Wildlife Watch Meeting - Winter Birds

Yesterday Hannah and I went to the monthly Wildlife Watch meeting at Gosport Wildgrounds. Wildlife Watch is the junior section of The Wildlife Trust and they hold meetings on the weekends around the country to help kids get involved in wildlife in their area.

This week was all about winter birds. We were supposed to be bird spotting, but with so many children chattering and stomping most of the birds were off before we arrived! Hannah and I hung back a little and saw some robins and bluetits, and some mallards and moorhen on the water, so at least we saw something!

The walk was lovely though, really cold and frosty with a beautiful blue sky and lots of red berries and catkins about.

Waterbirds on the River Alver

Rosehips

Hawthorn Berries

Lots of frost and icy water along the walk.

A Chilly Hannah

Catkins

Bright blue sky!

Stargazing Live 2016

Last night we went to the 2016 Stargazing Live event at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Hannah is very interested in astronomy and she and Dean often take the telescope out in the evenings, so this was a really good experience for her.

The telescopes were all set up on the decks of The Warrior, and below decks were activities and information on everything star related.

On board the Warrior

Finding out all about solar systems.

Activities

Checking out the stars

Hannah with the rocket she made.

Moscow City Ballet - Sleeping Beauty

Hannah and I had an unexpected treat this weekend when my lovely cousin gave us tickets to see the Moscow City Ballet at Chichester Festival Theatre.

Hannah loves ballet, and was beyond excited to see her first ever professional performance and it didn't disappoint. It was beautiful from start to finish, the music, dancers, costumes everything!

Photo courtesy of Moscow City Ballet via facebook (no photography was allowed during the performance)

A very excited Hannah awaiting the performance!

A big, big thank you to my cousin Sally for the tickets, it was an awesome evening xxx

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!! I've been without a laptop since before Christmas so here is a bit of a catch up.

We went to the annual home ed party before Christmas.

Then Christmas was lovely, Hannah was very excited and had lots of horsey gifts among other things.

Since Christmas Hannah has mostly ridden! She has really enjoyed riding over the holidays as she has had the chance to ride with a few other girls who are usually at school, there is nothing like pony love to get friendships off the ground.

This week she has been working on an 'animals of the world' project - completely self led and has investigated Australia, Brazil and Africa,

and she has been working on Always Icecream in her spare time, and has made some new American Girl boards on Pinterest ( she is very keen on the new girl of the year)!

So, that's us caught up :-)

This Week.....Getting Christmassy!

 Hannah had an early Christmas present this week, a stable management morning at her riding school. She loved it, grooming, feeding, plaiting, tacking up and a riding lesson. When we arrived to collect her at lunchtime she was hanging out with Coco in his stable!

We decorated the house for Christmas this week as well,

the American Girl dolls got their own mini tree, and Hannah decorated their tree house too.

and tonight we went for a walk around our neighborhood to see some of the outdoor lights.

As it is Saint Lucia day Hannah had a little celebration and lit some candles with her doll Lanie.

 It's been a good week!

Fishers Farm

This week we had our first visit to Fishers Farm when Hannah was invited by her friend to celebrate her birthday with her there.

What a great place, I can't believe we've never been before!

Hannah loved all the animals, and spent lots of time visiting them with her friend J, they even had a pony ride each.

There was a climbing wall, trampolines, donut toboggans, inflated jumping pillows, tractor and trailer ride, ghost train, go karts, so much stuff to do as well as all the animals. the children all had a fantastic time.

Donutting!

Hannah and S

On the go-kart track

                                         Hannah and J on the trampolines

Hannah and J on the inflated pillows

J - pig whisperer!

 Hannah and J at the pony rides.

Big, big thanks to S for inviting us to her birthday, we had a lovely day :-)

The November 'American Girl Club' Session From CurrClick.

Every month Hannah joins in an online American Girl club for homeschoolers through CurrClick. It's late here by the time the class is on, so she often joins in in her pj's - last night she did two sessions online as she enjoyed the first one so much, and didn't finish until 11pm!! 

The book they studied was Kirsten's Surprise.

Since Hannah doesn't have a Kirsten doll she dressed Lanie up in Kirsten style.

 On screen club chat! 

The teacher who runs the class is great and includes all the girls in the discussions. Last night they talked about Christmas traditions, Christmas for the pioneers, the history of Christmas decorations and compared Kirsten's Swedish Christmases to her American Christmas in the book.

There was a recipe for Swedish apple pie posted in advance so we made that for Hannah to have during class, and the craft activity was making a Christmas wreath.

A few craft accessories found their way all over the bed! 

The apple pie was really good!

Hannah's wreath.

The wreath turned out beautifully, and inspired, Hannah made a St Lucia crown in the same way for Lanie.

The American Girl Club can be found here , and here is the main CurrClick site for anyone who is interested in joining in. Hannah has chosen a few other classes she would like to try in the new year as well.