Daisy Suzanne Allen

Born Sunday 6th March 2011

6½ to 7 years old

Her life:  4 to 4¼ years ♥ 4¼ to 4½ years ♥ 4½ to 4¾ years ♥ 4¾ to 5 years ♥ 5th birthday ♥ 5 to 5½ years ♥ 5½ to 6 years ♥ 6th birthday ♥ 6 to 6½ years ♥ 6½ to 7 years ♥ 7th birthday ♥ 7 to 7½ years ♥ 7½ to 8 years ♥ 8th birthday ♥ 8 to 8½ years ♥ 8½ to 9 years ♥ 9th birthday

In summary:  Index ♥ From birth to four years old ♥ Four years old to nine years old ♥ Nine years old onwards

Special features:  Golden Bear (reprise) ♥ More cookery

In early September, we gathered near Hull for Mark and Helen's wedding.  Gregory and Daisy got dressed up to the nines (as did we all) and happily posed prior to us going downstairs to the bar (lemonades all round).  Daisy is wearing her snazzy dress with pride, as she clutches the confetti for later.

The Friday evening afterwards, Daisy was somewhat grumpier as she, I think, practised tying shoelaces.  It's probably not going as well as she would like and I am no doubt exacerbating this by taking an opportune photo.  But then how would you find out about this sort of stuff?  I certainly wouldn't remember.

On the Sunday, we went to Wes's surprise 40th birthday party, which featured a bouncy castle (he loves 'em!).  Charles and Sally were there with Lucy, who is grabbing on tightly here...

...and Ollie, who is featured here seemingly yodelling to an open field as Daisy runs around a lot.

On the Monday, Daisy was delighted to learn, having attended Rainbows, that she was taking home the special doll, Olivia.

It seems that it was a double whammy week, as Daisy has picked up the golden sweater (or is it a sweatshirt?  Who knows).

The following weekend, we headed to the Manchester Road Park, which is at the end of our street, Denby Lane, for a fun day, which celebrated the revamped park with lots of stalls and a bouncy castle.

Here is the park, with Daisy and Gregory looking on.  It was, as you can see, pretty busy.

I occasionally try and write some amusing things on here, but I can't compete with Daisy's deadpan diary writing.  Whilst Olivia did meet up with Daisy's Mamaa and Grandad, she kept forgetting to take her to other events.  Although it's perhaps better that she didn't go either swimming or to the fun day, as those where things can easily get wet or lost.

Ahead of going out for a meal on a Saturday night, Lynne took it upon herself to do some baking with the children.  I don't actually know what they made as I didn't take a photo of it (and such things don't make the leap from short-term memory to long-term memory), but it was some combination of flour, eggs and milk, so perhaps pancakes (for lunch).

Fuelled by, perhaps, pancakes, Daisy was happy to help me clean the car in the afternoon.

Lynne had headed out by now so I decided to try to make tea fun by setting up a conveyer belt of preparation.  Chicken pieces were dunked in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs, while potato wedges were coated in herby oil.  Gregory got a bit bothered by all the eggy floury breadcrumbs on his fingers and needed a few clean-ups, but otherwise it passed without incident and they seemed to enjoy it.

This was the result of our efforts.  Homemade chicken nuggets and potato wedges.

And this is what they turned into.  They don't look too bad!  This was the era when Daisy was using a big girl's plate whilst Gregory was still on plastic (trust issues), although it was probably only a few months until Gregory was insisting that he used proper crockery too.

The next day, I took Daisy to Cringle Park for a jog.  She was reasonably enthusiastic as the pace ebbed and flowed somewhat.  The run can be found here.

With Lynne out on the Sunday too (this isn't typical; sometimes things fall like this), I must have had further requests for some cooking action, so bought some mini pizza bases, made some tomato sauce and got them compiling their own pizza.  Gregory tends to be a bit more adventurous with the toppings (which is to say, still not very adventurous).

The weekend after, we have the Allen ladies round and Nana Sue, looking fairly studious in this photo, gets stuck in to some craftwork.

With the weather obviously set fair in mid-October (T-shirt weather!), this is just a cheeky photo of Daisy in brand new glasses, having had an eye test the week before.  Unfortunately, I may have passed on some of my bad eyesight genes, but she wears the glasses well so all is not lost.   

Meanwhile, Daisy was settling in well to Year 2, gaining a certificate for good behaviour and for being an outstanding role model to others.

This is one of Daisy's imaginative drawings.  The Tooth Factory title is suffering from the classic writing-in-a-confined-space-with-slightly-oversized-lettering issue.  For reasons that are not immediately apparent to me, there seem to be a number of parties going on, for birds, wolves, unicorns and cats.

From around the same time, here is a big, heartfelt 'thank you' (again not quite fitting on the line!) from Daisy to Lynne.  I can only presume Lynne bought her some toys but you never know...

Another week or so later and Lynne is out at a 40th birthday party so I make Daisy a hot chocolate treat at bedtime.

At the recently-upgraded park, one of Daisy's favourite tricks is to slide down the parallel bars, sometimes landing on her bottom, while Gregory watches on from the nearby swing.

As we reach the end of October, Lynne gets in some pumpkins which the kids carve out themselves (well, Daisy does; Gregory got a little help, naturally).  It is put in the porch for the pleasure of any passing visitors.

At some point during the weekend, we went to the nearby Arc Centre (Arts for Recovery in the Community) to make some skeletons, with Daisy's being the lower one (a slightly more involved effort).

An increasingly late firework display at the local pub the Hinds Head meant that we decided not to go this time, instead watching it from our garden or bedroom windows.  It's easier that way (Gregory was in his room in his pyjamas).

As the garden gets barer and barer (in mid-November), the kids turn their attention to fairly static-looking football.

As we approach Christmas, we discover that Daisy has got a narrator part for the school Christmas play.  Here are her lines.

And then it is December, and it's time for the advent calendars, which obviously has Daisy very excited.  Chocolate every day!

That evening, it was the school Christmas fair, at which Daisy got to see Santa and no doubt give him a long list of present requests.

Daisy has regular swimming lessons and has shown steady improvement, so much so that she earned her Badge 2, er, badge and also her dolphin badge.  Go Daisy!       

A little weekend brunch treat of sausage sandwich with halloumi on the side... with my reputation... what were you thinking?

In mid-December, we headed to the Lowry to watch a live performance of the Gruffalo.  Daisy's head had appeared to shrink to the side of Gregory's hand, though.

Daisy's room now has a bulletin board with all her certificates for good behaviour and achievement.  Oopsy Daisy!

And it's time for Daisy's school Christmas play!  Here she is, standing up at the front and probably saying some stuff...

...before moving to the narrator role.  I didn't get a photo of Daisy speaking because I was videoing her, but here is one of her school colleague George doing his lines while she waits for hers.  They had to share a microphone so it involved passing it back and forth for each line, which added to the fun.  She did really well.

That weekend, we headed over to Waterdale for the standard chippy lunch.  Daisy was a lot less happy than Aunty Katie that we were having our photo taken.  She's getting into that phase.  (I can sympathise - I hated having my photo taken for a long while.)  What is most shocking here, though, is the fact that we are eating in the lounge.  Standards at Waterdale have gone downhill rapidly.  It's almost a free-for-all.

Later that weekend, we went to Dunham Massey for the Christmas light show.  This is a brief café stop for Gregory the red-nosed, er, boy.

It gave us the opportunity to take these funky photos, although for some reason Gregory decided to gurn like an old man.  Ah well, it could have been a nice photo.

It's Christmas Eve and Daisy can barely contain her excitement!

After Christmas, and Daisy can seemingly very much contain her excitement.  We were at the Light, the new-ish Stockport cinema, to watch Ferdinand, a film about bulls.

Presumably a Christmas present, this is Daisy painting some small tiles, although she seems to be deep in thought.

As they entertain themselves during the downtime between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, Daisy produces some detailed restaurant menus for her and Gregory to produce meals from.  I am intrigued as to what is the soup of the day.

Later that day, we find ourselves in Waterstones and Daisy upon a small sofa with her comfy winter hat...

...which is being worn here.  I think it was a Christmas present,

On New Year's Eve, we headed into Manchester to watch a panto of Cinderella at the Dancehouse, after an Italian for lunch.  Daisy seems pretty up for travelling on a tram as Gregory looks on wistfully.

We jump into the middle of January - quite literally, as Daisy leaps high on the nearby park trampoline while Gregory goes so quickly that he censors himself.

Daisy won't like this being on here, but I guess it will be a while before she notices this.  It's basically a list of classic childhood gripes, although items 2 and 3 are interesting.

But never mind that... here is an example of something brilliantly creative.  Keeping healthy has increasingly been a theme at school and Daisy produced this poster to talk about things like exercise and healthy eating.  Splendid stuff.

A few days later and the force is strong with this young Jedi knight.  Just ignore all the washing on the landing.

Daisy was invited to a mermaid swimming party in Ashton for, I think, Sophia's birthday party.  She even chosen the right fish tail to go with her costume.

The following week, Aunty Lou and younger cousin Jessica came to stay for a few days.  After an explosive opening in which she managed to make both Daisy and Gregory cry for different reasons, she settled in well, even posing nicely for the obligatory family bath photo, which all those pictured will come to detest in time.

Another weekend trip to the cinema to see Early Man, a film by Nick Parks which is much more about football than early civilisation, and we headed for a meal at one of the nearby restaurants afterwards.

This is what happens when I let my phone escape my clutches...

And we finish this mini-update with a photo from Charles and Sally's basement, which is a gamer's heaven, with a PlayStation 4 and a bean bag.  Ollie, Gregory, Daisy and Lucy make the bean bag seem really big (to be fair, it is pretty big, as Ollie and Daisy tear around a track playing some car game or other (OK, Daisy probably bounced into the wall as much as tore round the track, but she's more of a Mario Karter.

More soon.

And not quite soon after we find ourselves in a homemade cinema situation, complete with cuddly toys, blanket and popcorn, despite it being broad daylight.  Lynne, I think, was out with Jessica so I was obviously keen on some chill-out time for myself...

That evening, I got the old production run cranking into action.  Chopped up chicken breast is rolled in flour, then beaten egg, then herby breadcrumbs to make, basically, chicken nuggets.  Gregory tends to get a bit irritated by getting all the stuff on his fingers, but Daisy is happy to get fully stuck in.

And here we have the finished product.  Chicken nuggets and homemade potato wedges (which inevitably Gregory would have turned his nose up at).

Here are two of Daisy's many little characters.  She would have to tell who they are, though.  I have not a clue.

Here is a neat summary of the rollercoaster ride it is with Daisy's emotions, as well as how contrite she can be, and how she likes to write (and be written to).

Talking of writing, here is Nick Sharratt, one of Daisy's favourite illustrators and authors, after she attended a show of him at the Lowry with Lynne.  His work, with those familiar with children's books, include Eat Your Peas (the character is called Daisy) and Never Shake A Rattlesnake.

While Gregory was back at pre-school, Daisy had an INSET day and appeared to make the most of it at Legoland, driving around in a lego car...

...and hanging about with a construction of Buzz Lightyear of Toy Story fame.

That night, it snowed and in the morning the kids were keen to get out in the snow.  This is a scene from a school day before 8am.  Gregory is in his jeans (presumably because his pyjama shorts wouldn't cut it) but Daisy seems to be still in her pyjamas.  Well, it is snowtime.

I nipped upstairs to get ready while they continued to play.  Don't worry, it's still not 8am.

The next morning it had snowed even more so back out we went.  It's still not 8am.

And we will finish with Daisy fast approaching seven and going bananas.

Where did the year go, etc.  Here 7th birthday celebrations can be found here.

Back to the Secret Portal.