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