Feeding some swans

At the weekend, we visited Slimbridge where Isla enjoyed feeding the swans and geese. They were very brave to hand feed the swans as they are huge and have big beaks!

After leaving the wetlands centre, we stopped in Slimbridge village itself and had some refreshments beside the canal. We watched a bridge turn to let canal boats through, and Andrew and Isla went up to the water's edge to look at the boats going past. Isla shouted out "Mummy that boat's called Sea Wolf" which the boat owner heard and waved at us.

We visited Dyrham park for a little walk around the tractor lodge, where Isla took turns with other tractor-obsessed toddlers to stand in the back and also sit in the front seat of the blue tractor there. We walked back up the hill to the car park, unusually not seeing even one deer during our whole trip. Deer seem to be one of Isla's favourite animals as she sometimes talks about them or asks for them to be included in songs we make up.

A very cheesy grin:

Part of our courgette harvest:

On Sunday we marked Andrew's last day of paternity leave by visiting the local ice cream parlour and gorging ourselves with delicious ice cream and doing lots of tractor riding.

Today, Isla and Evie survived their first day in sole charge of their mummy. Isla helped a lot by letting me know when Evie was wanting a cuddle, which she needed most of the morning as she seemed to have a sore tummy. Isla also helped change a humungous nappy explosion which took out an entire outfit and also read a book to her sister and gave her some nice cuddles and kisses. She was very patient and we read lots of stories together when Evie was particularly hungry. Isla also enjoyed playing with the new baby cards we have been sent by making them into little houses and stables for her horses and dog toys. We ventured out to the local post office, an epic journey which took great planning. Evie was cooed over several times on our way around the village and it was nice to see some familiar faces. When we got back, we had lunch, did some jigsaws and then made some fairy cakes. Isla wanted us to use pink icing like the cupcakes that her Uncle Peter had brought her the other week. She really enjoyed putting the icing and the sprinkles on the cakes, as well as eating them! Other recipes we will try in the next week are banana loaf from the Jo Wheatley baking book, and a courgette loaf from a Mary Berry baking book.