We have been having a brilliant week. On Monday it was rainy (again) and so we did lots of things indoors with only a brief walk/bike ride round the block. We made some chocolate dinosaur biscuits:
And then we did some painting and chalk drawing. It was nice to use the easel as well as trying some salad spinner art. Last week on another rainy Monday, we did a 'drip art' raincloud painting which Isla though was amazing.
Tuesday turned into a warm, sunny day. We went to Dyrham Park for a toddler session. Evie and I took the bus and then looked at the crocuses and primroses. We saw many bees. Evie made a straw hedgehog picture. She mainly enjoyed playing with stones on the path and the bus ride. Then we all played in the garden in the afternoon.
Wednesday was an exciting day. Isla got through her swimming lesson, then we went out for lunch. We met granny Ilene at the station and went home for an afternoon in the garden.
On Thursday, we went to the Holburne Art Gallery in Bath. We went to an exhibition called 'Gwen John to Lucian Freud' with many different paintings from modern artists. They included Graham Sutherland, Ben Nicholson and Vanessa Bell (Virginia Woolf's sister). There were also paintings by Walter Sickert, a sketch by Lucian Freud and a painting by Gwen John and one by her brother. There was a collage by Richard Hamilton which Isla liked. There was a large painting which Evie kept pointing at and saying 'baa baa' so it was apparently of a sheep.
There was a family trail to look out for different animals in the rest of the museum. We used large magnifying glasses to look at different artefacts including coins, trinkets from different cultures and miniatures. These were housed in drawers in one of the galleries and the children loved looking at the things down low and in detail. We tried out an activity pack for children which included a kind of treasure hunt that almost outwitted us.
This morning we went out to the park first thing with a colander and two paper plates. It was a bit cloudy but gradually felt like it was getting even darker. It got quite gloomy and cold around 9.20 and so we went back home after playing on the slide and attempting to use our colander and pinhole camera paper plates to watch the eclipse. After we got home and had some snacks, the clouds went away and there was a blue sky. We used the paper plates as a pinhole camera through the window and could see the eclipse taking place - the sun had a big bite out of it. Isla saw the image on the plates. I think Isla and Evie will remember the eclipse for going to the park with a colander and for it getting spookily cold and dark.
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