Reasons to be Cheerful: Birthday Fun & Fireworks #R2BC

The happiest linky around is still in the hands of Michelle so please join in, comment and share the things that have made you smile this week however small! Here are some of mine: 1) Birthday Boy
My son turned 11 this week (how did that happen!). He is growing up fast and this year chose a trampoline party at Jump Rush in Morecambe with his friends. It was so much fun and I wish I had been brave and joined in.... next time:

2) Bubbles

I had won some Prosecco with extra pop-a-ball and fun additions from a local company Fabulous Flutes. It was perfect to enjoy once my house was no longer full of tween age boys and I could sit back and enjoy Strictly:

3) Mummy Treats

#CountryKids at Kendal Castle Fireworks

We have lived in Kendal for 5 years but had never walked up to the castle on Bonfire Night as it was just not practical. Now we live only 20-25 minutes walk away I had no excuse! My son and I put on warm clothing and waterproof coats, donned our hiking boots and headed over...

Of course we forgot our torches so it was a spooky walk through the cemetery and pitch black the route my son chose up to the castle. It was also rather slippery under foot.. We reached the viewing point and there were already plenty of folks standing around waiting:

My son was wandering around and excited by the fireworks going off around town plus the large bonfire on another hill. He reckoned it was a meteor strike! The weather wasn't at all promising and quite a few folks had their umbrellas in use:

I bumped into a boy that I have been teaching and he let me experiment with taking photographs of his spinning light toy:

#CountryKids Mintfest 2013 - part 2 Sunday

Time to post about what we saw at the Sunday part of Mintfest having already blogged about the Saturday. It wasn't such a warm and sunny day and we were later setting off having had a car boot sale in the morning. However we still had an amazing day. First up we encountered a group of ladies sitting on sofas and armchairs knitting outside the library and my daughter just had to join in:

The group are trying to Knit the River Kent and were encouraging people to join in. My daughter would have stayed all day:

All good publicity for the new Kendal Wool Gathering in October and great to see all sorts of people having a go at knitting:

On wandering down the street we encountered A Fettle of Kitsch who did not approve of my children's day glo jackets!

It was a relief to come across these porta loos being cleaned by the brilliant Theater Pikante cleaning ladies from Germany:

We got marginally closer to the dance routine from Motionhouse, looked amazing so wish I'd seen it close up:

My son and I encountered the quite creep Busy Lizzy who freaked my boy out!

After this we saw a strange procession heading in a haphazard way to Elephant Yard so we just had to follow:

It turned out they were the Whalley Range All Stars mining for popcorn in an empty shop:

And they gave away free popcorn at the end! Then despite the weather a group of scantily clad Visitors strutting along Highgate:

Outside the town hall we were entertained by Ramshacklicious with their comedy music act: 

Down to Abbott Hall park for a quirky what is Contemporary dance routine by Emmie Coxey:

Then we saw our favourite act from Saturday Le Navet Bete:

After a quick play in the park we headed back to the Brewery for the evenings music. We just caught the end of Africa Entsha an a cappella group from Soweto:

The whole place was buzzing and it was hard to find a place to sit but luckily the steps made a good vantage point:

My son got a prime dancing spot for Delhi2Dublin from Canada who played a great mix of music from all over the world:

We missed the last track as we had to walk up to the castle to get into position for the firework finale. It was an amazing view across the town from the top:

There were plenty of pigs all ready to fly as part of the firework display:

It was all pretty spectacular when things finally got going:

The main display was from within the walls themselves and was very impressive indeed:

It was also very loud with the echo bouncing off the hills behind us!

Altogether a great way to end Mintfest:

Just a shame it took nearly an hour to walk home afterwards! Roll on Mintfest 2014.

Reasons to be Cheerful XXXII ( #R2BC )

Well we have made it to 2012 so I guess that is a reason to be cheerful in itself! This is the 1st anniversary of the blog hop so even more reason to smile (and Michelle has a giveaway for all those who take part in January). But here are my more mundane reasons to be cheerful:

1) Pride in my children

It's been a very wet week but it hasn't put my children off going out and doing things. On Friday they did their longest bike ride to date and we all got soaked but they did it!

We also did a 4 mile hike on New Year's Eve and got very wet and very muddy but it hasn't put them off hiking!

2) New Year's Eve

It was a very quiet and soberish New Year's Eve for us but a very enjoyable evening rounded off by watching the amazing London fireworks from the comfort of the sofa whilst drinking Prosecco: