Sunday

Today started with a trip back to our old church. It was lovely to see everyone again, Hannah caught up with her friends from sunday school and i enjoyed the traditional service.

Hannah drew a picture to go with the bible story the sunday school did, and she requested prayers for all our friends and family affected by the hurricane in the US.




After church we went home for a quick lunch, and then over to my godmother's farm for some fruit picking. She has plums, greengages, apples and blackberries ready. Hannah picked lots of them for us, so this week we will be making pies, jam and chutney!





BlackberriesUnder the plum tree
Apples
The Veggie garden
Happy Hannah!!

It was lovely getting out of the city and visiting my godmother again, the farm is so peaceful and relaxing - such a contrast to where we live.

Circus Stars Summer Reading Challenge - Completed !!

Hannah finished her summer reading challenge yesterday and collected her final sticker from the library. She was SO excited!! She also received an invitation to The City Museum to a special fun day where she will be awarded a medal and certificate for completing the challenge :-)



Well done Hannah xx

Hannah and Coral

When Hannah was just a year old we met a little girl also just a year old in a playground. She was there with her grandmother who took care of her while her parents were at work. The girls became friends almost immediately and for the next 4 years they saw each other several times a week at least, we took them to the same playgroups, went to each others houses, met in the parks and had days out together.

This is them aged 3 years
Then Coral went to school, and her grandma didn't have her during the day anymore and they both made new friends - but they didn't forget each other. Every holiday Corals' grandma arranges to have Coral stay with her for a few days and the girls have a big catch -up, and they have stayed as close as ever!

On monday we met up for the day at the splash pool and it was as though they had never been apart! They were so busy being together and playing that i couldn't even get a photo opportunity lol. But i did get them chasing each other through the water .................just!!
I hope this bond they have stays strong always - their friendship is so precious.

A Christening

On Sunday we were invited to a christening at a catholic church. The church was so beautiful and ornately decorated and the service was lovely.

Dean and Hannah outside the church
Receiving the christening candle.
At the Font
Afterwards we went to the christening reception at a nearby grass bowls club.
Table decorations

There was a bouncy castle there for the children which Hannah had a lovely time playing on!



Congratulations to Lilianna Edmonds on her special day, and thank you to Steve and Barbara for inviting us to be a part of it.

Random Stuff from this week!

This week Hannah has been :



Riding,

Painting!

Don't believe Crayola when it says washable on the bottle - it took several soakings to get the paint off of Hannah's hands and feet - she looked tie dyed lol!!


She painted these in the garden and managed to add quite a bit of sand to the paint which made for an interesting texture!


We have also done some cooking and baking.We made apple pie (no picture - i forgot and we ate it lol),

Apple Sauce
and Hannah made cinnamon sugar cookies.
She has also done lots of reading, and we're off to the library now to collect more stickers in her reading challenge :-)

Falconry Display At The City Museum

Today we met up with a group of friends from our homeschooling group at the City Museum to watch the Xtreme Falconry display that was being held there as part of the Out To Lunch activities.
Here is Hannah arriving at the museum.
Some of the birds on display.

The Barn Owl gave a flying display,


I think this one is a Horned Owl, but i could be wrong!
This is definitely the American Bald Eagle
He was HUGE!!!
It was amazing watching him fly!
And afterwards Hannah got to play with her friends and look around the museum - here she is with Melissa :-)
The museum is great, there was so much to look at inside (no pictures allowed though!), we will be going back for more exploring very soon :-)

Pottering Around Southsea

Yesterday we had a really nice, quiet sort of pottering around day!

We cycled down to Southsea seafront (well, i cycled - Hannah rode in the trailer) and had a picnic and play in the Rose Gardens,




Hannah spent ages climbing the trees around Canoe Lake,

and then we went on to the beach for a paddle! Hannah collected about 500 shells and pebbles to bring home (seriously, the shell collection is going to need it's own room soon!) and she had fun throwing pebbles into the sea and generally messing about on the shoreline.



A nice ordinary sort of day :-)

Beach Buggin' 2011

Yesterday was the Annual VW Beach Buggin' show on Southsea Common. We were going to a Gymkhana until we saw all the 'Vans and Beetles pouring into Portsmouth and then we HAD to go!! We used to have a red VW camper called Daisy, and we miss her so much - she was the best vehicle EVER!! Hannah and I are always hoping we'll spot her at a show one day and get to say hello again! We didn't see her yesterday, but we did have a lovely time checking out all the Splitties, Bays, Wedgies, Beetles, American Day Vans etc etc..............

Here are just a few of the pictures we took.



I saw this on the side of a 'van - it says it all really!





Daddy with his friend who owns this really cool Day Van!

The cutest Beetle :-)


Hannah wanted us to get this instead of the bicycle and trailer lol!
Our favourite Bay (also called Daisy!)

We even watched some street dancing performers!

It was a great show!!