POD always enjoyed playing with a supermarket till at her grandparents house. Much hilarity ensued when she shouted “clean up on aisle 3” down the pretend microphone! POD’s excitement levels were almost stratospheric when she received the touch-sensitive Supermarket Till from Casdon though as its digitised and has a working calculator.
We love Alice Holt Forest. Located in Hampshire, just a few miles south of Farnham, this wonderful forest is part of the South Downs National Park. It’s just one of the many forests managed by the Forestry Commission. Whether we’re following The Gruffalo, Stick Man or one of the trails, Alice Holt is always good fun and a great place to blow away a few post Easter cobwebs. On this particular day, five year old POD decided we’d embark on our very own treasure hunt.
It’s rare we’re completely free on a Saturday as POD normally has gymnastics and Stagecoach. This weekend however we found ourselves not only with a free day but a sunny one at that. We’ve really enjoyed our time by the sea over the past few weeks so we left the house as quickly as we could (two hours!) in order to miss the masses heading southward. It wasn’t quite as warm as we anticipated but the breeze soon dropped, the sun shone brightly and the sky was blue. POD got covered in sand but that’s half the fun isn’t it! Let’s hope these sunny springtime days are here to stay.
POD has been involved in a couple of plays at school since she started in September. First came a nativity which saw her take on a convincing role as a King and sing with two others. She had the most splendid costume, king-like as you’d expect but with a Cleopatra style collar and shiny crown. It was a polished performance from everyone, all credit to the school for pulling it together and ensuring the children had such a great time. Last term saw POD take on the role of octopus in an adaptation of Rainbow Fish. Dressed in blue leggings and a blue top, with stuffed legs stitched onto it, POD had even perfected a deep octopus voice! It was quite something to see the children sign as they sang too. She seems to relish performing so when the opportunity arose to do a two week trial at Stagecoach, she was really keen.
We’ve always encouraged POD to explore her creativity and the three years she had at nursery certainly helped fuel that. She adopts the same level of enthusiasm for painting and colouring as she does crafts with her newly discovered written skills adding depth to the creations that adorn her bedroom walls. Being an independent little thinker with a fantastic imagination, we were keen to see how she got on with a Shaker Maker.
The Doves made an impromptu trip to the West Sussex coast again recently. We’ve explored the likes of West Wittering and East Head over the past few weeks so we opted for the seaside town of Littlehampton. Having larked around on the Britain’s longest bench, which seats 300 people, we headed down from the promenade to jump the waves and attempt to build sandcastles.
Now aged five POD usually tells us about any bad dreams if she remembers them clearly enough. The last one she had was quite vivid in that she recalled being on a pirate ship with Peppa Pig and everyone was being chased by a nasty witch. She didn’t seem overly concerned she was on board a pirate ship but understandably got upset about the witch. Thankfully the chasing was a one off although like everyone she does have bad dreams on occasions.
These photographs were taken at the UK’s longest bench which is 324 metres long and can seat 300 people. Located on the Littlehampton promenade in West Sussex, it has 9,000 multicoloured hardwood slats and is engraved with hundreds of personal messages from the public. It provided the perfect place to stand to take in the beach and breathe in the sea breeze.
