What a fab day!

We have had the most fantastic family day today. Last night Abigail went to her best friend's for a sleepover (her first time!). I fretted all night of course but she was fine. Loved every minute of it. There were 4 7/8 year olds there and they went to sleep at 1.30am when the responsible adults removed the bulb from the bedside lamp. This is why we will not be hosting a sleepover at our house! NO WAY! lol Apparently the main topic of conversation in the small hours was who had trumped the most and who had done the smelliest! Classy eh?

Anyhow, she was clearly wrecked when we picked her up which is a recipe for disaster were we to stay at home today so we decided as the weather was nice that we would go to Dalby forest which is between York and Scarborough (nearer to Scarborough to be honest). Dalby forest holds so many wonderful memories for me and it is a beautiful place to be. We took a picnic lunch which we ate near the play area, then the kids played for a while and had a paddle in the stream (hilarious! the water was freezing and I filmed them psyching themselves up to get in - may blog that footage one day!). We then decided to do the Bridestones walk which I just LOVE. I have done it so many times I have lost count (although the last time was almost 2 years ago now). It is not a long walk (just over a mile and a half I think) but it has a couple of very steep hills to tackle. Once you get to the top of the first hill and walk across to the first of the Bridestones the view is breathtaking. Isn't it amazing how alive you feel when you do these sorts of walks? We all literally felt on top of the world.

Before we came home we called at a stunning village called Thornton le Dale. I have many wonderful memories from there too. We all had a yummy ice cream (2 scoops each - I had turkish delight and toffee flavours!) and wandered up to look at the thatched cottage by the river which is absolutely beautiful. A year pass for Dalby forest is £42 and I am seriously thinking we need to invest in one and get our butts there more often. I thought I would share some pics from our fab day, sadly my camera batteries died before we made it to Thornton Le Dale :o(
Maddie sitting on a fab log with a snake carved in it. Not sure what the aeroplane arms are all about (bless my eccentric girl!)
Pretty pretty pretty!

Took ages for Abigail to pluck up the courage to go in for a paddle!
Mads in front of one of the Bridestones

This was meant to be a shot of both girls. Maddie wanted to put her arm round Abigail which Abigail thought was a fate worse than death (that is what lack of sleep does for her!)
Love this one. I was at the foot of one of the stones as they were coming down with the sun behind them.

Little bugger pinched my shades! Have to say they suit her but they are MINE!!!

Thought I would finish with a card! I made this several weeks ago for my mate Carol who celebrated a special birthday recently (except for some reason the fact that it was a special birthday passed me by! Durr!!). I have no idea why I haven't blogged this before! I think my marbles are lost again!