A Damp Birthday Picnic

Yesterday was Hannah's birthday picnic. It was wet!! But most of her friends still came, and she had a brilliant time. Luckily it did dry up a bit just after we arrived, and everyone played rounders and frisbee, played on a rope swing and ran around having fun! Hannah's cousin got her this fantastic pony birthday cake - isn't he amazing!!

And everyone seemed to enjoy themselves despite the weather. Hannah went home covered in mud and said she'd loved it all and was really pleased that all her friends came to play with her.

Thank you to everyone who made it such a fun day for her :-)

Manor Farm Birthday Trip

On wednesday we went to Manor Farm for Hannah's 6th birthday. She had a fantastic time!
She met the new calves, Fed the ducklings,

and the chickens.

We saw this mother sparrow feeding her chick.

Petted the piglets which were running around the farm,

and Hannah got up close and friendly with the chickens!!

After lunch we joined the small animal handling, and Hannah held a baby rabbit, a chick and a duckling.

When she told the farmer that it was her birthday she showed Hannah a chick that was only one hour old, and another which was just hatching. Hannah saw the chick pecking at the shell and heard it cheeping.

We visited the Victorian School House and Hannah dressed up as a victorian child.

She tried out the classroom,

and then played some traditional games in the schoolyard.

Finally she went back to the dairy to watch the milking, try her hand at hand milking, and bottle feed the calves.

Happy Birthday Hannah, i'm so proud of you and love you so much baby xxxx

Catching Up

I don't know where the time has gone but it's been nearly a week since i blogged anything!! So, here is a run down of what we've been up to in between lessons -

Last friday Hannah's cousin Frinny came over with an early birthday present for Hannah. A stacking rainbow and a felt fairy, a skipping rope and a pony pairs game (all from Myriad). Hannah was thrilled and took them all out to the park to play - she even got Frinny skipping with her :-)

She has been taking good care of the chickens this week and is learning lots about them.

On Saturday we went to a wedding which had a bouncy castle AND a dance floor.................we hardly saw Hannah all day except to snap a few pictures!

We finally pursuaded her off the dance floor at midnight - she had befriended the bridesmaids and was having a fantastic time!

Sunday was a glorious day and Hannah went riding in the morning.

And then we went back to the Bluebell Woods in the afternoon to see if Hannah's den was still there - it was :-)

And today we have been to Southsea. We've explored the Rose Gardens and played on the beach all afternoon.

It's been lovely to be able to get out in the sunshine, and tomorrow we are off to Manor Farm as it's Hannah's birthday - my baby is going to be 6 years old!!!

Paper Shoes and Park Play

Today at home ed group the children continued on their 'All About Portsmouth' theme by sharing information on famous people who had been born, or had lived here. Hannah told the group all about Bobby Stokes who scored the winning goal in the 1976 FA cup final (her dad new him when he was a little boy), Oscar told us about King Henry VIII who built Southsea Castle,Daisy shared some interesting facts about Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and Remmy told us about John Pound. As John Pound was a cobbler the children's craft was to make paper shoes.
Hannah made some simple Birkenstock style shoes. And then modelled them!

Afterwards we went to the park for some fun and exercise - here is Hannah's dad getting lots of exercise pushing the (very heavy) basket swing!

and Hannah enjoying it!!

Bluebell Woods

Hannah had a riding lesson this morning, and on the way home we stopped at these beautiful bluebell woods in Denmead. There had been a lot of forestry work going on in the wood, and there were lots of branches laying around, so Hannah begged us to help her build a den. It was really fun!!

She loved collecting the branches and the den ended up much bigger than we expected!!

Hannah stopped for a rest in the half built den with her ever present bear and sheepdog for company...............

.....................before setting off for more branches!

She found this perfect 'fairy door' high up in a tree with a branch pathway leading up to it and made us promise to go back next week with gifts for the fairies :-)

and had a lovely time exploring all the woodland paths through the bluebells.

Finally we worked our way back to the den (now completed), and Hannah made us

a make believe dinner over her camp fire before heading back to the carpark.

On the way back to the car we came across these huge wooden play tunnels in a clearing in the wood! They were fantastic and Hannah was delighted!

All around the area there were big logs laying around which were obviously put there for balancing on, so there was a bit more playing before we actually arrived at the car lol.

It's been a lovely day :-)