Flower Perfume

    Lily's label says : 

"Lily's fraygrence

Lovely Purfuem

by Lily"

Yesterday the girls were inspired by an episode of Peppa Pig to make their own perfume. They collected some flowers on the way home from school and we added a few from the garden to the pile. I gave them each a jar of water, a lid and a label and left them to get on with it. They had a great deal of fun and we were soon all wearing their 'perfume'. I hope they forget about them soon, so I can throw them away before the flowers rot!

.

Cool in the Pool

It was hot, hot, hot yesterday afternoon, so I filled the paddling pool up for Emma and we just played together in the shade until it was time to collect Tom and Lily from school. I only have a few afternoons left with just me and my littlest Podling and I am determined to enjoy every moment of them.

We drank lots of ice cold Ribena.

.

Good Clean Fun

With good weather forecast for the foreseeable future, we decided it was time to get all the garden toys cleaned up and ready for lots of play over the summer. While Mark mowed the lawns on Sunday afternoon, the Podlings and I got out the hose and scrubbed the patio, Wendy house, sand table and the Cozy Coupe car. They haven't been cleaned for a while and they live in the garden all year round, so we had our work cut out for us. Lily had a fabulous time hosing all the spiders out of the Wendy house, but once the real work started I quickly found myself on my own! Everything cleaned up much better than I had hoped and the Podlings are now enjoying a clean, spider free Wendy house and clean patio. Now we have to hope that the sun will stay for a while so we can fully enjoy the fruits of our labours.

Lily is shouting "Die spiders!!" here

Cleaning windows is much easier if they don't have glass in them!

Cooling off in the paddling pool

Much better!

.

Seaside at Sunset

Summer seems to have finally come to the British Isles and we are enjoying some glorious weather at the moment. In the spirit of 'make hay while the sun shines' we headed to the North Wales coast on Saturday. We always aim to get there late in the day for two main reasons. Firstly it is much cooler so you don't have to worry about the children burning to a crisp (not to mention the fact that I hate being hot!). Secondly, it is always much quieter as we usually arrive when everyone else is leaving. Not being a fan of crowds, this arrangement suits me down to the ground. Having said that, we set a new record on Saturday by not arriving at the beach until after seven in the evening. It was beautiful! There was hardly anyone else around and it was still warm, but not too warm. We had our picnic as soon as we arrived and then just played on the beach until after ten. It was still light when we left with three tired but happy Podlings in the back of the car. 

Lily dancing on a sandcastle!

Farewell sandcastle!

Mark and Emma in the sea at ten o'clock at night

.

Animal Rescue Week

We seem to have had a bit of an animal rescue thing going on this week. On Thursday we found this little bird on the driveway when we were heading off for school. At first I thought it was dead, but closer inspection showed it was still alive, though certainly not in tip-top condition. I wondered if it might have flown into our glass French doors and dazed itself. It must have been there a while as it was quite a windy day and the only movement it was making was the occasional shiver. I honesty thought the poor thing was probably dying, but I thought that I could at least make its last hours comfortable. I didn't want it dying from cold, or worse, being eaten by a cat. I fetched a shoe box and lined it with some soft fleece fabric and quickly and gently lifted the bird and placed it inside. I then put the box where cats couldn't get it and placed a shallow dish of water in there for the bird to drink if it rallied. Emma and I needed to go out so I checked the bird was safe and couldn't be disturbed, fully expecting to find a dead bird in the box when we got back. We were out for a few hours and I was thrilled to find the box empty when we got back.  I felt like I had done my good deed for the day.

Animal rescue number two happened this afternoon when Tom and I found a toad in the road outside our house. Now whilst I was quite happy to pick up the bird, there was no way on God's green Earth I was going to touch a toad! We merely chased the toad off the road and into the garden, where I hope it is now consuming lots of slugs! Being ushered off the road by the Podlings was probably a bit scary for the toad, but it was infinitely better than being squashed by a car!

Toad in the Road. Not to be confused under any circumstances with Toad in the Hole!

.

P for Podling

Emma told me that she wanted to draw a P, by which I thought she meant she wanted to draw a scribble and call it a P. Imagine my surprise when she took the chalk and card I offered her and she drew this! We have done some basic letter recognition (mostly the early alphabet and the letters of her name), but she has certainly never done any freehand writing with me. Clever Emma!
.

Rocket Craft

Emma and I did this name rocket craft yesterday (Thank you Pinterest!). She had lots of fun with the glitter glue and was rather pleased with her finished picture. To keep with the star/ space theme we finished off the afternoon by making star-shaped fairy cakes and decorating them with star-shaped sprinkles. Naturally, we had to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star a few times as well.

.