Tower of London

Mummy helped me make my own castle using boxes and toilet rolls. I cut out the turrets and bent them over to make a walk way for the soldiers around the top sot hey could look for the bad guys. Mummy made a drawbridge using some wool and a skewer and I can turn it to make the drawbridge go upnad down to let my kings and queens into the castle. We have a raven keyring that has to stay at the castle to make sure that government continues like at the Tower of London and Grandpa bought me a soldier with a gun that I broke off but Mummy stuck it back on and he is on guard in the castle.


There is actually a beefeater who goes to sleep with his wife in a jail - he told us so and he lives in the Tower of London. When we wanted to look at the moat I sat next to him on the wall and once whilst he was talking to us all about the olden days he pulled my hat brim over my eyes. I lifted it up and decided to put it back down again. We went up into the chapel and we had a little look around afterwards and I saw Anne Boleyn's grave. When we pretend to be olden days people Mummy is Anne Boleyn and I am Lady Jane Grey who was queen for 9 days and Daddy is Guildford Dudley (my husband who had his head chopped off too). Guilford Dudley's brother lived in Kenilworth Castle and our road is named after him. He was friends with Anne Boleyn's daughter who was Queen Elizabeth I and he made a special garden to entertain her and they have built it again at the castle and Nanna and Grandpa have taken me to see it.


I had a drink from a water fountain and got water all over my face so I dried it off on Daddy's trousers when I gave him a leg cuddle. We went to COSTCO and I had my picture taken but they didn't print me a membership card so I only saw it on screen. They had a water fountain and I got water up my nose and I was covered in water.


When Anne Boleyn was going to be executed Henry got married to Jane Seymour on the same day. Anne Boleyn had her head chopped off with a sword because it was quicker and less painful than an axe. The swordsman came from France specially to cut off her head. Most people had their heads cut off with an axe. Anne Boleyn was queen for nearly three years and had one little girl but henry wanted a boy but I think girls are better than boys.
We saw where they had their heads chopped off and we saw Henry VIII's armour. He had six wives and there is a poem to remember what happened to them that goes: "Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived".
Henry pretended one of his divorced wives was his sister and she survived into Elizabeth's rule. She was called Anne of Cleves and wore funny hats. The last queen married again and died in childbirth. They gave birth at home not in special places like now and lots of mummies died in childbirth. I have lots of books about the olden days.
They cleaned their teeth with sticks and sponges nad other yucky stuff so they needed false teeth but they were made of wood or bone and hurt.They had horrible chemicals in their make up called Mercury and Lead and this made their faces white but it was posoin. i made my face white using ice-cream - much yummier.

If the ravens fly away we won't have a government and the beefeater said that England would break. He told us that they clip their wings to stop them flying off and one raven bit his nose when it was having its wings clipped.
In olden days they played tennis and football but they used balls made of pigs bladders which are kind of like balloons and they were covered in leather.
Some of Henry's armour had skirts on because men wore skirts or tunics in those days. He had flowers on his armour and they were Tudor Roses. they needed two hands for their swords as they were really heavy, now they only need one. Now there are fighting girls but there weren't in olden days. Joe told me that the girls have pink feathers to make them easy to spot when they are knights. We saw a giant arrow that they had to throw because it wouldn't fit in a bow. They would light it and send it into the enemy boat.
We saw traitors' gate which was very sad. Queen Elizabth went in there when she was young and her sister was queen. Most people who went in the gate were executed.




I sat on the king's toilet which is called a garderobe. If they did anything in the toilet it went in the moat making it very smelly and dirty. I didn't do anything in the toilet but could see straight down the side of the wall outside.
In those days only the kings and queens were allowed to wear purple and some of their clothes were made out of real gold. Henry had salt and pepper in a big gold box but we have it in a glass grinder.
We went on a boat on the River Thames to go to a restaurant near parliament. There is a bridge that opens up to let big boats through but it didn't open whilst we were there.
We went to London on the train and Nanna made lunch so I could eat chicken bones with my fingers like they did in olden days.


For our meal we had chopsticks but Grandpa used a spoon. I had special squeezy handles and a lovely sauce with noodles. It was very messy to eat but I had fun. I poured the sauce all over the noodles.
We went back to the station on a bendy bus nad I stood on the turning bit and I got turned around when the bus turned round corners. We had pudding on the train and I fell asleep on Daddy.

Sharks

I visited Nanna and Grandpa all day the day before today because Mummy was painting pottery a long way away and Daddy was at work. I went there in my pyjamas to have my breakfast. We watched a movie about sharks called Great White Sharks and I learnt lots and told Mummy and Daddy all about it and they thought I should tell you too because they are really exciting creatures and were on earth before the dinosaurs so that is even before Grandpa's Grandpa.
They live in the sea and a big boy went surfboarding and the shark bit his arm and his leg but it only left a mark. The surfboard was bitten in two pieces and the shark swam away with a mouthful of surfboard. The boy collected both pieces of board and swam back to shore. Quite a bit of blood came out.
Another man in a boat went out with oars and he thought the shark was leaning its head on his boat and it was tipping. The shark was taking a closer look at the boat so the man paddled really fast to shore and jumped out of the boat. (You can read about this man and his adventure with the shark yourselves)
A girl was swimming with two children and the daddy. The shark bit her leg and she only had a scar and she screamed and her hair was wet because she had been swimming.
I saw a picture of them jumping out of the sea with fish in their teeth.
Biting sharks are the only fish that take a look at the sand. (typers note: I looked this up and found the following on Wiki: "The great white shark is one of only a few sharks to regularly lift its head above the sea surface to gaze at other objects such as prey; this is known as spy-hopping" Apparently scientists are not sure if this is because the shark is curious or to improve its sense of smell!)

One even had bits of whale in its tummy. (typers note: again, I checked, and during an necropsy a sharks stomach was found to be full of whale blubber. Bethany was fascinated by the ability of a shark to eat a whale although the images did put her off her food for a while even though it included her favourite - baked beans)
Sharks normally have lots of scars from battles with other sharks.
They have the biggest brains. They have three bits and are not round like our brains but long like a y. (typers note, sorry to keep interrupting Bethany's comments but I needed to check. She is right about the shape - see the pictures we found. The size is another one of those questions dividing scientists. One part of the brain is only the size of a walnut making the shark very small brained - scary in such a large and powerful creature. However the shark's brain is divided into sections and when all put together it is believed to even include the eyes. Great Whites, and other sharks, do have disproportionally sized livers which might have been the organ Bethany meant)
Their teeth are like saws and are sharp with zigzag bits. They have some near to the front and they have another set of jaws behind the first and you can see the second teeth in the gaps between teeth. (Final typers note, I hope: they have tooth generating membranes that are constantly growing rows of replacement teeth that gradually increase in size as the shark grows older. Like a conveyor belt of teeth.)
The biting sharks are called Great White.
They live near Auntie Kate in South Africa and Australia and American but not Britain. The basking shark lives near Britain and it is smaller than Mummy and they only eat little things. I'm little but they eat things littler than me and I want to see one. Daddy has seen one on a boat in Cornwall when he was a little boy.

Ruby Wedding

I am putting my feet against my head and my head against my feet in an 'O' and I can make an 'O' forwards too lying on my back putting my toes on my head. I learnt to do this at ballet in the summer. It is a good stretch and I have to point my toes. I learnt lots of new stretches and balances. Also we did some dances to Disney songs especially to "I Want To Be Like You" from The Jungle Book and "I've Got No Strings" from Pinocchio. I haven't seen Pinocchio but I have a pinocchio puppet in my room that is from Italy and I like making his arms and legs dance. I practise my stretches lots. Also I can put my toes behind my ears but I can't do it without showing my pants. Sometimes I put my toes behind my ears when I am sitting on a chair but it is easier to do lying down. Mummy cannot touch her toes very well but she can tickle mine.


Daddy and I are hiding on one another from Mummy because Mummy was taking pictures and we didn't want to have our picture taken. We kept popping our heads up to test if she was looking.
I was the best hider. We were having drinks because we had all arrived at the hotel for food before Grandma and Grandad and we had driven Great Uncle Leith there and made him join in singing songs in the car but he didn;t know all my favourite songs so we tried to teach him "There were rats, rats, big as blooming cats" whilst Daddy drove.


Grandma has just opened up her Ruby Wedding present and she likes it. I painted a picture of Grandma and Grandad dancing on a plate that Mummy gave me and Grandad has got trousers on and Grandma has got a dress on. He has got spiky hair and she has curly hair. They both have rings on their fingers and they love one another. They have their feet and hands touching because they are holding hands and holding feet. I painted a tie on Grandad and it took a long long time to dry. I painted one arm on each of them curvy like I do at ballet.


Daddy and me and Grandpa have all got our chins on our hands. We were pretending to be thoughtful so that Mummy could take our picture. We are waiting for our food near the Wrekin. The Wrekin is a mountain near Grandma and Grandad's house. I say 'Hiya Wrekin' when I see it when we are driving to their house. We were having a special lunch for Grandma and Grandad's Ruby Wedding Anniversary. Great Uncle Leith and Nanna were there too.

After the special lunch we went to a museum (typers note: It was the Blists Hill Victorian Town museum where the hotel that was used for the original reception is now a tearooms so we had afternoon tea there) where there were lots of people dressed up in old fashioned clothes. There were some strange smells and one man showed me how to use a printing machine without chopping off your fingers. He said I could be his apprentice because I like machines but I didn't want to be his apprentice so Mummy took me back to Grandma's house.

Grandma and I are watching Punch and Judy and it was really cool. We were all enjoying it, even all the children there that we didn't know. It was funny and my favourite puppets were Punch, Judy and the baby. I also liked the sausages and the crocodile beacuse Punch was trying to rescue the sausages and put his head into the crocodile and the clown pulled out him out safely.
Judy had the baby and sniffed his bottom and said 'he may be a bit smelly' and gave him to Punch to hold and they kept swapping the baby over as it needed a nappy change. She told Punch not to drop the baby down the steps and he threw the baby down the steps and said 'Walkie walkie, walkie'. We didn't get to see them fighting but we did get to see the devil. I liked the policeman too. I liked all of them except the dragon.

Punch took the stick off Judy and she told him to give it back and he didn't so she phoned for the policeman and we were supposed to call out for the policeman every time we saw Punch. But Punch hid and the policeman told us not to tease him. Judy, the policeman and the clown told us to call out when we saw him.

There were one day old piglets, they were born the day before Grandma and Grandad's anniversary. The piglets were tiny. The mummy pig smelt but the babies didn't although they were in the pigpen with the mummy.

There were chickens nearby some of which were Sussex Star chicks like my chicken Star. They were pecking at food and making nests in the pile of horse manure. Some of them had feathers over their toes. They seemed to like having homes in the dump.

We liked all the animals, even the smelly ones. I tried to stroke the ones that were loose but just watched the ones in special pens. There were some black pigs in another pen too. The chickens snuggled up in the hay.

I made Daddy go so so so low in the swing boats that he is scared of falling out but I wasn't scared at all except when my back faces the ground then I was really scared but we had ropes to hold. Then the man stoppped us as he was closing and I slid down the ropes and steps and hurt my back so Mummy and Daddy and everyone had to cheer me up whilst we ate scones and cream and jam.

I pulled on the ropes fiercely to make the swing boat swing and made Daddy slide off his seat. There wasn't time to go on the roundabout or to throw balls at coconuts. I like putting coconut in cakes.

The sunflowers at Grandma and Grandad's house were so big they were gigantic so they won the race to grow the biggest sunflower but mine now has buds by every leaf and is growing extra flowers so I win the competition for the most flowers.

So we have both won but my sunflower is still alive and theirs have died so they have lost and I am the champion. Mine has 12 flowers growing on it nad the dead head of the original flower. We are going to give the sunflower seeds to my chickens because they like eating things like that and corn on the cob. I don't like sunflower seeds but I do like corn on the cob even though it sometimes sticks in my teeth.

I took this photo of Grandma and Grandad chopping the cake up for us to eat. Nanna made the cake and used a really good red colour for the icing that made my tongue and fingers go red. It was a yummy cake. Daddy did a toast about the Wrekin and we all chinked glasses. I like saying cheers and chinking glasses with people.

I fell asleep when we were taking Great Uncle Leith home so I didn't see his Boxer dog.

New Friends and Animals

Whilst next door were on holiday we looked after their rabbits. I fed and stroked them and when they were hungry they took carrots out of my hands.

Next door have a trampoline and I bounced high on it whilst they were away. I can also bounce on Dominic's trampoline the other side.

Only Jordan is allowed to do forward rolls on the trampoline because she is bigger and stronger and has been to class. I can do forward rolls on bouncy things. At least I do forward rolls on Mummy & Daddy's bed. I like bouncing on Mummy & Daddy's bed especially in the morning to wake up Mummy.

Daddy & I went camping at a campsite a long way from home. We met some friends of Daddy's and Mummy's and their children. There were lots of children, five plus a baby. I played with the big ones, Josh, Issy and Bethan (called Beth) and there were two little ones George and Katie (she was the baby).

George got stung by a wasp and I have called one of my baby sock dolls George and the other one is called Bethan. Mummy made the baby sock dolls whilst Daddy & I were away and she gave them to me when I came home. When I first met the sock dolls I did not like Bethan at the beginning but did like George but now I like all of them even the Daddy who has blue hair.

We went to a woodland adventure playground. There was a really steep slide that made me feel sick because my tummy went ziiiiip up into my throat. I went on the slide twice. There were other slides that weren't so steep but one had a gigantic bat on the top of it, you could see the image of the bat above you as you slid down.

I was sitting up and tried to grab hold of the steep slide and I fell on my back and was spinning round and round in a circle. I went twice on a zip line because you were only allowed on two times. You sort of tipped to one side at the end so they said keep legs and hands really tight wrapped round it. At then end when it wasn't really high you could jump off and pull it to the man and say goodbye. It was sooo good fun. Soooo good fun. There were some houses and one of them we called school and zoomed in and went and had our lessons. once I was the teacher. We didn't actually like our second teacher even though she spoke in a very nice voice. We don't know what her name was.

Little people like me, not big people like Mike in this picture (Issy's Daddy) can swing on the rope bridges. There were some steps up to get to the rope bridge and you could get to it from two sides. I liked climbing on the cargo net bridge because I thought it was fun.

Mummy took this photo when I was packing for a holiday with Mummy and Daddy in a hotel and cuddled all my cuddlies that were going to go with us. We stayed one night in the hotel and Daddy fell asleep before I did.

We went to our wood after being at the hotel. All of the mums and dads talked until their ears were deaf about what wood they own, pets and stuff like that. There were fierce pouncing dogs that could jump over your head like Aslan but in a bad way whereas Aslan does it in a god way and they were so so scary. I thought about hiding in the car.

Whilst the grown ups were talking I played with Holly. She gave me piggy backs and we became friends when our mums and dads were chatting. I played football and tennis with Joe. There was a log swing with two logs tied together and I played on it and there was a big castle to climb up and I went in it to hide from the fierce dogs. (typers note. Paddy is aged 12 and just wants people to throw sticks for him, not really fierce at all. There was a labradoodle that wanted to have its tummy tickled and a terrier that was a little more aggressive and it was kept on a lead as soon as the owner realised that the younger children were wary. But Bethany clearly has a different view of the dogs!)

A lady a

t the wood, called Emily who works for Gwynedd Council, brought a bat in a box. (typers note. The label on the shoe box said VAMP) It was a Pipistrelle bat. I called that bat Issy. It was a grown up bat but it was sooo tiny it would have fitted in my hand.

It was rather cute and it cleaned its head with his wing like he was flying his wing or stroking it over his face. It also cleaned under its wing with its head. It was in a box because it had a broken wing.

You could only hold it if you had special gloves on. He crawled onto his blanket and Emily lifted it up in its blanket so we could see its face.

Bats go out at bedtime to eat and they eat flying insects but not owls. They live on bugs which they find using sound that is too high pitched for me to hear. You can hear bats with a special kind of walkie talkie called a bat detector. I heard the Pipstrelle bat on the computer and it went bu bu bu bu like horses shoes when they gallop.

Driving home from the wood we sang songs in the car. We sang Quartermasters Stores. I like it because it starts with "Rats, rats, as big as blooming cats". We sang "The bear necessities" that Baloo sings in "Jungle Book" and we sang "king of the swingers" from "Jungle Book" too.

At my holiday dance club Miss Sharon taught us a dance to "king of the swingers" which I really enjoyed doing. Mummy and Daddy couldn't remember the words so whilst Daddy was at archery Mummy and I watched the movie. I made tickets for us and we were going to have popcorn but we had chocolate spread sandwiches instead. At the other dance classes we learned a dance to "I've Got No Strings" from "Pinocchio" and I was Chip when we did "Be Our Guest" from "Beauty and the Beast". Chip was a cup not the Mummy teapot. We learned lots of moves and stretches like the splits and I balanced on Miss Sharon's feet when she was lying down with her legs up. On the last session we did a stretch that Mummy said makes me look like a circle because we lie on our tummies and push our heads back and touch them with our feet.

Auntie Kate showed me how to draw elephants and we gave her a felt purple elephant puppet to take to Africa with her. She has gone to Botswana with Uncle Simon to look for elephants. She was on television because she is an elephant expert and other people are hippopotamus experts and the people on the television were listening to Auntie Kate.

We were at The Almanack and we played Jenga and then built a tall tower. Nick said I could stand on the table next to our Jenga tower (Daddy, Uncle Simon and I built it together and I put the very top piece on the top). I had to take my wellies off to stand on the table because we were going to eat our food there too.
We made the Jenga tower fall down and Uncle Simon did a cheesy grin. It was quite noisy when they all fell down and Uncle Simon tried to catch it but bash it fell down. I had some help to pick up the pieces and caught some of them in my skirt and some in my hands before putting them in the box. I helped Uncle Simon eat his pudding because it was donuts with runny chocolate to dip them in and they had little sprinkles on. It was messy to eat but fun.

Dress Up Party

We had a leaving party at nursery for the four year olds who are going to school or not staying at nursery. Laura and Amy, the grown ups, had made presents for us children and Mummy keeps telling me the hats are called mortar boards. My ribbon kept tickling my nose whilst I sat waiting for my name. Amy read a poem to us because Laura was crying.

The poem was this:

Graduation

A celebration...

A time for looking back on lessons leaned, adventures shared, bright moments filled with special meaning.

A farewell...

A time for saying goodbye to old friends, to good times you've known...a time for packing away memories, treasures for tomorrow.

A beginning...

A time for looking forward, a time to set new goals, to dream new dreams, to try your wings and see what lies beyond.

We had a presentation and shook hands with Amy and Laura when they called our names. They gave us presentation and bye bye stuff including a photograph of me and a certificate and a scroll. There was a lady taking photographs of us and she said I was good at standing where I was supposed to so she asked everyone to stand next to me.

We said three, two, one and threw our hats in the air all the way to the sky to land on the witches house and they were never seen again.

Laura is also leaving nursery so we hugged her as tight as possible for the lady to take a photograph. We also squished Asha because she was the smallest. And it was Joe's birthday and he was telling us about his new trampoline that his Mummy used.

The next day at nursery was Laura's leaving party and it was a fancy dress up party. I was a devil with horns and a cape. Laura was a princess, her dress was like Cinderella's at the ball. Will was batman, Arthur was Robin Hood, Mavi was a knight with a sword and a shield and his costume was armour and a helmet which came on and off. The grown ups dressed up too. Chloe and Sam were fairies with wings on their backs and Amy was a cat and Tegan was a pirate and Frankie and Gemma were cowgirls and Frankie had a pretend pink gun in a pink holster. The grown ups went into Coventry for the evening in fancy dress up and Laura was going as Super Girl.

I went to Joe's birthday party at the Stratford Armouries. They had scary papier mache animals and creatures that the man makes using bottles and egg boxes and things and I thought they were real and was quite scared.

When I arrived I dressed up as a warrior princess and I tried on a helmet and wore it for a long time but I didn't keep the visor down because I couldn't see. Callum had one that looked like a lion. There was a story teller and he told us the tale of King Urur and his son Prince Yo. The story included flowers (and we had to make a flower face), trees (and we had to put our arms up like trees) and a fountain (and we made fountain sounds).

The dragon king (we had to flap our wings and then do a fierce dragon face) stole Prince Yo and we fought the dragon king's soldiers and threw our weapons at them and then threw food and clothes. We took our boots and wellies off and even trousers. Callum shouted out that we should throw pants too and so we had a spell which was "Callum's pants, Smelly pants, Woohoo (with crossed arms) and this turned the dragon king's soldiers into statues so we could continue our journey.

There was a statue of an Indian elephant with real armour on and the armour had spikes on the knees. There was a house on the elephant's back with people in and weapons and stabbing swords. In the story the elephant was the elephant god and it took us to visit the pig wizard. The pig wizard was a metal pig mask that in olden days (before Grandpa's Grandpa was born) in Germany if you did anything bad like punch someone, do something against the law in the days or wave a fork around you had to wear the mask for a month (typists note, I remember it being worn for a day but Bethany is telling the tale) and all your friends would laugh at you as punishment. Joe was the pig wizard voice and he was being all shy and quiet so the elephant god translated his finger sucking into a language. The dragon king was actually armour for a horse with smoke pellets in the nostrils to make it look as if the horse was really fierce and breathed fire. King Urur gave him a garden and they played together and it was a happy end to the story.

Then we went to play and giggle and laugh. There was a bumpy fast slide and we went wee bump, wee bump, wee bump and then thrown off at the end with a soft bump. I went on the slide 92 times or perhaps I should say at least 11 times. There was an air blowing machine and I stood on it to see if it would lift me up like it lifted balloons and balls but it just blew my skirt up. The balloons went up up up and then you had to stand on the blower to catch them and they would suddenly go on the ground. I tried to hug my balloon so tightly it popped. Joe had a castle cake with knights all over it. It was a proper castle and the cake was made by Sam's mummy and it had eggs and jam in it and it tasted good. I don't know what the other ingredients were that made it.

Time for a story "When there was no-one on earth suddenly one person came out really really quietly before the moon went in front of the sun and no-one was there to watch the eclipse but this one person who had lots of legs tied up with all the bodies getting tinier and tinier until the tiniest body would fit in my hand but it started the same size as Daddy. The one at the very front was alive but all of the others were dead. He sneaked around and broke everything up so everything was ruined and then lots of real people came up and all the monks arrived and the first person ran away and all the tied up people came alive and kicked their legs and nearly fell over. The monks were hammering away making the ruins even more ruined. The one who was the big one at the front had nothing on."

There was an ice skating rink at Talisman Square in Kenilworth. I fell over four times and Rhianna fell over twice when she went on a different day. It had been raining so much it bashed on your head but it was dry when Daddy and I went on the rink.

It was just me and Daddy on the rink and Mummy was watching us and taking photographs. I did ballet dancing moves on the ice because there was music to listen to. Daddy was faster at skating them me but I could do more tricks.

I walked like a penguin and skipped, and went in circles. I lifted my legs up. It wasn't actually ice, not real ice, because it is summer. Daddy said it was plastic that we skated on. It was good to have Daddy to support me, especially when I did my twirls.

My skirt and hands got wet when I fell over. I cut my leg a little on the skates when I fell but I was OK. I enjoyed it. We went to The Almanack when we finished ice skating because nearby Costa Coffee was closed so we walked up the road and just missed the big rain downpour. There were baby quails in the incubator of the furniture shop and they had a mop to hide in. They were so tiny because they were only 3 days old and they would have fitted in my hands.

Mummy and Daddy had hot chocolates with marshmallows and my hot milk had marshmallows too and I had a pot of smarties to eat and it rained lots and lots whilst we were inside and warm and dry.

We went to visit Saia at the other Flutterbies nursery to see how she was. She has lots and lots and lots of chickens and is looking much better. Our chickens still look stronger and healthier but Saia looked happy. The bully chickens were locked in a run and Saia had more space to walk around.

Welsh Holiday

We went to the wood to toast marshmallows. I have two marshmallows because I toasted one and Grandpa toasted the other for me. We cooked on the bonfire and had turkey and jacket potatoes and corn on the cob and marshmallows were pudding. I ate lots of marshmallows, one went on fire and I blew it out. When I put freshly cut fir twigs on the fire the oil in the needles goes crack crack like firecrackers or fireworks. I kept finding firecracker twigs because I liked the sound they made.

We have a stormkettle for boiling water and cooking soup and it uses small twigs so I collected lots of sticks and twigs for it and put them in the top when the flames weren't coming out of the top. Once I put a stick in the water by mistake.

When we got to the wood we moved all the stones in the fire circle and hunted for minibeasts. We found a frog which I chased it until it disappeared in the ivy and Mummy told me to leave it alone as it was scared. We found spiders with egg sacs and their nests and lots and lots and lots of baby woodlice and grown up woodlice. There was a slug and a millipede and a worm too.

Mummy and Daddy wanted a new tent for storing tools but I saw this pink one that pops up and you have to be careful so it doesn't hit you on the chin. They bought it for me as an early Christmas present and I also got a wind up torch that repels bugs too all night long with just one wind up which I held in bed with me at night like a cuddly.

We put my tent near to Mummy and Daddy's tent so that I could call them if I needed them at night and didn't have to shout too loud. I could open my tent all by myself. I slept on a campbed that filled up my whole tent even though it should have had two people in. So I could only take Tulip & Lavendar (invisible friends) in with me. I had a sleeping bag liner that I called a Sleeping Pocket and it had a space for a pillow but I put my head under it.

My last night in the wood Mummy woke me in the middle of the night and took me to the cottage where Nanna & Grandpa were staying and put me in bed again. She woke me because Daddy was poorly and had to go the the hospital (Ysbyty in Welsh) as he had appendicitus. The doctors didn't operate they gave him tablets to make him better and Mummy got him from the hospital for me to cuddle.

Whilst Daddy was at the hospital Nanna & Grandpa took me to the Snowdon Railway. The train pushed us up the mountain and pulled us down. It was the same train and the same driver too. It was a busy train and we sat at the front of the green train with red carriages (the colour of strawberries outside). I sat on Nanna's lap all the time.

We were in clouds at the top of Snowdon. On the way down we could see out of the right side but we were in clouds on the left side.

It was cold and wet and I was a little miserable at the summit because of the weather. Nanna and Grandpa took photographs of us at the summit and Nanna had to sit on the steps to take her pictures.

On the way to the wood we went to an archery shop and bought a bow and some arrows and a target for me to use in the wood because Daddy and Mummy won't let me shoot in the garden in case I hit the chickens. Daddy also bought a bow and arrows like mine for him to use as he wanted to shoot in the wood too, he called it field archery but it wasn't in a field as there were cows and sheep in the fields near us.



Daddy showed me how to shoot and talked to me and Mummy said to pretend there was someone behind me that I was trying to elbow so I would keep my elbow up. Grandpa put one of Daddy's arrows on the floor so that I knew where to put my feet because you have to point them away from the target and point your arm to the target. I held the bow tight with my left hand and the string with my first fingers on the right hand and stood up very tall. My first arrows bounced off the target, some wobbled and hung down and two arrows went over the top and Daddy & Grandpa had to hunt for them as they went quite a long way. My final arrows all went in the target and I hit the gold but not the very middle of the gold. I enjoyed archery a gigantic bit and want to do it again. At first I was scared because I thought I would shoot myself but now I know I won't. Mummy and Daddy still won't let me shoot in the garden because the neighbours have rabbits that don't know about archery but I think my chickens would be OK. Daddy says he is going to talk to his archery club so that I can shoot there but I won't shoot as far as Daddy does until my bow is much bigger.

When I stayed at the cottage with Nanna & Grandpa I spent some time on the farm. They didn't have pigs for me to feed but I did stroke and cuddle meg the sheepdog. One of her eyes is pale and bright blue and the other is dark brown. I threw a ball for Meg to chase and I cuddled her lots. She and the other sheepdogs chase our car whenever we leave the farm. Meg is a very, very, very fast runner but I think police dogs are best at chasing cars because police dogs are faster at running.






Kathryn has a trampoline and she lets people bounce on it if they have grown ups (parents) with them. When Daddy came back from the hospital Mummy and Daddy had some food and I wanted to go on the trampoline but had to wait for them to eat. Then they took me to the trampoline and watched me bounce. One of the other sheepdogs came to see what was happening and I got off the trampoline to give her a cuddle like I cuddled Meg but she sanpped at me. I was frightened but Mummy explained that she was trying to tell me she didn't want a cuddle like when my chickens peck at me when they don't want to be carried any more. I like bouncing on a trampoline and can go very high. I did lots and lots and lots of star jumps until it was time for bed.







Nanna gave me holiday pocket money and I told her I wanted to take her out for an ice-cream. I paid for her to have one ice cream and had enough money for one for me. I had a banana icecream covered with marshmallow and a fudge stick too. Nanna just wanted vanilla. Daddy bought icecreams for him and Mummy and Grandpa. We had the icecreams inside the shop because it was raining outside and I wanted to go to the beach for a picnic or fish and chips.

We drove onto the beach at Black Rock Sands and parked the car on the sand. It was so windy that we couldn't throw the frisbee because it kept blowing away and we had to chase it across the sand. Grandpa had bought a beach ball but it rolled so fast that Nanna and I couldn't catch it despite running as fast as we could. Daddy ran even faster and chased the ball into the sea and managed to catch it and carry it back to me and we put it in a bag and in the car to keep it safe. Daddy's trousers were really really wet and Mummy thought it was funny and laughed a lot.

There was so much sand that we had to walk a really long way from the car to find the sea and I wanted to swim to the other side but it was cold so I just paddled with Daddy and splashed him and Mummy.

As we walked along the beach we looked in pools of sea water and at shells and things and we found crabs and worm poo and seagull poo. All the crabs were really little and dead and I could pick them up. I had to be careful where I walked because I had barefeet and there were lots of razor shells.

I left footprints and so did Daddy. Muumy's shoes left prints that looked like crabs.

We saw seaweed in different colours. There were shells that looked really funny and they were sea urchin shells but they broke really easily so we spent a long time looking for whole ones. When we had finished hunting for shells and paddling we went back to the car to find the picnic.

Grandpa said we should picnic on the sand dunes to shelter from the wind but they were slopey so we put blankets down and I sat at the front. There was a cheeky seagull that watched us eating our picnic and Grandpa scared it off but it kept coming back. After the picnic we drove along the beach to the other entrance. I haven't driven on sand before.

It was a good holiday and at the end I went home with Nanna and Grandpa because Daddy was still ill with his appendicitus and Mummy had some pottery parties to do.