Cake on Sunday

Started with some more Barbie Horse Ed. F was cantering Barbie along on her horse (think it was Sparkle for any aficionados out there) in the snow and decided to use the hoofprints to form letters and spell words for a bit.
She found a 'secret' trail and decided to take each horse out of the stable in turn to look at it. For each horse she talked through a conversation between them about the secret trail, adding bits of social chit-chat like this:
"I think Glitter Girl is the most beautiful in the world"
"Oh I think Crystal is the best - she is the most polite to other people!"
"Now you definitely don't know about this trail... oh I'm not going to tell you until you see it"
"Well you're not supposed to be telling me that I don't know about something - Oh! What a surprise for me!"
etc.
In short, XBox was being used, like many other toys here, for all sorts of purposes including social/imaginary acting out and other 'educational' aspects. Interesting.

In the afternoon, we went off on the bus to Brighton to Glo and Shula's cake afternoon. Double-Decker Bus Ed included looking at wave patterns in puddles on the top of bus shelters, different patterns when caused by wind or by bus engine vibrations; talking about ways that houses are built (looking at some wooden substructure); spelling out words in graffiti, etc.
Got to Glo and Shula's at exactly 3pm and it turned out to be a lovely Sunday afternoon - there were a few other adult guests but F was the only other child there. After an initial flurry of cake-eating in the kitchen, she disappeared all afternoon, playing with Jess and Joe - mainly with Jess, who fulfils F's criteria for ideal playmate, being a girl about 18 months older than her - perfect! Jess and F found some things in common - they both like their ponies and they both like to switch all the lights off and have torches or little lights to play with. It was a bit hard on Joe, as the 3-yr old sibling, having to share his sister, though. On the whole, I suspect F didn't try to include him at all, as she wouldn't have thought about it, really, so we need to work on that for future occasions. Jess also introduced F to the delights of hiding in a wardrobe. Glo and Shula and Jess and Joe seem to be really settling down together now - they're going through another transition in the next few weeks, which they know will throw a few potential reactions up, but they really do seem like quite a family now. It's a long process.
Anyway it was a lovely afternoon - F really enjoyed playing and didn't need much parental input at all. And there was vegan chocolate cake with icing and strawberries on top. There was also a flying pig (seriously a battery-operated toy one, not an attempted witticism about likelihood of vegan chocolate cake - both pig and cake were real, honest!) and another old student mate to chat with, who has improved with age! Conversation for the grown-ups covered bad management practices such as inhuman absence and sickness management systems, parenting, housing, etc.
We got the train back at 6:30ish I think, and the walk home was really bad, with F telling me she didn't like me - she was tired and crotchety and had eaten too much cake, plus of course I am horrible! All sorts of nonsense about not holding hands and stuff, but was only 10 minutes in real time terms and she was fine by the time we were home. Conversations with her dad at bedtime covered how many teeth she has and what it was like when she was born.