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.

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.

Introducing Me

I'm Bethany and my end name is Ellis. My Mummy has helped me set this up so that I can tell people what I have done and who I am (at the moment Mummy is typing because I can't spell and she can). On Thursday at nursery I had tomato sauce with vegetables in and I didn't eat the vegetables because they were vegetables I don't like such as big peas instead of small peas that I do like. Today we had a nice little meal of Chinese pancakes with crispy duck and I ate all of the cucumber.




This afternoon we moved the chicken run and I used the rake to scrape up loads of layers of chippings for the girls. The girls are Spot and Star my chickens. Also today I phoned Nanna to tell her that we are going to the wood in July and that she can stay in a cottage. At the wood we will have a bonfire and toast marshmallows which we love but I love them best (the marshmallows are pink and white and I like both colours and that is why the word marshmallow is pink).


At swimming this week I swam a width with no armbands and no help. I have got my three duckling badges and I am learning to swim so that I can swim in my pyjamas and do my lifeguarding badge. I can hold my nose and put it in the water now. My swimming teacher was Craig but he has gone away and I have one called Hayley but I don't know the name of the lady who has taken over from Craig.


Last week I went to Rhianna's birthday party at Funky Monkey's. I was going to go as a pirate but my Grandma gave me a new dress and it looked like a princess dress so I wore it to the party. I played with my friends. Most of the boys were dressed as pirates and the girls were dresses as princesses. Daisy was Cinderella and that was my favourite outfit. I wish I'd had a real Snow White dress so that I could wear my Snow White headband that nanna gave me and I could be a real Snow White. Snow White is my favourite Disney princess. I like to be in character as Snow White and go and play with the dwarves and go dead; then the prince comes and kisses me and makes me go alive. Daddy is my prince when I'm Snow White and Mummy is Cinderella although we don't have outfits. Sometimes I am Mummy's Fairy Godmother when she is Cinderella.
It's time for me to go to bed now. My routine is to have cream put on my sore patches or an oil massage if there is time, have a story (at the moment we are reading "Alice Through The Looking Glass" and I like the sheep that was the White Queen and Alice and the boat that disappeared) Daddy humphs me into bed, kisses me and strokes my cheek, we saw good night in English and in Welsh ("Nos Da Mam", "Nos Da Tad", "Nos Da Plentyn" and we say "Nos Da Iar" to the girls) and I ask Mummy and Daddy to check on me before they go to bed.