If You Go Down To The Woods Today.....

Remember to tip-toe quietly - for this is where the fairies live of course....in their little tree houses with their little wooden doors...


....and their little staircases....


...but I don't think anyone's home today...



You never know what delights you will find in the forest. Over the Bank Holiday weekend we had an afternoon picnic - yummy food, sitting on green grass, meeting up with family, children having fun, - followed by the discovery of the secret fairy houses. Perfect!

(we picnicked at Cannock Chase - follow the sculpture trail through Birches Valley and you will find the fairy houses!)

A Hair Curling Day

Youngest sat in the hairdressers and pointed to one of the large, glossy images hanging on the wall.

"I want my hair like that" she whispered to me.

The picture showed a mass of long wavy locks. Long hair - no problem. Curls - oops. Daughter has the sleekest straightest hair ever. And is obviously too young to venture into hair perming.

Kind hairdresser didn't flinch and offered to put waves in using one of her heated implements, and little one was delighted. And the result and her smile was a lump in the throat moment.



Curls glorious curls - for one day only - and worth every penny to see her skip through the town, checking her hair every 5 minutes just to see if they were still there, and breaking into a delighted grin to find they were still there.

Oh To Be 5 Again

This week has been a celebratory one, as the Small Daughter reached the excellent age of 5.

The birthday cake was made and decorated - and surprisingly I was able to hide the finished product from her until the grand occasion.



All Small Children insisted on helping with party bags to give to her friends at her party - I love using these white bags for children's parties, we change how we will decorate them each party, the final decision rests with the Party Child. Small Daughter wanted the boys to have pirate pictures and the girls to have fairy pictures, - no stereotyping there then.





I seem to find birthdays a reflective time - "goodness I remember celebrating your **th birthday with you!" to friends and family, with recollections of events that have long gone, some we are glad we left way behind us, some we wish we could recreate.

And when I looked at Small Daughter on her birthday, clever, funny, happy, independent, brave, I could recall the moment she arrived and the emotions of that day so clearly, it could have been last week. So I guess birthdays are not just about the cake.

But a fine cake it was.