Mermaid Fun

Sparkly mermaid themed play dough

The girls and I had some mermaid themed fun today. Emma watched 'The little Mermaid' yesterday and the girls both watch 'Barbie and The Pearl Princess' this morning, which inspired Emma to spend the morning dressed in her mermaid costume. The weather wasn't too amazing this morning, so I made a batch of 'mermaid' play dough to keep the girls amused. I made it to match one of the colours on Emma's mermaid costume and added lots of green glitter. The photo doesn't show how lovely and sparkly the play dough is. I put it out with a jar of shells and some of Emma's mermaid figures. It kept both Lily and Emma happy for much of the day.

In addition to the mermaid play dough, we also made mermaid fairy cakes. I coloured the icing the same colour as the play dough and put out some edible pearls and coloured sugar in mermaidy colours. Lily and Emma had lots of fun decorating the cakes and were proud to offer them to two of their neighbourhood friends who were round playing with Tom in the afternoon.

Mermaid themed cake decorations

Emma usually consumes as many decorations as she uses!

The girls' finished cakes

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Smiley Happy Baby

Alex is a very happy baby and it doesn't take much to raise a smile from him. Just making eye contact and smiling at him will usually result in a huge Podling beam. With a little effort you can now raise the beginnings of a laugh from him now too. He is basically a sunshiny little person and reminds me so much of Emma as a baby.

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Sibling Love

I really wanted a picture of all four children, but Emma wasn't inclined to be photographed unfortunately. I think this is a lovely photo of three of them though. 

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We Will Remember Them

Caring for my baby son by candlelight, remembering those mothers whose sons never came home. Honouring the thousands who gave up their futures so that people they would never know could raise their children in the safety and security of a peaceful nation. We will remember them.

Dream Big Little One

Between the fan and the open window, it was cool enough last night for Alex to try the new sleeping bag from his Nanny and Grandad. He look snug as a bug in a rug! Unfortunately, it is warmer again tonight and since we don't have a summer weight sleeping bag he is back to a sheet and a blanket again. I thought Nanny and Grandad might enjoy the pictures of their littlest grandchild in their lovely present though. Precious little man!

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Emma's Sunflower

For Mother's Day this year, Emma brought home a sunflower seed for me from school. It was planted in some soil in a little pot she had decorated herself and had a sweet little poem with it. We kept it on the kitchen windowsill to begin with, but it soon needed to be planted in a larger pot and we moved it to a windowsill in the conservatory. We kept watering it and watching it grow and soon it needed to be replanted again and we put it on the floor of the conservatory.

I'm not sure exactly how tall the plant is at the moment, but it is now taller than Mark who is 6 ft. It has finally come into flower this week, so I took a picture of little Emma next to her sunflower. She has waited patiently for months to see this flower and has been so excited at the rapid growth of the plant.

We have never grown sunflowers before, but it was tremendous fun. They grow so fast that even the littlest children can be entertained by watching their progress and it is immensely satisfying for them to grow something so big from a little seed. We will certainly try growing more next year and see if we can grow another sunflower that is bigger than Daddy.

Emma is very proud of her sunflower

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Podlings in Disguise!

Movember came early to our house this year! Lily came home from a friend's party this afternoon with a couple of fake moustaches in her party bag (that's a new one, I have to admit!) We had lots of fun with them!

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