A breath of fresh air.

A was busy with korfball refereeing all day today, so the girls and I had arranged to meet up with friends.  R & A came here and the girls had a whale of a time with a game that involved having all the sofa cushions spread out on the floor in the front room.  After lunch, we went out for a walk.  I must admit that I/we are fair weather outdoor folks so it was really good to have that prod to get out and about, because although it was rather windy and overcast, and it did threaten to rain a couple of times, it was really good to get some fresh air and exercise.  As there hadn't been a consensus over our meal where we should go, I suggested that R & I could take the girls for a mystery walk, which went down well.

We started off with a play in the teenager park and some negotiating as to the turn taking on the zip wire (whether to have one or two goes each time), they had a couple of goes on this.

K is now tall enough to grab hold without being lifted, which helps!

We were then side-tracked for a bit, while the girls decided to scramble and slide up and down the very steep side of the old railway embankment.

Spring is on the way.

The girls had decided that they were Amazon explorers, so it must have been the Amazon rather than the Trent that we crossed.  We headed along the Embankment, through the Memorial Garden and then spent quite a while in the playground, while the girls climbed pretty much everything that there is to climb there.

Getting as high as possible each time!

Having spotted an ice cream van, the girls tried to convince us that February is a good time to have ice creams and since they were willing to put their money where their mouths were and pay for them themselves, R & I didn't see why not.  A had found some money in her pocket and I lent my girls some until we got home and they went and bought them.

They got blown about rather a lot, but it didn't impair their enjoyment of them.

We headed back home over the suspension bridge while the girls were eating their ice creams and they had another half an hour of their game, while R & I had a cuppa before R & A had to head home.  K & M tidied up quickly and then we watched the dvd of Cats, which K watched with Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats on her lap to find the poem to match the song each time.

A got home rather later than I'd expected (and he'd said!) but still in time for us all to eat together and afterwards I started reading Gemma, the first of a set of four Noel Streatfeild books about a girl who has been a film star going to live with her 'normal' cousins, while her actress mother goes to the US to make a film after a long break in her career.  They then had a chapter of a William book (seeing that link - I had no idea there were so many of them!) with A & Mr Fox (a puppet) before bed.