Ice-Skating, Pumpkin Cake-ies and Story Pictures

This weekend, I took the girls ice-skating. We hadn’t been in a couple of years and they loved it 🙂 I think I might have found a new hobby too. I really want to go back this week 🙂 The girls got a penguin and a snowman to help them to skate. I found it really cathartic and I was completely in the moment while we did it 🙂

The girls have been making a lot of things with plasticine this weekend. I find if I leave that or play doh sitting out, they help themselves and come up with lots of little stories involving it. My daughter made some caterpillars she has insisted on keeping forever 🙂 They made a plasticine shop too and made a little trolley for it 🙂

We went back to the museum on Saturday. There was an event on about Flapper Skates, which I had never heard of before, but the girls enjoyed learning about them. There were activities for kids about sharks and they had lots of the little casings the sharks hatch out of for us to look at. They gave the girls a page each to help them to identify each one on the beach 🙂 They were really involved in everything they taught them about. They had to use emojis to spell out the names of all the different kinds of sharks on a board and there was a facts game where they had to guess which facts were true and false about sharks. I’m really fascinated by sharks so it was interesting for me too 🙂

Afterwards, we visited the history room and the girls chatted to the lady there for a long time. She showed them lots of different objects and talked about the history of them. We went to the cafe for lunch. All I will say about that is that next time we will bring a picnic even if it’s raining 😀

We wandered around Botanic Gardens and stopped to look at all the pretty colours and berries 🙂 We had another conker hunt and went for a long walk. It felt really fresh because it had just rained heavily and stopped right before we left the museum 🙂

When we got home, we did one of the activities from the girls’ craft box. They had to use oil pastels and make story pictures. I joined in since I felt like doing a kids’ art activity and it was fun 🙂 They had to draw a picture of themselves first and then fill the background with all the things they love. It kept them entertained for a long time. We might return to it in a few days and add textures in the background. It said you could find different textured materials and draw over them with the pastels to create patterns.

I finally got around to making pumpkin spice cookies 🙂 I had a pumpkin that had been sitting looking at me all week, so I cut it in half and baked it. Then I scooped out the flesh and mashed it when it was cooked. I added it to the cookie mixture. The recipe suggested adding chocolate chips too, but I thought raisins might go better with pumpkin spice, so I used up all the half-finished boxes of raisins from the girls 🙂 I like finding a use for things that would otherwise go to waste 🙂 The girls commented on how good the kitchen smelled while they were cooking and even tried some of them. It’s rare I get them to eat anything with a vegetable in it, no matter how it’s presented, but they claimed to like them 🙂 They had a cakey texture, so I might name them Pumpkin Cake-ies instead 🙂 They’re really nice heated and with coffee 🙂 (I think everything is good with coffee though!)

On Sunday morning, we went to a new playground on the way to see my parents. We always pass it in the car and never stop at it. We were the only ones there for a long time and the girls had a great time climbing. Aside from pushing them on the swings, I just enjoyed reading on a bench and feeling the sun on my face 🙂 It always puts me in a better mood.

I’ve been continuing to do some paintings on canvas when the girls are in bed and I find it a really good way to wind down at the end of the day. I finished my pumpkin, so I’ve moved on to flowers now 🙂