Yesterday began brightly and the girls and I decided to go for a walk to the shop to get treats. I think we have temporarily sickened ourselves with donuts, so we are changing up our Friday routine 🙂 The girls found some gingerbread men and I got an almond croissant for a little tea party in the garden. I had some coffee and the girls had some”fruity wooty tea” – that’s what they call berry tea 🙂 I had to get a picture of the flawless blue sky. There wasn’t a cloud in sight. I think it sent us into holiday mode and I forgot to do home schooling 🙂 I picked up some daffodils while we were at the shop too. I think buying flowers for yourself is a good way to lift your mood and they were only a pound 🙂 I like to get daffodils when they’re completely closed so you can witness the full performance of them opening 🙂 It means they last longer too 🙂 Yellow is such a cheerful colour. I think my favourite flowers are still sunflowers but daffodils are beautiful too.
We got out the Tuff tray for the first time this year. It’s so handy for garden play because it keeps everything contained (in theory,) the girls can sit on it and it’s easy to clean. We emptied some lego into it and the girls and I made a tree house, a swimming pool and a car (my version of Lego involves less clever construction and more adding Lego flowers to everything :)) We brought the girls’ easel outside too and some poster paints so they could alternate between Lego and painting. They both painted our house 🙂
I think my favourite Springtime chore is hanging out laundry. I find it so soothing and the best ideas seem to spring to mind while I’m doing it. Sometimes it’s the most peaceful moment of the day – standing in the sun on my own, pegging clothes to the line.
The girls found a dead slug and decided to bury it/throw it a funeral. I don’t know if I should be glad that they’re kind to all creatures or intervene when I know an insect isn’t going to be resurrected by their efforts 🙂
We emptied the Lego out of the tray and transformed it into a craft corner. The girls had a Toucan box activity to do – making dinosaur masks and tails. They did a better job than me at working out how to stick the spikes on 🙂 They decorated and coloured their masks and tails and then put on a dinosaur show I was instructed to watch 🙂
I got some writing done and did some acrylic painting while the girls watched TV and then my daughter joined me for painting, scolding me with “why didn’t you tell me you were painting?!” I’d like to try a bright series of pictures to mark the start of Spring and all my (false) optimism for this year 🙂
This morning, the girls and I set out to the park before anyone else seemed to be up 🙂 We were greeted by some daffodils at the front gate that had appeared since our visit there two days ago 🙂 When you stop and look at the flowers, you notice how much they change in the space of a day. My daughter encouraged me to take more pictures of the crocuses because they had fully opened too 🙂 I might try painting a picture of some. I love the delicate pastel petals and their egg yolk centres 🙂 The girls did some tree climbing, got me to push them on the roundabout for a long time and went up and down a ramp on their scooters. It was like their own mini skate park 🙂
When we got home, we made a den in the garden and filled the girls tray with a “pool” for their dolls, some dolls house chairs for sun lounging and drinks to sip by the pool 🙂 It quickly descended into them using the pool as a container for making a mess in, but it wouldn’t be a normal day in our house without that 🙂 I made the girls some raspberry milkshakes. They turned out more like frozen yogurt because I blended frozen raspberry into them, so next time I might experiment with just ice-cream and milk for a change 🙂 The girls drank them in their den and we had a baked potato picnic in the garden for lunch. There is something about eating warm food outdoors that makes me feel like Summer isn’t too far away 🙂
The Funky Thrifter 