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.

Funny faces and tiny feet

We had a return to summery weather for some of this week, British summery weather, that is, rather than the Mediterranean summery weather of July! Andrew took the opportunity to take Isla to the park quite a bit, which she really enjoyed. Especially going on the swings. If we had a suitable branch in our garden, I think we'd definitely put up a swing however now the tree behind our house has finally been cut back properly, we don't have any big branches to swing from anymore. So trips to the park instead!

Here are Evie's tiny baby feet:

Evie is looking around a lot more in the last couple of days, so Andrew thought that she'd appreciate a few more things to look at so setup the play mat for her. She is also getting a bit stronger at holding her head up and so we've started her fitness regime of tummy time on the play mat - she doesn't really enjoy this much yet and makes lots of grunting sounds at us. She enjoys grunting quite a lot, especially during the night.

Our garden centre/park visit was great, except for the huge number of wasps following us about and landing on us. They didn't bother Isla at all, as she was enjoying riding the tractors so much. Evie was kept covered up inside her pram with a sunshield as a good wasp deterrent. Isla also went on the swing of course. She went so high on the swing that it caused a granny pushing her grandchild at the next swing to look quite amazed. I think her grandchild was jealous at not going so high.

A new sandpit had sprung up at the garden centre, and Isla could probably have stayed there most of the morning playing. However, we were caught out by the good weather and forgotten the sun cream and summery clothes so had to move inside for a bit. The sandpit was almost as good as being at the beach though.

Isla's second trip to the park that same day was also very good, and was my first proper trip out into the village since having Evie. It was lovely to bump into friends in the village and introduce them to the new baby. Isla enjoyed the zip wire with her dad, as well as the swings again! Now if we had room for a zip wire in our garden, that would be really good!

At dinner time, Evie decided that she had to be held at all times, while Isla showed me some of her funny faces!

This morning, Isla helped her dad with the supermarket shop while Evie tried out her chair for a different view of the world. She had quite an active morning with not much sleeping, unusually for her, although she drifted off after lunch when Isla and Andrew went for a bike ride to......... the park!