Day 17: The Teddy Bears Party

Tuesday, 7th April 2020

This morning was full on party preparations!

Then Isabella tried out the jacuzzi. It was a lovely sunny morning but only about 15C, although the water was a nice warm 37C.

Spent most of the afternoon outside too with Andre and I taking turns entertaining and working.

I keep thinking I should maybe make this a bit more of a Carona virus update too for ourselves to look back on. What happened and how bad it really was. But I actually don't really know much of what's going on as I haven't been following the news since the schools closed. Before that I was constantly checking and the uncertainty made me anxious at times. Since we were told to just stay home I've felt much better. Besides two grocery trips in the past 17 days, I've not been outside our house. We're able to get enough exercise in our lounge with Joe Wicks and all the other available workouts. Isabella finds Joe a bit hard work but Andre and I try to stick to his workouts. I've done quite a few other fun workouts with Isabella. And we're grateful to have our garden to enjoy in this lovely weather. It might have been a little bit harder if it was the middle of winter now. Or the start of winter!

The teddies had a fantastic time at their party!

Cute teddy cupcakes baked and decorated by Isabella.

Tabby is finally being allowed in Isabella's room. It took her a while to trust him! He has been trying out all corners of her room.

When the baby dolls got out of their bed, Tabby got in!
For some reason all his toys got stored on the bed while we cleaned this morning.

This might become a cat house instead of a doll house!

Playing cars with Isabella.
Tabby loved this little sika deer skin rug. Not sure if it is the smell or the texture. Isabella loves her deer rug too
and isn't too sure about the fact that Tabby loves it just as much!

This is how we plan to spend the rest of spring and summer.
Fingers crossed the weather stays as amazing as it's been recently!

And ending the day with some extra cuteness.

Good night!

Day 16: Party Planning

Monday, 6th April 2020

Somehow Isabella managed to remember that her teddy, Joey's, birthday is coming up and it happens to be tomorrow. Joey is a beautiful handmade teddy who came with a card stating his name and date of birth, 7th April. I can't remember the year, I'll need to go find the card, but according to last years birthday party he turned three, so this year we're celebrating his 4th birthday. I don't have a picture of him right now, he is already asleep with Isabella, but we will definitely be posting more about him and his party tomorrow. Here's a video of last years party.

Isabella spent all morning party planning. She drew up a to do list, the guest list, wrote invitations and then went to get the RSVP slips from the postbox to find out who can make it. Besides mummy, daddy and Isabella, Joey has invited 9 other soft toy friends. And surprise surprise, everyone can make it! Teddies are on lock down too!

We then baked and decorated teddy bear cupcakes. They turned out very cute. We will show you tomorrow.

Isabella received a manicure set from her aunt so we did nails. She was very pleased with her first nail extensions! She did take them off before going outside to help me set up the jacuzzi!

And yes, Isabella and I, or mainly mummy, set up the jacuzzi! We wouldn't normally get it out this early, but the weather is meant to be good this week and we're home of course so might as well make the most of it. The water is currently 14C! Hoping it will warm up enough overnight as Isabella would want to try it out tomorrow. It'll be nice for her to be able to have a swim.

Our gorgeous kitten is doing so well, getting more used to us every day. I was able to give him a good brush today, although I've not pushed my luck to brushing his tummy yet.

Day 15: Another one in the garden

Sunday, 5th April 2020

Today was a gorgeous sunny day and we spent most of it in the garden. The temperature was up to 21C and Isabella even had a run through the sprinkler for a bit.

Isabella made some lovely paintings while I did gardening.

Our Kitten 

The camellia

BBQ for lunch.

Tabby had a relaxing day too!

Day 14: Our own skatepark

Saturday, 4th April 2020

I didn't take many photos today. We did gardening, Isabella went for cycle with Andre, a little more lego building and a lot of lego breaking down of Andre's "grown-up" legos. I tidied the living room. Or the toys living room... Trying to make sure everything has a home so the room looks a little less cluttered while at the same time trying to tell Andre he does not need a 3D printer to print us more clutter! 

The skatepark is closed at the moment so today Andre created his own skatepark in our road:

It was a lovely sunny day today. We were meant to have our annual Easter Egg Hunt get together with friends and it would have been perfect weather for it. Of course that can't happen now but we're saving Easter Eggs for a later date. Here's a picture of last years Easter egg hunt instead.

Day 13 at home during Covid-19

Friday, 3rd April 2020

2 Weeks home from school and 3 weeks working from home. And 10 days having our kitten with us!

Today we built lego. And that was pretty much it. Some other bits in between, but mainly really just lego. The most lego building Isabella has ever done in one go. She really did all the following of the instructions and the building herself. I was just the brick finder most of the time.

Since Andre bought the Lego Boost quite some time ago, they had only built Vernie the robot and none of the others yet. So it's the first time building the cat figure and  there's still others to build too. Good thing we have plenty of time at home to do it!

There were a lot of pieces!

Tabby watched us from underneath the sofa all day and came out for a game of catch-the-feathers in between naps.

For some reason he loves my slippers!

We ran out of sprinkle cookies so had to bake another batch.

Friday street dance class.
Isabella joined the intermediate class for the first time. It's a bit of a faster pace which she'll have to get used to!

And then we went to deliver some cookies to a friend! We managed to completely avoid
any finger licking during the baking process. I think it must have been a first!

The girls do so well at keeping their distance. Each placing goodies they made for each other down before standing back
so the other can pick it up.

The three of us have no problem staying home like this without contact with others, but it sure was nice to still see our friends, even at a distance.

Day 12: Lego Boost

Thursday, 2nd April 2020 - Another lovely day at home. Here it is in pictures.

Isabella working on her  3D Aquabeads project. It's coming along nicely. 

Add CBeebies on TV and she'll keep going for quite some time.

Tabby loving the tunnel still!

Lesson in coding: making Vernie the robot do an obstacle course.

Watch Vernie go!

Then we broke Vernie down in preparation to build Frankie the cat next. It will take a couple days to complete but we'll
show you soon!

Tabby was very interested, but well supervised to ensure no small parts were eaten.

Reading practice: The Lion King

Tap dancing lesson via Zoom was fun!

And Tabby got featured as the main picture on the Siberian Cats facebook page!

Day 11: Playdate at a distance

1st April 2020

Isabella nearly agreed to write this blog post, but then the iPad won over doing typing.

Tabby has started warming up to us and even let Isabella stroke him this morning. His favourite toys are the feathers and Isabella's tunnel. He loves diving around in it.

Working through the school tasks, today it was counting. We did skip counting in 2's, 5's and 10's past 100 and counting to and writing 1-100. Isabella has been a little lazy doing reading, but at least has been reading whatever is on my screen when I'm working and I've been impressed at her ability to even read words such as database and spreadsheet!

We had fun with google's 3D animals and Isabella wanted me to include these too!

And we had a lovely visit from one of Isabella's friends with her parents! We visited at a distance as you can see!

Isabella and Andre also went for another run today and nearly doubled their distance to 2km!