Reasons to be Cheerful: Marching On #R2BC

 
I'm taking over hosting from Michelle for March. Just sorry for being a bit tardy as I forgot it was my turn... It's short and sweet as I am so late! Here are some of my reasons to be cheerful this week:

1) Race fun

My son was running at Cuerden Valley cross country at the weekend and the river crossing had a lifeguard:

2) Winners

The castle we built at half term won first prize for its historical accuracy:

3) World Book Day fun

My student and I had fun recreating the Marauder's Map for our classroom door:

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Reasons to be Cheerful: Adventures and World Book Day #R2BC

It is a good job Michelle is back hosting as life has gone bonkers here again! As you can tell by the fact I am joining a Thursday bloghop on a Saturday...  Here are my reasons to be cheerful since last week:

1) Adventures in Northumberland

We really enjoyed our break in Seahouses even with Storm Doris! I have already posted about Bamburg Castle and hope to do more posts about what we got up to. In the meantime here is a taster of how magical Northumberland beaches and castles are from our walk to Dunstanburgh Castle:

2) Hexham pitstop

We realised that about half way from Seahouses to Kendal is the historic town of Hexham, which I remember reading about in Catherine Cookson novels! So we stopped for 2 hours for an early lunch and a chance to explore the wonderful Abbey:

3) Proud Mum

I had reasons to be cheerful about both my children this week. First up my son at his latest athletics competition. He tried his very best and managed a 4th position in one of the events:

World Book Day 2015 #WBD2015

We actually got organised for World Book Day costumes this year with more than a day to go. This meant everyone had something half decent for a change. My daughter decided to go as Katniss from Hunger Games which meant simply buying suitable normal clothing and just adding a Mockingjay pin. She also had a black backpack and made a fake knife:

My son dressed as his favourite demi-god Percy Jackson. I made a shield out of cardboard. There was a picture of Medusa's head on it. We bought an orange t-shirt and I ironed a Camp Half Blood motif on to it. He just had to dig out a sword to finish off the outfit:

Neither won the prize at the disco but they were the best outfits we have had so far!

Reasons to be Cheerful: March already! #R2BC

Thanks to Ojo's World for hosting for February it is now back to me for March. I look forward to reading and sharing your happy posts.

1) Simple family fun

Its great when I can combine family fun with my teaching practice. This weekend my son helped me test out the construction of pyramids:

His sister built me a model of the Sphinx for lesson inspiration:

2) World Book Day

For once we actually started putting costumes together well in advance. Here are the trail versions of their outfits, can you name the characters?:

I will get proper photos of them in the final complete costumes before their school disco!

3) Just Cumbria

I will be spending the whole of next week in a school with this view:

We had a visit up there this week and it is just beautiful.

Please join us and share your happiness and grab the badge if you would like it:

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Family Fun: World Book Day

Welcome to week 6 of the Family Fun blog hop. For more details please read the launch page. In the words of a classic 1970s children's TV programme this is about switching off the television and doing something more useful instead!


This week it's all about World Book Day. My children's school asked them and their teachers to bring in their favourite books. Each teacher read their book to both their own class and another one in the school, then a selection of the children's ones were read too.


In the evening they had an infant and a junior disco with a World Book Day theme. Fancy dress was optional and my daughter came third at her disco for going as Queen Lucy of Narnia:

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Team Work

I am ending my week on an even better note than I started after a really good example of team work to make for a really successful World Book Day Sale in Staveley today. This was a major re-launch of my Usborne books business in Cumbria and so was a lot more intensive than I would normally do.


My children have been really helpful in helping to advertise the event by putting up posters and handing out leaflets. They also helped to stick address labels on all sorts of promotional material - its amazing what the bribery of a free book can get a child to do!


To make the event even more of an attractive prospect I had enlisted 2 other traders Sean of Treasure Trails Cumbria and Michelle from Phoenix Cards. This made for a really good combination of retailers with complimentary products. 


This morning my parents and their friends came along to help set-up as I had decided to take all my books along whilst I had the space! My children and I had got most of them out but they helped to complete the job and put in the finishing touches. After a pretty busy 2 hours my helpers returned for the fastest packdown I've ever completed.


So thanks a team of family and friends not only did I have a very profitable day but a much less hectic one. All I need to do now is capitalise on today with future home parties and other sales events. At least I know I have a team of willing volunteers to help out if I ever do such a big one off sale again! If you need an Usborne rep at a fund raising event or want to do a sponsored read or listen then check out http://www.beckysbooks.me.uk to see what I can offer!

Reasons to be Cheerful V

Think I have a lot more positive things to put in this one this week! Well done Michelle on giving us such a good reason to be positive.

So here we go:


1) The lovely Ian (from Appliances Online) gave me £15 of Amazon gift vouchers just because I commented on someone else's blogpost about receiving the vouchers from him! He calls himself the Hairy Godmother and I have had fun ordering some books for my 100 book challenge. By judicious shopping I have ordered 3 more historical fiction books which I hope will arrive on Monday! I have made it to 19 books already and look forward to getting past 20 with these. If you comment on this post you never know if the Hairy Godmother will bestow a gift on you too ;-)


2) Despite the fact I gained a tiny amount of weight this week I have another pair of jeans that can be taken off without undoing the button! The belt I was using to hold them up won't go tight enough to make a difference so I guess that's going into the next charity clothing collection. Just need to get enough money to buy some smaller trousers...


3) I have persuaded both Treasure Trails Cumbria and Michelle from Phoenix Cards to join me for my World Book Day sale in Staveley Institute on March 5th! So not only can children spend their World Book Day vouchers but their parents can have some retail therapy too. Hoping that this is the start of some great business relationships.


To see what else is happening check out the blog hop below and don't forget to comment for a possible visit from the Hairy Godmother!

World Book Day

Many of you will be aware that the UK and Ireland World Book Day is rapidly approaching on March the 3rd! But do you know what it is about? This is what the official UK World Book Day site has to say:

World Book Day was designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. The origins of the day we now celebrate in the UK and Ireland come from Catalonia, where roses and books were given as gifts to loved ones on St. George’s Day – a tradition started over 90 years ago. For international information about World Book Day, please click here.

World Book Day is a partnership of publishers, booksellers and interested parties who work together to promote books and reading for the personal enrichment and enjoyment of all.

A main aim of World Book Day in the UK and Ireland is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own. 

The majority of UK school and nursery children will be sent home with a World Book Day voucher which they can use at any participating retailer. One of these is Usborne books and if you would like to see the special offers they are running for this year's book day have a look here.