A little more holiday fun.

At the end of a week of holiday exploring a new area, here are a few more of our highlights.

We didn't go out on a boat on any of the lakes but Fraser & Ally did enjoy a wee look around one of the ones that was 'parked' by our picnic site in Keswick.

Not all of our activities were outdoors ones. One day we visited the Rheged Discovery Centre, which is a place with a little bit of something for everyone. While James (14) went with his dad and grandad to watch a documentary about D-Day in 3D at the iMax cinema, I took Calum (12), David (8) and Alasdair (5), and Fraser too of course, to do some pottery painting. Meanwhile Granny and Auntie Anna visited the shops and one of the cafes.

Alasdair chose to paint a monkey as it reminded him of his favourite character 'Monkey George' (Curious George).

Another day we discovered the fun hybrid of Footgolf! It is just as it sounds - a golf course where you kick a football around instead of hitting a golf ball around.

The holes are extra large so that the football fits in!

Apart from the cold day at the Birds of Prey centre, we had such beautiful weather all week and spent our last afternoon climbing to see a waterfall beside Lake Ullswater.

This really was a much higher spot to stand than it looks on the photo! Walking down the slippery stone steps with Fraser in the sling was a little tricky!

At the end of the trail were these fun wooden shapes.

To finish with, here is a 'selfie' of this little man in his sling, where he spent many a long walk throughout the week and remained his contentedly chilled, happy little self.

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Holiday Club

Last week we were busy, busy, busy with the children's holiday club at church, which ran every morning, Monday to Friday.

We aren't a particularly big church, but there were a group of about a dozen of us who each had a different part to play in the running of the club.

We had around 25 children attending every day. Some of these were our own children from the church, others were friends from another church but some were from the local community who had no church connection at all, which was wonderful.

The week was called Mission Rescue and had a secret agent theme. The children learned all about Moses and his mission to rescue God's people from the Egyptians.

As well as the Bible studies, the children learned some songs, played some games....

.....cracked some codes, made some crafts and had a fun time!

Since I was organising the crafts, it meant that part of each afternoon or evening was spent preparing for the next day, hence the business of the week!

Crafty highlights were:

~ making bricks out of playdough and building pyramids (I had a vat of playdough bubbling on the cooker the night before that!)

~ and making pizzas (the connection to the Moses story being the special flat bread they had at the Passover!)

On top of the crafts and leading a little group for the Bible study (my group was the only one with more boys than girls in it - story of my life!), I also had the fun of playing the bad agent in the drama. Totally out of character you understand. One girl did say I made a good baddie, although my sweet boys told me that I was too nice to be a baddie!

The boys had a really good week, as did their cousins, and all the other children seemed to enjoy themselves too. 

Now that it's over, we are praying that everyone would remember what was learned and take it to heart.

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31 Days to Clean

It was yet another day of glorious sunshine here today. It's not hot outside, but pleasantly warm. There has been only one day of rain in the last 3 weeks, or possibly longer, and apparently has been the driest April here since 1910!

When you live in Scotland, not only do you talk about the weather all the time like a good Brit, but you really have to go out and enjoy the sun while it is there, and get your outside jobs done, because you never know when this sunny spell will come to an end!

Yesterday, was yet another Bank holiday, and to my delight my husband had taken the day off too. He doesn't automatically get Bank holiday's off, but gets them added onto his annual leave entitlement.

We met up with his parents and sister at a nature reserve where the boys enjoyed a bit of bird watching, before we climbed a hill to get great views over the nearby loch. We then had some very welcome tea and cakes at a farm shop and finished our day with a barbecue back here. I think I'll post a couple of photos of the views in Friday's post but here are a couple for today.

If anyone's children (or themselves) are interested in nature/birds/wildlife I would really recommend a wee visit.

Moving on.

This week sees the start of the 31 Days to Clean challenge over at Joyful Mothering.

I like to think that I have a pretty good cleaning schedule sorted out for our house. One of these day's I'll get round to posting it too, in case it could be of use to anyone. My schedule evolved out of reading what others had for their schedules and working out what suited our house best.

31 Days to Clean, isn't so much of an A to Z of how to clean your house, but more the mindset of why we should want a clean and orderly house. Each day there are two challenges, a Mary and a Martha one.

Like Sarah Mae, the author, I am not really a natural born cleaner (just ask my mother!) but I do know that a clean and orderly house is a happy house. 

When everything is in it's place then there is no stress about finding things.

When the kitchen is cleaned and tidied after each meal time, there is no extra work when it comes to the next meal time of cleaning up the previous meal's mess.

When the living room and hallway are clear of clutter there is no mad rushing around if someone drops by.

And with little boys in the house the bathroom really does need cleaned regularly to avoid it smelling like a public lavatory (my least favourite job!)

Our first challenge was to write a mission statement about why we wanted a clean house.

Well, as well as what I've written above, having a warm and inviting home is my responsibility. I want friends and visitors to feel welcome here, but also able to relax. I don't want my home to look like a show-home but a comfortable family home.

Now, who wants to pop round for some tea and cupcakes? I have another batch of Rule Britannia ones just out of the oven!

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Just to round things off....

.....here are a few scenery shots from our travels last week. 

Most of them are taken from a moving car, so please excuse the quality. When you have a car full of excited children, constantly asking 'will we be there soon?', stopping for the sake of taking a photo is a bit too much of a luxury. Especially to snap scenery you have driven through all of your life!

I did however try and grab a few shots when I could for the sake of my bloggy friends, especially those who have never visited Scotland. For my Scottish friends, I'm sure you won't mind seeing them either!

This was on the way out of the tiny village where we were staying.

This is the view standing at the front of my husband's uncle's house. He is an old bachelor and still lives in the house where he and his brothers were born.

Going back towards our cottage.

A similar view to the first one, but a better day and angle.

The next two are also of the same loch but different parts of it.

This is on our way back home, looking south from a place called Kingussie, just south of Inverness. We had actually stopped here briefly to watch a shinty match.

Back on the road south. There is only one road north through the middle of Scotland, the A9, a road we love to hate thanks to the fact that although it is such a busy road it is not all dual carriageway. Parts of it are, parts of it aren't and you always get stuck behind a lorry just as the dual carriageway comes to an end.

Approaching home.

Sweet dreams ♥

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What else were we up to?

Well, there was fun at the crazy golf. 

Guess who got a hole in one? No, not little man, but his mummy. So did my brother actually, so I can't claim to have been the best!

Having his right arm in plaster didn't stop Calum from taking part in everything.

There was more shelter building. This time the boys and their cousins were building them in the garden of the cottage.

There was a spot of fishing, one-armed..........

....and two-armed.....

......with the excitement of a catch!

James was the only fisherman who had success, but he wasn't too keen to touch the fish! (or gut it!)

Incidentally, last time we went fishing here there was only one person who caught anything...

Yes, I know my jacket wouldn't zip up right, but it was only a month before little Alasdair was born!

The cottage we were staying in was originally a library built by Andrew Carnegie in the 1890s. It was closed as a library in the 70s and converted to a house. The kitchen still has the old library shelves lining one of the walls.

It has a nice big table in the middle, big enough to fit all 11 of us round for meals, although here it is just the boys as the daddy's were out shooting.

The living room was a great size but still really cosy.

At the front gate stands this old street lamp, which I'm assuming would have been the original one with the library. It reminds me of the one from Narnia!

To finish off our holiday we set the timer and took this photo of all of us.

On our journey back home we were passing Culloden battle-field and had promised Calum we would stop in as he had so enjoyed studying the Jacobites, as you all know.

What we didn't realise was that this would turn out to be one of the highlights of the holiday. I'll save the reason why for tomorrow's post, but here is a clue.

Notebooks at the ready for another history lesson!

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