your tween/teen loves a little bit of horror then this could be a good book for them. Its certainly a great twist on the traditional fairy tales.

#ButlinsAmbassadors Being Entertained at Butlins

Well yesterday I wrote about the yummy food at Butlins today I want to say about the things that entertained us on our stay. It is the entertainment side that Butlins are famous for but its come a long way from the traditional knobbly knee competitions although the Red Coats are still a key part of the fun. What is great is about how much of the entertainment is included in the price. They are also very good at making a variety of things to cater for every age group. For a take on entertainment for slightly younger children see Twins, Tiaras and Tantrums post as she was there with 4 year old girls.

Having been to Skegness in February we had had a taste of the live entertainment but with a poorly 6 year old we couldn't really make the most of it. Some of the things on offer were the same but others were different which made it interesting. Even though much of it is free with slightly older children I bought us Action Passes to get discounted goes on some of the more exciting things. I also bought us B line passes to save on queuing for things (essential when going single handed!).

So this is what we got up to:

Splash World is the one of the big draws with its varying pools and slides etc. It can get very busy but luckily I kept track of my children. Having both of them being able to swim helped me to relax quite a lot and my daughter was old enough to be allowed off on her own. She did drag me on to the Master Blaster ride where you go down slides in a rubber dinghy! My son was only brave enough to go down the big white slide but not any of the tube slides which limited me some what. He did go on the rapids until we discovered he was actually just too short... The wave machine was good fun and the clear warning before it started made it easy to either get in or out of that bit of the pool. There was also an area perfect for little ones with shallow water, gentle slides and waterfalls etc. 

Our passes included a go each at 10 Pin Bowling at Hot Shots. This is a very popular activity so you need to book or do it on the first day! We had the guard rails up and I am sure that is the only reason that my children both beat me (if only by 1 point):

One thing that smacks of seaside holidays to me are the 2p slot machines. I rationed my children as to how much they were allowed to spend and got them to save their winnings for the next day. There is a lot of potential pester power in the arcade section but my children were told on day 1 what they were allowed and this minimised costs to a couple of air hockey sessions and a minimal amount for the slots:

Adventure Golf I wrote a full post about this already this week. This was a lovely thing to do as a family whether the sun was shining or even in a drizzle! I love the seaside themed holes:

Centre Stage is the main venue for evening entertainment at Bognor. Each part of the evening was age coded on the planner so you knew whether it was suitable for your family. Because of our passes we were in the front seats every night and could easily see the children on the dance floor and get a close up of the action:

The next morning I signed my daughter into Club Red. This is a group for 9-12 year olds which allows them to escape from their parents and younger siblings to do activities or just chill in the Zone. In February my daughter hadn't been keen but this time she jumped at the chance to go. It was good that she had just been given a mobile so I could give permission for her to leave Club Red on her own and come and find us.

My son made the most of sister free time to try out the adventure playground in front of the Beachcomber Inn. This was him being cheeky and trying the under 5s slide:

Then he had an hour football coaching (the road to Wem Billy) with other 5-7 year olds. There were groups for older children too. He looked like he was having a whale of a time:

Of course we kept returning to the fairground:

App Review: Room on the Broom

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We were lucky enough to be allowed a free download of the Room on the Broom game. As a family we love the book and the TV show so the app is perfect for us.

There are a total of 8 games for your child to play all of which feature the characters from the book and the music from the TV show:

If you know the story well then lots of things will look very familiar:

Children earn medals on each game for increasing levels of difficulty:

 

 

Can you guess which image is represented by the stars in this one:

Altogether a delightful app to add to your family's collection, especially with it being halloween!

 

Reasons to be Cheerful XIV ( #R2BC )

Michelle on a blog break at the minute so this it being guest hosted for 5 weeks! Today's hostess with the mostest is Emma at a Matter of Choice.
Things feeling pretty positive for me again this week so here is what is making me smile:
1) Family Fun
We rounded off the school holidays with a 3 generation trip on the bus to Keswick to try out the leisure pool up there. It was a bit of a shame that it was a very wet day so we couldn't see the fabulous views properly from the top of the bus but it was a good fun change:

The pool itself was great for all of us for a splash around (not cheap at £15 for 4) with shallow sloping beach type bits, a wave machine and a black hole flume. My 8 year old and I had quite a few goes on the flume but the others stayed jumping in or playing catch with a beach ball. Think we will go back again sometime but save it for a special treat.

2) Halloween/Bright Lights

My children once again went to the free party at our church St Thomas Kendal and had hot dogs, cakes, party games and fireworks. Then they were allowed their first ever trick or treating in our street. Being a family estate all the trick or treaters going round seemed very nice and it was a lovely atmosphere so guess I'll let them do it again next year!

Best dressed house in the road

3) My son

He is so very nearly 5 and growing up fast. At swimming this week he swam quite away unaided on his front and is getting more confident with floats on his back. At parents' evening I was told he was settling in well and was doing his best to obey class rules. His phonic starting sounds are really coming on and we just need to work on his fine motor skills.

4) My daughter

Her cycling is carrying on getting better and despite a big crash resulting in a bloody nose she is loving to be out on her bike as much as possible. She even managed to cycle all the way to church and back on Sunday with very little fuss. Her parent's evening report was that she was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. For reading she is about 6 months ahead of her age and her spelling has improved. Just need to practice those times tables and joined up handwriting...

5) Operation 3rd bedroom

Apart from the fact the front room, landing and bedrooms 1 & 2 are chocker block with temporarily homeless items this is coming on well. My dad took out the fitted shelves and plastered the holes over making enough room for a bed. I had a lucky moment in Morrisons and spotted an ad for a second hand cabin bed going cheap so that will make the transition much quicker. Next step is to construct the bed in place and then move his stuff in there from his current bedroom.

6) (late update) Diet

I finally lost weight again this week after wobbling for most of October! Only a 1lb but hoping that its all a start of a downward trend to last until Christmas... I've joined up with the Twitter #NoAlcoholNovember pledge so hope that has the same result as last year. Not necessarily the booze that's the problem but the reduced self control to snack after a glass of wine!

Click on the linky to see who else is smiling: