Sunday 23 April 2017

The rest of the Easter weekend was lovely.  The kids loved their chocolate.  Betsy put a chick in her Easter egg, so cute!




We pootled about at home, it was lovely not to have anything in particular to do.  

Rob found some water snail eggs.  I had no idea this is what they look like.



Erin was over for much of the day, so there was Roblox happening.



We had a visit from Sarah-Jane and her mum, and everyone had a cuddle.  She's the loveliest little baby!






I worked on the bank holiday Monday, but not until the afternoon.  We used the morning to plant the potatoes at the allotment.



We're planting under cardboard and woodchips again, as it was very successful last year.  

Everything is looking great - apple blossom, cherry blossom, strawberry flowers.  Hoping it all turns to fruit!




While Betsy was happy to help, the other two got bored.  I suggested they explore the stream and the footpath on the other side.  They did for a while, then sat in the car listening to the radio and laughing at funny things they were doing.

Betsy with the woodchip covered potato bed.



Tuesday was a quiet one, lots of gaming.  I spent a long time putting together our Iceland information, applying for European Health cards, rejigging the budget, printing out accommodation details etc.  I was able to get our boarding passes for the flights already too.


The girls made up a murder mystery game with a fingerprint activity book (designed to make cute fingerprint animals!).  I was pronounced innocent, thank goodness.



They played a couple of rounds of Doggie Doo.

Wednesday was back to swimming lessons and parkour.  Except when we got up and out the door at 8.45am (so early for us!) the car had a flat tyre.  My days of changing tyres are long over, not least because you have to undo a bolt and crawl underneath the car to get the spare!

The rescue guy came later that morning, so we were able to get to parkour in the afternoon.



They used a parachute as part of the warm up.  So fun!






Happy Betsy.

Zoe and Billy came over on Thursday.  Betsy was on Popjam a lot.  She has 1.9k followers now!


A bit of post lunch movement.
 Gaming together.

Meg and I popped to the shop and saw 3 Canadian geese on the way.  They hardly ever come to our bit of canal, and we were both quite excited about it!



On Friday we went to the zoo with Jessica, Sarah-Jane and Jessica's friend Andreas (via the tyre place, which took ages).


Playground first, while Sarah-Jane had milk.  


A brilliant minibeasts tour at the butterfly house.  We dressed up as millipedes!







 The two crocodiles and one of their babies.




We went to see the elephants and rhinos.  I can't remember if I wrote this before, but an elephant has over 100,000 muscles in its trunk.  Mind blowing.



We saw the bird show again.  Love it every time.


 Beautiful flamingos.





 African hunting dogs.

The weekend - basically most of the neighbour kids have been here.  Lots of playing, inside and out.


Saturday 15 April 2017

It's been the school holidays, meaning we've seen the more of the kid's local friends, but avoided the usual places that we go to.  Too many people!

The girls started the week with their shop, selling bits and bobs.



We got the kayak out again, this time joined by our neighbour who also has one.  Fred and Betsy were able to kayak together, which they really enjoyed.




We popped round to my brother's to feed their rabbits.


Betsy watched some youtube videos about drawing, and was so happy with the eyes she drew.


On Tuesday Betsy made some videos of drawing, sped them up and put them on her channel.



We went to the cinema in the afternoon, to see Boss Baby.  It was excellent, funny and actually quite emotional.

On Wednesday the kids went to a friend's Ninja pizza birthday party.  Lots of fun, with various challenges to complete and a huge tub of Haribo sweets that I Could Not Stop Eating.


Writing their names with their feet.


Poo emoji pinata!

On Thursday we had a woodland session with Zoe and other home edders.  It was lovely.  Fred played a long and involved game with the other kids, the girls mooched about doing their own thing.






Meg spotted a camouflaged shield bug.







This low flying balloon was over our house that evening.


On Friday the girls and I went to The Works, to spend the money they'd made at their shop earlier in the week.  Meg bought herself a sweet necklace from the sweet shop, and was so so so happy with it.

I bought a couple of things.  We put the body together when we got home.  The paper aeroplane birds are gorgeous.  It's the kind of thing I like to pack when we go on holiday, for those not-sure-what-to-do-now moments.


That afternoon we watched Moana.



In the evening Rob and I went out to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary.  


On Saturday we went Iceland clothes shopping!  It's getting close now, I'm excited and nervous and excited and scared.


Decathalon is amazing value.  We bought walking boots, fleeces, trousers, jackets, hats, gloves and more for £218.

I worked Sunday as usual.  The kids had friends over.  Fred did some live streaming.



Rob brought the first rhubarb back from the allotment.  So delicious.


Monday - windscreen repair guy came (chipped windscreen), the girls made Easter cards for grandparents, Jarvis and his dad came over for the afternoon, and Betsy drew these 100% adorable pictures.


I made rhubarb flapjacks.  Yum.

Tuesday - happy cat sleeping, loads of laughter playing Roblox, waiting and waiting for the Overwatch update, gorgeous sky on the way to work in the evening.






Wednesday - we headed to Mead open Farm for their Easter event.  I knew it would be busy, but we'd managed during October half term and the Christmas holiday.  This time though, the car park was rammed, and the queue to get in was huge.  We took one look, and decided to turn around and go home!  We stopped at the supermarket and bought chocolate milkshake and Lindt bunnies.  Much better than fighting the crowds.


Thursday - hand luggage bags arrived.  Everyone is very happy with them!  Another day of playing with friends, both online and irl.


Good Friday - I worked a super early shift (5am start, ouch) but I was finished at 11am so the rest of the day was free.  We picked mum up in the afternoon and went to some woods near Rickmansworth.  It's a Woodland Trust site, and it has a family trail with fairies you can see if you have the app.  Annoyingly I couldn't get the flipping app to work, but the woods were so gorgeous that no one was bothered.
















Today we went to the zoo with Rob.  It was busy, but it's so big that it just absorbs people so doesn't feel too crowded.