We are having a wonderful time in the Maldives, where the sun continues to shine despite a poor forecast and where Christmas is becoming ever more apparent. Angelina is flying around the island on her bike and fearlessly trying a variety of water sports including scuba diving and paragliding. Ava is thoroughly enjoying kids club, especially the arts and crafts and baking. She is also keeping up wi....
We have finally made it to the Maldives, having decided to treat ourselves to a long overdue break. None of us slept on the 14 hour journey, but it's hard not to relax now we are here. Our island is incredibly quiet (although I'm sure that will all change by the weekend with the influx for Christmas) and we are surrounded by white sand and turquoise ocean. Despite the weather forecast lo....
Our last few weeks of term have been crazy, with 2 school concerts, 2 trips to the theatre, 2 early Christmas lunches and several house guests. One of Ava's highlights was a class activity making gingerbread houses, thanks to Julie, mum of her lovely friend Ruby. We have ended the term on a very positive note and Ava has been extremely happy with her temporary teaching assistant, Miss Charlot....
At Archangel we are grateful to have such loyal followers and are always very touched by any fundraising efforts. However when we heard from Eloise Burkey, we were literally left speechless! Eloise is Angelina's best friend and her family have been amongst our most ardent and generous followers from day one. Eloise is still thinking about ways to help us and so, during her school holidays, sh....
Ava had a super birthday week, with dinner at her favourite restaurant in Harvey Nichols and a fun day of 'black friday' shopping on our school inset day. She was particularly thrilled to get a pair of sparkly 'Lelli Kelly' boots, which I always say no to (on the grounds that they usually have the brand name emblazoned across them), but this year they were actually the only boo....
Happy 9th Birthday to our beautiful, special girl. Despite the challenges which life throws at you on a daily basis, you are always smiling. Despite how tough things can be for all of us with MLD in our lives, you never stop making us smile. We celebrate your existence today and every day.
Thankfully we have had a much better week this week. Ava has been very happy at school with her temporary teaching assistant, Charlotte, who is extremely calm and gentle. Because Charlotte is experienced in manual handling of children with mobility issues, she has been able to take Ava to some lessons which she has been missing out on this term because of their location. These include science and ....
This past week has been particularly challenging. Ava's school assistant injured her back, as a result of which our school, concerned for Ava's safety, decided that Ava would be best off staying at home until the TA returned. We were all most upset by this, as being in school and around her friends gives Ava a huge amount of motivation and is a vital part of her recovery. Thankfully our....
Another crazily busy couple of weeks have flown by. We had a good half term week, when it was wonderful to have Grandma Angie to stay. Ava also had a daily swimming session with Musa which she thoroughly enjoyed, in particular trying out a 'subskate' surfboard. This week Ava has been quite tired and unfortunately had a fall at school and badly bruised her chin on the ground. However, a m....