JUST SO FESTIVAL

A few months ago, Sarah Bird, one of the organisers of the 'Just So Festival' was a guest on 'Toddler Talk', my radio show on Redshift Radio. She came on to promote this years festival on 19-21 August. Sarah and Rowan organised the first one last year, their vision was to organise a family friendly festival offering music, theatre, workshops within a wonderous and beautiful landscape near Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire.

I had never been to a festival before and decided to visit for a day rather than the whole weekend camping. We made our packed lunch and set off bright and early yesterday to sunny Leek, in the Staffordshire Moorlands.

Our first delight of the day was seeing the Gruffalo, I was more excited than Luke! There were various workshops taking place, Pirate workshops, lantern making, painting and other craft activities. Many children were dressed up as fairies, pirates and superheroes, including our own little batman donning his knights sword. For those with small babies, there was a sensory area and a feeding tent too. We had our picnic at a man-made beach where there was also Punch & Judy, Ice creams and puppet shows.

The highlight of our day was the Clown workshop, we spent an hour playing games as a family, we had great fun and was great to see Luke running around and mixing with complete strangers.

Just walking round the forest, being in the outdoors and joining in with the spirit of things will stay in memory forever. I can't wait for next year and from all the comments friends made about my photos on Facebook, I'm sure they will be joining me too.

Well done Sarah and Rowan, I hope you managed to enjoy the weekend, you did an amazing job!

CHESHIRE PONY PARTY

I've been on a bit of a mission to get Luke to take up a hobby and just recently we've tried swimming lessons, gym sessions and football, all of which have been unsuccessful. I was stressing myself out by his lack of enthusiasm for everything and worrying that he would never settle into anything.

Alison Bowett, who runs Nantwich Baby Group organised an outing today to Cheshire Pony Parties, I booked Luke onto it but did not anticipate him taking part. He loves animals in general but recently in Majorca he refused the opportunity to ride a pony so I didn't expect too much.

Luke was adamant he wasn't going to ride one, and just wanted to look at them. When we first arrived, each child was handed a brush to groom Poppy the pony. Luke was very tentative at first but by the time we were introduced to the second pony, Maisie he was getting into it a bit more. Luke loves being a little helper so was thrilled when he was invited to help find the ribbons and clips to decorate Maisie's mane. Then he held the lead and walked round with Maisie, but still absolutely adamant he wasn't going to ride one.

We queued up to just have a photo sitting on Poppy and still he kept saying 'I'm just having a sit, not a ride' but as children always prove you wrong, he sat and then was led round. I was thrilled to bits, not only because I was getting my monies worth but because I knew he would love it. Last year, he'd ridden on a donkey and loved it. It's not as cheap as football or swimming lessons but I may have found something that Luke enjoys!

For more details on Cheshire Pony Parties, go to http://www.cheshireponyparties.co.uk/index.php

COUNTDOWN TO SCHOOL

Luke finished pre-school the day before we jetted off to not so sunny Majorca, I had been feeling emotional all day as I hate saying Goodbye and knew I would shed a tear. It was very sad saying goodbye to the staff especially as Luke has been there since he was 9 months old.

Since returning from holiday, it has suddenly hit me that Luke will not be going to pre-school anymore and he is going to 'Big school' in September. I am making the most of my time with him during August and have put big crosses in my diary on Mondays and Thursdays to enjoy days out and 'Mummy Days'.

Today, was one of our so-called 'Mummy Days', we started the day by baking a Honey Tea Loaf, then we headed over to Nantwich Lake with the picnic bag and a ball for Fizz, (the dog) and then fed the ducks. We had a lovely couple of hours and even taught Luke how to play Pooh Sticks, which he was totally obsessed with and has collected a number of sticks to play another day.

I'm going to miss him like crazy when he goes to school, I'm filling up now just thinking about it!