Reasons to be Cheerful: Carnival and Cross Country #R2BC

 
Life has just been so ram jammed that I am only just posting so sorry! Things may be changing over this linky so please watch this space... Meanwhile, despite still being full of cold, these are the things making me cheerful this week:
1) Kendal Torchlight Carnival  

It was time for our annual Torchlight Carnival. We had a parade through our streets with lights, music and amazing costumes:

If you want to see more checkout the video:

2) Proud Mum

My daughter was taking part in the parade with her art group Space2Create. She had an amazing time escorting a model of Moby Dick and collecting money: 

3) Filming Cross Country

Reasons to be Cheerful: Coraline and more #R2BC

Miraculously I am joining in with Michelle on the actual morning of the linky this week! I am recovering from a cold and feeling so much better than I have since Friday night.... That is a big reason to be cheerful but here are my smaller ones:
1) Coraline
My daughter had the part of Coraline in her school's Torchlight entry. She was easy to spot with her bright yellow jacket:

This is a taste of the energy on her float as they had been going for 1.5 hours by this point and were nearly finished:

2) Star of the Week

As a teacher I would hope that all the children in a class would at some point get the Star of the Week. However for my son to get it on the first full week of school must mean he has done something to impress his form tutor:

Kendal Torchlight 2018

On Friday night it was the annual Kendal Torchlight carnival parade. We met on Aynam Rd to watch as my daughter was taking part. The parade this year had a theme of books and included vintage cars, music, lights and amazing costumes.

This collage is a taster of some of the parade and then the video shows what went past us on the road:

Having missed my daughter as she was on the other side of her float we ran down the road to the bridge and watched the parade returning (we only missed a few floats):

The video for this section will follow!

Kendal Torchlight 2017

This Friday it was Kendal's annual Torchlight parade through the town. It is a chance for local schools, groups and charities to get together and show the rest of the town their fun side. This year the theme was Once Upon A Time.

My son had volunteered to be on his school's float and had helped (along with children from all the year groups) to make the props for the float. On Friday morning I was one a of team of volunteer parents who joined the organising TAs to put it altogether. The first thing I saw was this amazing wicker shoe (The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe):

We then set to with cable ties, staplers, string and duct tape to transform the lorry into a story book wonderland:

I impressed myself, as someone scared of heights, to go up a slightly shorter ladder than this one to help put the message on the back of the truck:

Reasons to be Cheerful - Torchlight #R2BC

Some weeks the therapeutic benefits of this blog hop are more needed than ever! Two weeks into school and I really have to focus on the positives to give me a boost... So here I go:

1) Torchlight

Since we moved to Kendal we have either watched or taken part in the local Torchlight parade which takes place every September. This year we had a monsoon but it didn't stop the parade and how could you not smile at a pink tractor being driven by a lady holding an umbrella:

2) Torchlight celebration

This year for the first time we had a street party the day after Torchlight in the town centre. There was entertainment and hands on activities. My daughter and her BFF had a lot of fun painting the cardboard castle and trying to unicycle:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Running Away! #R2BC

I am day late joining in with the lovely hostess Ojo's World as its been so busy! So many reasons to be cheerful so here they are:

1) Kendal Torchlight

I was road marshalling so didn't really see the parade this year but both my children were in it. My daughter was with her Girl Guide district and they won the award for the best foot troop with their scooters all lit up:

2) Hodder Valley Show

My son was fell racing in Yorkshire on Saturday (a full post to come!) and despite the rain we had a fab day out. The fact he won his age category helped:

3) Family Fun

I introduced my son to Boggle, a game that I haven't played for nearly 20 years! Good fun and educational too:

Reasons to be Cheerful: The Sun is Still Shining! #R2BC

I am sure we are all thinking that this nice weather can't last but making the most of it whilst it is here! Thanks for everyone who joined in last week and I do hope that I managed to visit you all... Now for this week's reasons to be cheerful for me:

1) A mended car!

My car has been playing up on and off all summer and I thought it was just the heat. The final straw came on Friday when it refused to restart as I tried to leave the supermarket and get to my training course.. As I was close to my garage I called them and they came with a courtesy car and took mine away. Not long after I finished for the day they finished fitting a brand new starter motor. So I now have a reliable car again - even if the bank balance took a little knock..

2) Confirmation of student status

I am now officially a student at Cumbria University as the paperwork took a while to clear! Nice to be able to get my NUS discount card for special offers. It should help to pay for all those text books I need..

3) Torchlight

I've already done a full blog post on the carnival as it was such an amazing evening. Made me so proud of our adopted town:

Kendal Torchlight 2014

A brief look at Kendal Torchlight 2014:

Reasons to be Cheerful week 38 #R2BC

Well we are now well back into the routine of back to school and have a lot to be cheerful about this week:

1) Torchlight Carnival

This made a great return to Kendal on Friday after being cancelled last year due to lack of funds and volunteers. It was back on the streets with plenty of local groups taking part:

It was a lovely family event with lots of people smiling and cheering - oh and we donated lots of money to local charities too!

2) Blog Summit

As I posted on Monday I had a lovely day at Blog Summit Manchester. Plenty of reasons to smile there and not just because of the yummy afternoon tea: 

3) My Fitness and Diet

I seem to be getting back into shape and running further and faster:

I have even run faster than any previous bests on some parts of my Kendal route:

All of this is helping my endless battle to lose weight and 1.5 pounds has come off so I'm nearly back to what I was before the school holidays! I have signed up to Go Sober for October so hopefully abstaining from alcohol for 31 days should help lots. If you want to join my team then please go here or just make a donation as I will be sober on my birthday..

4) My children

Sometimes they drive me mental and then they do something like this:

My daughter has received a head teacher's award this week for her writing which is always a good reason to smile! Little brother was asked to show the rest of his swimming class his front crawl legs as he was doing it so well. Great that each of them has something to be proud of this week.

Reasons to be Cheerful XXII (#R2BC)

It's definitely not been a perfect week in our house but there are plenty of reasons for me to be smiling (just as well or I'd be swilling the gin!). So here you go for this week:
1) My children
My son is loving being at school and so far there have been no tears or tantrums from him about it. He's only done half days so far and is pretty wiped out but here's hoping full time school next week goes smoothly... The changes in him were commented on at Sunday School as apparently he sat down straight away and tackled all the craft projects with great enthusiasm! 
I was also told what a delight my daughter was to teach again back at school. Apparently she is very keen in class and loves doing the work. So glad she is saving all her bad behaviour for me at home!
2) Kendal Torchlight Procession
This was the 43rd year of the traditional ending to the main tourist season for Kendal. Plenty of floats and bands parade through the town entertaining a large chunk of the population. Last year it rained all evening but this year the weather held and we had a wonderful evening. My dad was taking part but the rest of us were able to applaud the entries and I was amazed at how many people I knew taking part (what a difference a year makes!). We would love to take part next year but need to work out how!

Kendal's very own Steve Hall from BGT!