Star of the week AND snow - fantastic!

Each week in Jasmine's class, one child who has done exceptionally well with helping, behaving and working hard, get to be star of the week.  And for this achievement, they get to take home 'Godfrey'.  Godfrey is the class guinea pig, and thank God, not a real one.  Jasmine had been faithfully telling me each friday who the star of the week was, and was getting a little frustrated that it was never her - despite her always making such an effort.  This week (on a tuesday instead, maybe because of the holidays), Jasmine was finally named 'Star of the Week', and I picked her and Ben up from school, with Godfrey and his diary in tow.
The idea is for Godfrey to take part in the child's life for a few days and for it to be recorded in the diary.  So first off, as it had started snowing, Godfrey had a little ride on the kids old tractor in the snowy back garden.

He then also got to have a pretend tea party, some real rice for dinner (which he duly ate all of), watch some of 'Night at the Museum 2' and then, after Jas and Ben's bath, he got to snuggle up with Jasmine.  Sometime in the middle of the night, he also got to snuggle up with mummy, daddy, Ben AND Jasmine, as our lovely children invaded our bed!

By evening, the snow was coming down really fast, so I snapped a few photos.....I have joined the photography club at work and our theme is 'Winter', so I wasn't going to waste the opportunity!

the sky above

our lane

Then we woke up to the good news that school was closed for the day (and I got to work from home).  So as soon as we were dressed and breakfast was over, off we all piled outside.  Me, Ben, Jas and Lucie - the french student on a placement at the kids' school, who is staying with us for the month (the kids already love her by the way - she is a natural!)

We decided to knock on next door and rope in Gabriel and his spanish au pair, Lara.

Jasmine and Godfrey making snow angels

Ben's snow angel

Time to build a snowman!

teamwork....this body is getting BIG and HEAVY!

so heavy that Lara pitches in....

Jasmine looks on, drenched in snow....

now, how about that for a snowman!

french Lucie with her french snowman

we all had a laugh that the snowman is nearly as big as Lara!

but, despite all the fun, it was just too cold and snowman was abandoned for tea, cookies and central heating!