Happy Halloween!

Hannah has been so excited about Halloween this year! She begged us for a party, so we thought we'd have a few friends over. A few turned into 15 (in my very tiny house!) and she had a lovely time. They played games, danced, ate party food and finally we took them all 'trick or treating' !

Here is Hannah waiting for the party to begin - I made her American Girl doll Lanie a matching cat costume!

Decorations
Party Food!

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween everyone!!

A Day At The Races

Yesterday Hannah and I accompanied Dean to a catering exhibition at Fontwell Racecourse. He was invited there in a work capacity, but was able to take family along and enjoy the races as well as the exhibition.

We arrived early enough to see the horses unloading - Hannah was so excited to see them all!

Then she visited all the catering stands with her daddy and taste tested lots of goodies - she was especially happy with the ice cream stand!
After that we were able to look around the course and watch the races.
Hannah thought the horse and jockey topiary was fantastic!
She watched the horses get ready for their races,


and watched all of the races - she was much braver than me, I was terrified one of the horses would fall and hurt themselves and had to keep my eyes shut for the jumps! Needless to say they were all fine, but i don't really think i'm cut out for the races!!

After each race the horses were taken back to the collecting ring to cool down, so we had a really good view of the winners.
Hannah loved her day, and really loved being around all the horses as well as helping daddy with his work function.........................and i won £6.40 on the last race :-)

Art and Baking

Yesterday we had an arty, crafty, cooking sort of morning!

Hannah tried some hot rock art. One of the mum's at home ed group suggested it for a group activity next half term, and Hannah was really interested to see what it was. So, we found a huge stone that she had me drag back from the beach one day, and popped it in the oven to heat up. Then Hannah carefully decorated it with crayons which melted to give a really nice effect.


Next i felted Hannah a new toadstool for her season table (and also a Smurf although i didn't get a picture of that before in disappeared to live in the doll house!)
and then Hannah wanted to help make lunch. She chopped up lots of root veg and squash for our soup and then made spelt bread.
She loves to knead the dough!
While the dough was rising she turned the flour sprinkled counter top into a snowy landscape for her little doll house doll to play in :-)
While keeping a close eye on the soup and rising dough on the stove.
The loaf turned out really well, (despite the poor picture!) and we had a lovely lunch before Hannah's friends arrived for an afternoon of play!
My favourite sort of day!!

Blog Awards

I would like to say a huge thank you to Danielle at Raising Little Rhodies for sending me these two awards - i'm very happy to receive them!

The Rules

• Thank the person(s) who nominated you and link back up them.
• Tell Readers 7 things about yourself.
• Pass this award onto your favorite newly discovered bloggers and let them know.

Seven Things About Me -

1/ My life dream was always to be the mama to a wonderful little girl - some dreams do come true :-)

2/ Danebury Celtic Hill Fort is my 'go to, safe place' - it's the most peaceful place i've ever known.

3/ I'm from Devon

4/I crave countryside and open spaces.

5/I have Generalised Anxiety Disorder.

6/ I can play the violin

7/ I believe in Fairies.................i really do!

And finally, i'm passing the awards on to

Stella's Apron Strings

Waffling Through Life

Outside The Box

Check them out :-)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Adventure Group

This week at Adventure Group the session was art based on the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. 

The children could choose their activities, and Hannah chose to make a paper chain caterpillar and a finger painted scene.





It was a beautiful day so afterwards (as always) there was lots of outside play!
Hannah is the tiny pink dot in the middle of this picture!!

Long may the good weather continue, the children have such a good time playing outside together :-)

An Autumn Walk

On Sunday afternoon we went out to 100 Acre Wood near Wickham for a lovely autumnal walk! We found a stream and Hannah spent ages following it, playing in it, exploring it and 'pixie fishing' in it! 


A really beautiful English autumn day :-)

Little House In The Big Woods - A Lapbook.

Today Hannah started her 'Little House In The Big Woods' lapbook. It is the first of the Little House On The Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Hannah loves the Laura books and is fascinated by Laura's life in the late 1800's as a little pioneer girl, so this lapbook really appealed to her.

Activity 1 was to make a vocabulary folder to be added to as the book progresses.

Activity 2 - Laura's biography!

Activity 3 - draw your favorite scene from the book! Hannah used the front cover as inspiration as she loves the part where Ma mistakes a bear for their cow one night!!

We found out where Wisconsin is, and found the lake that Laura and her family crossed while it was frozen on their journey west.

I think lapbooks are such a good idea. I especially like the book based ones, and Hannah really enjoys them while also getting to practise her reading and writing skills, comprehension, discussion, art and all manner of other things AND enjoying a good book as well!!

Fairy Looms at Adventure Group

Today at Adventure Group Hannah and her friends made fairy looms. We took some forked twigs with us and yarn, beads, buttons, ribbon and wool tops. The children all wove the yarn around the fork and added beads and decorations as they went.

Hannah was very pleased with her creation!

This is the second time we have done this craft - it's really simple and the children make the most beautiful creations to take home.