A ride on the bus, a tractor and a plane

We have made lots of cakes this week. We made some little chocolate fairy cakes, which Isla was not too keen on, and also a big chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream icing which Isla likes a lot.

Evie has been getting really good at her hand-eye coordination over the last few days, and she can now pick up food we put on her tray very quickly and it is going towards her mouth much more! She has been trying bits of omelette, pear, sweet potato wedges and also cheesy pasta. 

Evie gets very excited watching us drink from glasses. She started making a new sound yesterday, she repeated ba-ba-ba for ages and ages. It is a lovely sound.

We had an exciting trip on a bus this week. We took the park and ride bus into Bath. Isla thought it was great! We had a look at Bath Abbey where Isla was given a pencil and paper for drawing on. It was very cold outside so we headed home after visiting the market. 

At the supermarket Isla had a go on a tractor ride, then sat in a plane one. 

We went to a birthday party on Friday. Isla enjoyed the musical statues game and won a chocolate coin on the pass the parcel. The birthday cake was the best part though, and the party bags were brilliant.

Isla wrote her name out on the post office sign:

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.