In the last few days, the girls and I have been out a lot, enjoying the rare Northern Irish sunshine 🙂
They made some textured stamps from their art box. They just had to cut out pieces of cardboard like before, but this time, they had to add string and bubble wrap. Then they painted the stamps from their ink pad with a paintbrush and used them to make prints. I thought the girls would be tired of printing by now, but apparently it never gets old 🙂 They ended their printing session with fingerprint rainbows 🙂 Their stampers were cute so I had to get a picture of them too 🙂
We went for a scoot/walk at Titanic Quarter. The girls loved seeing all the boats and exploring the paths they hadn’t been on before. We did some of the Maritime Mile trail but I’m planning on returning another day to do it properly 🙂 We went to the little playground near HMS Caroline and had a snack picnic there. Before returning home, I got the girls an ice-cream and we sat outside at the marina.
The girls were asking to make lemonade again, and I hadn’t made any since last summer, so we got lemons and they helped me to squeeze them. We added zest, sugar and hot water and then chilled it. It’s funny that the girls always drink our homemade one because it is quite sour compared to the shop version, but they seem to love it 🙂 We made some more of the peanut butter and jelly cookies we make a lot too. They’re good to make with kids because they can make the thumbprint for the jam and add it by themselves 🙂
We went to my sister’s house on my birthday and she gave me a raspberry cream with a little umbrella in it 🙂 The kids played together and we got to have a very fragmented conversation 🙂 I went for a walk around her village and stopped to get a picture of the wildflowers. There are so many floral displays along the street – it made me want to try to work on my garden again (even though that desire rarely lasts or ends in thriving plants.)
The following day, we went to the Ulster museum. The girls like looking at all the colourful butterflies and walking on the glass over the table 🙂 The toys and nature rooms were closed, but they said they would be reopening the following day. We went to the gems room and the girls watched them turning fluorescent 🙂 Then we went to the nature section and did the under the sea part. My daughter said her favourite thing in the museum is the little fox cub in a nature display case. They had updated the fashion display, so we got to see some dresses from the 1800’s and early 1900’s. We followed that with a visit to the art room. The girls drew a picture each to peg on the wall with all the other pictures 🙂 I love looking at the views from the top floor of the museum 🙂 Before we left, they had to perch on the little chairs they love there for a photo. Someone has decorated them and it made me want to do something similar with our kitchen chairs.
After leaving the museum, we had our lunch in Botanic Gardens and then the girls got an ice-cream. We sat on the grass for a while. It was very hot and a lot of people were sunbathing there. I like the summery vibes in Botanic Gardens in July and August 🙂 We went for a final walk before leaving and saw all the flowers that had bloomed. We visited the rose garden and I liked the fact my daughter’s scrunchie matched the yellow ones 🙂
It was my daughter’s birthday at the weekend, so I took the girls for their first visit to the Titanic Museum. I thought it was designed more for older children when we got there, but they liked the novelty of doing something new 🙂 The staff gave them a treasure hunt to do while we walked around. They had to spot the hidden teddies and tick them off the list to get a certificate at the end 🙂 The girls loved the ride around the shipyard because it was like a very slow-moving rollercoaster 🙂 My favourite thing about the museum were the views from the upper floors. After we had finished looking around, we went on the Nomadic too. The girls liked getting to wander around the boat, even if they didn’t stop to learn about anything 🙂 We finished our trip with a treat in the cafe. The iced coffee was really good 🙂 The girls had muffins the sizes of their heads because it was a birthday day 🙂 Afterwards, we just went home and I made party food for my parents coming.
Today, the girls opened a fairy lantern craft set my daughter got for her birthday. They had to add tissue paper to the outside of the jars, decorate it with glitter and then add a fairy silhouette and a battery tea light, so when it dries it should create a fairy shadow (I’m not convinced it will actually work, but we will find out.) I added flowers to cord and used them to decorate some plaited stems to add to the jars once they’ve dried. If they work, I will share the outcome 🙂
The Funky Thrifter 