Happy 3rd Birthday Isla!

It was Isla's birthday yesterday and we were all very excited! She opened some presents in the morning. We gave her a trampoline, some books (Winnie in Space, Aliens love underpants, Peppa pig in space) and Kwazi's pad (from Octonauts). She was excited to see her granny Margaret and grandad David later in the morning and was given a doctor's set. We were all given check-ups many times. Then we decorated the sitting room with balloons and bunting and waited for Isla's friends to arrive after lunch:

At Isla's party they decorated masks and hats with feathers and sparkly stickers, jumped on the trampoline and played hide-and-seek before having some snacks and birthday cake!

Visit from Granny and Grandpa and lots of parties!

Last week my mum and dad came to visit, which was lovely! It coincided with my birthday so that made it extra special. In the morning, Isla and Evie and I took a little visit to the aquarium to have a look at the fish. It was a bit dark and very busy, but we saw some nice fish, a lobster and a big octopus. There were loads of seahorses there too.

We had a nice quiet time with my parents, making crumble at home and just playing. We have since had loads of birthday parties to attend. Almost three-year olds have hectic social calendars!

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:

Princess party

Yesterday was a very exciting day. After the toddler group Christmas party we went to a princess birthday party for one of Isla's friends. As well as tasty food, Isla was given a party bag full of princess crafts and a crown, sparkly ring, bracelets and amazing jewels.

We have some new lights in our garden. Isla was very excited today to look at the lights as they do look magical. 

Isla asked me when she will be old enough to drive a car and wondered if it is when she is four. Four year olds must seem very grown up to her. She asked me today whether dogs have teeth and also whether horses have teeth.... she is showing an early interest in dentistry! She tends to call random things her "brain". She wanted to shine a torch at my "brain" by pointing at my wrist, she meant vein I think (although these days I frequently think my brain has gone adrift!) and also told me her "brain" was coming off, when she meant the skin on her finger. Brains are indeed very important!

Today, Isla and Evie did some playing in the afternoon. Isla's preference was for Happyland, obviously. Evie's preference was.... for blowing raspberries and waving her arms about but she was given a toy crab with squeaky claws to play with. 

The crab toy tired Evie out and she snuggled up on Daddy this evening. Today Evie also had fun kicking about on the carpet a bit too close to the Happyland: the vet's surgery got knocked over by a wayward foot which annoyed Isla! Evie can spin around on the floor now and grab at things around her. She is also starting to pull her socks off and is very pleased when she grabs her toes. Another exciting skill is sticking her thumb in her ear. Amazing huh.

Swimming in the garden

Last weekend we had a nice visit to Isla's cousins and enjoyed playing with them a lot. We went and had lunch in a farm shop where there was an unusual tractor and some animals to look at:

We have been out in the garden a lot this week, when it has been nice weather. Isla kept rushing off to Jura lodge and shutting the door - she was enjoying a sneaky drink from her toy cup and a munch on some bread we had put out for the birds!

We were lucky enough to have Natalie to stay this week for a few days. It was lovely to have her visit. Isla enjoyed having someone else to make playdough shapes with and to read books with! She has also learnt lots of new letter sounds with Natalie's help. We had some rainy spells, but still managed to go into town to show Natalie the sights. We had fun at the park, saw some swans being fed (I forgot our bread whoops) and also visited the library where we found so many books that we wanted to borrow, we exceeded our limit (whoops again). We fed a very friendly goat and some lambs on the way home. We visited the local country market during Natalie's stay, and tried some unusual beetroot bread there whilst admiring the locally made chocolate and cake stalls. We went home and made a chocolate cake ourselves.

We also made some 'Oaty Shortbread' from a Rachel Allen cook book. These biscuits were very easy to make, and tasty. Isla enjoyed eating the dough as well as cutting out some biscuit shapes:

On days when it was sunny and we could go into the garden, Isla had fun keeping up the maintenance of Jura Lodge by doing a spot of painting:

.......and playing hide-and-seek with my sunhat:

..... see-sawing, marjorie-dawing:

.......wearing daisy chain crowns:

....and trying daisy chain necklaces for size, before Natalie had to go home again:

Today we had a very busy and fun-packed day. Isla and her dad zoomed off into town and came back with, amongst other things, a lazy-spa! Isla told me that they had bought me a swimming pool, and sure enough it is an Isla-sized swimming pool. After lunch, and a nice sit in the sunny garden, Isla and I went off to her friend's birthday party where she enjoyed playing in a sandpit and riding on a toy tractor as well as eating some tractor-shaped birthday cake. By the time we got home, the lazy-spa was up and running so we all had a swim in the lovely warm water. The pool's main role will be to help with our possible home-birth of Isla's little sister next month, but at the moment it is very, very exciting for Isla to have a swimming pool in the garden! 

Lots of birthdays and a little holiday

The past couple of weeks we've had lots of birthday parties to go to, including Isla's! First of all, she went to her friend C's birthday party where there was an exciting bouncy castle:

Isla visited her grandparents with the huge collection of toy cars and enjoyed a yummy chicken pie for lunch:

Isla has been doing lots of crafts and drawings at home. Here is her drawing of a space ship like Mr Spoon's:

We made some chocolate cup cakes, and Isla was in charge of decorating them and testing them:

 Some of my beautiful Valentines's day flowers and flowers and vase from friends for my birthday:

We decided to do some painting. Isla enjoyed this a lot. We used some of her paintings to cut out big numbers to put on the front of birthday cards for her friends.

We also got out the sparkly jewels to do some sticking and also got out the felt tips:

Monty disappeared into a bush so Isla went searching one afternoon:

Holiday!

We went to Centre Parcs at the weekend, which was a nice break. Here are some photos from our time there:

Isla is 2!

On Tuesday it was Isla's second birthday. She did a lot of sliding that day, and had a little party for some of her friends. Here are some photos from her birthday: