Between Christmas and New Year

Splat!

Anyone for whipped cream?

Sunday, the sky was blue and there was a weird looking yellow circular thing in it?  Anyone know what it is?  We were very perplexed!  We headed into Kendal as we needed to meet up with Jude and Craig on their way home (we forgot to give Jude her birthday presents!)  We did a bit of sale shopping - getting next year's stock of Christmas cards and spending Fat Face vouchers.  We had lunch and then headed to Crooklands to meet up with J&C.  We then headed to Kirkby for a quick walk before heading home.  On arrival back home, Tom insisted we got Pie Face out - so we spent the rest of the afternoon being splatted with whipped cream - euch, but very funny and Tom got splatted more than us!

Mother and baby highlanders

Monday, we had a day out in Malham and it didn't rain for the whole day - the first rain free day in ages.  We went via the Settle road and were rewarded with a herd of Highland Moos roaming the moorland up there.  They didn't pose for the camera as we wished, but it was fab to see them.  We parked up at Malham and then walked to the cove the back way, up the steps, across the limestone pavement, up and over a hill to Gordale Scar where the waterfall was in full force, across to Janet's Foss and then back to Malham.

The boys

Tom and a waterfall

It was a good 5 miles in all and a good walk.  We got back to Malham at 2.15 and immediately went to a pub for a slap up lunch.  We chose the wrong one, (The Buck Inn), it took them an hour to get our food to us!  When I questioned them why it was taking so long I was told that I needed to appreciate that they were busy!  I got the hump, they should have told us it would take an hour - it wasn't particularly busy when we arrived.  We won't be going back as the food was only average when it finally arrived.  Lister Arms it is from now on - better food and much better service.  The pub ruined what had been a good day - so much for trying to support local business!  We went back home via the Highland Moo road - this cheered us up as there were quite a few on the road side.  They were all beautiful in a muddy, wild and snorty fashion.

Tuesday was a beautiful day, but we had the Dentist booked for 2pm - so we couldn't really enjoy it.  Matt ended up working for the day.  Tom and I went to Stacksteads for a swim in the morning.

Christmas

At The Old Post Office

Christmas Eve

The weather wasn't too bad, so we decided to go for a short walk.  We headed up to Ribblehead to do our usual one under the viaduct and round in a circle.  The rain just about held out.  We then headed to Inglesport for lunch and then round the village and back home for a play   The evening was spent in The Old Post Office eating platters and drinking beer / wine / G&T.  A good evening was had by all, and Tom was spoilt, as he was given a fish platter with raw smoked salmon on it - they got it in specially for him.

Christmas Day

The tree and presents

We had a good Christmas Day, although a slightly disturbed night.  We were woken up by a tearful Tom at 2.30, crying because Father Christmas hadn't been!  Apparently he had looked at the foot of his bed for the stocking and not found it.  The stocking was a foot from his head, in exactly the same place it has always been left.  There was also a sparkly present, shining in the night lights!  We pointed them out but it took a while for him to calm down and be left alone again, what a chump!  He was up again at 3.30 because he couldn't get to sleep and again at 4.30 because he had a hurting foot.  Not a great sleep.

Totoro and a Truck

After a late breakfast of scrambled egg, posh bread and smoked salmon, we got all the veg ready in time for when Pat and Bob arrived and then spent a good while opening presents.  Guess who had the most?  Tom did very well, but his favourite was the Totoro onesie that Auntie Jude and Craig had found for him.  He put it on immediately and stayed in it all day and all Boxing Day!  It was way too big for him, but he didn't care, and he looked fab in it anyway.  Think he'll be wearing it still in High School!  He got a lot more clothes, some silly games (thanks to Uncle Martin he got the game of the year - Pie Face!), lots of books as well as the huge Bruder truck and Baymax we got him. We'd told Tom beforehand that he needed to say a proper thank you to anyone who'd given him a present, but he took this to extremes and shouted "THANK YOU!" at the top of his voice, before he'd even taken the paper off, even if the donor was on the other side of the world.

Matt making friends with Baymax

Dinner was pretty easy to cook - rib of beef, of course - (refer to Dec 2014 and 2012 for cooking instructions) and loads of veggies, Yorkshire puddings etc.  We sat down at 2pm for the spread.  The beef was perfect and delicious.  Once full up we retired to the lounge, watched Stick Man and then had pudding.  Bob and Pat then headed home to feed their cats, whilst we collapsed some more.  Craig and Tom played for most of the evening whilst the rest of us put our feet up (thanks Craig).  No more food passed our lips - we were officially stuffed!

Thanks to everyone for our presents - we were all very happy bunnies.  I got a fab new camera from Matt, which means I no longer need to keep borrowing his.  It is waterproof and shock proof so I should have trouble breaking it (I hope).  I am also the proud owner of a cake stand - you would think I would have already have one wouldn't you?  Problem is I don't want to eat the Christmas cake that is in it as it looks too pretty!

Boxing Day
Boxing Day Jude and Craig headed off towards Durham pretty early.  We had a quiet morning and then headed to Settle to Bob and Pat's for Boxing Day lunch - they had got some smoked salmon fillets in specially for Tom.  Tom took his Meccano and the two of us got to work making a Meccano crane - which went well until the final stage where it took me and Matt a while to fathom out how to finish it off.  Lunch was good, we then went into the leaking lounge (it was raining outside and the rain was coming inside!) to relax, read a book etc before realising that all the roads were filling up  and flooding again and we might have trouble getting home, so we said our goodbyes and headed back via Horton.

The evening was spent round our neighbours at a open house.  The Bickerstaffs were there too, so we hung out for an hour or two before heading home for bed.

Grannie and Grandpa Move up.

Wow!  We have had a busy couple of weeks, so I'm afraid this is going to be a summary rather than a full description of what we have been up to.

Visiting Santa at Ingleborough Caves

Frank, Finn, Fred, Tom and Sierra

So on Sunday 13th, a gang of us went on our annual pilgrimage to Ingleborough Caves to see Father Christmas.  This is the 3rd time we have done it.  Usually we get there dead on 10am in time to do the walk up to the cave and be first in the queue at 11am.  This year, many other people had had the same thought so we weren't the first and we did have to queue.  Not a problem though, the children were in good spirits and didn't seem to notice they had to wait.  The Santa experience here is very good - first of all you have the walk up thorough the nature trail to the caves and then elves take you through a story of what Santa has been up to etc as you go through the caves.  The children then get to meet Father Christmas who is very good and choose a present - which means they all get something they want.  Anyway it was a lovely experience.  We ended up in the cafe in Clapham for lunch before heading home, then a quick tidy up before Matt and Tom headed to Oxenholme to pick up Grannie.  Unfortunately her train got delayed, so they were stuck waiting for her on the station for a while, but she finally arrived and got home just in time for roast chicken.

Walking Indie

Grannie and Grandpa Move Up
Grannie came up on the train because this was the week when Grannie and Grandpa were moving up to Settle.  Finally all the paperwork was in place and they completed.  Bob stayed behind in London to supervise the packing up of the house, whilst Grannie elected to come up to us to stay away from the chaos.  I had lots of work to do (my last week to get Christmas orders and a big birthday cake finished), so Matt took Grannie out on Monday.  They went to Settle so Matt could show her around and she could familiarise herself with the town as it had been a while since they went house hunting.

Golden Wedding dinner

On Tuesday I managed to clear my work schedule so we could all go over to Settle to help.  Bob was driving up from Warwick, the removal men left London early in the morning and we were on standby waiting for the phone call to say that we could collect the keys.  By 10.30 we hadn't heard anything but as we were all hanging round we decided to head to Settle so we were at least in place when the phone call came.  We got there, went to see the Estate Agent, no joy so we went for tea and a bun.  As we were tucking in, the removal men phoned to say they had arrived and the Estate Agent phoned to say we could collect the keys.  Hurray, so we quickly finished our snacks and headed to the house.  The house was in a better state than I was expecting, they had at least vacuumed downstairs.  However, first hurdle: no electricity and no heating.  It took me and Matt quite a long while to get any electricity to work - all through trial and error but we got the lights on and some sockets working.  We had no luck with the boiler at all, but found a note with a name and number saying to call if any post addressed to her arrived, so we gave her a call.  Turns out she was the last tenant - from New York of all places, she turned up pretty soon after we called her and showed us around the house, telling us all about the quirks it has.  She tried for a long while to get the boiler working - but with no luck.  So, no hot water and no heating.  She did know of a heating engineer though who agreed to come out on Friday to have a look.

The lads

In the meantime the removal men were keen to start unloading and also Bob turned up - he hit the ground running as we were sorting out boiler, electricity and talking to the American lady all at the same time.  The removal men were very good and unloaded the vans pretty quickly.  Matt went back to Ingleton to collect Tom from school whilst I unpacked the kitchen stuff.  By 4 o'clock, we had got as far as we could, so we said our goodbyes, went to Booth's to get a quick dinner and Bob and Pat booked into the B & B across the road.

The rest of the week was spent finishing off my orders and helping Pat and Bob.  Matt went over to Settle on Wednesday, he and Bob then went on a mammoth trip down to Warwick to get the cats on Thursday whilst Jude and I went to see Pat.  Pat and Bob then got a call from the heating engineer saying he wouldn't be coming after all on Friday!  On arriving home, I got straight on to social media and asked for help.  Loads of advice came my way and by the time we went to bed we had an electrician heading for them at 8am Friday morning.  Friday we both stayed at home - I had people dropping by all day to pick up their Christmas orders.  Friday evening we headed back to Settle as it was Pat and Bob's 50th Wedding Anniversary - so we all went out for dinner at The Craven Arms - very nice it was too.

Dressed up

We had a quiet weekend, then on Monday we all headed down to Southport for Shelm's funeral.  It was a quiet and understated affair, but the grief was all too apparent, it is never nice to see loved ones upset.  Luckily Tom wasn't upset, so he helped cheer up people and was an easy talking point / ice breaker with members of the family we haven't seen for a long while.  We then headed back up the motorway, we dropped Matt off at Caton, and then Tom and I headed up to Penrith and Center Parcs at Whinfell Forest where we were sharing a house with the Bickerstaffs. It was past 6pm by the time we checked in, dropped off our stuff, parked up and walked back to our lodge.  Luckily the Bickerstaffs were on cooking duty and curry was on the table was we walked in.  We were very happy and dug in.  It had been a tiring day - emotionally.  I got changed out of my black clothes, Tom played with Jack and Seth and we all relaxed.  The boys went to bed pretty well and we weren't too far behind them.

Tom, Seth and Jack at Center Parcs

Tuesday was spent pretty much all in the pool.  Tom loved it and did it all:  the slides, the wave pool, the rapids and just general larking about.  We kept bumping into people we knew which was funny - Lauren and her family were there and another family from school who I recognised but don't know.  I think we were 5.5 hours in the pool in the end, stopping only for lunch (chips in the pool cafe) and children's activities: blow up speed boats for Tom and Seth and underwater jet pack for Jack.  All good, we all had fun.  We then went back to the lodge via Santa's grotto which was beautifully laid out - lots of fairy lights, real reindeer, etc etc .  I was on cooking duty - so a big bowl of mac cheese and veggies was made and demolished, the boys watched a film, went to bed and once again we weren't far behind.

Wednesday we packed up and then went back to the pool for more fun.  We had lunch and then parted and headed home.  I got home about 1.5 hours before Jude and Craig, just long enough to get the kitchen straight before they arrived.  Christmas had officially started as we had guests.

Great Swim

Today was Class 3's musical performance - they've each been given a musical instrument for the year (a guitar for Tom), and today was their first "concert". The cellos went first, and were quite good, and the violins weren't bad either, but the guitarists and keyboard players seemed to get a muddled. Still, it was good fun (their class assemblies always are), and they all sang a song together afterwards - the Brontosaurus Song. I recorded it as an audio file, and I can e-mail it to anyone who'd like it.

Also, after trying really really hard at swimming recently, Tom got moved up a group - yahooo!  He was really chuffed, as were we.  Next time he'll be doing only lengths, it won't be long before he is swimming faster than us! Plus, he's back in the same class as his friend Lauren, and they're both very pleased about it.

Shelm

On Sunday evening I got the sad news that my Great Aunt Shelm had passed away.  Although not completely unexpected, it was a bit of a shock - especially as Matt and I were talking about how to visit them over the Christmas holidays (we knew Shelm was ill - so it was a case of how to visit her without stressing her!).  

She was a lovely lady with a heart of gold, a naughty sparkle in her eye and an infectious laugh.  A gentle spirit who we will all miss.  

This is my last photo of her - taken last November after a day out in Southport.  Both Shelm and Bob were in good spirits - being silly and loved up as usual.  Shelm and Bob were very young at heart and were still completely crazy about each other we had a joyous day out, I am glad that is my last memory of her.  I will miss her. 

Wet wet wet weekend

It has rained a lot recently.  This weekend it rained more and more.  Saturday the rain was torrential.  The roads around here flooded last week, and as the ground is so saturated, it wasn't long before the roads were flooding again.

Tom had football Saturday morning - in the scout hall as the school playing fields are water logged.  We took the opportunity to go to 'Uncle Brian's', the amazing toy shop here and got him his Christmas present.  Matt then went to pick him up.  The weather was so atrocious that we drove everywhere in the village and still got drenched!  

The Greta in fine flow

We decided that as the weather was so bad we would head straight into Lancaster as we were going to see the panto in the afternoon.  We got out of the village OK, but before too long encountered some deep deep puddles.  We carried on through, but then came across a sign saying road closed, a 4x4 coming from Lancaster told us that the water on the road (this was the Hornby road) was up and over his bonnet.  His car was a lot taller than ours!  We turned round and headed towards Kirkby and the A65, once again we encountered lots of floods on the road.  It was going to be another 6 hours before we returned from Lancaster, the forecast was heavy rain, it was going to be dark as well on our return.  We decided to call it a day and return home.  Tom was beginning to get nervous - saying he wanted to go home.  It really wasn't worth getting stuck in Lancaster for the sake of three panto tickets.  We headed home and were really glad we did as the news reports came in of flooding in Kendal and Lancaster, we would have got stranded had we gone, and there was a massive power cut in Lancaster that evening.  We were very thankful common sense had kicked in and we made the right decision.

We spent the rest of the day enjoying the fact that we were safe and warm from the weather.  We had a warming chilli at Inglesport and then got ourselves a Christmas tree from the local farm - an absolute whopper - the biggest tree we have ever  had and spent the afternoon with Christmas music on decorating the tree.  Tom went round to Harrison's house for an hour or so (Harrison was supposed to go to the panto too).  We then had tea on trays in the lounge watching Dad's Army.

Sunday we decided not to move too far from the house.  Luckily Tom had the Craven Wanderers' Christmas Party to go to in the afternoon.  The morning was spent watching Match of the Day, playing with Lego and watching cookery programmes.  We went to The Wheatsheaf for lunch, returned home, did some more chores and then headed to The Bottom Club for the Christmas Party.  Wow - they are brave having that many children for 3 hours.  It was very noisy and very loud but everyone enjoyed it.  Tom was immediately off with his friends and joined in with all the activities: dancing. magician etc and  Father Christmas arrived with presents for all the children.  A good time was had by all (although Matt left early - something to do with a hangover and sore throat).  A good bash and free - fantastic value.

Tom happily went to bed early whilst we ate stew and watched telly for the evening.

VIP Tom

So Tom came out of school very excited on Friday as they had just had a Praise Assembly and he got VIP.  We aren't really that sure what VIP is, Tom said he got it for always saying hello back to people on the playground when people say hello to him.  Hummm, that is something I've been asking him to do for the last couple of weeks (he normally ignores the hellos that come his way!)  Anyway, it means that he gets to wear a badge that says VIP and he got to stand up in Assembly and be applauded, so that is great.  He certainly was very excited about it, he didn't get it in Reception or Year 1, so he's obviously developed in some way, just not sure which way...

Weekend with Granma and Pop Pop

Racing Finn

We had a busy weekend even though the weather was terrible.  It all started on Thursday afternoon when Mum and Dad arrived for their 'Christmas Weekend'.  Unfortunately it rained the whole time they were here, but we made the best of it.


Tom is doing 'China' as his topic at school at the moment.  We have been asked to bring in any nik naks we may have.  Although Matt has visited (and I have been to Hong Kong) we don't have nik naks - just photos and hard copy photos at that!  Mum and Dad, however, have a whole house full of nik naks and pretty much brought the whole lot with them.  So, on Friday morning, Mum, Dad and I walked down to the school with bags full of stuff, having school Tom in what they were all and written a comprehensive list for Ms Middleton.  We then left him to it and headed home.  It was a dreadful day weatherwise so we stayed in the village.  Went to Daleswear looking for Black Friday specials but didn't find any.  Spent the rest of the morning in a tea room, nattering and avoiding the rain.

At the summit

At 3pm Tom had his school assembly so we all headed out and got the best seats in the house.  It was a pretty comprehensive assembly: everyone had at least one line to say.  They sang a song in Mandarin, did a ribbon and fan dance, and acted out the Willow Pattern Story (Tom had one of the starring roles in this - playing Chang who fell in love with Koon-she (Caitlin) and had all sorts of adventures escaping unhappy parents.  This was a complete surprise, Tom hadn't told us about this at all - what a Romeo he is.  Anyway, it was a good assembly and we all learnt something - the kids have really got into China and showed real enthusiasm for it all.

Saturday Tom had a birthday party engagement at the climbing wall in Kendal.  Matt took him whilst the rest of us had a nice slow breakfast.  We then all met up at Hawkshead Brewery for lunch.  We then headed into Windermere - as it was still raining.  Tom, Mum and Dad went to The World of Beatrix Potter whilst Matt and I had a potter around, we then all headed home.  When we got home Tom was pottering around fine, but then burst into tears saying his eye hurt.  He was inconsolable, in the end he had a bit of a lay down whilst I finished off dinner.  Within 5 mins he was fast asleep (quite strange).  We had to wake him up, make him have some dinner and then he went straight back to bed again - all the while being quite miserable.  Not sure what was up with him, but he went straight back to sleep and stayed asleep the whole night.

With Granma and Pop Pop

Sunday morning Tom came into our room and the eye which he said hurt yesterday had completely blown up - we were both quite shocked!  So something was wrong with it - but Tom said it no longer hurt.  It was still raining, so after a lazy morning we decided to head out to Carnforth for lunch at the station.  We did our usual mooch around, then had lunch 4 x soup and 1 x smoked salmon sandwich (can you guess who had what?).  Then back home, for a play on the model railway and cuddles with Pop Pop.  We then left Mum, Dad and Tom behind for dinner at home whilst we went for a bit of a pub crawl and dinner out in Kirkby Lonsdale - the best use of a bad weather day.

Monday morning Mum and Dad took Tom to school and then packed up in the rain and headed home.  Was lovely to spend time with them, we all had fun despite the weather.  Maybe next time we will be able to go outside somewhere nice with them.

The three fearless leapers

Matt here. The party at the climbing wall in Kendal was quite a revelation. Tom tried every single climb there was, including several that were just too big for him - his arms and legs simply weren't long enough. He really gave them a go though, and he got to the top of every climb that was his size. I think being in the company of a dozen of his good friends gave him the confidence to try anything. It was a joy to watch - they're such a terrific bunch. The real surprise came at the end, however. The instructor asked asked who wanted to do "The Big Jump", without explaining what it was. Only 3 of the 12 put their hands up (Tom, Finn and Matthew), and they were led to a special area, where they were kitted up. They were then told they would be jumping from the 3rd floor straight down to the ground floor (attached to an auto-belayer). I was 90% sure Tom would get to the edge and think better of it, but no, straight down with almost no hesitation. I was stunned, and very proud. I really didn't think he had it in him. You can see the plunge here: https://youtu.be/WhRvNHa3uEU

First visit to Santa and Poorly Tom

Hello Santa

Friday afternoon we picked Tom up from school, came home got changed into our warmest clothes and then headed to Newby Bridge and the Miller Beck railway where Father Christmas was in residence for the evening.  The place was buzzing despite the rubbish weather (it was freezing cold and raining).  Tom was very excited, we got the electric train around the garden to Santa's Grotto where the adults were fed mulled wine and mince pies and the children squash (They know how to look after the adults here!).  Tom only had to wait 5 mins to go in to see the great man.  They are really good here - as you are waiting the elves ask the children about themselves, this information then gets passed on to Santa, meaning he knows their names and their ages when they walk in and they get a personalised present.

Lake District mountains from Lancaster

Tom had his speech ready and he asked for a Eddie Stobart Road Train Truck - Santa was impressed, saying no-one else had asked for that but not to worry, he will get his elves straight on to it for him.  Tom was in awe - wasn't interested in chit chat, but managed a photo before leaving.

We then went to see the Christmas alpacas (which we fed carrots) before heading back on a steam train around the whole railway again.  By then we were all freezing even though we were all wearing very warm clothes so we bundled into the car and sort out a pub for hot food.  Lamb shank for me and fish and chips for the boys.

Another good evening out.

Chilly morning at Ribblehead

The rest of the weekend was spent looking after a poorly Tom.  He got a cold and was feeling quite sorry for himself which is unusual for him.  He didn't want to go to football on Saturday morning, and he was looking so awful we didn't question him.  We instead went to Lancaster - to the Farm Shop we found a couple of months ago to pick up some bits (sadly, our butcher closed suddenly this week) and then to Williamson Park for a quick walk and lunch.  Tom slumped on the sofa for the rest of the day.

Sunday wasn't much better - he had had a disturbed night so was tired.  However, we did go for a quick walk around Ribblehead - just to get some fresh air in him and he did cheer up and stop coughing.  The afternoon was spent watching Match of the Day and Eddie Stobart Trucks and Trailers.  He was in bed fast asleep by 6.30 and slept 13 hours - waking up much brighter and ready for school.

Child of the World

So Tom came home on Friday with a Certificate of Merit for being so knowledgeable about the world.  He also came home with a stinking cold!  It will be another quiet weekend.

Monkey Tom

And at the top!

Climbing like a monkey

We took Tom to the climbing wall in Ingleton last night after school for the first time.  We went with Finn and Kate who know what they are doing as they go regularly.  We didn't really expect much from Tom, but thought that as the wall is in the village, we really should try it out.  He astounded us!  He was really enthusiastic and happy to climb, he got to the top of 2 walls and half way up a bigger one.  He got the hang of abseiling down pretty quickly.  We couldn't believe our eyes.  Kate said that he did much better than the other boys she has taken.  He was completely at ease with it.  I think we have just found us another rainy day activity...

Star Pupil

So Tom has had a brilliant week at school this week.  This half term his topic is 'around the world' so obviously one he is interested in.  They are doing a lot about China at the moment (his teacher used to teach in Shanghai) and apparently he has 'blown away' Ms Middleton with his enthusiasm and knowledge.  He got Star of the Day on Wednesday and a special mention in his reading book and then came home with a certificate for great research on the Great Wall of China yesterday.  Ms Middleton says that he has really blossomed and engaged in the last week.  With our genes in him - he was always going to be interested in the world around him.  Just goes to show that when he is interested in the topic at school he does well.

He has his school assembly next week - apparently it is about China so could be interesting...

Wet wet wet weekend

Rain, rain, rain and more rain this week and this weekend.  So much so that football got completely cancelled!  They were supposed to have a match this weekend, but roads and football pitches were flooded - didn't make sense for it to go ahead.

That meant we had the full day to ourselves, but the weather forecast was solid rain.  Tom requested a train trip to Leeds, we didn't have any better ideas so off to Leeds we went.  

Small boy, big tart

We got there at lunchtime and headed to Bundobust - an Indian Street Food restaurant a friend had told us about.  It was vegetarian, and the best authentic Indian food I have ever had outside of India.  Unfortunately a lot of it was a bit too spicy for Tom, but we found enough for him to munch on (his favourite being okra - another new vegetable to add to his list)

We then did a targeted strike on Leeds city centre and did most of our Christmas shopping.  In fact we did so well, that we finished early, so found ourselves an independent cafe (quite difficult in the city centre) for a coffee and sit down before heading to Wasabi to pick up our sushi tea and the train station for some train spotting before heading back.

After an uneventful trip back we ate our sushi in the lounge whilst watching Dad's Army - perfect end to a soggy Saturday.

Sunday - Tom wasn't feeling well - complaining of a cold.  He didn't want to do much, including swimming which is our usual Sunday fall back on a horrible weather day.  So, we stayed in.  Tom played with Lego whilst Matt and I did some jobs we've been putting off for a while.  Tom then requested a 'cheesy' lunch so we braved the weather and headed to Hawes for a once round the tasting room and lunch.  The afternoon was spent cuddled up on the sofa watching Ratatouille.  Not an exciting day, but a necessary day.

Open Morning at Lily Pad Bakery

On Monday, I decided it might be a good idea to have an Open Morning for Lily Pad Bakery on Friday to try to get some more orders for Christmas.  I sent out a Facebook invite on Monday morning and then set to work, doing my orders for the week (7 gingerbread houses and a Frozen cake) as well as getting samples ready for the morning.

It was a little stressful getting everything ready on time, but I got there.  I got up at 6am to give myself enough time to set the kitchen up for the 9am start.  I had samples for all of my Christmas Fayre, hot fruit punch to drink in the slow cooker and a chocolate cherry cake and gingerbread biscuits on offer for a small donation to Children in Need.

Christmas Table

Other table with wedding cakes and tasting cakes

I was lucky in that I had 3 waves of people turn up - meaning it wasn't crazy.  As soon as one wave left, another arrived.  In all 15 people turned up.  Everyone ordered something which was great, including one who ordered over £60 of goods - she really made my day which brought me almost £300 of orders.

We also met a lady in the village whose son currently lives in Japan!

Note for next year: do a 'alternative flavour cake' for a small donation to charity.  This will mean people will sample something different to vanilla / regular sponge and might encourage them to order more exciting flavours of cake in the future.

Don't bother with gingerbread biscuits - just personalised people and a couple of others but nothing more.

Advertise more widely next year, to try to attract people who don't know me, and don't do it on Children in Need day as there was an event at school for Nursery and Reception meaning many people didn't make it.

Maybe do it on a Saturday morning as well???

Weekend

It was a wet weekend, so we didn't get up to anything that exciting.  On Saturday Tom had football on the all weather pitch as the football field was flooded.  The all weather pitch wasn't that much better - the children were slipping and sliding all over the place. A good result was that football finished early, meaning we had enough time to get to Ribblehead and on to the Carlisle train.  We had a picnic on the train and arrived in good time for some train spotting for the boys and a good look around the cake shop for me.

Country gent & a very loud engine

We then hit the 'big city' and did our usual 'big city shopping' diving in and out of the rain.  We then had an early tea in one of our favourite Carlisle restaurants.  We visited 3 before we found one with some space - the people in Carlisle go out early!  We found space in the last one we tried, the atmosphere was completely different to that during the day: very loud music, quite dark etc.  We ordered our food ate up and left.  It wasn't exactly the best place to take a six year old - a little too adult!  Think next time we will have a late lunch rather than an early tea!

We got back to the station in time for more train spotting before heading home.

Remembrance Day at the War Memorial

Sunday was Remembrance Sunday.  Traditionally the Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorer Scouts go to church at St Mary's in the village for a service.  We think this was Tom's first ever time in a church and he was very very well behaved.  We had explained to him that it would be a solemn occasion and there would be a silent 2 minutes etc etc, he took it all on board.  He was sat on the front pew, whilst we were towards the back - trying (sometimes in vain) to follow the service and learn new hymns.  We went outside to the War Memorial for 11 o'clock - when it started raining - all the children were very well behaved again.  They read out all the names of the village's fallen men - we didn't recognise that many 'village' surnames but did notice a huge amount of them had double barrelled names.
 

Lots of water

When the service finished, we headed back home, got changed into something more comfortable (we dressed up for the church, to find everyone else in jeans!) and headed into Hawes for lunch at the Wensleydale Pantry and then up to Aysgarth Falls for a little walk and to see the water crashing over the waterfall.  Then back home to batten up the hatches and keep the awful weather at bay!

Wrapped up warm!

Busy Weekend

Ready for trick or treating

Saturday started with Tom playing football - just a practise this morning.  I headed off to Settle to deliver a cake and got back just in time to watch him for the last half hour.  He is definately progressing.  He gets stuck into the mob now and will tackle, but he still waits for the ball to come to his area before he gets involved.  He is certainly getting it though and as a team they are getting better and better.

Once Tom had had a shower (he was covered in mud) we decided to head down to the Falls Cafe for lunch.  Matt then did the Waterfalls walk, whilst Tom and I headed back for a quiet afternoon and yet another Thomas film.  Tom then got changed into his Halloween gear (bones t-shirt, witch's cape, wizard's hat and pumpkin bucket and torch) and we headed to Bella's for some face painting before going to the pub and being sent on our way around the village.  Tom was straight into it this time and got quite a good haul of sweeties.  Bella too.  We then headed back to the pub for our pies and peas supper.  It wasn't as well organised as last time, meaning there were no tables for us to sit down on.  Luckily, it was quite mild and we were pretty comfortable sat outside and the children were more than happy running around on the grass so all was not lost - except some customer loyalty - there were plenty of grumbles around! We ended up having a good night and took a sleepy boy home for bed.

Wizard and witch(es)

Sunday, it was miserable again so we headed to Hornby to go swimming.  Tom was ace again - he did 10 lengths and lots and lots of diving to the bottom of the pool to collect sinkers.  We all had a great morning playing in the water.

We went to the tea rooms in Wray for lunch before heading back home to get dinner ready as the Ellershaws were coming round for roast.  I did the full works and was pretty pleased with the results - best ever roast potatoes.  The girls and Tom played beautifully together and everyone ate up very very well.  Rich being Rich came with beer - not just a couple of beers but a good 12-14 beers, so we ended up having a tasting session.  Dark evening, roast dinner and plenty of beer with well behaved children - what isn't to like?  Think it was almost 8pm before they left (and on a school night too!)  Another good day.

1000th Post: Half Term Part 2

So Matt pointed out to me that this is my 1000th post on the blog.  Wow!  Feeling quite good with the achievement, although as usual I am behind with my posts and playing catch up.  However, if you had told me 6 years ago that the blog would still be going (albeit weekends and holidays only) I would have been surprised!

Our Handsome Boy

First things first, Matt took a gorgeous photo of Tom in Ullswater on Tuesday so here it is blown up for you to enjoy, certainly worthy of our 1000th blog post.

Glenridding

Yes Tuesday was spent on Ullswater.  We had Tesco vouchers which gave us all Rover Tickets for the day.  It was the most gorgeous day - blue skies and autumn leaves.  Not a breath of wind, meaning a still lake and we got to sit outside on the boat without getting cold.  In fact our hats, gloves and scarves which we diligently packed didn't come out of our bag! We even sat outside in a beer garden at Pooley Bridge for lunch (where the photo was taken) and didn't get cold.  We didn't do a lot to be honest other than sitting back and enjoying the scenery, weather and company.  Not bad for a free day out.  Of course the day came to an end earlier than we would have wished, but that was because of the clocks going back, not because we weren't enjoying ourselves, once the sun had gone behind the mountains it got cold and we couldn't see anything, so we came home.

Pooley Bridge

Wednesday was quite different to Tuesday in that we had rain all day!  We decided to have a quiet day.  We went swimming with Lynne and Matthew in the morning.  Wow!  Tom completely surprised me.  When I took him swimming during the Summer holidays we fell out as he constantly cried and clung to me.  I gave him a good talking too before we left this time.  He couldn't have been more different.  Not only did he not cling to me, but he decided that he was going to do 14 lengths, and off he went and did them.  I couldn't quite believe it, but was very very pleased.  So much so that I took him to Ireby Farm Cafe for lunch so he could have a smoked salmon sandwich as a reward.  I think we MUST have turned the corner with swimming now, surely he can't go backwards from here?!  The afternoon was spent slobbing out in front of the telly watching a Thomas film (Tom still loves Thomas the Tank Engine)

Tram in the lights

Thursday started off rainy but it had cheered up by lunchtime which was good as we were heading to Blackpool for a day of good ole British tackiness.  Once again Tescos had come up with the goods and we had vouchers to go to the Sea Life Centre - just as well as it was crowded to capacity, full of pushchairs and people.  It wasn't a relaxing visit, but we enjoyed ourselves and managed not to get too much crowd rage and we managed to be near the shark tank just as the talk was happening so we got to learn some bits and pieces.  We were glad to leave though and we were glad we didn't pay full price.  We came out to bright blue sunshine, so we revelled in it for a while and even managed to find a nice and trendy bar with an outdoor space to have a drink and sit down.  Once we had recovered we headed to the pier amusements to waste some money on the 2p slots.  It didn't take long, we were more rubbish than normal at it (must be because it was so busy with it being half term that all the machines had been hit big time before we got there).  We then got ourselves a bag of donuts (we are very boring when we come to Blackpool these days, always following the same pattern of things to do).  As we munched on the donuts, the illuminations came on so we finished up and walked up towards Bispham.  It seemed to take a fraction of the time it took last year - I guess our (Tom's) legs are getting fitter (and longer).  We then headed to Bispham Kitchen and had fish and chips with bread and butter.  The perfect end to a day in Blackpool.  Great fun.

Huge spaceman

Friday - once again it rained in the morning, so Tom and I spent it trying to tidy the house up (not hugely successful).  We had lunch by which time it had stopped raining and then Kate and Finn dropped by.  We were going for a bike ride together up in Chapel-le-Dale, just off the road to Hawes. It was a good rugged, muddy and wet bike ride with plenty of puddles.  Tom had to get off his bike and walk with it a couple of times, but on the whole he did really well (remember Finn is an Ace Mountain Biker - he does jumps and all sorts of tricks!) and more or less kept up with Finn.  It was a lovely afternoon - the sky had cleared so we had blue sky, the boys got on really well and the scenery was magnificent as we were between Ingleborough and Ribblehead.  Unfortunately for you I was enjoying the afternoon so much that I didn't take any photos - sorry!  We spent the evening around Finn's house, the boys played and we nattered.  Tom was well fed with a chicken stir fry.  Matt, not wanting to be lonely on a Friday night, headed to The Old Post Office and found some friends to share a couple of beers with.  We ended the day with a take away Indian.  Not a bad day.

Half Term - part 1

Saturday wasn't a particularly nice day - grey and drizzly!  Tom went for his football practise in the morning.  We decided to head to Skipton for lunch and a shop.  Have I mentioned the new farm shop in Skipton - Keelham Farm Shop - it is fantastic, full of wonderful produce at wonderful prices, not your usual Farm Shop prices.  We had lunch first, and then went a bit mad at the meat counter - lets put it this way, we won't need to buy any more protein for a long long time.

Next stop was Aldi - the other end of the scale, mainly for cake ingredients (cheaper than Asda!).  We returned home with a sleepy Tom so he had a rest and then we watched a Thomas the Tank Engine film together. Not an exciting day, but a useful one.

Climbing Pen-y-Ghent.

On Sunday we went swimming in the morning.  Matt had his new prescription goggles and discovered a whole new world under the water, so there was a lot of underwater swimming to be had. Tom's swimming was good too, but he seems to refuse to use his arms at the moment, making swimming really hard work for himself.

We had tea at Hornby Tea Rooms.  We won't again.  Seemed to be a gaggle of old ladies 'playing' at running a tea room.  They were having a great time and gossip, but the service to us customers was very poor.  My soup came first, 5 mins later Matt got his panini, then 5 mins later (after a number of reminders) Tom got his tea cake (by which time my soup was cold!).  His tea cake was burnt as well!  I wouldn't have minded but we were the only customers?!!!!  A lesson on how not to run a business!

Nearly there.

The afternoon was spent at Charlie's party.  A Charlie and the Chocolate Factory themed affair, and with Alice running it - it was very well done with lots of imaginative games and food all themed around the book.  The guests were the boys from school and 1 girl.  They all got on really well.  In fact us parents just sat down and enjoyed a natter whilst the children played.  There were no raised voices, no disagreements, no silly behaviour.  The boys enjoyed playing and got on with it.  No intervention was needed at all - pure harmony.  Lovely.

Tom and Lottie

Monday we met up with the Ellershaws to walk up Pen-y-Ghent (the third of the three peaks).  They have Caitlin who is in Tom's class and Lottie who has just turned 4.  They all got to the top and down again.  It was a lovely day out - nice and clear, blue skies etc, although a little windy.  The children did really well.  They more or less ran up the top - playing hide and seek, running away from monsters, and scaling up rock walls like goats.  When we got almost to the top, the wind got really fierce.  Tom doesn't like wind and had done really well until this point, but here he sort of lost it (crying that it was too windy) but somehow he managed to pull himself together and carried on up - scaling rock walls in the wind to get to the top.  We were really proud of him for getting through it.  Only 6 months ago he wouldn't have made it  through the wind (having the Ellershaw's there helped I think).  We all got to the top under our own steam - even little Lottie who did very very well.  We had a picnic and then headed back down the longer, gentler track.  Lottie got a little whingy, so Rich carried her on his shoulders where she fell asleep - bless her!  Caitlin got a bit upset after eating a sweet she didn't like and getting an itchy rash, but they all cheered up once we were out of the wind and in the sunshine.  All were smiling when we got back to the cars.

We finished the day off in The Station Inn at Ribblehead to toast our mountain climbing success.

Steve Backshall

Noodles!

We had an exciting day on Thursday.  We collected Tom (and Finn and Kate) straight from school and headed to Harrogate where we were to see Steve Backshall 'in real life'.  First stop though was Wagamamas for noodles.  Matt normally avoids Wagamamas, but given the choice of that or MacDonalds it is Wagamamas all the way!  The food was ok but not proper Japanese (we are snobs after all!)

Afterwards, we headed to the theatre to see Steve Backshall (Naturalist who has shows on Children's telly).  He was very good, he didn't talk down to the children at all, which meant that some of what he said was lost on our little boys, but there were plenty of pictures and videos of him with animals around the world to keep their attention, also the children had the opportunity to ask questions directly to him - ours didn't get chosen, but plenty did.  He came across very well - seemed like a real down to earth bloke, who really wants to pass his passion on to others.  Matt and I learnt lots, it was a good evening out.  Both boys zonked out on the way home, Finn fell asleep on Kate, then Tom fell asleep on Finn - looked very cosy!

Musical Tom

I've forgotten to mention that Tom's class at school have been selected to have special music lessons this year.  Every Wednesday a music teacher, Mr Waugh comes in to teach them.  They all got to choose a musical instrument and last week they got to bring them home.  I was expecting a recorder, but no, this is 2015  they had a choice of a violin, a guitar, a cello or keyboards (how grown up?!).  Tom went for a guitar and was very pleased to bring it home.  First week's homework was to practice taking the cover on and off safely.

Rock star Tom

He came home with his first musical score this week (Dinosaur Jam), so he has been practising that.  It is only 2 notes, but as I have no experience of the guitar and Matt has very little musical knowledge it might be a little difficult helping him.  I know for sure his guitar isn't properly tuned as the two notes are not a note apart when playing them, I have no idea how to tune a guitar.

Anyway, here he is with his guitar...

Football, fair and inflatables

Saturday, Tom had his second football match - this time at home against Grassington.  Grassington only had 6 players, we had 20+, so it was a quick turn around on our side to make sure everyone had a go.  Tom was on first, they lost 4-0.  In fact we lost all our matches, but that apparently is normal against Grassington - all the Craven Wanderers teams lost.  The poor Grassington players must have been really tired afterwards as they played continuously for 45 minutes so all our players could have a go (Guess that means that the Grassington players get much more experience!)   Tom's team did look better - just unfortunate they didn't manage to score any goals.

Craven Wanderer in action

The afternoon was spent at the school as it was the Autumn School Fair.  It was the first one we've been able to go to, all previous ones having been on days we've had other things on.  It was a interesting affair - part jumble sale, part bric a brac sale, a raffle of average things, tombola and then some games run by the kids.  Amongst all that I had 'Guess the number of smarties on the cake'.  I was also on the door so pretty much demanded that everyone who entered entered the cake competition, it worked, not many were brave enough to snub me!

Ready to jump in...

The teachers and other PTA people were pretty miserable afterwards as footfall was way down on previous years, however, once all the pennies were counted, it was found that the takings were pretty similar to previous years.  I guess parents must be getting more middle class: fewer people, spending more.

Friends

Sunday, Tom had a pool
party at Settle pool, so we headed over early and took a whole load of stuff to the dump, did a Booth's visit and had tea and a bun.  We then went to the pool.  It was a joint party for Lucas and Sam (who used to live next door).  The pool have a big inflatable structure which they put on the water.  It was great fun - the kids were a little nervous at first, but they soon got the hang of it and had a whale of a time.

Most entertaining though was watching the parents - they were all competitive and very funny to watch.  Tom was quite cautious on the inflatable but enjoyed it.  He then decided to swim back to the start every time rather than get out of the pool and walk like everyone else.  We couldn't believe it - but he was very happy practising his swimming.  He did really well too.  We were very proud of him.

After the birthday tea, they all went out for a run about on the huge fields.  We then headed home for a proper Sunday roast dinner.

Blackberries and bike rides

So last weekend was nice, so we finally got to go blackberrying and cycling - which I've been trying to do for 2 weekends now.

Above Feizor

Saturday Tom had football practice, we thought we would have lunch at The Game Cock, but there was a wedding happening in Austwick and the pub was full, so we headed over to Feizor and had lunch there instead.  We then walked down into Austwick along the lanes until we hit blackberry alley.  There weren't as many blackberries as there have been in the past - but that was probably because we were a couple of weeks later than usual.  However, we managed to pick up 2.5lbs, considering we still have some in the freezer from last year, I think we'll be ok.

We got home to realise we didn't have anything handy for dinner, so we all had showers and then headed to Kirkby Lonsdale and Avanti for pizza.  

Sunday was nice too, so we put the bike carrier on the car and headed to Malham Tarn.  We parked up and cycled round it - was quite a nice circuit - tracks, off road and empty country lanes.  The first part was nice and flat, but then it got quite hilly, so it ended up being quite a work out for us all - we got back to the car feeling very virtuous having had some decent exercise.

We then headed down to Stainforth to try out a pub we haven't been to before.  The food and pub it self were fine, but the landlord was super grumpy, it always surprises me when people like him are in the service industry - how do they make that choice in the first place, and HOW does he manage to end up managing a pub?  It doesn't make any sense!  Luckily we had been warned that he was grumpy or I may have been more offended than I was!

We came out of the pub feeling wanting more exercise so we headed back to Austwick and did a bike ride around the lanes -  pretty much retracing our steps from yesterday.  We rode the lanes much quicker than we were expecting so I guess our fitness is getting better.

We then headed home for baths and tea.