We wrapped ourselves up this morning and headed up to Penrith to go swimming then onto the Home Ed group there. Frosty mornings don't tend to put me in the mood for swimming but Eilidh was so excited as she wanted to show me her underwater swimming so off we went. Eilidh has really come on in confidence since going a bit more regularly again, she went in with no arm bands , put her goggles on and she was off, collecting things from the bottom of the pool and then actually swimming (with no feet on the floor!!!) underwater. Brilliant!!
Some of the older boys came and played with Ben, putting him on their backs and swimming along amidst screams of laughter. This time I actually got to go for a 'proper' swim while Dave kept an eye on them all. Well, I say swim but I only managed four lengths in the big pool and came out again feeling completely deflated! It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been as busy and I could take it at my own pace but they all seemed to be in a hurry charging up and down the pool so I gave up!!

We went on to the Home Ed get together afterwards where we spent the afternoon chatting while the kids killed each other.

It was a long day for the kids and they were both shattered tonight so hopefully we will have a good nights sleep as well.

We got all dolled up yesterday to go to our friends wedding at our church. It was lovely to see them get married but the kids were bored and fidgety. They had a sit down three course meal, lovely food but we were the last table to be served each course which was really slow by which time Ben was having cabin fever! Fortunately they got some toys out and provided bubbles for the kids but we ended up leaving before the speeches and evening do as we were all worn out!! Never mind.

Today we were meant to be getting up for church but ended up all snuggled up in our bed keeping cosy warm and reading and didn't get up in time!! We decided instead to go out for the day up to Ambleside although we never got there. We spotted our friends were having a house clearance on the way through and popped in there to have a look. They are off to Canada in February and are getting rid of practically everything so had the whole house contents up for sale. We picked up a few books, toys and other bits and had a chat then headed off. By this time it was nearly two so we decided to get some lunch at a pub in Ings which was really lovely and then went back home for the promised tree decorating.

After promising the kids the tree would definately be put up today, Dave suddenly remembered that our ladder (to get into the loft) was at the house he is painting!! Oops! So I ended up having to climb up into his hands, onto his shoulders then onto his head to get into the loft. That was bad enough but it wasn't until I was safely up that I wondered how I was meant to get down!! Still we managed to find all the christmas bits and peices and got them down safely, then it was my turn. After trying to balance on Dave's head we decided I would just have to hang on for dear life and he would catch me..........well, he did thankfully but we ended up rolling around in fits of laughter wondering what people going past in their cars thought we were up to!!!

Anyway Dave supervised the kids decorating the christmas tree (I always get too stressed with it!) and it looks great. They all did a brilliant job and now it feels a bit more christmassy in here.

Yesterday was pretty much the same, kids were busy doing computer work on 'Starfall'. I insisted they did something a bit more educational the CBeebies much to Eilidh's disgust! We also found a great site www.woodland-junior.kent.sch.uk which has an online advent calender which tells you all about christmas traditions in other countries each day. This is actually a school site but it has loads of good stuff on. We learnt all about christmas in Sweden (very strange!) We then got on with making chocolate brownies and snowmen cakes.

I was waiting anxiously for Dave to get home so I could rush out to the shops for late night shopping in Kendal to get an outfit for a wedding on Saturday. What a farce!!! Late night shopping consisted of about five shops being open and none of them clothes shops!! So it was back to good old Asda to find something other than jeans to wear!!

Today it was Art Group with a shared lunch. It was a bit unorganised this week as the kids were all excited and ended up spending most of the time running around rather than doing art. However Ben and Eilidh did manage to do a few pictures with copious amounts of glitter and glue. Then we headed back into Kendal to get me some shoes and to find stocking and cracker fillers and a wedding present. Not like us to leave everything until the last minute!?

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, cleaning a cottage in the morning, then off to our friends wedding for the rest of the day.

Yesterday Dave went off to get on with his next job, painting window frames at someones rental property. Ben spent most of the day on the colouring and playing on the computer while Eilidh helped me sort out some of the kitchen and then disappeared off to colour as well.

Pretty much the same today, Dave working, me sorting out more of the house and the kids busy 'doing' things all day. They finished colouring in all the 'Numberjacks' (kids programme to teach numbers) so they could make a number banner out of them. Then I had printed off a load of pictures to make a nativity scene which they got busy with. They coloured them in and I had the job of cutting around them and trying to laminate them. Unfortunately the laminator had other ideas and decided to eat one of the sheets which disappeared completely inside the machine. So then we had a lesson in electronics while I attempted to find it!! Needless to say the laminator is now still in bits waiting for daddy to 'fix' it!!! So the nativity will have to wait, the idea is we will laminate all the peices, put some sandpaper on the back and then make a felt board to put them on so the kids can move them around and 'tell' the story.

They also did some christmas mazes we got off the internet (we love the internet!) and some word searches. Both of them LOVE mazes and will sit for ages merrily mazing away. Ben sat on the computer for a while working his way through his Learning Ladder CDRom which is great as it makes learning fun. They seem to go through phases of wanting to do these so I make the most of it when they do!

Our decorations and tree are still not up as the house is still a mess, I have promised that they will definately go up this weekend as Eilidh is getting impatient!

We got back yesterday complete with huge trailor with a huge shed on! Fortunately it all got back in one piece with no problems. Dave and Andrew (nephew) spent all day Saturday taking his dads old shed down in the snow. Poor Andrew was frozen and was very upset that he was missing an online computer game! Still, they did a good job and got it all done. The kids decided they wanted to play in the snow so got togged up and ran around the garden for a while. Ben had enough when Eilidh threw a snowball down the front of his jacket!

On Friday evening we had a get together with most of Dave's family, the kids were so over excited and running around being painful!! It was a good time, and great to catch up with everyone.

Last night we had howling gales here and our house was freezing! Our fire seems to not be heating up enough to kick start our heating BRRRRRR! Hopefully it's just the coal and not the back boiler which is useless!

Eilidh and Dave went out and about today, while Ben kept himself busy playing games on the computer, printing off pictures and doing colouring. It amazes me how much he has learnt without us actually teaching him much!!

I got on with scrubbing the kitchen, no christmas decorations are going up until this house is tidier!!

Sorry, we have been completely hopeless with the blog recently and I've already had complaints about there being no photos!!! Well, the garden we have been working on is finished...Hurrah! It looks fantastic, of course!!

Well we are off to 'little Grandma's' (Dave's mum) this weekend so we shall write more after that and I promise we shall try to have more photos!!

Saturday was another drizzly working day, we had no cottages to clean so it was getting on with the gardening.

After church on Sunday we went for a drive picking up a few bits we had acquired off Freecycle and had lunch in a lovely cafe in Sedbergh.

Today was back on with gardening at Steve's, more flower beds to be covered with wood chippings, weeds to be pulled and coffee to be drunk (!!!) Eilidh, Ben and Jason, (Steve's son) had great fun paddling about playing boats in the beck in the woods, then went off indoors to watch Ice Age (very educational!!?) It was lovely and sunny this morning and then poured for about and hour and half this afternoon. I got home and got into a lovely warm bath to wallow...lovely!