With a little help from my friends

18 months 23 days

We've loved our day today. We had a great time at the play cafe first thing, we met our Saturday morning friends, Katie had a lot of fun and a lot of food! She was asleep very quickly after we left, and slept until I woke her at the swimming pool. She was immediately wide awake when she realised where we were heading.

We've had a really fab swimming lesson. We got into the pool and she came down the steps, into the water and just kept going. Off she went. On her own, no armbands! I was so excited! I put her back on the steps and got her to do it again. She did. Then she thought about it and realised what she was doing and refused to do it again. Both girlies have had a brilliant lesson. Its fantastic watching them hurls themselves happily under the water, chasing round, grinning, smiling and so confident. We were also very proud of our Bobbins for swimming off on her own for the first time. Well done, little lady!

After swimming we headed off to meet our friends. We all met at the vicarage and went off on a sponsored walk. It was a great afternoon, but somewhat eventful! It was meant to be 4 miles but ended up 5 1/2. Katie did so well. She went in the rucksack for some of it but walked a lot too. It was a lovely route, through pretty countryside I'd not explored before - I even got a shot for "my" blip - I'm going to have to be careful, this is becoming a (very enjoyable) habit! For most of the first half of the walk, I had Katie on my back and James & Emma in the double buggy. For the next mile, I had Katie and carried Emma - we discovered the route we were being taken on was entirely unsuitable for buggies for a large section, so children were decamped and spread amongst us! After that, there was a HUGE rainstorm, massive hailstones. But all the children were wrapped up and after the storm passed, they all loved walking. Monkey (and Katie) both need a jolly good wash after a bit of a splat, but it was a lot of fun. The 3 girls were just adorable, all wanting to walk together.

We stopped at the vicarage for a spot of afternoon tea. Katie rejected the buns in favour of sausage rolls. She was very pleased to be taken outside to see the minister's chickens. She fed them (and ate some of the bread herself) and stroked one of them. She was very happy indeed! She's tired but content and we're both ready for a hot bath! Thankyou to those who have sponsored us xxx