Legoland again

In order to make full use of our annual pass, we visited the Legoland Discovery Centre in Manchester again on Saturday. All the Podlings enjoy it here, but particularly Tom. It is pretty much little boy heaven! Once again he spent most of his time in the large Lego pool. The first part of his visit is usually spent with him happily building a little city and the second half usually consists of him anxiously watching the other children in case anyone tries to take it apart. We managed to tempt him away this time to try racing Lego cars, so we ended on a good note. Emma had a great time bombing around the place and sitting in the Lego pool happily throwing bricks into its centre. Lily always spends most of her time in the soft play area, but she did have a go at building some Lego this time. It's always a fun day out for the Podlings here.
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Lily actually playing with the Lego.

Tom loved this little house which he found ready built in the Lego pool. He asked me to take a photo of it so we could replicate it at home.

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A day at the races.

Mark and the Podlings racing Lego horses. Thankfully Lily won...she doesn't lose gracefully!

'Phew, having fun is exhausting!'

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The pen is mightier than the soap!

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Apparently, six and a half is not too old for misadventure with pens.

Unfortunately, monkey see, monkey do....!

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Emma the tattooed baby!.

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In other news...

...Emma has learned to climb onto the lounge windowsill!

Could she look any more pleased with herself!
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Firsts

First barbecue of the year - Sunday 6th March

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First picnic of the year (albeit in the garden) - Monday 7th March

We are grateful for some sunshine and the promise of warmer weather to come.

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The Bad-Tempered Ladybird

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To celebrate World Book Day, Tom and Lily's school encouraged the children to come to school today dressed as a character from a story. Tom wanted to be the Bad-Tempered Ladybird from Eric Carle's story of the same name. Thanks to the short notice, this necessitated some quick costume-making for Mummy!

I popped into a charity shop yesterday morning to buy something red to turn into a costume and found a velvet long-sleeved top for a 14 year old. Last night, I cut the sleeves off and sacrificed a good pair of tights to make sleeves and the 'spare' legs. I sewed the sleeves together and attached them to the back of the costume to make a cape to serve as the wing cases (what little boy doesn't like a cape!). I had just enough black felt in my stash to make a ten-spot ladybird. It took less than 90 minutes to make, every second of which was worth it to see how thrilled Tom was to wear it this morning. It was a very cute, though not very bad-tempered, ladybird that went off to school this morning.

 Tom trying very hard to look bad-tempered.

'Want to fight?'

The costume started life as a long-sleeved velvet top and a pair of tights.
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Thank you, Mum, for teaching me to sew!

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Paper dolls

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Ever since I was blessed with a baby girl, I have been looking forward to the day we could play paper dolls together. That day finally arrived! Lily was home from school sick today, but had recovered enough by Emma's naptime that we could sit together as I introduced her to the exciting world of dressing paper dolls. I printed out several sheets of the delightful Betsy McCall doll from the 1950s. I used this site, which seems to have every Betsy McCall doll ever printed. It should keep us busy for many, many future sick days!

Obviously, Lily is too young to cut these intricate little dolls and dresses out herself, but she was happy to play as I cut and we spent a very happy hour together before it was time to collect Tom from school. We have a powerful new ally in our play unavailable to little girls in the 1950s. Lily was getting frustrated that the dresses kept falling off, so we have been using Blu-Tack to keep them on, though I do feel like it is cheating a little bit!

Lily is now completely hooked! She had them all out again at bedtime and even introduced her Daddy to the wonderful world of paper dolls...a first for him I'm sure! I can't tell you how thrilled I am that I now have an excuse to play paper dolls again myself. Part of me never quite left my girlhood behind!
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Caught in the act!

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When I was pottering about in the kitchen this morning, Emma watched me take the chocolate button I gave her out of a bag in this drawer. Later in the day, I left the kitchen for a couple of minutes and returned to this scene. She had waited until I left her alone to drag a chair across the kitchen, climb on it, open the drawer, find the bag of sweets, open it and help herself. Not so much 'as easy as stealing sweets from a baby' as 'a baby easily stealing sweets'! She is only19 months old...this one is going to keep me on my toes!
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.'Which one shall I have next?"