Decorating the tree and the cat

We've all had colds the past couple of weeks, but hopefully getting over them now. We've been doing lots of crafty things as well as decorating the Christmas tree on the 1st Dec!

Evie has got over her cold after a week and is back to her normal gurgly self, although she is blowing fewer raspberries now. She is getting better at sitting up supported in her rubber ring and is much more interested in toys. Her favourite thing is still watching Isla. Isla likes to cuddle Evie at any opportunity and put her finger in Evie's hand for her to grip her finger. Evie likes waving her arms about. One day she was just waving her left arm manically about, and then a few days later it was her right arm which got working and waving about! She likes pushing up with her little strong legs and standing up while being held, looking very pleased with herself. She can hold toys and things now and likes colourful patterns to look at. She shows she is happy to see you or excited about something by smiling lots and kicking her legs. She likes looking at the Christmas cards we get through the door.

There are lots of things to do to prepare for Christmas such as making presents and cards and Isla enjoys helping with everything as well as playing with Happyland and waking her sister up from naps.....! 

Isla often asks what things are made of, and knew that our chimney is made of bricks. We had a look outside to see where the chimney is for Father Christmas to come down, using a bit of magic of course. Isla has been planning what to leave out on Christmas Eve for him and his reindeer. We have been having lots of other interesting discussions. For example, Isla asked the other day about how fish drink and how dolphins drink. She is very into counting things and we often have to think how many legs various animals have. It was very quiet when Isla was poorly with her cold and sleeping in the day. She was so poorly that she didn't want to eat her chocolate from the Christmas advent calendar train. I had a little time on my hands to crochet Isla a snuggly hat and also a little hat for a friend's baby.

Isla and all of her friends were in the pre-school nativity play this morning. It was lovely. All of the children walked in past the audience of grown ups. Mary and Joseph walked in first while we sang 'Little Donkey' as they pushed a little donkey/dog toy along. Then we all sang 'Silent Night' as the angels and shepherds walked in. Isla was wearing her colourful tutu skirt and a sparkly gold tinsel crown whilst she held hands with another little girl as they walked in and sat at the front of the stage. We all sang some more songs including 'We Three Kings', 'Away in a Manger' and 'We Wish you a Merry Christmas'. The children looked so cute and no-one cried! The first of many nativity plays.

Here is what else we have been up to:

One of Isla's drawings:

Isla doing some gluing with some paper pieces we've cut out:

Showing Pob her artwork:

Meeting a new robot friend:

Playing with Daddy's old toys at Grandad and Granny's house:

Evie having a cuddle:

Putting up the tree and decorating it!!

A meal out together. Isla got to feed Peggy the dog a biscuit in the pub.

Exciting post!

Making a house and a dinosaur out of Duplo. We've also had to make lots of postman pat houses with chimneys on. Everything is about chimneys at the moment!

Isla's drawing of a crocodile:

Evie modelling a little hat for our friend's newborn baby:

Isla modelling her new Hello Kitty hat:

Making a space rocket:

Doing some cutting and sticking:

Isla's first nativity play at pre-school this morning:

Snails and sunshine

We decided to make some more play dough as Isla is getting through it very quickly. We made some yellow play dough out of salt, flour, oil, water, cream of tartar and food colouring. It is easier to make wiggly worms using home made play dough than the bought stuff! 

Isla finished off painting her castle using the 'two-handed paintbrush' technique. We painted a blue bus on the side at her request:

It has been sunny this week! We've been out in the garden a lot:

Isla wearing a new sunhat that I made for her and just need to trim the coloured ends:

We got our baby-carrying wraps out to figure out how to actually use them! Isla liked using a scarf- wrap to carry puppy around:

 We went to a racing circuit to  have a wander around a car boot sale. The highlight was having our first outdoor ice-creams of the year:

Isla has finished off the week with a bit of a cold and telling us about her teeth bothering her at the back of her mouth. Despite this, we had a lovely day yesterday with a friend to visit in the morning and a visit to another friend in the afternoon! In the morning, the two little girls were shrieking and chasing each other around the garden, then in the afternoon Isla was trying out her friend's amazing outdoor trampoline ("jumpaline" in Isla-speak) and ride-on tractor. We saw our first butterfly of the year fluttering about, along with some bumble bees. Isla found some hazelnuts in our friend's garden. At pre-school, she helped sort out the nappies and was apparently amazed by watching a little boy having his nappy changed! She also watched them all sing a song about pirates, and ate one of the cakes that they had baked during the morning there. She helps water our seedlings at home and was excited when her runner beans germinated. She's also got up to lots of mischief, of course! Cat biscuits in the sink and huge amounts of water on the sitting room rug, as well as putting the plant support sticks into different pots amongst other things. She likes finding snail shells (she calls them sea shells) in the garden. She found a snail with a hole in his shell and told me that he was looking out his window! She found another snail that was a bit poorly and wanted her daddy to fix it....

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

On Friday, Isla and I went to The Mall to have a shopping trip. It was Isla's first look at proper Christmas trees, lights and decorations. She was very impressed and actually said 'wow' when we saw a tree with flashing lights! We bought an owl decoration for our tree and also bought a couple of winter dresses. The shops got very busy and by lunchtime, when we left, the car park was full.

On Saturday night, we watched fireworks from our upstairs windows. They were really impressive ones of all colours. Isla said 'biiiiig bang' a lot, but enjoyed looking at the fireworks. She thought we were going to watch a fire engine though, as she said 'naa noo' as we went upstairs to our viewing point!

Today it snowed!!! Proper big flakes that settled and meant we needed wellies, gloves and hats outside. Isla was a bit unsure of the snow and didn't want to walk in it. She had a little go on the sledge though, and enjoyed that a lot. We enjoyed going for a drive through the snow and looking at all the trees, fields and houses covered in white. Feel very Christmassy now, and it is November now so not long to go. I may even look out the Christmas music soon.

The windows covered in snow