France en Scouse. #Countrykids #Springcarnival
We have a beautiful beach about an hour from where we live and this week on half term we have had a *few* days of lovely sunny weather. But not too many. So we made the most of it. It is a really beautiful area and we walked to the beach through the woods which so reminded us of our holidays in France. Those lovely tall trees with dappled sunshine and sandy under foot. Made us hanker after a cheeky bottle of red, a freshly baked baguette and some smelly cheese.
There was a little bit of posing by a certain little girl who had just got herself some new gigs 🙂 I think these are the best yet!
Formby is the home to the endangered red squirrels, you can walk along a lovely boardwalk area and try to see some of them. We usually do get to see some of them, they are quite friendly although obviously you are encouraged not to feed them!! The beach is owned by the national trust so there are plenty of signposted areas with little bits of information about the squirrels and why they are endangered. We had a lovely walk through that part of the forest. Including finding the most bizarre looking tree stump that looks like it just came straight out of the water in a scene from Captain Hook!
We walked to the beach which is wide and sandy for the kids to have a play, inevitably we had a toddler faceplant in one of the pools of seawater but she was pretty game about it!.
Wet kids meant home time eventually, once we had climbed the dunes out of the beach and a stop off for some tea on the way home.
All in all pretty good!
just before this weeks #mamarazzi
This week i thought i would chat about one of my favourite elements of a DSLR. Its ability to in-camera light meter your shot. This makes me very happy and once you get the hang of what i could mean for you, you could really really change the look of your images.
But first….
I am flabbergasted to be in the final 6 for the Brilliance in Blogging awards for photography. I had a couple of tweets from some lovely ladies who i have never met but who i consider friends when the finalists were announced that just about sent me for the kleenex. I am so touched that people took the time to vote for me. Really. This blog is my heart. So thank you. thank you, thank you, thank you from me and rhubarb.
Getting Sporty: Old School stylie. #motivationalmonday #MWActive
Taking part this week in the Mark Warner Get families active campaign, you can read about it by following the link. But basically it is about being active..i know..but surprise there. 😉
This week it is all about getting sporty. Made me think of sports day when we were at school, the sack race, egg and spoon, wheelbarrow races. My favourite, the three legged race!! We are coming into the term when many schools are running there sports days but in school nowadays it has changed beyond all recongition. The schools choose the more inclusive ‘afternoon of non-competitive activity’ which involves the kids in the school being divided up into teams of about eight kids, from all different year groups and they then rotate around a variety of different activities.
There are the running races but they are team relay races so that no one child is put forward to win or lose. Im not really sure what my opinion on it is to be honest. I think its great for kids who are maybe not naturally sporty and can feel like they are part of a team…Also one of the sweetest things for me is that as the groups are made up of all the year groups, you get to see the whole of the school community working together. The savvy year 6’s helping and encouraging the nervous reception kids and making sure they are doing their part for their team…but on the other hand it gives no opportunity for any kids to shine on their own. Which surely if any of them will go into any sort of sport – that will have to happen. I dont’ know.
Although thankfully the parents race is now a thing of the past, in our school at least! No more stocking clad women hurtling down a playing field, elbows and fists at the ready, determined to make little johnny proud. Im not sorry at all that we have come into parenting after that had died a death at the hands of the craziness that is health and safety.
But…old style school sports games are still great for having a giggle, getting outside and burning off some energy. We did our own in the local park with some friends and the wheelbarrow race had them collapsing in fits of laughter at the lunacy of trying to make someone run fast on their hands.
Sometimes old school is just the best.
This weeks giveaway is a fabulous Ladies NIKE dri-fit ladies running shirt. Wonderful for helping you get the best out of your work out! If you fancy it,enter the competition on the rafflecopter below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Last weeks winner of the box of LUSH goodies was KD Robertson. Please get in touch to claim your prize! Â 
Cook on a campfire #countrykids #50things #nationaltrust #springcarnival
Its not every day you just have to step outside your back door to do some outdoor fun right outside your back door. My OH was really keen to try out his new outdoor toy and so before bed the kids de-camped in their jammies and dressing gowns to see the new ‘Kelly Kettle’ in action.
The Kelly Kettle is a system whereby you can boil water in a safe and easy to use system which basically has a little fire in a bowl underneath and actually heats the water, it works pretty quickly once the fire gets going and it can also be used on a conventional stove.
It was a little bit of playing with fire thrown in, which lets face it all kids love, they all had a go at the fire-starter thing which they all think is a great little thing to play with!!…
But the most important part all together was the hot chocolate that was promised a the end.
It was all over and done with in about 20 minutes and then it was time to head inside and tuck the kids in the beds but they had that lovely smell about them as we were saying goodnight of woodsmoke. Which just gives you such a feeling of the outdoors it was really lovely. They felt like they had, had a mini adventure in the outdoors and they smelt like it too!
setting up the hot chocolate tray – a very important job!
