Can you waddle?

My friend Emma, who is a super mum to two lovely kids aged 6 and 20 months, helps out at her daughters school on the PTA, is a Brown Owl and who helps out at her church decided she didn't have enough to keep her busy, and so organised a Toddle Waddle in aid of Meningitis Trust! Being the good, supportive friend that I am, I signed up my whole family to take part, and Tom to get sponsored (it was for under 5's). 

 It is a topical issue as there have been 4 recent deaths (in the month of April) of young people in the UK from Meningitis, including one of a teenage boy from Gateshead.  The deaths were all in people outside the most ‘at risk’ age group for the disease, the under fives, and struck outside the peak season for bacterial meningitis, the winter months – highlighting that it can affect anyone, of any age, at any time.  So I am pleased that any small sums that we could raise can go towards helping this worthwhile charity.


Today was the day and we all gathered on the beautiful links of Whitley Bay, with yellow and white balloons, some littles dressed in duck outfits, and a profusion of yellow. It was another sunny day in the bay, but once again the bloody wind added a chill to proceedings. We met at 1pm and within 15 minutes we had set off, Sam and Tom setting the pace along with Hannah (Emma's daughter) and Kira (our friend Helen's daughter). They must have done double the distance of anyone else, what with climbing up and down hills, racing on and then backtracking, their balloons bobbling about in the wind. It did not take long to reach the cafe, and soon everyone was tucking into halfway ice creams and receiving their certificates

We decided to walk on further, as the kids were enjoying themselves, and it was so nice to be out in the (admittedly very) fresh air.  Helen and Kira joined us, and we had a lovely walk along the beach and then back along the grass.  The kids frolicked like spring lambs - Sam trying to copy Kira's cart wheels and Tom doing an impressive 3 forward rolls in a row!  It was fun, but eventually the cold got to the parents and we soon had them bundled up in the cars and on the way home.