Alex on her very first day at school
Stephanie on her very first day at school
Stephanie in an unusually sensible pose.
More photos of Stephanie on her first day at school here.
First Day Back To School – Alex, Year Three
September 6, 2013 at 4:03 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: Alex, first day of school, school
One Day They’ll Risk Giving Her a Bow
September 30, 2012 at 5:06 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: Alex, dressing gown, violin
Alex has taken up the violin. Not sure what else I can say about that. In the meantime we are tasked with thinking up sentences where all the words start with G, D, A and E.
First Violin
Alex is Six (again)
June 26, 2012 at 10:53 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: Alex, birthday, cake, kung fu, sharks, stephanie, tent
Alex and the queen. Two birthdays celebrations. This weekend was Alex’s public birthday party.
We invited some of her friends round to the house and fed them six types of sugar. And then they rioted and mugged Ian (see photos below). Of course it is his own fault that he armed them with swords but we all learnt important lessons.
I learnt that if you decorate a birthday cake with sweets then the children will eat the sweets and leave all the cake. I could have iced a cardboard box and decorated that for all the cake that was eaten.
Mind you I have a bit of a cold this week and it’s handy to have all that cake to save me from having to cook lunch for myself.
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- Happy Alex climbs out of shot.
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- Helping with the tent.
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- Stephanie jumps.
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- A helpful helper. Actually, _the_ helpful helper.
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- No paparazzi!
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- Stuck for children’s entertainment? Put up a tent. Hours of entertainment before it’s even up.
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- Birthday girl needs a haircut.
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- This game is called Sharks. Obviously. That’s why Ian has fins on his feet.
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- ATTACK!
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- It’s important to note that the only water we have is a very small paddling pool with four inches of water in it.
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- Kung Fu Scuba
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- Alex decorated the cake all by herself.
Sick Girls
May 26, 2012 at 7:18 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: asleep, cold, couch, ill, nest, sick, stephanie
Stephanie and I have colds. None the less the day went well. Apart from those hours Stephanie wept piteously because she couldn’t get her hair cut today. We went to see Alex perform in the Year One circus performance. She was easily the best ribbon twirler. Though I may be biased.
Stephanie didn’t make it through to bed time. At some stage during the bedtime tv programme she made a nest on the couch and conked out.
Fast Asleep
A Kilo of Lego
May 22, 2012 at 12:51 pm (Uncategorized)
I bought another kilo of lego on ebay. Fantastically random bricks from all sorts of sets. Within five minutes Alex had built this space ship.
May Day Bank Holiday
May 8, 2012 at 11:24 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: Alex, Audley End, Fairies, stephanie, Trains
So it rained on the Bank Holiday. Well of course it did. We could have stayed in and let the wee ones stew in front of the television. Or we could have stayed in, turned off the television and spent the day telling the wee ones that it was more fun with the television off. Or we could go out in the rain. The rain won. Easily.
We headed to Audley End to the Fairy Woodland and the miniature trains. And it didn’t really rain much at all.
First we searched for fairies in the fairy wood. It was all very straight forward which was handy as Stephanie did not care at all about fairies and wanted only to get to the end and to the bouncy castle and miniature trains.
Alex crosses another fairy off the list.
Click here for more photos of the Fairy Woods.
After that we had a couple of rides on the miniature trains. Lots of fun. Though I think Stephanie vacillated between joy and terror. The tunnels and some of the (many, many) stuffed animals dotted along the tracks worried her a lot. Alex loved it and even had an extra go.
Click here for more photos of Alex on the miniature railway.
Astounding
March 28, 2012 at 7:05 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: hair, stephanie
I have brushed Stephanie’s hair and trimmed her fringe. That shouldn’t be astounding but it is.
And all without the use of chocolate incentives.
Plus, she wore a slide in her hair for most of the day.
She hasn’t been well, perhaps that explains it.
I Blame Nursery and/or the Television
March 27, 2012 at 10:53 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: alphabet, drawing, stephanie, writing
Ok, so just the other day I was startled to discover that Stephanie can draw. When did that happen?
Of course, once she had announced that it was a picture of Mummy she went straight on to draw Mummy’s drink. I’m sure it was a nice herbal tea she had in mind.
Mummy's Face (it is a remarkable likeness)
And today, just to prove it wasn’t a fluke she drew another face. I was very impressed. Time to start pushing the boundaries. So I asked her write an S. S for Stephanie. It is her favourite letter. She has told most of the random strangers on Mill Road (and they are mostly quite strange) this fact. She also tells them her favourite number, animal and colour. Everyone should know.
Anyway, off she went and drew what could indeed pass for an S. Lucky for Stephanie, I thought, to have such a nice easy letter to start your name. Even so, who knew she could do that! I blame Cbeebies.
Then, just to show off, she went on to write an A. A for Alex. Seriously now, someone has been teaching my child how to write and not told me.
Mummy's face with A and S tattooed on it (I believe this is what she really wants).
What else can she do that I don’t know about? Make dinner? Change a the tire on the car? Sculpt marble? Quadratic equations? I would not be in the least surprised.
In which Stephanie adopts a parsnip and needs a haircut
March 8, 2012 at 10:44 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: parsnip, stephanie
In the house of a million toys Stephanie decided that her favourite one was this parsnip. Yesterday the parsnip wasn’t feeling well and had to be snuggled up in the tea towel. Today parsnip was feeling better and so came with us to watch Alex at capoeira.
Ramblings 