Lots of pictures so here goes.......

Tuesday was spent having a lovely (slightly wet) walk up Aira Force which was beautiful. We had a picnic in Pooley Bridge, then went for a drive through to Howtown and had a play on the beach there. Off for a drive through to Glenridding for a coffee and another play on the shore then back to the Tipi for a 'scout' tea, comprising of barbequed sausages, mash potato parcels (Jack's idea) and marmalade and golden syrup cooked sandwiches (Williams idea) which were surprisingly yummy actually!!!

On Wednesday Fran and Andy were desperate to see some real snow and decided they wanted to do a 'proper' walk so headed for Helvellyn with the boys and Dave as guide. As the walk would have been too tough for Eilidh and Ben we went to the cinema instead to see 'Horton hears a Who' at last which was really good. The intrepid walkers appeared back at tea time, really chuffed with themselves as they had made it to the top and there was loads of snow!!! Apparantly it was freezing and I'm really glad I didn't go as the kids would have been really cold and miserable!! Andy got a nice hot bath and a hot curry and they all went back to their freezing cold Tipi for the night....ha, ha!! After all their efforts yesterday and with them moaning about aching legs we went off to Brockhole this morning. It has been gorgeous and sunny today but still cold. The kids got a while playing in the adventure park and then we went off to Grasmere for our picnic. We all stocked up on Grasmere gingerbread (delicious!) and then off to Lakeland in Windermere as Fran was determined she was going to spend lots of money there!! Tonight it was steak and more mash parcels back at the Tipi, with wild garlic mushrooms as Fran has discovered the joy of wild garlic!! Of course, no fire is complete without toasted marshmallows and the kids were having competitions to see who could get the most 'skins' on theirs. Jack and William have decided they are all coming back in the summer so we shall see......