Well we weren't expecting that!

 M received something in the post this morning!

The proud owner of a Blue Peter badge.

Back at the end of August, M sent a poem that she had written a while ago to Blue Peter in the hope of winning a Blue Peter badge.  M wrote out her poem about her favourite toy dog, Christopher, and we printed out a photo of him to send with it, wrote a letter of at least 50 words telling them about it and we posted it.  We then sent an email, telling them what we'd sent, as it seemed that you needed to do that too, although actually I don't think you are supposed to do that, it wasn't completely clear, but we fairly quickly received an email in reply, thanking M for her poem, but telling her that she hadn't been successful this time.

It seems to me that they appreciate the time and effort it takes to put pen to paper and send something by post rather than just an email.  Anyway, M was very happy, as she was very proud of her poem and quite upset when she received the original email, and I was chuffed to bits for her.  This is the poem and photo she sent.

I have a dog 

He is a toy

But he is real to me

He likes to sit on a log

And when I see him doing it

It gives me joy

He surely cannot be a toy

Granny arrived this afternoon, bringing with her various pull-outs from their newspapers, so we all had a go at the Children's literary puzzle crossword in one of them and between the four of us did pretty well.  Then while I cooked, Granny and the girls played a couple of games of Happy Families, with the lovely (although understandably rather tatty) pack of cards that she had played with when was their age.