Iris & The Strong Lady

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For Iris' birthday last year - when she was three - we went to the fabulous Just So family arts festival. 

We made fox costumes and Tom's parents and my sister Charlotte and niece Amelia came for a day to celebrate Iris' birthday and it was So Much Fun. 

At the festival it was super muddy because it really rained the first day we got there, but there was a really good spirit. We went to see the amazing Biscuithead and the Biscuit Badgers - check out their song David Attenborough below - it's SO good. When they sang "David" half the crowd had to stick their arms in the air and when they sang "Attenborough" the other half had to do it. It was brilliant and they are worth checking out. They also have songs about soy milk and one about cheese and another one about a weird uncle! Also one that is just Shut Up! a lot :D


Around the field where the stage was, various acts were going on; acrobatics and dance and circus type things. We got drawn to a crowd who were watching the Strong Lady....she was ripping a book in half and ended her performance with a very impressive human carousel where she twirled two grown men around on her shoulders. Iris pushed her way to the front and was transfixed. 

We could not get Iris' attention, even when family arrived. Ever since, even though, really, she is quite little and often doesn't remember things from just a few weeks ago, but ever since, she has talked about the strong lady and how she is strong and wants to be like the strong lady. As you can see, she does a mean strong lady pose. 

And then one time when Iris had been talking about her, near the beginning of Covid, I thought I'd just email the Strong Lady to say "Thank you - I wanted you to know how much you've inspired our little girl" type of thing. I saw on facebook that she'd been sharing some children's stories. Then later, as it became apparent we were going to be largely reliant on the virtual for Iris' birthday, I contacted her to see if she would be prepared to do that for Iris. And she said yes - hurrah! So here is the Strong Lady reading Blueberry Girl to Iris and then them making up a story together. It's about ten minutes long. We hope you and your kids enjoy it as much as we did! And if anyone else wants to Zoom to read a story to Iris or to make up a story with us we'd love that too...just let us know. 






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