Mud mud mud

This morning we went out for a long walk across muddy fields, along paths and through the woods. It was good fun but started off very very cold on the exposed path. We found some geocaches on the way, mostly large boxes but one was a tiny hiding place in a stick! 

Isla has had a brilliant week at school. Everyone was excited on Friday morning as they could bring a toy in to play with and were keen to see what each other had brought. Isla was going to take her superhero cape in but it was a little large to store in her drawer. Instead she took in her Dobble game and had fun teaching her friends how to play. She has been using apparatus in gymnastics this week, and been learning the sounds 'ear' as in 'beard' and 'air' as in 'hair'. 

We have been reading 'The BFG' at bedtime. In the story, the BFG tells Sophie about what people from different places taste like to the other giants. Isla found it hilarious that the people from Wellington tasted of boots. Actually she didn't believe me that there is an actual place called Wellington, just like the welly boot.

Evie and I took an exciting trip to Bath this week on the bus. She also played with some star ice cubes and did the hoovering for me too. She likes to play pet shops and vets at home.

Looking for fairies

Another week goes by! Isla and Evie have been doing all their normal stuff this week, with some added extras. Isla went out to tea a couple of times after school with her friends D and M and had tea with us a few times too!

Evie enjoyed music group much more this week, especially walking there through frozen puddles. Although she has been refusing to wear any gloves that are not pink, and only drinking from blue cups! She played with her friends H, E, A and E this week and we had our first trip to toddler group in ages, as well as swimming and a visit to the library in torrential rain.

This weekend has been really mild so we went to the river for a muddy walk. Evie loved throwing big sticks in the water and Isla loved everything about our adventure! My favourite bit was spotting some deer in the distance however I also nearly fell in the river.

I got my oboe out for the first time in ages and Isla said "how do you switch it on?" so this has prompted me to teach her more about musical instruments. She had a little piano lesson with me today where we took the piano apart and looked at what happens when you press a key. She has also learnt notes A and E and played a few tunes with them. She knows about crochets and minims, and how to clap a rhythm out using them.

Isla has also been asking lots about how our bodies work, such as "why do we have lips?" and "how do we get our eyes?" which are all good questions!

Today we went to Claverton Down for a brilliant woodland adventure. It is part of the National Trust Bath skyline walk called a family trail. We played at the woodland play area and then looked for fairy houses in the trees. There was also time for some geocaching and lunch out.

Is a waffle a cuboid or a rectangular prism?

That question took me by surprise at dinnertime after Isla had been learning about 3-D shapes at school. She has been learning a lot about bears, and also the sounds 'igh', 'ee' and 'oa' as well as taking cuddly toys in to show each other. This term she has started to really love P.E. and gymnastics lessons, so Tuesdays are no longer dreaded. They used mini hockey sticks this week to hit balls around with.

While Isla was learning about such tricky things, Evie and I had made some blue play dough. Blue is still Evie's favourite colour and most things, if she has a choice about them, need to be blue.

Evie and I have started doing swimming lessons together and are really enjoying it. She has also been joining in at rhyme time at the library and learning things at music group. She's been enjoying playing with her friend Holly sometimes too.

Monty got stuck into Evie's beef pie when she had decided not to eat it one evening. This of course meant that she really really did want to eat more of it and so we had to dish up more and she ate lots. So I think that getting the cat to eat the dinner first is definitely the way forward. Monty protected us from a labrador this week by scaring it away from our house! He is a very brave cat!

Isla and Evie have enjoyed playing trains and paw patrol together and making things with stickers. They've also been playing with their Lego spooky house with a glowing ghost.

We made some cloud dough using 4 cups of flour and half a cup of vegetable oil. It is very smooth and forms shapes a bit like sand but also feels like snow too. It kept Evie entertained for a while, and I enjoyed playing with it too. Isla and Evie played with it for ages after school before dinnertime.

We made a helicopter and a plane with duplo.

Yesterday we looked at the International Space Station at 7.27 as it flew overhead. It was very exciting and Isla told her teacher about it. It looked about as bright as the brightest star in the sky and was moving fairly quickly. We've been looking out for the moon most days as we can normally see it on clear days on the walk to and from school. On Friday, it was very cold and frosty for the first time  and the puddles and pond were thick with ice.

Evie and Pob playing with the marbles:

We got the easel out and Evie requested lots of blue paint.

We made viennese fingers using a Jo Wheatley recipe which actually taste like the ones from the bakery. I also made a chocolate traybake using Mary Berry's recipe and it was delicious! Evie helped on that one by cleaning the spatula with her tongue. I've been making quite a lot of tarts recently to use my new baking beans. The best one has been a lemon tart using a recipe by Gregg Wallace on the BBC good food website.

Today we had a very exciting trip to Hobbycraft where I bought lots of wool and beads for making some stuff. Then Evie and Isla had some adventures together in the garden and played houses and doctors at home.