A delightful day

So I started off this delightful day by putting a load in the washing machine.  Then I met Liz for coffee and gossip in the Garden Centre. 

When I collected Bea from nursery we discovered that her picture of Bartholomew had won the competition and she had up to £10 in "book dollars" to spend at the school book fair.  When Bea realised that she was the only one to get this in her class she was (at the risk of sounding like an American teen) sooooooo excited.  We went to the pet shop, where I wanted to buy dog food and Bea wanted to walk around all of the pets to tell them "I won the book prize".  The rabbits, gerbils, mice, lizard, guinea pigs and ALL the fish now know this.  Then she spotted a sparkly pink collar for Dilly and wanted to buy it to celebrate.  We agreed that it wouldn't be fair to just buy one for Dilly, so she spent quite a long time choosing between a green collar with bones or a blue one with paw prints for Beanz.  The bones won out because....Beanz likes bones.  At the checkout, the assistant who in Bea's words "might be a princess" let her choose a sticker.  Bea choose a chocolate lab puppy to "show people we are a dog house"

Then we had lunch and visited Granny Gina, to show her the book prize on the way to the library.  After the library, we returned to school to swap our book dollars for a real book...

Seriously how could we not choose this book?

After a little interlude of Polly play, and Granny Leona popping in with a toy for Bea and a dress for me, (thanks mum) Bea got changed into her sparkly dress and we headed into town for tea.

It doesn't get any better than a fish supper from Longs.  With gravy....You've gotta have the gravy.

Then we had coffee in the Opera House before watching Angelina Ballerina "The Mousical".  It was so entertaining that Jonathan stayed awake for all most some of it.  By the end, Bea was on her feet dancing along.  I heard snorts coming from the usherette.  As we left, she gave Bea an Angelina sticker for her fabulous dancing.

A bath and then snuggled in bed we read "Yappy Happy Dilly Dog" (and "You can't say no to a Princess"....did you really expect me to come away from the book fair with only ONE book?)

Now...it's time for a chocolate digestive, cup of tea and the conclusion of "The Bletchley Circle".  I might even squeeze in a chapter of "A Dance with Dragons" before bed.

Delightful.

Post Script:   Of course I forgot to turn the washing machine on, so it was teatime before the clothes were fluttering merrily on the line...but they are dry now and smell....delightful.

Friday Stew

This is a stew of random bits of information.   

I am slightly amazed by the amount of letters you receive when your daughter starts nursery school.  It makes one feel very popular.  Today's collection included the very complex instructions for the packed lunches which will be required twice weekly from the start of October.  (To be honest, I was beginning to sweat slightly when faced with the list of prescribed and unacceptable lunch stuffs...and to be honest, wondering how Bea has survived thus far.  I was feeling the pressure of having the contents of her lunchbox monitored and my role as a parent critiqued on it's contents....until I chatted with Sarah on the way back from the morning deposit, and she told me that Katie's lunch partner has an apple and a bag of harribo....is it a bad thing that this reassured me somewhat?  I feel superior that Bea's lunch will be healthier and also relieved that despite the threat that "the nursery will WORK in PARTNERSHIP with the parents to make sure the children have a healthy eating lunch" it is unlikely that they will contact Social Services if I fail to include some oily fish.  In celebration, Bea and I made some Rice Krispie buns when she finished nursery.  We added some raisins to give a healthy balance (just practicing for October).  Then she insisted on taking a photograph of them.  I felt obliged to do likewise....

The buns were to celebrate lunch with Grace and Miriam.  The girls made their own pizzas.  (Honestly...I am not trying to stuff as many bits of contraband in before we start our "healthy lifestyle" in October)

We did indulge in a little physical activity....This is Bea showing Grace the moves to "I like to move it"

Bea has become slightly obsessed with Katie, her friend who lives a few doors away.  When she asks at very inappropriate times if she can go and visit Katie I sometimes say "No, I think Katie has to work on her homework"  (This may be true, but is unlikely at 7.30 am).  This possibly explains why, while waiting for the arrival of Grace this afternoon, she flung herself into her little blue chair, sighed dramatically, drooped her shoulders and announced "I wish I had homework"*

*This is true, I promise you...now let your eyebrows return to their normal position.

Ah....the second letter of the day...an announcement of a Book Fair in school, stapled to a competition entry for the nursery pupils to draw their favourite character.  Ta Dah!  

"Look Bea you do have homework"

"Hooray!  What is it?"

"Go and find me your favourite story."

Now, I'll be honest.  I was expecting "Dogs don't do ballet....Some Dogs Do....Hairy Maclairey...the Gruffalo....the Owl who was afraid of the dark"....what Bea came down with, clutching to her chest was "Get into bed".  A very simple story of two bears, the little one who says "nah" to EVERYTHING and it's dad.  "I just love this book Mummy!"

"OK...now draw a picture of Bartholomew."

Off she goes returning with a dye cut teddy.  She draws around the teddy, colours him in and tries to cut him out.  I finish the cutting.  

"Mummy, you draw his bed"

"No, it's your homework"

But I did help her cut up squares of tissue which she glued onto a piece of paper (Bartholomew has a patchwork quilt).  "What can we do for pillows?"  

"What do you think, what are the pillows like?"

"They are white and fluffy like clouds"

Bea looks up for inspiration and spots the clouds in her creation wall hanging.  "Let's get cotton wool"

It is glued on and then the scrapbooking mother steps in, and with a twist of double sided tape, we made a little pouch for Bartholomew to sleep in.  The entire story is then retold, with Bartholomew saying "nah" and jumping in and out of bed while Bea admonishes "GET INTO BED" in a much louder voice than George ever used.

...meanwhile...mummy was playing too....

Once her homework was completed, Bea made a mummy bear and a daddy bear and made a big bed for them.  Homework Bartholomew popped into their bed a couple of times..."just for a wee cuddle" but eventually went back to his own bed.  

Bea found (I have no idea where) dye cut teddies which I used for her second birthday party invites.  She wrote a secret message on the back of one, made an envelope (a sellotape dispenser is the single best crafting device for kids!) and gave it to her Dad.  When he opened it, he asked if the bear was supposed to be him.  Bea laughed dismissively (if that is possible for a four year old) and pointed out the additions she had made to the bear.  "No Daddy, that bear has boom booms....it's Mummy"

(I seriously need surgery if this is an accurate anatomical representation!)

Finally....I saw this postcard in Paperchase.  I read it and imagined a certain little boy reading it.  I had to get it for him.

Well, who would you give this card to?

The fairies at the bottom of the garden

or

"The in no way over photographed and excessively detailed account of Bea's 4th birthday party."

Invitations

The fairies at the bottom of the garden are quite fond of Beatrice, so they decided to have a party to celebrate her 4th birthday.  So they wrote to her friends and asked that they rsvp by Pixie dust (included).  I think one or two little guests were somewhat disappointed when they sprinkled their pixie dust and couldn't fly.  As fairy writing is very tiny, they included a magnifying glass.

Decorations

Bunting.  

Need I say any more?......No. I thought not.

Fairy houses.

Over the last few days of the summer holidays, I drew about 12 of these fairy houses which Bea and I coloured in and painted.  Then she cut them out.  Then I cut them out properly.

Balloon

Just in case anyone was in any doubt...

Flower fairies

When I asked Bea what kind of birthday party she would like she immediately decided on a fairy party.   Every year we've got all of her party pieces from "Party Pieces" so I looked at their website.  I'd priced all the Tinkerbell bits, but sighed as I did so because I thought the Flower Fairy plates were so pretty.  In my head I was counselling "if Bea wanted a fairy party for her 8th birthday, I bet she'd pick this stuff".  Just to check I showed her all the fairy plates.  Guess what she choose?  Hooray, she resembles me in party plate choice if not in looks!  So we bought the Flower Fairy plates plus their "happy birthday" and cut out fairies.  Beatrice also made some paper fairies from an activity book, so we put them up too.

Little private spaces

Last year, Andrea bought Bea a pop up fairy tent, so we used that and her wigwam, which has a fairy floor as little chill out spaces.  Beatrice had the inspired idea of putting her fairy books (that girl can run with a theme) into the wigwam, incase anybody just wanted to be quiet and read.

Pixie Hollow

Beatrice loves taking her fairy figures into the garden and giving them an airing beneath the apple tree.  It helps that there is a little door in the base of the tree with a sign that says "Shhh, pixie sleeping", so we set them up incase anyone wanted to play in the mud.

What did we do?

Jen & Jo's Fairy Fashion House and Beauty Parlour

I employed (who am I kidding, no money changed hands...I conscriped) Jenny and Joanna's talents.  When the little ladies arrived they were given wings and a wand (if they hadn't brought their own) and could choose their eyeshadow and lipgloss colour, have their nails painted, choose one (or 6 tattoos) and have glitter sprayed onto their hair.

The boys declined the lip gloss, glitter, eyeshadow and fairy tattoos, but did choose some of the more masculine tattoos.

Seth's first ever tattoo

Fairy Phoebe

Beatrice insisted on wearing her party dress, despite having a number of fairy costumes to choose from!

Being Flower Fairies

As we all know, each fairy has a talent.  Rosetta's for example is looking after flowers.  One of Beatrice's favourite pastimes is putting flowers in whatever vase she can get her hands on.  So we prettied up some tin cans and the girls (and Joshua) filled them with flowers.

One book is never enough!

The Tooth Fairy Disaster!

Unfortunately, as she was flying over the garden, the toothfairy was hit by a catapult flung by a naughty boy.  She spilt all her coins over the garden.  Every child could collect three and swap them for a little treat.  The girls got bling rings and fairy necklaces plus a bracelet for their mum (I had ordered these from ebay and they were far too big for little wrists...plus I thought it a good opportunity for little ladies to practice generosity) and the boys just got to choose presents. 

Before the game began however, some little people, not mentioning any names (Caleb and Ellie) had collected all the coins.  Caleb really just repositioned his large collection, but Ellie, whose outfit came with a little purse began to jingle.

Catching the sunlight

Iridessa is the light fairy, and in her honour, we coloured in sun catchers.

Being Tinkers

Tinkerbell makes stuff.  It's in her name you know.  So we tinkered too and decorated little silver heart boxes to keep our bling in.

Rainbow ribbons

Double sided sticky tape is like honey to little girls.  Ribbon is like honey to me.  So we stuck different coloured ribbons to a little piece of card to make a rainbow wristband to dance with.  We didn't actually dance though...the oven dinged and we had food instead.

Magical Unicorn

Beatrice is obsessed with "magical unicorns".  So I was a little worried that she would be devastated when it was smashed.  But she would have no other piñata.

Thankfully, she didn't seem to mind the gruesome carnage.  I think she was lost in the scrum for silly plastic toys.

The Bouncy Castle

I could have called this "Flying school".  Yes, the little fairies and their male friends bounced.  

                    Bea also used the opportunity to demonstrate that Zachary is still number one.

The choke hold of affection.

We did have a professional on standby to give flying lessons should they be required.

Max Strong doesn't need a superhero costume, but he totally rocks it!

The Beary Fairy

The bear with added wings, bling, a wand and medals was on hand to distribute prizes when they were required.

Almost everyone won one for sticking the horn on the unicorn.  I am unconvinced by the blindfolding success of the paper mask!

Food

Friday was spent baking.  It was a joy.  I used my K beater.  It made me VERY happy

Chocolate buns and plain buns?  Regular icing or buttercream?

Edible Toadstools.

The birthday girl demanded jelly.

Fruit wands

Cara's Chocolate Cake

It was Cara's 6th birthday... she likes cake, chocolate and colour.  So this is a chocolate cake, with chocolate buttercream iced in melted Galaxy chocolate with smarties on top.

Yes...I did make green icing.

Pretty fairy cups

Paparazzi

I find, it is always important to have at least five professional photographers on hand at any party.  Here are two of them....

 Party bags

I made Beatrice colour in a picture to fairy up the white paper bags we used as party bags.  After a week of this...we decided only girls would really like a fairy picture on their bag!

Plus we made our own bubble labels and kit kat wrappers*

*I lied about the kit kat wrappers, I bought them on ebay ;)