On Sunday

Quite by accident

I had the most wonderful two hours with Esther I can remember

We went to Leeds Castle

As we often do

William was off with Daddy on his pedal bike

Bea was in her pram

Sometimes with us but mostly with the boys

Esther and I had some very rare mummy daughter time

And it was wonderful

Magical

It really was

And I have discovered something Esther really loves

Something she is good at and really enjoys

Using her imagination

Making things up

Acting things out

She is a storyteller

I cannot think where she gets it from!!

After a morning of fairies and ballet

Esther decided to go to Leeds Castle

Dressed as a fairy princess

With her tutu, wings and Frugi coat

Tiptoeing in her Live and Luca shoes

In rainbows and stars

She walked and talked around Leeds Castle for two hours

Stopping every so often to ask for her photograph to be taken

She is definitely a blogger’s daughter!

We started our tale together

Deciding if she were the princess

Then I must be the Queen

And Bea?

The royal bear cub of course

Sleeping in the royal pram

Once our parts were decided

We started to walk through the royal gardens

Checking all the royal birds

The ducks and the moor hens

The geese and the swans

We decided that the white swans were good swans

And that all of the black swans were bad

We decided that the geese were Guard Geese

Some sleeping in the day and protecting the castle at night

Others on parade during the day and doing their duty at night

We talked about how she was the white princess

The good princess

And how there was another

A black princess

Leader of the black swans

A princess who was bad

As we crossed the bridges

We were careful not to wake the trolls

We called out to others who passed us

Ssssh! Don’t wake the trolls!

We tiptoed cautiously

Quietly

Through the gardens

Heading for the playground

Beyond the castle walls

All the time we were talking

About how the trolls live in the water

Wading about in the shallows

How they follow the orders of the black princess

And turn into rocks when they do not want to be seen

We warned William about the trolls

And how they like to eat little boys

Little boys with pedal bikes make a tasty treat for trolls!

As we walked our story became more and more detailed

Prompted and inspired from what we saw around us

The trolls chased us many times

We always got away

We found their lair

Below the castle walls

They had smashed some of the bricks away

And tunneled beneath the ground

We found some old locked wooden doors

And we took a peek inside

One door led to Esther’s garden

Filled with flowers all colours of the rainbow

Populated with butterflies

Named Rainbow and Petal and Spike!!

The other door led to the garden of the black princess

Filled only with rocks and stones

After a play in the play area

One of the doors was open

Just a chink

The door to the garden of the black princess

We did not dare to look through

In case her servants

The trolls

Had escaped!

We made haste toward the castle

To find safety within the ancient walls

There we met the Dinosaur Keeper

And his garden of dinosaurs!

The white princess wanted to show me round the castle

But we decided that would have to keep until another time

She told her staff that she would be back next week

For Fairy Tale Week

To go inside the castle and have a look around

Her staff spoke to her very kindly

And hoped that she would be wearing her magical tutu again

For two hours we walked and talked

A fairy tale we told

Loosely based on Frozen and the story of Swan Lake

I learned what a wonderfully beautiful creative daughter I have

I cannot wait to have some special time with her again

I cannot wait for the next chapter of our story to unfold