Another crazy busy week full of picnics, beaches, playgrounds, trying to catch up with a few people, doing a bit of work, baking and playing. We love heading out for picnic dinners in the summer, having playgrounds, beaches and parks to ourselves when the sun's still shining, but everyone else has gone home for bath and bed. One of our favourite parks has a great children's playground, a big lake with plenty of bird life, and lots of dogs being walked. We had a lovely late afternoon/evening there earlier this week.
Last weekend, the girls' godmother Auntie Kim came round to play and catch up. She also attempted to teach Sophia and Tatiana to plait her hair, they didn't do too bad a job!
Tuesday was a rainy, cold day, so we did lots of baking. Sophia rustled up this chocolate cake ...
... whilst Lara made some chocolate chip cookies.
We spent ages playing with their electronic globe, with lots of who lives where, what animals live there, what's the weather like, what do they eat, etc questions. Lara is still reluctant to record her findings, but I figure what's the point of forcing the issue. Part of our issue with the education system is an over-emphasis on records, evidence, grading, correction, comparison etc etc, so why expect recording at home. Unless they want to do it themselves, what's the point?
Sophia and Tatiana's travel theme was trains, so they put lots of cuddlies on a train down the kitchen and cut out lots of tickets for them. The game absorbed them for ages.
By Wednesday it was dry again so we headed up to the Downs to a farm which grows and harvests lavender. It was very beautiful, and absolutely buzzing with bees of various varieties (we counted six), butterflies and other insects. It smelled amazing, of course, and listening to the bees buzzing around was just lovely. Lots of photos!!
On Thursday, a walk in the park produced a host of found treasures. Every walk takes twice as long as you might expect, and we always come back with a stash of feathers, stones, shells, driftwood, fossils, sheep's wool etc. This time round we found a pure white egg with a surprisingly thick, robust shell. A quick bit of research when we got home revealed it to be a collared dove egg. The girls were very pleased with their find, and it inspired a whole load of bird egg research, and a spate of nature documentaries (you've got to see the Natural World otters programme on iPlayer if you missed it, SO cute!)
We had a bit of a chilled day yesterday, learning some more yoga, painting, watching some arty documentaries (Turner, Hokusai), and making a kitty party for Poppy and Jess's birthday. For some reason we were all a bit tired, so ended up having early nights. Here's Tatia crashed out on the sofa, and Misha nagging me to go to bed!!!
The birthday girls enjoyed their party and their human sisters loved the chance to get dressed up. Here's Lara in her party dress.
Tatiana seems to have been wearing her pink tutu at some point every day for at least a week now, as you can see from the beach this morning!
The weather is a bit strange today, bright one minute and dark and ominous the next. We've been to the beach, played outside, the girls made their own pizzas for lunch, and this afternoon played outside some more then continued an on-going Barbie/Sindy doll game that has been going on for a few days. Hope it brightens up again outside tomorrow!
See you next week. Lx
Last weekend, the girls' godmother Auntie Kim came round to play and catch up. She also attempted to teach Sophia and Tatiana to plait her hair, they didn't do too bad a job!
Tuesday was a rainy, cold day, so we did lots of baking. Sophia rustled up this chocolate cake ...
... whilst Lara made some chocolate chip cookies.
We spent ages playing with their electronic globe, with lots of who lives where, what animals live there, what's the weather like, what do they eat, etc questions. Lara is still reluctant to record her findings, but I figure what's the point of forcing the issue. Part of our issue with the education system is an over-emphasis on records, evidence, grading, correction, comparison etc etc, so why expect recording at home. Unless they want to do it themselves, what's the point?
Sophia and Tatiana's travel theme was trains, so they put lots of cuddlies on a train down the kitchen and cut out lots of tickets for them. The game absorbed them for ages.
By Wednesday it was dry again so we headed up to the Downs to a farm which grows and harvests lavender. It was very beautiful, and absolutely buzzing with bees of various varieties (we counted six), butterflies and other insects. It smelled amazing, of course, and listening to the bees buzzing around was just lovely. Lots of photos!!
On Thursday, a walk in the park produced a host of found treasures. Every walk takes twice as long as you might expect, and we always come back with a stash of feathers, stones, shells, driftwood, fossils, sheep's wool etc. This time round we found a pure white egg with a surprisingly thick, robust shell. A quick bit of research when we got home revealed it to be a collared dove egg. The girls were very pleased with their find, and it inspired a whole load of bird egg research, and a spate of nature documentaries (you've got to see the Natural World otters programme on iPlayer if you missed it, SO cute!)
We had a bit of a chilled day yesterday, learning some more yoga, painting, watching some arty documentaries (Turner, Hokusai), and making a kitty party for Poppy and Jess's birthday. For some reason we were all a bit tired, so ended up having early nights. Here's Tatia crashed out on the sofa, and Misha nagging me to go to bed!!!
The birthday girls enjoyed their party and their human sisters loved the chance to get dressed up. Here's Lara in her party dress.
Tatiana seems to have been wearing her pink tutu at some point every day for at least a week now, as you can see from the beach this morning!
See you next week. Lx