Reasons to be Cheerful: Family Fun #R2BC

Late to the party again this week! Hope Michelle can forgive me... It has been a rollercoaster week but I have had a few things that have made me smile:

1) Family Fun in Barrow

Working in Barrow has made life quite stressful but last weekend I took my children for an afternoon and evening there to show them what it is like:

First of all we watched Barnum at the Forum, then we shopped at TX Maax, watched a film at the cinema and finished off with Pizza Hut! An awesome time and great to have such fun with everyone together.

2) Proud Teacher

Despite some sleepless nights our class assembly went really well and I am proud of all the hard work they all put in to it:

3) Furry Family

I got up close and personal to our furry family members whilst cleaning them out at the weekend. Isn't Bubble a handsome fella:

Hoping to go and visit all the lovely bloggers who have joined in this week..

Review: Wild! Science Lava Lamp and Glitter Tube Lab and Wild! Science Competition

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When my 13 year old spotted the box of the Lava Lamp Kit it vanished very rapidly up to her bedroom! She has had a lava lamp in the past and was excited to have another one. So I left her to it to make it on her own and she took photographs as she went.... All she needed was to get some vegetable oil as everything else was included. The instructions were really well laid out and she didn't ask for any help at all:

All the equipment she needed was included and she just had to follow the simple instructions to create her home science project:

Once she had prepared all her mixture then she just had to assemble the lamp which has a push light in the bottom:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Smiling despite sneezing! #R2BC

Having suffered from a hideous cold for most of the last week I am so glad that I have this linky to hunt out the things that have made me smile from behind my tissues! Thanks Michelle for hosting. So here are some of the things that have made me cheerful this week:

1) Proud Teacher

Coming in after lunch break to discover that 2 boys from my class had, on their own initiative, built a model of the old Barrow shipyard from stickle bricks:

2) Proud Mum

My son and his athletics club represented Cumbria in the North West Regional finals of the Sportshall Competition. For many of them it was their first season in the club and they tried their hardest against stiff competition:

3) Being Looked After

#FitBitchesMOVEment #SlimmingSunday Catching up!

Oh dear I haven't done a fitness blog post since the 20th of February! Time for a quick catchup then an update.... I was in Northumberland for half term and I managed 2 runs whilst away. The first with my 10 year old during Storm Doris! You can see how wild it was by the state of us after only 2km:

We did plenty of walking on the nicer days as the beaches were beautiful. Whilst out we spotted markers for a 10k to Ultra event that took place the day we left, its on my bucket list! Instead I managed to get out for a 5k run which included a return leg along the beach:

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!

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: