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