* LSNED & First day at school *

I have finally found a few minutes to sit down and blog my first couple of pages for LSNED. On the 1st Sept we woke to find the tooth fairy had visited during the night. As I watched Hannah run to check her little teddy to see if the tooth was gone and if there was a coin in it's place I could sense her anticipation. Her delight and excitement at finding a shiny £2 coin just made my heart melt. I learnt that " I love it when the tooth fairy has visited our house"

It was my Dad's birthday on 2 nd September. As it was the school holidays still, Hannah and I had arranged to see him in the afternoon but had made no definate plans as to what we would do or where we would go. The sun was shining so Dad said he would like to go to the beach. We spent a lovely afternoon building sandcastles, paddling and generally enjoying each other's company.

I'm keeping up with the class well, getting a few words down each day, but the creating bit will have to wait until I have a little more time. But that's what I love about this class, I can do it in my own time.

I can hardly believe it's Friday already and the first week of term has just flown by. Hannah has settled into Year 3 really well, enjoying her new classroom and new class mates and getting used to her new teacher. This is the first time she has had a male teacher!

All ready for school on the morning of 1st day of term!

New Shoes!

Note the socks already falling down! Lol!

Right, I'm off for a round up of all your blogs. If you do pop by my blog, please leave me a message so I can come and visit you too!

Have a great weekend!

* Getting Organised!! *

Learn Something New Everyday started on 1st September. I have been taking my little notebook with me everywhere and jotting down a few sentences each day, inspired by the daily prompts. Rather than focusing on lessons learnt (although I'm sure I will learn lots over the month!) I am just trying to get down on paper my current thoughts and feelings on life and document my day to day activities. I will create a page for each day, some with photos some just journalling, but will be working a few days behind the prompts as and when I can get my photos printed.

Today I got myself organised to start on my first pages. I have sorted out some stash and put it all together in a little basket, along with some stamps, inks, punches, papers and tools. I cleared the mess that is usually my craft area and laid everything out so I'm not hunting through my stash each time I sit down to a page.

I have prepared some bazzill for my first few pages, trimmed to size and you can see my photos on the table which I got printed today....so I''m all ready to go.

In other news, I swapped my shifts at work this week so I could spend today with Hannah, as our last day together before the new school term starts next week. We had a lovely day shopping for birthday presents and stopped for coffee and pastries in our favourite coffee shop, Cafe Nero! Yum!

I have the evening to myself as D has gone out with some friends to watch football. H is tucked up in bed so I'm going to eat lasagne and chips and then get my first few LSNED Pages done!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely evening!

* Tooth Fairy Magic *

The tooth fairy visited our house last night!! Oh the excitement and joy of finding a shiny £2 coin this morning!! Magical!!

Having been wobbling and wiggling her two front teeth for what seems like weeks and weeks, one finally fell out last Thursday and the other just popped out yesterday morning. So last night it was carefully
placed in teddy's little bag in readiness along with a note (in her best handwriting) to the fairy...

"Thank you for leving me pocket money

and taking away my totth" xx

So now the "Young One" has a rather cute, "gappy" smile!!

The £2 coin??! That was soon spent on a new book this afternoon. My little bookworm can't get enough of books and reading at the moment, but hey that's another story!

* A day at The Castle *

Today sees the start of the last week of the school holidays, and tomorrow D is back to work after his 2 weeks holiday. I have to admit feeling a little sad as we have Sooo much enjoyed each others company. Just the three of us!

Yesterday we took a drive out to this beautiful Castle.

Lulworth Castle

We climbed up a million steps to very top of the tower to see amazing views across the Dorset country side. With a glimpse of the sea in the distance.

Just about see the sea in the dip bewteen the hills!

We watched the jousting!

There was a great little animal farm, where H loved the donkeys, goats, sheep, rabbits, guinea pigs, pigs, alpacas, ducks, birds, peacocks and happily ran round stroking and feeding as many as she could. Great Day!!

I am sorry there has not been much crating going on here lately. I'm hoping to get back into this week, now that our little "holiday at home" has come to an end and with a new Shimelle class starting on the 1st I am looking forward to it.

Hope you have had a fun Bank Holiday!

* New Forest Deer *

Those that read my little blog regularly may remember that I mentioned in this post that DH has had 2 weeks off work and we were planning on making the most of the beautiful area that we are lucky enough to live in. Despite the rain we have enjoyed a few day trips out on the days I was not working.

Last week we went to Salisbury, Monkey Worlds and Monday was Gunwharf Quays near Portsmouth for some serious shopping. My favourite so far was Thursday just gone when we donned our rain coats and wellies and headed off to see these beautiful animals

In the New Forest, which is a 30 minute drive from us, deer (and the famous New Forest ponies) roam freely. It is possible (but rare) to spot the deer but on the odd time we have seen one it has run off into the trees and out sight. The Bolderwood Deer Sanctuary is the ideal place to see them, complete with a special viewing platform from where I took loads of photos (just so wish I had a better zoom!!).

I know some of you live locally or visit the south on holidays from time to time. If you get a chance to go, time it around 1.30pm-3pm as this is the time the Forest wardens feed them so there are plenty gathered in front of the viweing platform.

After a lovely walk through the forest, with opportunity for plenty of photos we headed into nearby Lyndhurst for coffee and cake.

The Beautiful New Forest

I'm looking forward to the Bank Holiday weekend, despite me having to do an extra shift at work, we haven't quite decided what to do yet. What are your plans?

Right, I'm off to sort out my scrapping stash and put some bits in a basket ready for Learn Something New Everyday.

* A New Class *

I think I am becoming a Shimelle.com class addict!

Last night I signed up for Learn Something New Everyday.

Class starts 1st September!!!

Well, I figure I need something to keep me busy once the school holidays are over!!

Want to join the fun? Find out more right Here !!

* Monkeys, Shopping and a Layout! *

After a few days of not having chance to get on here, I think we are due a bit of a catch up blog post!

Last Thursday we took H and her little friend to Monkey World as her birthday treat. For her 5th birthday she had a party at a soft play centre and last year we hired a local hall and organised games and activities for 20 children (which I found very stressful) so this year we suggested she chose one special friend and had a day out and we would treat them to dinner afterwards. A heavy rain shower in the morning almost tempted us to cancel but I am so glad we didn't as the sun came out for the rest of the day.

Monkey World is an amazing place!! We saw monkeys, chimpanzees, orang-utans, apes, gibbons and so much more, many of which had been rescued from abuse or neglect. H loved it and enjoyed sharing her special day with her "BFF", Aimee!! Sadly I forgot my camera batteries so took no photos, I know how bad is that?!

Friday was my nephew's 3rd birthday so more family celebrations and birthday cake! Today we have escaped the rain (just!) by going out for breakfast and a shopping trip to nearby Poole. H spent some of her birthday money on some new clothes.

I do have one layout to show you. I didn't manage to do any of Shimelle's On Line crop last weekend as it was H's birthday but I was having a browse through the challenges the other evening and this sketch caught my eye and I came up with this.

I love all the TV talent shows, so I am so pleased X Factor has started again on Saturday evenings and right now I'm just settling down to watch the "Don't Stop Believing" Final on Channel 5. Anyone else love X Factor??!