A Quiet Sunday

Mark is away on an extended business trip at the moment, so it is just me and the Podlings for over a  fortnight. I don't drive, so we are making our own entertainment at home at the weekends until he returns. We had a lovely day today and I thought Mark might enjoy seeing what we got up to. I like to think he misses us as much as we miss him!

We started the day off  in the kitchen. The girls and I made rock cakes together whilst Tom amused himself elsewhere. After lunch, we took advantage of the dry day to take a pleasant walk in the sunshine. We didn't go far as I sprained my ankle last week (and bruised my other foot a few days later), so I'm still not up to anything strenuous. We took an amble through the fields behind the house and finished up with drinks and a snack in the park. We were out for about two hours in the end. They played in the park for a while and then we came home and played with plasticine until teatime. There was much bouncing on the trampoline and playing in the garden in between whiles and we finished the day off as all days should be finished off, by reading books together at bedtime. It was, in short, an absolutely lovely day where nothing special happened, but it happened to be special all the same.

“I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens, but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.” 
- Anne, L.M Montgomery (One of my favourite quotes) 

The girls love helping out in the kitchen 

Now that Lily is six, I want to start trying to teach her some proper baking methods, rather than simply slapping everything together just for fun. Today she learnt the rubbing in method and I have to say she did brilliantly. In fact, other than weighing out the ingredients, I had minimal input in the process and she did really well just following my instructions. Emma did a really good job spooning the mixture onto the baking trays and beating the egg is her own particular delight. In a few years I shall be dispatching these two to the kitchen to whip up baked goods for the whole family!

Where was Tom while we were baking? In the conservatory on his DS of course! 

A walk in the sunshine, a somewhat rare commodity this summer. 

Brotherly love 

I love Tom's amusement at Lily's grumpy face in this picture. I feel it illustrates the challenges involved in getting decent pictures of all three children at once! 

In case you'd forgotten what it looks like, some blue sky, white clouds and sunshine. It is raining again this evening, but at least we had a lovely day. 

Never underestimate the fun that can be had with plasticine and a few pipe cleaners! 

 

Emma found it easier to manipulate the plasticine than I expected. Usually they get on better with play dough at this age.

.Tom making baby Wu-bats. I have to confess to being unclear what a Wu-bat is, but Tom informs me it is a type of Pokemon. He particularly wanted to make these and it was really for him that I bought the plasticine and pipe cleaners so he could do it. The girls had plenty of fun making spiders, snails and little girls (with some help from me...plasticine is fun for all ages after all!)

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