This weekend, I decided I wanted to provide the girls with something resembling a mud kitchen, but I don’t have any DIY skills, so I just got a big tub to set everything on, some muffin tins, utensils and a plastic tea set for them to “cook” with in the garden. I filled their water tray so they could use it as a sink/the unfilled half as a draining board 🙂 I might eventually get a proper one for one of their birthdays, but for now, they have been enjoying our much more basic version of one 🙂
This weekend began with sunshine, cider/juice and attempts at reading 🙂 On the way home from school, I took the girls to an ice-cream shop we love just around the corner from our house 🙂 The white chocolate sauce is addictive and I love the huge chunks of honeycomb in the gelato, so it might have to become a regular ritual 🙂
We went for a woodland walk yesterday with my mum. The girls loved showing her around their new favourite places to play 🙂 I like going for nature walks with my mum because she always points out things I would have missed. For example, I love the scent of the place, but I didn’t know what it was and she informed me it was wild garlic 🙂 We went for a mini hike and the girls stopped to look at a waterfall. They loved sticking their hands into the water. There was lots of fungi which my mum pointed out to them and we thought the trees there look like The Dark Hedges. I love the tranquility and getting away from everything, especially when it only takes a short drive to do so 🙂
My mum has been making cute little rainbow brooches, so she gave us one each. I loved how the lilac in mine matched my jacket exactly 🙂 There’s something special about getting handmade gifts; I think they mean more because you know that someone has put careful thought into creating them 🙂
Today, we had a day in the house and popcorn and a movie. Then, I drew out templates for the girls to do some finger-painting. I found something similar on Pinterest and drew out a dandelion clock on card for each of them. I just gave the girls some poster paints to use for finger painting the little seeds on. I thought they turned out really striking and cheerful-looking 🙂
I wanted to do some easy baking with the girls, so we made a simple fairy cakes recipe. They made most of the recipe by themselves and I just did the measuring of ingredients 🙂 I made some icing for them to add to the cakes. Then, I created a little cake decoration station for them at the kitchen table. We had some new Spring-coloured sprinkles that the girls used and I had found some edible butterflies for them to add to the top. One of my daughters refuses to eat cake so she licked the icing bowl and sprinkles instead (telling us that she deserved it after all her hard work.)
The Funky Thrifter 