Peddars Way

Since coming to live in Norfolk, I've had a yearning to cycle Peddars Way, which is an old Roman road that runs from Knettishall Heath in Suffolk to the North Norfolk Coast, near Hunstanton.

Together with the North Norfolk Coastal Path, it is 97 miles (156 kms) long.
We couldn't of picked more perfect weather conditions, so on Monday, whilst the girls were staying with G&G, we eagerly set off for our 2 day and night adventure and rode to Brancaster, which was about 60 miles.  Although it was challenging at times, we had a ball, though our butts weren't so pleased with it.  OMG, they ached!!!!

We live near Diss

The start of the track.  

Remains of what would of been a very grand Castle, at Castle Acre

There's a perfectly good bridge to cycle over, but no, too easy right?

Short detour to Great Birchman windmall, one of the few working mills left in Norfolk

Fields upon fields and great big open skies 

Holmes next the Sea

Great Massingham.  We stayed here on our first night at the Dabbling Duck.

'Round another bend

G&G met us in Titchwell on our last day with the kids.
Here is Taylor showing Granny her crab she found.

Stunning Hunstanton beach with it's chalk coastline

The sea is actually miles away, but this doesn't matter as long as you've got your windbreaker set up!

Rrrrrrrrrr, Pirates Ahoy

For some reason, the girls woke up yesterday morning (Sat) and decided they wanted to be pirates.  

I have a sneaking suspicion it's because Jaimie knows they get treasure (which means candy to her).  

They had a full day of it, complete with a pirate song, tattoos, the eye patch and a wicked treasure hunt with 18 clues, made up by JP.  It kept them busy for a few good hours! 

I also included a mini scavenger hunt which I printed out from the web.

Believing

There's a line from Peter Pan when they all chant "I do, I do, I do believe in fairies" when one of them starts to lose belief.

It came to light last night when Tanzin lost her 11th tooth yesterday and in her 9 year old skeptic wisdom, she decided to hide the tooth from both me and JP, so if she didn't receive any money, then she'd know it was us all along being the tooth fairy.

Like all good stories, this too has a happy ending as she was rewarded 2 pounds for her tooth and faith is restored.

Back to Broadway

We went to Great Yarmouth last night with G&G to watch a musical stage show, "Back to Broadway".

Starring JP's cousin, Freddie Huddleston, who is a sensational tap dancer, singer, choreographer.  

The musical was brilliant to watch and dance along to as they sung everyone's favourite stage shows musical numbers from Les Miserables to Singing in the Rain.

Jaimie especially loved Ariel's "Part of the World", Tanzin's fav was Footloose and Grease's 'Hand Jive' (which she asked for them to teach her after the show!) Taylor loved Hairspray's 'You can't stop the beat', which was full of energy and heaps of fun.  Mine was 'Memory', from Cats and JP said he enjoyed 'Dont Cry for me Argentina' because they were both sung with such emotion, truly beautiful. 

Check out their website and take a look at some videos to see  just how fantastic it was.  

http://www.backtobroadway.co.uk/tour/

 With 2nd cousin, Freddie

Gotta say that Great Yarmouth is one of those towns that you'd either love or hate.  You can probably guess which one the kids say and what I would say about it!  

Besides the real Vegas, I've never seen anything like it before.  The strip is chockablock full of casino type places. (Slot machines only)  The pink flamingo, The golden nugget etc.  Lights flashing everywhere and cod and chips on offer in every 1970's looking restaurant.  The girls were going into the 'casinos' and finding free penny's that were sitting in the bottom of the slots! So they had a very enjoyable 15 mins of free play!!!  They also had such a laugh going down the giant inflatable slide.  

Be Wild Child

One of our favourite thing to do here is go to Bewilderwood.  Its the superb brainchild of Tom Blofield who inherited a large woody marshland. In 2007 he opened this fantasy adventure park that has Boggles and Twiggles, slippery slopes, zip wires and tree climbing adventures.  We've been going there every summer since Tanzin was 3 years old.
http://www.bewilderwood.co.uk/

Today was wonderful to finally share it with Grace, Emily and little bro, Aiden.  

Top of the Lake

Ooh aah, has anyone been following this detective drama tv series?
Its produced by the very talented Jane Champion and with it she brings in Holly Hunter as a very cool hippie guru as well as a stella cast.  It's shot in New Zealand, so the scenery is just stunning. top of the lakehttp://www.topofthelake.co.uk/

Now I have my Saturday AND Sunday nights sorted!  (White Queen on Sunday)
See it's just all rock and roll in Scole!!

Now, speaking of Lakes, we've just had the best week away to the Lakes District with another family from school.  Jo, Steve, Abey and Megan.  The girls are in Taylor and Tanzin's class respectively, so as you can imagine there was alot of laughter and long nights with their friends.

We absolutely loved the Lakes.  Every day was new and exciting.  The kids were brilliant and took on each daily challenge of biking/hiking/climbing/swimming/tree climbing with great attitudes.   I can't wait to go back there one day.  So so much to explore!!

Village of Grasmere where we stayed

The local Herdwick sheep

Beside the waterfall we scrambled up to the top

View from our lounge room.  I know, amazing huh?

Bombs ahoy!!

The hills are dotted with flint stone

School's out for Summer

You can tell that the kids are at home and summer is well and truly with us.

The girls finished school on the Friday 12th July and will return early September.
That afternoon, Tanzin's BBBBBBF, Zoe, sister Olive and Flis & Les arrived from New Zealand.

We loved showing them our home and like true friends, it was like we had just saw each other and time had never past.

Dinking on the quad

We've put up this pool for some summer splashin'

Cheeky Jaimie, Olive and Taylor

Fun and skilled games of Giant Jenga as well as ping pong were played

Twinies, Zoe and Tanzin

Taylor & Jaimie zooming about