Well last post started with my lovely boy- so it is the turn of my little princess this time. Bless her- all of her dressing up clothes so far have either been charity shop purchases/hand-me-downs or home made articles. But we had some vouchers which they were given last Christmas(!!!!) and she and I had a lovely half hour wandering around M&S deciding what to spend them on (which was actually quite hard work!). She had spotted the Snow White dress and said 'I really like that mummy'. Bless her-I don't think she could actually believe it when I said that she could have it- one of those moments you want to frame and replay. Of course now I am being neurotic around it- making her take it off before eating- but she looks a true little princess in it.

Then the princess turns into a fleecy pink fluffy bunny snuggle suit whilst displaying the Gods Eye that she helped to make at Forest School- she always seems to think that smiling nicely for the camera involves a maniacal grin!

Well we are coming to an end of our first run of Forest School and it has been good- but I do think we take a break after Christmas for a while- partly weather related and partly because I could see that they may degenerate into a 'nothing special' session- if we did it too often. I am also feeling quite stretched at the moment- with lots of activity things on during the week- we seem so busy all the time- that good quality home activities -like baking etc- seem to be falling at the wayside. There may be some climbing wall sessions coming up soon and TP is due to start Playgroup after Christmas -which will give SJ and myself some quality time to do some older actvities.

Playgroup- now there is a word which has swallowed a portion of my life in the last couple of months- and caused some sleepless nights. Won't be offering to take on Chairpersonship of any further groups for a while. I guess a part of me feels a little guilty not taking on arranging anything HE, whilst some of the other mums seem to whip activities out of hats- lets just say I never envisioned spending evenings writing Contracts for staff etc!

Anyway onto more pleasant topics- am cooking up lots of plans for advent- I think we will do an advent activity calendar this year. I think that I want to make more of the Christmas season rather than focusing on one day. So we are planning a mixture of activities-ranging from the traditional Pantomime to packing Gift Boxes for a Homeless Charity with a goodly mix of crafting and baking mixed in. I still have a lot of shopping to do for family ( the ones that I cannot get away with preserves hampers- that is).

Taking of which I have 4lbs of nectarines to attck tomorrow- just can't make up my mind whether to jam or chutney them.........