Our Weekend............

..........has been spent outside in the fresh breezy air!! Yesterday Hannah and I went to visit my mum, and Hannah and my mum did a spot of bird watching! Hannah really enjoyed it, so much so that today she wanted to go out and look for flowers and see more birds. Dean was at work so without transport we only managed to get to the sea front, but we visited two beautiful gardens there and found lots of flowers, birds and trees to climb!

This is Hannah setting off yesterday to go to grandma's house.
and with grandma feeding the birds.
Today we went to The Rock Gardens in Southsea.


We started with a picnic,
followed by some exploring!
Hannah loves it when she finds a den!!
We saw some beautiful flowers, foxgloves are one of our favourites.
Climbed a few trees, well Hannah did!!
and admired these gorgeous poppies.
Then we walked along the beach and found a man selling stones which he had decorated. Hannah fell in love with this little mouse and just had to take him with her!
In The Rose Gardens (our next stop) Hannah discovered a Bluetit's nest. It was inside a beam holding the climbing rose supports and she heard the baby birds cheeping. We sat to watch the mother and father fly back and forth with worms and grubs feeding the babies.
I couldn't catch the Bluetits in a picture but I did get this Blackbird watching the comings and goings!
Then we wandered through the Roses which smelled wonderful,


and had a really lovely day :-)

Happy Birthday Hannah

Yesterday was Hannah's 7th birthday!
She was soooooo excited!! She woke up early and opened her presents, which included a Lalaloopsy doll, a paint your own tea set, Moxie Girls, and MP3 player and a design a horse and rider wardrobe set, as well as lots of money - how lucky?
Then we went up to Southampton for her special birthday trip. Hannah had chosen to go to Build-A-Bear Workshop and invited her friend Melissa to go with her. Melissa had never been before so Hannah had a lovely time showing her around, and the girls chose a bear each and an outfit for them (they picked matching outfits, how cute is that!).



After that we had lunch and ice-cream (and a return to Build A Bear to spend some birthday money),
Before heading to Grandma's house for birthday cake and more presents!

Finally we had a quick trip home to pick up snacks and warm clothes before heading up to Butser Ancient Farm. We had been invited there to watch Tony Robinson filming a segment from his forthcoming historical tv series and Dean's friend (who works there) had build a wickerman to be burnt for the show.





Hannah really enjoyed watching the taping and seeing Tony Robinson (he presents Time Team which she watches every week) and said afterwards that it was the best birthday ever!

Happy 7th Birthday Hannah, we love you so much xxxxx

A Home Day

We have actually had a day at home today!! No groups, activities or field trips to go on, just Hannah's dance class to go out for!

So Hannah started the day with some reading and maths,



Drew a picture and wrote in her journal,



and then looked through her A Childs Garden Of Verse poetry book (inherited from me cira 1974!) to choose a poem. We have been practising her reading aloud skills as she is still very shy of reading to others, and she chose Bed In Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson.
She read it beautifully, and made me all emotional!!
Later on she went outside to draw on the patio with her new 3D sidewalk chalks, they are really good fun value and she has drawn all kinds of things, Today she made a swimming pool with them - i wish i could take 3D pictures because it was really effective!

Then it was time to go to her dance class. She was much more nervous this week, but soon found her feet and even chatted with some of the other children!

It was a lovely evening so after dancing we took her doll out for a walk in the park :-)

Today was Hannah's last day of being 6, tomorrow is her birthday......................7 years old, so grown-up!!!

A Book To Share

Hannah and I have just finished reading In Grandma's Attic by Arleta Richardson and we wanted to share it as it is such a lovely book!

The late Arleta Richardson grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan with her grandmother. There, her storyteller grandmother recounted memories of her childhood and Arleta retells those tales vividly.

This book is a collection of wonderful memories of Christian family farm life in Michigan in the late 1800's. The stories are warm and funny and Hannah has really enjoyed them.

Reading the stories, with their lovely moral messages inspired Hannah to get her prayer book out tonight, and she surprised me by choosing and reading quite a few prayers before bed.




I love the way stories spark her interest in so many different things, and i love that she enjoys books so much :-)

Adventure Group -Butterflies and Flowers

Our Adventure Group session today was all about summer! We started off with a story time, and Sally read 'Mother Earth And Her Children' which is all about the flowers waking up and blossoming and has beautiful illustrations through it.

Then the children had a choice of crafts, we had wet coloured butterflies (made from filter papers), mosaic flowers and recycled bumble bees.

Hannah and her friend Melissa made butterflies and flowers together.

We cut the butterfly shapes out of the coffee filter papers, coloured them in with washable felt pens and then sprayed them with water, the colours made a tie dyed effect and were beautiful when they dried.


Then the girls used coloured paper, card and crayons to make some lovely summer flowers!

After that they ran off to play, had a picnic at the top of a climbing tower and read their books in the sunshine - unfortunately i didn't make it to the top of the tower to take pictures so you'll just have to take my word for it - they had a really fun time!!

Allotment Group - Planting Seeds

Yesterday we went to our bi-weekly allotment group to find that everything had really, really grown and the allotment was looking lovely!

Hannah started the session with some watering, which she really likes to do,
and then potted up some seeds to take home. She planted Spring Onion, Radish, Cos Lettuce, Marjoram and Sunflowers.


After that she dug and weeded a new bed and then transplanted some little onion plants into it.
Despite it being a very blustery chilly day she still had a great time and is looking forward to her seedlings appearing in the pots she brought home.

Daddy Hikes In Heels!

Today, Hannah's daddy took part in a sponsored Hike In Heels to raise money for St Wilfrids Hospice in Chichester where he is the catering manager. He and his friend Nick raised over £1000 and had a lot of fun dressing up as ladies in heels lol!



Well done daddy, we are very proud of you (although not so impressed with your dress sense ;-))