just another morning here

School rang me at 9am today to ask me to come and pick Abbie up, she’d fallen over in the playground as she was about to go in to school. She somehow managed to fall completely on her face (and won’t let me take a photo, unsurprisingly, it looks pretty bad) and has a nice big graze on her forehead, cheek, and a swollen lip as well. Oh, and a tiny graze on her knee. Poor thing, it is going to smart all day long I think.

Still, nothing a day of home education won’t cure

I just liked Abbie’s expression in this photo, taken while we stopped for a hot chocolate at the Double Locks pub yesterday. Cycling is always good if there’s a pub along the cycle route

I’m usually a bit of a New Year’s humbug, I think it’s over-rated! But this year we decided to give the girls a joint birthday party on New Year’s Eve, so we had to get into the spirit of things a bit

We had a great time actually, a fair bit of girly screaming and overexcitement but not too much – some games, food, and at midnight some raucous dancing to Jools’ Hootenanny. Think they finally went to sleep sometime after 2am although I’m not sure as that’s when I went to sleep!

Thankfully no-one got up too early – the big girls were first at 8am but they came down and played Wii for a while with the door closed, meaning that the younger girls didn’t wake until nearer 9, and Josiah was up sometime after that, even though he went to bed at 9pm the night before! Breakfast was special cereals (ie all the ones they’re not usually allowed to have!), chocolate crepes and waffles with maple syrup

Then they all went home and we were going to go out for a walk but rain has stopped play so we’re just having friends over for New Year’s Day dinner later on.

Happy 2007, folks

Pennywell Nativities are fast becoming a tradition with us! We first went on Abbie’s 5th birthday with a friend, skipped a year, then went again last year with MuddlePuddle friends, and this year I booked it again for Abbie’s birthday. Had a fantastic moment when we told her the plans and she nearly cried she was so pleased and excited to be going again!

We were supposed to be having a visit from Ros & children but that fell through at the last minute (an occupational hazard at this time of year when you live 4 hours’ drive away from one another), so we were all a little sad that they couldn’t make it, but then we found more friends to come with us – Rog, Caitlin & Riona along with Robyn and Becca & Josh

Abbie walked into the barn and announced that it was her birthday, so got to be Mary – which, of course, she loved … and she looked gorgeous Caitlin and Anna were innkeepers, and Riona, Joe, Robyn (and I ) were shepherds – didn’t get to hold a lamb this year though! Enjoyed that part of the event despite some truly appalling singing!

Then went on to the drinks, mince pies (very nice ones too), and visiting Santa, which we did en masse! He was a most excellent version of Santa, and everyone was pleased with their little presents. Even baby Josh (11 weeks old!) got one

All in all very relaxed and enjoyable; we came home and had dinner and a film, now looking forward to a week with all the children around before Christmas