Evie mischief, a woodland adventure and decorating the tree

I've been doing quite a bit of chocolate brownie baking to test out a recipe or two.

Evie has been enjoying her first hairstyle, and wearing lots of jewellery. These days she is seldom seen without her little wooden watch on her wrist.

She's also been building a few structures, which tend to be 'moo moos' if you ask her.

And generally being a superstar, putting a smile on everyone's face!

It's brilliant when we get Isla from school as we hear all about her day. And Evie gets to dress up as a school girl.

Isla went to a friend's birthday party at Woodland Adventurers and really enjoyed it. She got to build a den, play bulldog, feed a sheep, hold a chicken and toast marshmallows. A brilliant birthday party.

We put our Christmas tree up at the weekend! Evie and Isla could put all of the decorations on themselves. Now the tree is up, every now and then while Evie is playing she'll look up and point at it and remind me it's there. She is looking forward to meeting Father Christmas this weekend.

Isla has been poorly and missed some school. By Monday afternoon she was looking more like herself and was looking forward to being at school the next day, especially as it was 1st December plus it is 'dip dab' day too!!!

Halloween with a little bit of Christmas

We've had a fair bit going on over the last few weeks. For Halloween, we made some spooky biscuits with the Mary berry gingerbread man recipe:

Isla and Evie enjoyed dressing up and having their faces painted as a butterfly and a zebra pirate astronaut combination on board their ship!

We got out for a few walks in the splashy puddles while it was the holidays.

We went to a friend's house for a Halloween party with Isla as a vampire witch and Evie as a tiger. They made spells and ate lovely food, as well as playing 'pin the tail on the cat'. When it got dark, the glow sticks came out. Isla loved hers so much that she went to sleep with them! There was great excitement with the trick-or-treaters coming to the house.

We went to Puxton Park in Somerset for a sunny Sunday with our friends. There was a jumping pillow, sandpit and spooky train as well as animals to look at. Isla and Evie went on a fairground ride together.

Isla reading her words and Evie checking out Isla's school book. We were all very very excited that Isla has been given some books with words in from school.

Isla and Evie made crowns in our cubicle at the hospital:

After Isla woke up from her anaesthetic she was very very hungry and ate two bits of toast, two packets of quavers and a pot of ice cream. Evie liked opening and shutting our curtains.

Isla and Evie playing in their tent with the minion balloon:

Doing some play dough:

Doing some gluing crafts:

We went to the park and Isla did the zip wire by herself, even jumping on which was brilliant. We went to softplay in Swindon called 'Bonkers' which they both enjoyed. Isla found a kind of zip wire there and Evie played on the seesaw and latch board when she wasn't being whacked by random children.

Evie has been to music group again this week and is starting to get more used to the other people there. She liked trying to figure out the actions to the songs with her fingers which was delightful to watch. 

Isla's school commemorated armistice day. Isla said that: "they walked down to a stone where they had to think about soldiers and be very quiet and I think I saw the queen there".

Today we had a little visit to the garden centre where Christmas has arrived. The lights were amazing. We saw reindeer, donkeys and goats. Isla told us about the nativity scene and Evie loved driving a tractor and looking at the lights and moving animals.

Isla was awarded a certificate in assembly on Friday for her brilliant writing! She really enjoys learning the 'whoosh ins' and 'whoosh outs' for each letter for writing joined up.