Graduating from primary school

I will try and fill the gap in posting at some point, but for now, I just wanted to share a picture of Stella on her last day at primary school! In fact, here's the before http://stellaharford.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/our-big-girl-starts-school.html and this is the after shot...

9th Birthday Celebration

This year Stella decided to invite two friends (Rosie and Sophie) to go and see a play, go out for a meal and then have a sleepover. We went to see a brilliant production called Something Very Far Away at the North Wall and then went out for a posh dinner at Gees! Burger and chips all round for the girls. Followed by popcorn and a movie and home (Madagascar 3) and then bed. All so exciting that they seem to have gone to sleep without any trouble at all....

In front of the movie:

Finally cosy in bed:

New Hair Cut

Stella decided she wanted to have all her hair cut off, inspired by Wreck it Ralph character Sergeant Calhoun. Here's the before and after shots:

Holiday in Washington DC and New York

Travelling transatlantic was a big deal and so I've made an album of our recent holiday to the US. Stella, Africa and I all contributed to the photography (but we only had a compact camera...). If you're interested in our holiday snaps you can download the album here: Washington DC and NYC Album

Catching up on Stella's news

It has been way too long since I did any blogging, but better late than never as they say. Stella is nearly nine and there's lots to write about. She is still really enjoying school, especially art, science and IT. She's doing really well in English and Maths too. She loves reading, especially graphic novels like Amulet, Girl Genius and Elf Quest. She's also a big fan of Lemony Snicket and Tom Gates.

She read lots of the Harry Potter books but lost momentum at book 6 and has been enjoying the films since then. She and her friends love making plays together and we often get treated to performances. She and Africa did a week long drama course in the Easter Holidays too and at the end performed the Giraffe, the Pelly and Me. Stella was a fantastic Giraffe.

Stella is still a very keen swimmer and really enjoys Judo - she's now a yellow belt. Her piano is progressing although she's not very keen at practising. She's hoping to take up guitar or saxophone in the future though. She's really enjoyed going ice skating a few times recently and has been practising roller skating up and down the pavement.

Stella is also a very enthusiastic Brownie. Last summer she went on Brownie Camp and she has a lovely Brownie pack that do all sorts of fun activities - games on Port Meadow, toasting marshmallows, building dens, film nights, plate painting and lots more.

At Easter we had a very exciting trip to the United States. Stella really enjoyed using her American Passport for the first time, visiting her birth place and meeting up with lots of friends from the time when we lived in DC. Stella especially loved playing basket ball in the street with Tabor and was amazed at the freedom that young Americans have. She also really liked going up the Empire State in New York and the Ferris Wheel in Toys are Us by Time Square. Here are some pictures to catch up on the last 10 months!

We had a fantastic holiday in Iceland last June and really enjoyed swimming in all the municipal pools heated by natural hot springs. 

In the hotel in Reijkyavik

Stella won her running race on Sports Day which was very exciting:

We were very lucky to have our usual wonderful visits to both the Lake District and Italy in the summer:

Scary Halloween fun....

Snow!

With Grandma on Lake Windermere (she stole the hat!)

Being in Washington is SO exciting!

With friend Tabor whose parents we first met in childbirth class

On top of the Empire State

Turning Eight and rites of passage

Stella was eight in May and we celebrated with a Harry Potter party with her friend from school Alice who shares the same birthday. It's the first time we've done a joint party, but it was brilliant to be able to join forces with other parents and go to town on a party. We had 19 children in our house which was quite daunting, but everyone had a great time.

We sent out letters on Hogwarts headed note paper with a lemon juice secret code to all the invitees. They used the code to enter the house using our keypad, and we'd covered the front door with brick wall paper to give it the platform 9 3/4 feel. Then we had a sorting hat, Daigon Alley with wands and spell books, the Sorting Hat, a brilliant potions lesson with Professor Quirrell (Alice's dad) and loads of bottles of ghastly looking stuff which he and Alice's mum had put together. Then my brother Aidan's Catherine ran a terrifying fortune telling class in the attic. It was brilliant! Expectations for the next party are running high now...!

This weekend was another big step for Stella when she took her first holy communion at church. She's getting so big and grown up.

Oh and other important news after a year of working very hard on her handwriting, Stella achieved another rite of passage and has finally got her pen license!

Jumping and growing

We just had a lovely week on the South Western tip of Portugal in a place called Sagres. The main attraction was the four pools on the little resort we were staying at. In fact, we only used two of them. Two was enough! Stella and Affy just absolutely love swimming. Tim invented lots of games with them this time - Albatross, Sea Monsters, Crabs... Most of which involved swimming along the bottom of the pool while trying to escape from Tim as far as I could work out. Even Herbie had fun splashing around in the toddler pool. We'll have him swimming as soon as possible!

Stella is going to be eight soon and we are planning a Harry Potter party with a friend Alice from school who shares the same birthday. Stella is a big fan at the moment of the Harry Potter films. Her other favourite passtime is reading graphic novels, in particular, Elf Quest and Asterix. She also loves drawing. Her favourite lessons at school are art and science. She's also really enjoying learning judo and came home with a gold award trophy at the end of term!

Stella is also enjoying growing freedom - she likes to pop around to her friend Rosie, who lives around the corner, on her own. While we were on holiday she and Affy were able to go to the little shop and buy essentials for us. This is an appreciated development!

These photos are on the trampoline which was conveniently located near one of the restaurants near the beach. Very helpful for peaceful(ish) dinners.

Christmas present for daddy

This is one part of a triptych

Oxford High

Stella started in Yr3 at Oxford High in September (picture above from the first week of school). She's been getting a lot out of the excellent teaching there. She particularly enjoys science and art and tells us she wants to be either a scientist or an artist, or if possible both. She's started doing Judo which she loves, especially when she can practise on her little sister. She's part of a Chinese club and is learning some characters and simple Chinese phrases and also now has piano lessons. She's also learnt a bit of netball and some hockey. So, lots of new things. It's great to have a school which provides all these opportunities although I have to admit that I miss being able to witness her progress more closely as I did with her clubs in London.

This week was the school play. It was a Roald Dahl version of Goldilocks, which involved Goldilock's trial by jury. Stella was part of the prosecution (pictured below). The singing was of a really high standard and the girls seemed to really enjoy themselves. The bottom picture is of Stella delivering her lines.

At home Stella continues to enjoy drawing a lot and reading. She's also starting to enjoy building lego. When the weather was a bit better she had lots of fun climbing trees in University parks. She's very kind to her little brother Herbie and constantly wants to hold him, which he loves. It's been a very busy few months and Stella is growing up fast.

Gymnast

While we were in Hackney, Stella went to gymnastics every Wednesday. She was doing well and had earned three badges. During the summer holidays she and Africa did a gym summer school and this photo was after they had finished their fantastic end of course display.

Sicily

We had a lovely holiday in Sicily at Easter. Here is Stella on top of what are supposed to be mini volcanoes - can you tell??? Other sites were more impressive than this, but all together we had lots of fun with lovely food and swimming. Although, I'm sure we'll be back to Cergallina as usual next year, all being well.

Stella is doing really well at school. She had a top report at the end of term, with As in everything, that she was very proud of. She seems to really enjoy school and has some lovely friends. Her reading is coming along brilliantly. She can read chapter books no problem now, and even though I'm reading Harry Potter to them at night time, she keeps reading ahead and it's hard to keep up. My challenge is finding enough great books for her.

Other activities like gymnastics, swimming, singing and art are all thoroughly enjoyed by her. There is the occasional moan about being dragged off to another club after school, but she always enjoys it once she gets there.

Stella will become a big sister again soon, and I have a feeling she's going to be a big help! She really is a very lovely girl.

Birthday time again - Seven already

I am really behind on putting up pictures but here are a few from Stella's birthday last week. Firstly the cakes on the actual birthday and then with her friends at a party the day after.

We had lots of fun with party games. The favourite was the detective game where all her friends were detectives and Africa was a robber. As she dashed in the room in fancy dress, everyone had to quickly write down six of the things she was wearing. They loved it! Another favourite was the flour mountain. They took it in turns to scoop flour away from a sweet which was balancing on top of a flour mountain. The first to knock the sweet off had to eat it without using their hands. Very messy and of course, all the children really wanted to knock the sweet off!

Friends in clockwise order from Stella: Africa, Tilly, Lexi, Anousha, Harriet, Alex, Inacio, Winnie and Lilah.

SNOW!

Fantastic snow this week. We were out on Hackney Downs while most of it fell and built a pretty impressive snow man. Later the next day, Fabio and Massimo built an amazingly magical igloo where the girls had their pasta tea.

It's been a busy end of term for Stella. She was a shepherd in the school nativity, which is performed by YR2 every year. I had no idea until I got there that a shepherd is a pivotal role in this production! Stella was fantastic. Remembered all her lines and sang beautifully. The following week there was a school concert as well. Stella now goes to a music school on Saturday mornings and they also had a little choir concert. Very simple songs, with lots of emphasis on timing and volume. It was really lovely. All of these events Stella seemed to be really enjoying herself. Dancing along as she sang.

Stella has worked really hard this term and her reading, writing and maths are all coming along brilliantly. She seems very happy at school, which makes her parents, who naturally worry about these things, very happy too!

Haircuts...

The girls both went for drastic haircuts at grandma's hairdresser while we were in the Lake District this autumn. They both went off with pictures in hand and these were the results.

Halloween

As always, much fun dressing up this Halloween....

Mountaineer

In Grasmere, pointing at Helm Crag

Stella's hill walking really took off this summer. We are delighted by this development and can't wait for Affy to catch up too.

She started by climbing Catbells (451m) with her cousins Joy and Raffy. Then she climbed a similar height to Allcock Tarn, which Affy made too. Then we went up Helm Crag (405m) otherwise known as the Lion and the Lamb, with our friend Jamie. And finally, after all the training, she made it up Harrison Stickle (736m) with Tim. We were so proud of her and hope there will be lots more hill walking fun to come.

By Stickle Tarn, Pointing at Harrison Stickle

With Joy and Raf on Catbells

With mum on Helm Crag

Poolside fun

We had such a fun summer. I'm going to post properly soon, but I was just working on this photo and thought I'd put it up here. Jumping fun at the Cergallina Pool in Italy. xx

More Birthday Celebrations

Saturday was Stella's Party. We had a great time. The 15 children who came were lovely. Most were from Stella's school, but a couple of friends from nursery (Pearl and Mercy) and a friend from around the corner (Harriet) came too. Everyone joined in with the games and seemed to enjoy themselves.

Stella had asked for a party at home with party games. Pass the parcel was as always a favourite, but they enjoyed my home made Pinata, and also games involving string, like ring on a string and spoon on a string... This year Tim made a hedgehog cake, by special request from Stella. This is a Harford family recipe and was appreciated by everyone, especially Stella.

Stella is six!

Hot off the press. More to follow soon, but I thought I'd post this picture while it was still current.

Nearly six

Stella is such a lovely girl at the moment. I find myself looking at her when she's sleeping and wondering how she got to be so big so quickly. It seems like only recently she was a squirming little babe in arms. In her waking hours she constantly amazes me. She generally seems to love school. I'm often worrying, is she learning enough, quickly enough, but I really shouldn't because she seems happy and confident and that's got to be the most important thing. It's so thrilling to see her reading fairly fluently now. She still prefers to be read to, but she can tackle most words and is gaining confidence reading on her own, especially at night time when she should be going to sleep!

She constantly surprises me with her maturity too. The other day she came out of school saying that they had had a yoga teacher who had given each of them a petal and asked them to make a wish. She didn't want to tell me her wish at first, which was fine. I became an aunt the other day and so said that if I had a wish I would ask for my neice to be well and have a good life, thinking that was a pretty good wish! Stella then said, that actually her wish was that all the poor people in the world had food and clean water and suddenly I felt incredibly selfish!!

She's always coming out with great answers in the children's liturgy at church too. When asked what the best lesson they had ever learnt was, other children said things like learning to ride a bike, to walk etc, Stella piped up "learning to love"! A couple of weeks later when asked what they were doing for lent, other kids were giving up chocolate, or chattering, but Stella said she wanted to pray more. I'm not sure where she gets these answers from within, but she knows how to make a mother proud!!