Gingerbread owls and men

It's been so rainy this week! Good for puddles though. 

On Tuesday we went to Daddy's work and had lunch with him and all his colleagues. On the way in the car Isla kept saying 'see Daddy' and she was very excited to see him when he finished his morning's work! We had a wander around town afterwards and bought some cookie cutters for use later that day.......when we decided to make some gingerbread men (and owls). I used this gingerbread recipe  but with the addition of an egg  to make the dough stick together a bit. Also didn't put in stem ginger or cayenne pepper (!) and the men and owls were yummy. We also bought a couple of christmassy cookie cutter shapes so will be doing some more biscuity type things for Christmas time! Exciting!!

Isla pondering her aquadoodle drawing

Getting a bit close to the camera!

Isla rolling out some gingerbread dough

Making gingerbread men and owls with our new cutters

Our finished creations! We were too hungry to decorate them.

On Wednesday we all enjoyed making some music and going for a walk to check out the puddles. We had delicious lamb shanks for dinner from our old 'Casa Mexicana' recipe. Today is Thursday and Isla is napping after a morning at toddler group. Our local pre-school were doing activities with us today: we made some jam tarts, did some songs and listened to a story. I suggested that we sing Old MacDonald and Isla piped up that there should be a cow on the farm. So we sang about it. Isla also cooked me a plastic green pepper.

Isla's band

A puddle!

A HUGE puddle

Monty at the park and cousins for lunch

Thursday

On Thursday, we went to a toddler gym session in Bath where we met up with some friends and had a nice time despite getting a bit lost on the way. Isla liked walking across a big red bouncy piece of equipment and also pretending to be a sausage and rolling down a slope. 

In the afternoon we got the felt tip pens out and drew some of the animals that we had seen at the zoo. Isla enjoyed taking the lids of the pens and replacing them again. She could tell me quite a few of the pen colours. We also used our ink stamps and rolling stamp.

After Isla's nap we went to the little park near us for a walk and a play on the see-saw. Monty followed us there and was almost tempted to try the slide until he got spooked by someone walking by. We found some nice pine cones at the park.

Friday

On Friday, we had a great time with Harry, Archie and Lucy. Everyone was very excited to see the bin lorry drive down our street, especially when it stopped outside our front door and the driver waved at us! Here is a photo of us all having some food:

In the afternoon, Isla and I ventured out into the fog for a walk to the little shop to buy some stickers. I almost demolished the display in the shop by accident so might leave it a while before we go back there. We bought two sets of stickers to make up for it.

Isla's sticker picture with particularly fetching cat stickers

The Weekend

This weekend has been nice and sunny. We went for a bike ride and also did some painting with a magic water painting book.

Stuck in the mud! 

A very steep hill on the way home.

Isla painting in her magic water book

The finished picture!

This week we had a few nice meals and a few rubbish ones. We rediscovered homemade lasagne again, which Isla also enjoyed. I had my first toddler's group committee meeting and have typed up the minutes. Isla has been saying loads of new words. For example, she said 'kitchen', 'torch' and 'ladder' which I had never heard her say before. She is also good at saying sentences so it is easier to understand what she wants. She said 'Mummy through play' or similar yesterday after lunch which was really nice to know that she wanted me to go and play with her in the sitting room. She tells us 'dark' when it is getting dark outside and often asks where Pob (no longer pop pop) and Monty are. She kept waking up the other night saying Pob so perhaps was dreaming about him! She says 'cuggle daddy' and 'cuggle mummy' a lot at the moment, so we are all getting lots of cuddles!

Birthday treats

Hello! This is a bumper post of our trip to Essex. We had a terrific time.

Birthday presents and enjoying the beautiful North Essex countryside

Oh and LOTS of delicious birthday food!

Colchester Zoo

We had an amazing time at Colchester Zoo!  The chimps and orang-utans were fascinating to look at, and it was great to see ostriches, white rhino, zebra and kudu all together in a massive enclosure. Just like being on safari. Andrew made friends with a Francois Langur who kept coming over and whacking the glass whenever Andrew went near to it. We took a 'Choo Choo Train' to Madagascar and walked through very close to ring-tailed lemurs. They jumped across the enclosure between us, brushing Andrew and Isla with their tails on a couple of occasions! Isla loved the train, so we ended up going on it twice. 

The highlight for us all was hand-feeding giraffes and elephants. The giraffes were very gentle, even when Isla was teasing them and not handing over her leaves - Andrew got a lick from a giraffe on his hand when it was trying to get hold of Isla's leaves. The elephant was also very gentle and sucked the pieces of cabbage and carrot from our hands with his trunk. We all got snotty hands! 

Andrew's friend Francois

On the 'choo choo train'

The ring-tailed lemurs having a nap on our first visit to Madagascar

Doing a quick check-up

Breakfast with 'Raa Raa' and fun at the playing fields