More mud

Even when the weather is good and the ground has dried out the cry goes up to go and find some mud. So off we went to look beneath bridges and see if there was still mud to be found. There was disappointment that the big puddles had dried up but everyone had fun anyway. 

There was lots of ball playing.

A dip in the river.

Lots of lovely mud.

Lots of muddy water sprayed over everything every time the dog shook himself.

After a while the bear decided the ball needed drying out a bit between dips in the river and so gave it a burying.

Look at that bottom.

These are Isabel's new shoes. They came today. We nearly lost them in the mud. They'll go in the wash so it's fine but it's a good job I'm not precious about their clothes.

And some dandelions were picked to cheer up a tired, snotty girl.

Running around.

So finally it looks like we might have Spring! Although it's been a bit windy this week (I'm amazed the washing stayed on the line) and we had hail and icy rain one day there has also been sunshine and even a touch of warmth to the days. 

Matthew is away in Egypt and when he's away it's hard to get the kids to be enthusiastic about going out - they like the comfort of home. The deal was made that a 'new park that we've never been to before' was worth going out for. Now this is no easy task as we have explored all of the town's parks and most of the neighbouring villages as well as many further afield. The joy of Google Maps though is that you can search on the satellite images for likely looking park-like spaces and so we went for an explore. 

The park we found was in Middleton Cheney and would be gorgeous on a warm day but there was a biting wind so we didn't stay very long. The kids got to blow off some steam though and have a bit of fresh air. 

Hats and shoes

We've had some more spring-like weather in the last week or so ,although Friday had its fair share of April showers. I was enjoying the sun on my back chatting to a friend in the car park as we finished our group on Friday and turned round to see Isabel sat in a puddle. She'd decided the playground was too wet to play in as she didn't want to get her bum wet but a puddle was different. Luckily I had her pyjamas in the car as that's what she'd worn when we went out so she was warm and dry in the car on the way home.

We popped into town yesterday to do a bit of shopping. The kids had been trying on hats from the under stairs cupboard and decided that the sparkly cowboy hats left over for a friend's hen were what they wanted to wear. 

As we were hanging around the kids started trying on shoes. Isabel was fascinated with the heels.

Isaac scored some Lego Star Wars.

And got in on the shoe action.

 

The weather was lovely today so we went out into the garden to tackle the muddy wellies that had been left in a carrier bag since the last mud-fest.

Another Birthday

Isabel had her second birthday celebration at the weekend. The weather has improved but not enough to do our usual garden party so we crowded indoors. It was fun though. 

She had a Hello Kitty princess cake (cake toppers from ebay), a big spread of food and of course candles. 

And after about a week where no one was ill I have ended up with vertigo again so we've had a quiet week. Isaac has been doing a lot of playing with his Lego and added the tank to his play scene - scale matters not when you're 5. He wanted to get the camera and take photos of it all.

Isabel found a roll of wrapping paper and asked for things to be wrapped up. I couldn't think of anything to give them so we had a present snack time instead with each bit wrapped in paper and the smaller bits then put in the left over party bags. Breadsticks have never been so glam!

Old Jerusalem and home

We took the kids to the old city for the day. They were very tired and both ended up being carried a lot of the time but they loved being on the roof looking out over the golden dome and then running along the maze of streets down to the wall. 

The plane home was an evening one so both kids fell asleep by the end.