First week of summer holiday 2020

20 - 26 July 2020
Weather: A typical bit of everything.

A few days late, but here is last week which was also the first week of the summer holiday. Nothing too exciting, we've gotten so used to just being at home!

Tabby decided to move in with the Sylvanian Family.

The Barbies had a much needed post-lockdown visit to the hair salon. See this before and after below! Isabella also made a video on how she did this, but mummy still needs to check it for Barbie nudity before it can go to YouTube... We might need to do a second salon day with Barbies wearing swimming costumes next time!

Isabella made another video with her squishies. Awaiting editing from mummy... Isabella is going to start having her own YouTube channel which we will hopefully get set up this week, then she can upload her videos there and daddy can upload his videos on his channel since they're totally unrelated content!

We tried out some cat grass seeds for Tabby. They grew super fast! And he is enjoying nibbling on it when he needs to.

We received some succulent leaves from a friend to propagate. These two little ones are doing really well as well as another larger type of leaf which has some strong roots already. Isabella looks after them in her room.

Play parks have opened up again! We've only been once or twice, just so used to staying home now.

And Isabella is doing really well on Andre's One Wheel!

We've moved on from all the Barbie playing to now playing with the 'Our Generation' dolls.

On Sunday we met friends at the river to go paddle boarding. It was typical British weather with gorgeous sunshine and serious rain too!

We have learnt that Isabella is just not an animal person. Below she is trying to get away from the cutest cygnets.

Isabella asked to have Andre's photo equipment out when we got home. She had a long line of dolls and soft toy animals who wanted to have their pictures taken, including one real soft animal!

And that was it. Today is Tuesday of the second week and I'm thinking I need to plan a little something to get us out of the house tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get to blog on time this Sunday and we'll see then if I did get us out and doing something more exciting during the week!

Fourth and final week of school

13th - 19th July 2020
Weather: A bit of everything.

Tabby enjoys joining in with games. We were playing "duck-duck-goose". 

Isabella had her last day of year one on Thursday. Summer holiday started on Friday!

 

Last day of Year One!

Neighbourhood watch

 We started the holiday with holiday hair! Hair cut is booked for next month too. And then Isabella baked and decorated a cake. She made a video too which mummy still needs to edit.

The weekend:

We spent Saturday on the beach with a borrowed SUP. It was slightly more windy than the previous weekend but still a great day out. We left even earlier in the morning this time, which means we get good parking and beach spots and get home earlier in the day too. Works well.

It happened to be Madiba Day (Nelson Mandela Day) in South Africa on Saturday!

Isabella played Barbies on her own for a bit.

And we got to enjoy chatting and just sitting together uninterrupted for a bit!

We're now nearing the end of a lazy Sunday at home. It was a bit rainy this morning and a bit grey the rest of the day with bits of sunshine. The way it's been most of this week! Andre washed his car, Isabella played Barbies, Playmobil, pets and Sylvanian Families all mixed together! And we ended with a late afternoon cycle.

The Barbies living their best life!

Third week back at school

Monday, 6th - Sunday, 12th July 2020
Weather: Started out cloudy/ rainy and ended with a sunny weekend.

Here's our past week in pictures.

Finishing this area is one of the only things I can actually say I've accomplished while Isabella
has been back at school. I've been waiting to take a picture once the sunflowers are flowering.
I'm sure you'll be seeing another once there are more flowers to show.

We were gifted some succulent leaves to propagate and at the same time finally repotted all of our house plants.
Nearly all now live in Isabella's room. She calls it her forest! They are in her room as she likes to keep her door shut
and the plants are either mildly poisonous to cats or to protect the non poisonous ones from little sharp cat teeth belonging
to a curious cat. The aloe is the one we were also gifted when she burnt her hand a few years ago. It grows like mad and keeps producing babies. Isabella enjoys taking care of the plants for me.

One of Tabby's spots.

Learning about algorithms starts with setting out clear instructions in correct order.
I love Isabella's writing.

Here's a cute card she brought home.

Tabby loves a den of any kind.

I got to have my hair done!

Morning snoozes...

Tabby jumped into the dolls pushchair and Isabella took him for a ride. He lies down happily.

We celebrated a friend's birthday. The girls are in school together so might as well play together on special occasions at home too. They don't have to social distance at school in their small bubbles.

Evie from the movie Descendants made a special appearance for the birthday girl!
Party entertainers now doing remote parties!

Birthday celebrations continued with a small garden party.

Garden party ended with an outdoor cinema in onesies for the kids!

Amazing weekend sunshine! We made a last minute decision on Sunday morning to drive down to the beach.
We left very early and the beach stayed fairly quiet until around lunch time. We left early, enough beach time
without getting home late and exhausted, with still some 'Sunday' left to relax at home. The way all three of us like it.

Tabby found the week exhausting!