Epiphany on the Beach

It is Epiphany. Imogen, Charlotte, Gemma-Rose and I are all sitting in Mum and Dad's room talking.

"We have two options on what we could do today," Mum says. "We could stay home and have cake or we could go to the beach?"

What is Mum thinking? Of course we want to go to the beach. We grab our swimmers, towels, something to do in the car and water bottles.

Soon we are in the car. I settle down for the long drive. I have a favourite book on the go and I am listening to the Frozen soundtrack on my MP3 player. It doesn't seem to take very long before we arrive.

Immy

We head over to the changing rooms. We all change as fast as we can, put on our sunscreen and then meet Dad outside.

He leads us over to the beach and to a good spot on the sand.

"Can we go play in the water?" Gemma-Rose asks.

Me

"Come on," Imogen agrees and we run into the waves. The water isn't half as cold as we thought it would be and soon we are jumping waves. We call ourselves the Ninja Kipper Fish.

Gemma-Rose and Charlotte keep getting carried back to shore, but Imogen and I soon pick up how to jump a wave and then dig our heels into the sand.

After a little while we all decide to go make a sand castle. It is a tradition to make a sand castle every time we go to the beach.

"What should this one be like?" Charlotte asks.

"How about we give it two towers?" Imogen suggests.

"We could give it a tunnel all the way through," Charlotte adds.

"Come on then."

Soon we are digging and piling sand up. It is looking really impressive. I smile as I look at our handiwork.

"Lets call it the Two Towers," Imogen says. I giggle.

Gemma-Rose and Two Towers

"What should we do now?" Gemma-Rose asks.

"Well I have seen all these amazing pictures of sand mermaids. Does anyone want to try making one?" Imogen asks.

We all do. We have never made a sand mermaid before.

Charlotte and Imogen start by drawing out the shape and then we begin on the building.

The mermaid

"Try to stay in the lines," Charlotte calls.

It is a lot of fun. I get given the head to do. I build it a bit out of shape and Charlotte has to fix it for me. She and Imogen are good at doing things like this.

Mum comes over to have a look. She is soon off for her camera. She takes photos of everyone and, when we are finished, the mermaid itself. Dad comes over too. He takes the camera and takes a lot more photos. It is the most amazing thing we have ever done!

"Time to go and get some dinner," Mum says.

We go to the change room and have showers and get back into our clothes. We are all hungry and so we hurry. Dad is going to buy fish and chips.

Once he has bought them, we find a park and sit down to eat our dinner. Seagulls crowd around in hope of something to eat, but they are out of luck. We are too hungry to waste anything on birds.

When we have finished eating, we climb back in the car and go home to bed. It was a great day! I really enjoyed myself.

What did you do on the Feast of the Epiphany?

I Eat Snails

This is my first post from our new blog: Mothers, Daughters, Sisters!

Hi! I am Sophie. 

When trying to think up a fun way to introduce myself, Mum suggested writing this post like an interview. So after going around and getting a few questions from everyone in my family, I set about answering them. Some questions were really hard, but I managed it in the end!

Facts about me:

Name: Sophie

Age: 12

Place in the family: second youngest of eight, fourth of five girls.

If you were a sound, what would it be and why: 

I'd be a laugh because I can’t stop laughing. If something funny is said, you can be sure I will laughing. I love jokes and quotes. 

If you were a colour, what would it be and why: 

I'd be red. It seems such a fun colour. It is one of my favourite colours. I love red flowers, red sharpies and red earrings.

If you could be a book character, which one would you be and why: 

I'd be Betony from The Divide. She leads such an exciting life and doesn’t seem to care how different she is from all other elves. I am different as well. I look different being darker than everyone else in my family. 

What would your perfect day be like: 

My perfect day would be a day at home with plenty of time to read, write and doodle.

What is your favourite outfit: 

It's a denim skirt and pink T shirt. They are nice and comfy. I like casual clothes better than being dressed up and I love skirts a lot more than pants. You won't catch me dead in jeans. On special days I like the flowery dress Mum made me best though. It is about knee length and has two buttons on the shoulder.

What is the strangest thing you have ever eaten: 

I have eaten snails! When I was little I used to eat snails out of their shells. I found them in the garden. I still get teased about it! I don't mind being teased and I can't sulk for too long, however hard I try. (I don't eat snails any more!)

What is your favourite kind of shoes: 

I like wearing ballet flats or sneakers. Something comfy because I get sore feet easily.

What kind of music would you be: 

I'd be something exciting, like the How to Train Your Dragon soundtrack. I am always having heaps of fun and I usually have a huge grin all over my face.

Here's one of my doodles:

E for Elvis

The Best Christmas Present Ever

Gemma-Rose and the doll

A few weeks ago Mum and I were Christmas shopping.

"Do you think if I work hard I can finish that doll I am making and give it to Gemma-Rose?" I asked.

"I don't see why not," Mum said.  

So I set out to make the best Christmas present ever! Every night instead of reading in bed I worked on the doll, sewing it's very long legs.

Book the doll came from

About a week before Christmas though I still had half of the second leg to sew, and the clothes still needed to be made. I didn't panic though. I knew just who to go to for help.

"Mum I haven't finished my doll," I told her.

"Don't worry, I will get out my sewing machine tomorrow," Mum said, "and you can use it to finish the sewing. It will be quicker." I was excited. I had never used a sewing machine before.

The next day I sat down and Mum taught me what to do. It was easier than I thought and very soon we were almost done. I just had to put the elastic in the skirt, sew the doll's pieces together and finish stuffing it. It wouldn't be hard at all.

Once I was done, I showed the doll to Mum.

"Don't you think the doll's eyes are a bit dark?" she asked.

I looked at it. She was right. 

"What should I do?" I asked.

Mum thought about it. "I know, I have a wonderful white pen. We will draw around the centre of the eye to make it stand out more," she said.

It was a brilliant plan and soon my doll was perfect. I put her in a shoe box and wrapped it. I couldn't wait until Gemma-Rose saw what I had made her.

On Christmas Gemma-Rose tore open her present. She stopped and stared.

"It is the doll you were making! It is finished," she said smiling. She was delighted with it and couldn't put it down for the next few days.

"What are you going to name her?" I asked.

"Mary-Kathrine," Gemma-Rose said, "after the girl from Epic." The name suits the doll very well, even though she doesn't look a thing like the heroine from Epic. To tell the truth she looks more like me. It wasn't really meant to be that way, but it is!

I am so happy my Christmas present turned out well. 

The Pen Pot

I also got a special present. It is a pen pot Gemma-Rose made me out of salt dough. It is multicoloured and very useful. She also gave me some pencils to go in it!

I don't know who got the better present, Gemma-Rose or me. 

Did you make any of your Christmas presents?