Let's turn this brown thumb green...

Avocado sputnik!

I am not a gardener by any means. I've tried, I've failed and quite frankly how I have managed to keep two children relatively healthy and well is beyond me. I can barely even keep a blog going, as you have seen!
However, since my recent avocado pit success (well, it's started to sprout anyway) I've quite fancied growing some more things, hopefully to keep Harper amused at the very least... It hasn't kept her amused so it backfired, but the thought was there.

Tomato plant with real life
actual tomatoes!

So to the garden centre we went and purchased some tomato plant seeds and strawberry plant seeds and they have GROWN! Actual plants that have grown on my windowsill in the kitchen, the tomato plant is even growing some tomatoes at this point, and I am way more excited than anyone else in this house let me tell you!
We also have some garlic planted at the moment and it's starting to grow leaves, and I may or may not have totally cheated and bought a basil plant all ready to go. Harper thought it was awesome that I cooked dinner with it last night though so I'm glad we didn't wait for that one - Harper isn't the only one here with a short attention span  *ahem* I am super happy with the progress, and I'm hoping that there will be strawberries and tomatoes to eat from the plants really soon - maybe then everyone else will show an interest!

Selfie Clothing Goodies!

As you may (or may not) know, Harper was chosen to be a brand ambassador for Selfie Clothing. After getting a unicorn top to colour in for Christmas, Harper was all about customising her own clothes and we started following their Instagram - when we saw they wanted reps of course we entered because, hey, free goodies, who doesn't like free goodies?! Especially ones you know your kids will absolutely love. We got ours on Thursday just before we went to Port Lympne, and she periodically mentioned colouring in her top at home that "Has my NAME on it Mummy!" (she was mega excited about that part) and she read me all the letters whilst exclaiming "See! See! It says 'arper!" So with the excitement of her pharmacy and dinosaur adventure out of the way, we set up in the hallway (away from sleeping baby sisters) with our 6 fabric markers and got to work. She concentrated pretty hard for a good 20 minutes (anyone with a 4 year old knows that's pretty good) until she wandered off for a bit, but she kept coming back to do more, and bit-by-bit it started to take shape. We made a stop motion video of the progression, but the main thing that got me was the way she not only was really invested in finishing her top, but the way that even when she got bored of doing it, she would come back to do more as and when within a few hours, this wasn't an activity that she just left for me to finish, in fact, I was only allowed to help her with the bare minimum if she wanted to do something that she felt she couldn't do herself - she directed me how she wanted certain parts coloured and took real pride on the finished product. The only problem for us with our goodies is that we had to roll the sleeves somewhat - she got age 4, but she is quite a small 4 year old, and it was a tad large on her, a 3 would have probably fit her quite nicely instead. Still, room to grow, right, she gets to wear it for longer!  The quality of the actual fabric is gorgeous, it's buttery soft and I would imagine totally comfortable to wear.

With the kit you get your T-Shirt, your 6 markers, a practise sheet and some paper to put between the fabric as you colour the top - it is essential that you remember to do that, don't ignore the warning, it will definitely 100% bleed through to the other side! All-in-all it's a brilliant kit, Harper loved doing it, it kept her attention for more than 10 seconds and she's really proud of her creation. I received these goodies for free, but I would absolutely happily pay for them even just to see how proud Harper was of her creation at the end, it was really sweet! If you would like to have a go (I mean, let your kids have a go), click here to go to their website and see what they have to offer, it's more than T-shirts, they have snap backs (which I LOVE, by the way), capes, PJs - all sorts! It's well worth a look, so go check it out!

Mega proud of her Harper top!

Don't forget to put this between the fabric on the T-shirt, or it
WILL go through - as you can see on this paper!

Pharmacy adventures!

Today we went on a pharmacy adventure, by that, of course, I mean a safari adventure. Harper insists that I am wrong however, and honestly who am I to correct her? What was originally meant to be a day out  to see the giraffes, rhinos, gorillas and tigers turned into something much more... Prehistoric though. A new interest has been born - DINOSAURS.
At Port Lympne Zoo, you arrive and you go through the entrace, through the gift shop (that of course you also exit through), and go to basecamp, where you are picked up by a safari truck and driven through various zones to see lots and lots of animals - we saw giraffes, rhino, a cheetah, zebras, and lots of deer-type animals (the engine was so loud I couldn't hear what the man was saying, so I missed their names) running around quite happily, Harper was absolutely enthralled, squealing with excitement as the giraffes passed by, and spotting animals in the distance - she was one of the first to point out the ostrich and his chicks, and she felt very clever to know what an ostrich was. When you get off the truck, you have quite a walk ahead of you, but you come out, walk up a little to where the toilets are, and opposite is the dinosaur forest, which basically goes around in a loop and you learn about loads of different dinosaurs. There are some hiding in the bushes and you have to have a good look for them. As we walked around (in the rain) Harper was super excited about spotting them all, and reading (being read to, anyway) about them, learning their names, what their names meant and where they lived on the planet, and when ("not now Mummy? There aren't any dinosaurs around now?" was quite a concern apparently - she didn't want to get eaten by a T-Rex). We had a totally wonderful time, but a word of warning - if you baby wear, you might be best sticking with a carrier, we had to drop the buggy off, and while there are umbrella buggies that you can pick up for free after the safari experience, with little-little ones it would definitely be easier to just take the carrier too. We had a great day, and while of course it wasn't a particularly 10-month-old kind of day out, it was right up Harper's street, and Sylvie definitely didn't mind that Harper insisted she also get a stuffed dinosaur, to be "fair." All in all, it was a great day out, and Harper is now interested in something that doesn't have wheels, which can only be a bonus!

Calm tries to crawl...

On a mission

So my calm little baby Sylvie may well not be so calm for much longer, being the laid-back baby she is I was quite convinced that she probably wouldn't do the whole movement thing and that I'd basically have to transport her, horizontally, everywhere forever. I was totally cool with that, she's my last baby and they apparently turn 4 in a blink so I was happy to make the most of it. But no, this one has other ideas, and she's trying SO hard to get on the move. So, so hard.

must you?

She'll be 9 months in just over a week, her sister was 10 months before she
tried to crawl so I would be very very surprised if she wasn't in the next couple of weeks. She's really started to take an interest in what's going on around her too (read: she's nosy) and chats away to her big sister, who she absolutely adores. I just can't get over how quickly they grow, with Harper starting school this year, and Sylvie growing just so quickly it feels like someone's pressed fast forward, and then pressed it again to double speed. As they say - the days are long, but the years are so, so short. Watching them both grow and learn is amazing, but if they could slow it down a little sometimes I might climb my way out of this existential crisis that I'm having!

Adventures with Frogspawn

Source: samarawheeldonphotography.com.au/

One of Harper's teachers from pre-school posted this on their Facebook page after a little boy took some frogspawn in to show everyone - and that was it, a spark ignited in the Harper's brain and we absolutely HAD TO go and find some frogspawn and watch it grow. Great. I really need smelly pond-water in my house, of course.
But I obliged and off we went to where this little boy found the frogspawn, we were warned 'you will NEED wellies!' Did I listen? No. I did not listen, we went straight after preschool in her lovely shiny school shoes. I regretted it immediately and now I have a pair of school shoes to run under a tap. Part of the fun though...I think?
Unfortunately, despite the perfect muddy shallow water conditions, no  frogspawn was to be found, so with a disappointed Harper we left to go home, have dinner and have a bath. But the call of the frog's life-cycle was too strong and she relentlessly asked when we might go somewhere else to find some. So, the next day, we set off for a park a little further away, certain that there would be some there... Despite knowing that the pond smells particularly awful. Lucky me, we found some, in that bog of eternal stench, we found 'SO MUCH!!' frogspawn and dutifully I collected some up for her to look at properly. For those who don't remember doing this in their childhood (I remember doing it once and I loved it) frogspawn is revolting, and sticky?? But Harper was happy so carefully-carefully I carried it on my lap in the car on the way home. Not carefully enough, I got smelly pond water on my trousers because we have pot-holes that could engulf our little car in our roads but STILL, Harper was happy. She kept a diligent watch over them for a while and then went off to play with her cars and seemingly forgot about them for the rest of the day, and so did I. That was until bedtime, when we heard a screech of excitement 'THE DOTS ARE BLOBS MUMMY!' wondering what on earth she was talking about I followed the excited squeals to find her peering into the spawn-container to see that what were once dots in the middle of the masses of jelly-eggs were indeed now blobs.

Imagine the squeal that we got the day after when one or two of them were in the process of hatching! They were on their little way, wiggling out of their eggs and sticking to the outside of them instead.
As sceptical as I was about them, and their smelly pond-water, I have to say with each change it gets a little more exciting and I remember how much I loved seeing the tadpoles change when I was a kid. Seeing her get so excited every time she looks into the container (as they seem to be developing very very quickly, which is holding Harper's attention brilliantly!) is great fun, she's learning about how eggs work and how tadpoles change and grow and it's fun to watch. I'm looking forward to seeing how quickly we'll need to return our little froglets to their pond!