Amberley Museum

At last, Hannah was well enough yesterday to go on the field trip I had organised to Amberley Museum . It was lovely to be out with friends again, and the museum was as much fun as we had remembered! We visited last year for the first time and we were keen to go back as there is so much to see and do there.

Vintage bus ride

 Hannah loved the Milne Electricity Hall. The children had a great time testing all the switches and lights, and looking at all the vintage appliances.

In the past times section there were some T.V's from the 1960's and 70's. Spotting a portable TV/Cassette player unit Hannah exclaimed " It's not even as big as an ipad mini!!"
For me, born in 1967 these things were all very familiar!

The Earth Telecommunication Hall was also very popular. Hannah and her friends practiced telephoning each other on the old fashioned telephones. Funny watching them remembering to lift the receiver before dialing, and painstakingly dialing the numbers.

Messages via telegram instead of text message!

In the railway center

 We visited the pottery and the children all made some pottery pieces to take home. Hannah made an owl.

Hannah had a Harry Potter moment outside the broom makers workshop.

In the timber yard the wood turners were all busy demonstrating their skills. The children played giant tick tack toe on a wooden board, tabletop skittles and admired the wooden ornaments. They each bought a wooden flower to take home.

We walked the nature trail, past the bodgers camp and bug hotel,

visited the vintage fire station,

 and finished our day in the playground.

The weather was beautiful and we had a really lovely day out with our friends :-)

American Girl Doll Play And Craft

This has been the longest three weeks with Hannah being poorly. She has secondary sinusitis now and is waking coughing and gasping for breath at night, so our days have been quiet. We are hoping the antibiotics she has now are going to get her on the road to recovery.

Meanwhile we have made the most of the quiet days and had fun with her American Girl dolls, lego and had couple of sunny walks to the park.

We had a cross country horse riding event in the garden,

Grooming and saddling up

Saige rode Free Spirit for the win!

We bought a really big piece of hardboard and made a foldable room scene for the dolls. I cut the board down the middle and hinged the two pieces together using some strong plastic tape. Then cut out window shapes.
Hannah painted the room pink and white, and we made curtains for the window.

Here it is set up as a bedroom, but it works as any room. We need a few more carpet tiles as we only bought two to see if they would work. They do, so Hannah can have a variety of colors to match the furniture.

Granddad collected some Lego building sets from his newspaper which arrived last week, so Hannah spent a day building all 8 sets. She loved them!

And lastly, we went to the park.

More Photography

Hannah still has bronchitis, so things have been very quiet around here. She has done some more photography though. Inspired by these pictures here , Hannah had a go at creating her own scenes.

Candy Cloud Dreams

Who Stole The Cheese

Sailing On The Seven Seas

Aren't they adorable?

This Week

Hannah hasn't been well  - she has had a nasty chest infection which meant we had to postpone her pony morning at the stables and miss drama group.

Consequently it's been a really quiet week, but she has done some doll photography in the sunshine,

This was an idea she saw online and adapted for her doll.

and she also really enjoyed watching the new American Girl movie. It's called Grace Stirs Up Success and is based on the doll of the year Grace Thomas.

Biking And Bubbles

Today was glorious! The summer finally arrived, and with it the chance to picnic with friends under beautiful blue skies.

Hannah took her bike, and the family who invited us brought a bucket of bubble mixture and giant wands. The children played, climbed and explored, and the parents chatted and had a chance to catch up with each other. Perfect!

It's such a nice group of children and parents, and it was really good to see everyone today.

                                                                              Bubbles

Biking around the assault course.

Homeward bound on the train.

A Fun Week

This week has been all about new birthday things to do and play with, and fun with friends.

Hannah asked for furniture and accessories for her American Girl dolls for her birthday, and we found just the things in a local store who had started stocking Our Generation.  The dolls now have a kitchen, caravan, jeep, tent and horse!

Our Generation accessories for her American Girl dolls.

 Hannah also received a chocolate bar maker which has been very successful,

Delicious

and she has been building the lego kit which was another birthday gift,

She made a really lovely lego tree house and has instructions for two more buildings and scenes.

We had friends over on Friday and the children played with a multitude of soft toys and (birthday gift) shopkins, and then on Saturday Hannah had a younger friend over who also loves American Girl. They played with the new birthday accessories and their dolls, and then had a pretty cold swim!

And to finish, we had a friendly froggy visitor yesterday evening - isn't he lovely?