Birthday and a Party!

 

 

On the 18th, I finally got to call myself 12! I was going to go and see The Nutcracker for my birthday, but I didn't really want to see it, so instead I went to Milton Keynes for Dinner and Christmas Shopping with my mom and dad! When we got there, we went for a delicious meal at the Coal. I had a full meat dinner that consisted of chicken, pork and beef! It was absolutely to die for! Unfortunately, when I'd finished I was way too full for a desert.

After we had stuffed ourselves with meat, we went shopping. The Christmas lights were lovely and the shops were full of Christmas shoppers! We didn't really buy much, but it was still a nice day out. I felt like my feet were going to drop off by the time we'd finished!

Now, time for the most exciting part! Unwrapping my presents took longer than I thought it would because I had so many! I got a lovely bag from Eileen and some very sweet smelling bath bombs and nail paints from Stephen and Ian. I also got some more Warrior Cats books and a little Minecraft figure from mom and dad. I also got TABINOF! (The Amazing Book is not on Fire!)

However, the best thing I got was a massive chunk of ham! It was amazing!

Now for the second part of this blog post: my Pre-Christmas Party! Liv-Astrid and her brothers, Tilly, Lavinia,William and George came. We did loads of fun things like going to the park and playing Mario Kart against each other!

Mom prepared us a delicious buffet with chicken skewers, pizza, other little bits and bobs and even some salad! It was really late when everyone left, so I'm clearly a good party host.

There's not much time to relax now though, it's Christmas in 2 days! I can't wait!

Knebworth Christmas Party!

It's Snowing!

Just like last year, it was snowing in Knebworth! Only it wasn't real snow, it was a fake foamy snow. It was still really fun to play in! Today was the Knebworth Christmas Party. There was quite a bit of painting to do and lots of crafts, but the most delicious part of the party was decorating cupcakes!

Mmmmm!

There were also some cups of warm, melted chocolate that you could make your very own chocolate button with. All you had to do was get a spoonful  of the chocolate and make a little circle on a sheet of greaseproof paper paper and sprinkle anything you wanted on it! I sprinkled blue and white snowflake sugar decorations and some shiny silver balls! Once you'd finished decorating, you just had to wait for it to set then you could pick it up!
You could also stick 3 scrummy marshmallows on a skewer, dunk them into the warm chocolate and roll them in sugary sweets. And then you just eat!

The most eventful thing of the party was the Bucking Reindeer! I had a go on it, but I made sure the operator of it knew I wanted it to go slow! It was like it was in slow motion! Maybe next time I'll go a little faster.

There was also a stall that had a competition to see if you could throw two little balls into a bucket, and if you did, you won a prize. I only managed to do it once, and I won a lovely, little grey bear!

Next, it was time for some competitions! There was a competition to see if you could guess how many sweets were in a box (which I completely failed at!), and also a thing that was kind of a raffle. We all had to line up and when it was our turn, we could pick a lollipop from a massive tray of them. If the lollipop you picked had a short stick, you won a snowman toy (I didn't win that one, either)! There was also a series of dancing competitions. Me, Tilly and Lavinia had some awesome moves!

We even did a pyramid with 2 other people! The judge clearly didn't notice us, as we didn't even get one prize.

Even if I didn't win a prize, I still had a great day! I can't wait for next year!

A week of Tilly!

I'm not a crafty person, but if there's a time of year that you should try out crafts, it's Christmas! At Gamlingay, the theme was Christmas Crafts! I painted a little wooden star a with sparkly, golden paint. I think it looked quite pretty! I also made a  Christmas card. I used a crayon to draw a Christmas tree on it. I tried to write on it, but because it was a black card, the pens didn't come up very well. It still looked nice though!

Christmas Stars

Last Thursday, I went swimming with Tilly and Lavinia! We had a great time and played loads of games. After swimming, Tilly came home with me for a two night sleepover! We decorated a Gingerbread house each with a wide selection of delicious sweets. After we had decorated the houses, we dusted them with some icing sugar, It was really cool (and mouth watering!) at the end!

Sweet Gingerbread Houses

We also tried to bake some Gingerbread men. Easier said than done! The dough wouldn't clump together very well, and it kept cracking and breaking apart. When we'd finished, the cookies did turn out quite good, though. We hung some on the tree, and now the room smells like ginger! Mmm!

Gingerbread men and cookies

After the sleepover, we took Tilly back to her mom and went back home.

But that wasn't the end, because we met Tilly and Lavinia again on Thursday and took her back for another sleepover! This time, it was a 5 night sleepover! The first thing we did was go out shopping.  We got loads of crafty things to do! We got a pack of 6 cardboard boxes and painted them. We did some really beautiful designs, and I'm really proud of them!

Christmas Crafts

I'm really pleased with our boxes

While we were out shopping we stopped for a little meal. I had a tasty cheese and ham toastie, while Tilly had a Tuna Melt and a massive hot chocolate on the side! The hot chocolate was massive!

Matching hats!

Next we went to see Santa's Grotto and feed the animals. There were Reindeer, Llamas and Goats and they all LOVED carrots. Luckily, the man at the till selling the carrots gave us a big bag. They didn't last long though!

The Llamas loved the carrots!

You can never have too many carrots when there are Reindeer to feed!

The Llama look so funny when they are chewing!

 Later, once it was dark, we went to see the Christmas lights in the gardens at Springfields. They were beautiful. There were little penguins and foxes and polar bears all twinkling in the darkness.

So Christmassy!

We did even more crafts. We made soaps (which didn't turn out very well) and Bath Bombs (which turned out very well indeed!) We put them in little bags, tied with ribbon and added a gift tag. They will make lovely Christmas presents.

Bath Bomb Christmas Presents

I painted and decorated a little wooden chest. It took a lot of coats of paint but it turned out lovely. I am going to store my pony rosettes in it.

Tilly made Christmas Stockings for her and Lavinia. Mom helped to embroider their names on them. They are so cute. I didn't make one as I already have a stocking with my name on it.

Rudolph!

Monday, it was time for Pony Club! It was a lot more fun having Tilly there. She seemed to be a bit nervous though; she forgot to breath while she was trotting!



Breath Tilly!!

In between all of the pony clubbing, crafts and baking, we played a bit of Sims and even wrote a story! The story was about our tribe of people that were being terrorised by a dragon, and how we had to seek advice from the mysterious Warrior cats. Unfortunately, we only had time to do about one chapter!
On Tuesday, we went swimming again and said goodbye to Tilly. Can't wait until next time!

Merry Christmas!

Pony Rosette!

Last week at Pony Club I earned another rosette! This one was the Saddlery Rosette. To get it, I needed to know most of the parts of the saddle and all of the bridle! I thought it was really easy. I also remembered a few extra parts of the saddle as well!

This week we did something different, a Musical Ride. We had to steer the ponies around to make a little dance! It was really fun! I think next time I'm there we'll do it while trotting, which will be even more exciting!

 

Sleepover

Tilly came for a 2 night sleepover on Wednesday! There was no time for playing Minecraft, as mom kept us very busy with baking Christmas gingerbread cookies, decorating delicious gingerbread houses with a collection of sweets and making our own Christmas decorations for the tree!

Our amazing gingerbread cookies!

We sewed some Christmas decorations! I made a red and white cat. He's a bit too big to hang on the tree, so for now he's a cuddly toy. Tilly made a really cute Scottie dog that she can hang on her Christmas tree at home!

Making our felt decorations!

Our incredible houses! The one on the left is mine and
the one on the right is Tilly's!

Wet felting!

You know how a while ago I tried a bit of felting? Well, I've had a day of it!

At Gamlingay, there was a woman, Milly, teaching us how to make a picture out of wool.
We started out with a square of mohair and we teased it out to fill a small canvas-sized wooden mat. Next, we got our coloured wool and teased that out so that we could make the background for our image. We did this twice, the first time making the wool go horizontal, and the second making the wool go vertical! After we had done that, we covered the wool with a net and soaked it in water. We did this to get all the bumps out, making the wool smooth. Next, we rubbed the wool with soap until it was very bubbly! This makes the strands and fibres knot together to make a fabric.

Now it was time for the next layer of the wool!
I wanted to do a hilly landscape scene with a wolf on it, so I got some grey wool and began shaping him! It was then when I realised that a wolf would be almost impossible to make out of wool. With a bit of help from mom, I made my little wolf that looked a bit like a horse. Like last time, I got some water and soaked all of the wool.
Now came the difficult bit... I had to roll up the felt picture with the net and the wooden mat and roll it back and forth loads of times! Every now and again, I had to unroll it, turn it around 90 degrees and begin rolling again! By the time I'd finished, my arms were killing!

When we got home, we washed out the last of the soap with some cold water. It looks pretty good, but when I showed dad he said, "Ooh, nice horse!" so I guess it does look like a horse!

Eureka! It's almost Christmas!

I went to the Eureka home ed group in Norfolk today and it was so Christmassy. It was extra special because my friends, who I haven't seen in a long time were there and they had a new baby. I think she is the tiniest baby I have ever seen! My new friend from Pony Club was there too!

Like last time I went to Eureka there were loads of awesome tables set up around the room.We raced to the tables to try out each of the crafts. I made a Christmas Snow Globe with a jar, glitter water and you got to choose a little figure to put in the globe. I chose a cute penguin!
Next I made a little wreath from felt and tiny jingling bells. It was tricky!

My little wreath!

I made a lovely orange decorated in spices and sweet smelling cinnamon. I never really liked the smell of cinnamon but I do now.

The best thing I made was a Snowman! He was made from a white sock, stuffed with rice. He turned out well. Unfortunately he got a bit dirty on the way home because we put him in the bag along with the cinnamon covered oranges and pine cones, so he's not quite so white anymore!

After all that, it's definitely starting to feel like Christmas!

Bonfire Night Cupcakes!

In celebration of Bonfire Night, I made some deliciously chocolatey cupcakes and decorated them! I didn't want to use everyday icing, so I made some sweet, marshmallow fondant! I got the idea from watching The Great British Bake-off! A fondant is just a fancy icing, but it's a bit thicker and it holds its shape a bit better. To make it, I melted a bowlful of marshmallows in the microwave with a tiny bit of water.

The mallows expanded and puffed up. It was really cool to watch! Next I added icing sugar to the melted mallows and mixed it all together until it formed a dough. Then you have to knead it like you would knead bread dough! At first, the pink doughy blob was very, very sticky. To stop it from sticking to the surface or your hands, you just need to make sure that it's thoroughly drenched in icing sugar! I liked the kneading best!

Kneading!

Once I'd finished kneading it, I left it in the fridge overnight to cool. The fondant is easier to handle when it's cool. When I got it back out, I rolled it out quite thin and cut out some circles to lay them on top of the cupcakes.

I stuck the circles to the cakes with a little bit of sugar syrup

To make the cupcakes look more like Bonfire Night, me and mom got some writing icing to do some firework displays, bonfires and pretty patterns! The cakes are very sugary, but very tasty!

Fireworks!

A Day of Birds

I've always wanted to try my hand at Falconry, and today I finally got my chance!

Today, I  went to Baytree Owl Centre for a day with the Owls and the Raptors! There were only about 10 kids there, so it wasn't too busy and we got really close to the birds.

First, we saw the Owls. A guy flew some of them for us; they got so close I could feel the air rushing in my face as the owl raced past me!
We were shown 3 different types of owl. A Hawk Owl, called Luna the smallest owl in Britain, was the first one we saw. It was very noisy. The owls that are hand-raised screech when  they're hungry because they always expect their handler to feed them.   That's called "Imprinting". Imprinted birds see their handlers as their parents because they were raised by them. This means they can not survive in the wild. Wild birds stay silent so they don't scare away any prey while they are hunting!

The next owl was a very special one. He was a Great Grey Owl and his name was Kevin. His parents never taught him how to fly, so his handlers had to. They taught him to glide near the floor to save energy, how to land on the perches and most importantly, land on the glove. It took months of flying from perch to perch until, one day, Kevin finally landed on his keeper's glove and he's been doing so ever since!

Kevin!

The third and final owl was massive. She was a European Eagle Owl, called Minerva, one of the biggest owls in England. It's scientific name is "Bubo bubo"! How cool is that? Because she was so big, she couldn't land on  a glove, so she had to keep flying from perch to perch. It was quite easy to get a picture of her while she was flying because she was a lot slower than the others.

We had a short break, so we explored the rest of the birds and the other animals.
Recently, the Owl Centre has adopted a fox. Her name's Ruby, and even though she's tame, she's quite shy. She was very cute though!

Ruby

They have lots of pairs of birds so they can breed them. They are also breeding Red Squirrels because their numbers in the wild are so low as the Grey Squirrels are taking over!

There was also a very weird type of bird there, a Secretary Bird. He was very odd looking, but he just would not pose for a photo! He kept hiding in the darkest parts of his enclosure, so I didn't get a very good picture of him. I found one online though!

Secretary Bird!

After seeing the Fox, Secretary Bird and a few others, it was time to go back to the flying room to see the Raptor Display!
There were lots of cool birds that were flying, but the most exciting part was when we got to try a bit of flying ourselves! The birds are much better at flying than the owls.
Each of us had a quick turn at flying a little bird of prey from a perch to our arm and back again! It was really fun, but a bit scary. The bird was so fast I got a bit of a shock when it flung itself on to my hand! Of course, I had a glove on because their claws are very sharp.

After I had my turn at flying the bird I sat back down to watch everyone else. It was coming to the end of the little session when the bird flew right on to Jules' phone! She got such a fright that she threw her phone into the air. The bird must've got a fright as well, because it beat its wings in Jules' face!

Kevin again!

Lastly, I saw a Polar Bear!! Not a real on though. It was part of the Christmas Display in the Garden Centre!

Anyway, even if I didn't see all of the animals that were at the Owl Centre ( I missed the giant tortoise!!) I still really enjoyed it!