Owls eat bagels

Doesn't time fly. Since my last blog, our days have been filled with Evie blowing raspberries constantly and chatting goo goo gah gahs at us, and with Isla bouncing about like a tigger.

Isla has been painting with autumn leaves, and making butterfly paintings:

 and washing up the paint pots:

We've been going for lots of autumnal walks:

and doing gluey craftiness:

Evie sometimes wears proper tops and bottoms during the day instead of just sleepsuits:

Isla chose a princess sticker after having her teeth checked at the dentists, and we had a yummy lunch out to celebrate no fillings:

Evie at tummy time:

Evie has a quick go in the door bouncer for the first time:

We made some 'snow dough' (4 cups flour mixed with 1/2 cup oil) which amused Isla for ages. It is like wet sand and was good for making castles and scooping up

Pirate Isla entertaining Evie with Jess the cat:

Isla and Andrew's den:

Evie's curl:

On Halloween, Isla and I pretended to be owls flying round the garden. Apparently owls eat bagels so we had to pretend we were catching and eating those. She enjoyed watching Spooky Buddies, a film about puppies dressing up for Halloween.

We had a mini firework display in our garden in two instalments. Isla wasn't sure about them. We moved inside to watch from the dining room with Isla on my lap. In the second instalment, Isla's face lit up when we watched the catherine wheel from the living room. We also saw our local firework display from our house, it was quite impressive with big bangs. When we go to Tumble Tots we all sit in a circle to talk about what we've been doing at the weekend at the beginning of the session. Isla explained to everyone how we had watched the fireworks 'with help from mummy to see them from inside' and how they went 'boom'. Everyone thought her description was very funny! I was very proud of her speaking out in front of the whole group. She also was brilliant at climbing a very high 'pirate ladder' and going on the rest of the equipment.

We had a trip to the park this week to go on the swings. We met a friend with lovely dogs which Isla stroked and played ball with. We saw a little boy dressed as a bat. We joined a Rugby Tots session at the pre-school. On the way home, Evie was famished and the only place to stop was the local church for a feed and an apple. Isla liked the 'echo' in the church.

We had a long-awaited trip to the library this week and chose some new books. So far we have read 'The Highway Rat' but have several more to look at. I found a 'Make with Maisy' craft book with ideas in it. Isla helped Andrew make some bread rolls and we also made some krispie marshmallow bars too! We had a visit from Isla's friend D one afternoon. The two girls played with Happyland, play dough, drawings, aqua doodle and started playing 'shopping list' in the two hours together, interspersed with checking us all (mums, toddlers, babies and snugglers) at the doctors with a stethoscope, and racing up and down the hall with the buggy!

Today it has been rainy again and Isla and Andrew went swimming together. This was VERY exciting for Isla and she was zooming around the pool with her arm bands like a little speedy duckling.

A pyjama morning

Today we had a bit of a lazy morning where Isla didn't get dressed until after lunch! We had fun at home as it was a rainy and windy day. We played at hairdressers, with Isla having her hair 'washed' and  'cut' and then 'blowdried' and also having some of her hair put up. She said that she doesn't like clips, but she does like hair bands. And she wanted an orange one today. After playing hairdressers, we made animals out of our new green play dough. We made a pig, a horse and a cow. Isla then made them some play dough pizza to eat. We also did some puzzles, drawings and shopping games. 

After lunch, we did some gardening during a brief spell of sunshine. We rescued some of our windswept plants by tying them to canes, and also hunted for any rogue snails and slugs as there were some bite marks on some of the plants. Isla reminded me to water the seedlings in our mini-greenhouse: four sunflower plants (three grown from cousin Harry's party bag seeds!) a spare tomato plant that unexpectedly germinated and a couple of nasturtium plants that Isla planted ages ago. Then we went off for a walk to the post box and to see the horse and sheep on the way. Isla climbed up the gate to get a good view of the animals, which she had seen her friend Charlie do last week. On our way back home, Isla found a wiggly worm on the pavement, picked it up and carried it with her all the way home. She said that she would have liked the blackbird in our garden to come and eat it from her hand. Instead, she put it in the soil in the garden and watched it wriggle about. She had to pick it up again though to show it to Monty and Charlie. We went inside before a really heavy rain shower soaked us.

Here are some photos of our lazy pyjama morning, with Isla showing off her new hairstyle:

Here is a video of Isla singing baa baa black sheep (a current favourite) to baa baa, whilst wearing a tutu and welly boots (baa baa is dressed as a fairy!):

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!