Wow what a week it has been. It's been such a change in routine, I feel like there are less hours in the day all of a sudden! N and I are NOT morning people so getting up at 7am has been a bit difficult. It takes us a while to get going to get out of the house by 8am. N doesn't like to eat breakfast but as she can't snack mid morning at school, I force her to eat. Hopefully it gets easier as time goes on. She's enjoying school so far and told me she likes it there and that everyone is very nice. She is happy with her teacher so that is also nice. She's enjoyed going to the music room this week where they sing and dance. The cafeteria food also sounds pretty good other than the appearance of green peas twice this week which she doesn't like. I can't encourage her to eat them as I really dislike them as well. It's sweet watching her at drop off and pick up as she has to shake her teacher's hand and say "good morning" on arrival and "good afternoon" on departure. Hopefully she has another good week. On Fridays she always finishes early (the entire school does) so she had time to bake some chocolate chip cookies to welcome our new neighbors before she went for her swimming lesson.
We had an American family move in next doors and their 2 kids go to the same school as N. They are close-ish in age which will be fun for impromptu playdates. We had them over this morning and they played together and then we all went out for a pub lunch. It's great having friendly people next doors.
C had his first real playdate on Friday morning. He's been to many with his sister in the past with her friends but this one was with one of his little friends from nursery that lives one street away from us. It was interesting to watch 4 boys together rather than a group of girls which is what we've been used to. Totally different scene! He plays football with his little friend as well so hopefully we'll have many more playdates in the future. C misses his sister during the day so I've also booked him into swimming lessons to try and keep him busy. I think we just need to find our groove.
K was gone this weekend so Nana and I took the kids to the Natural History Museum. They wanted to see T-Rex and the mammals. We saw T-Rex twice but had to say no when they asked to go for a third time. I promised N instead that I'd take her after school one afternoon this term as she finishes early on Wednesdays just for this term. We also went to the butterfly exhibit as it was closing this weekend. N begged to go in despite me reminding her how scared she was last time around. Well, this time around she was fine and C was a bit unsure (he was fine last time). We saw tons of butterflies. Last time there were around 200 floating around. This time there was apparently well over 1000 of them. I can believe it as they were all around us en masse. N and C wanted a magnifying glass each to take a closer look and be "butterfly detectives" (they have been watching Scooby Doo Mystery shows on TV lately) so we bought one each before we went in. Here are some photos:
I was chatting to one of the workers in the butterfly enclosure when she pointed out something to me. It was the coolest thing....
See the brown "leaf" in the first photo... not so much of a leaf really. To begin with I was trying to work out why the woman was pointing out a brown leaf to me and then thought perhaps she was surprised that there was one totally brown leaf amidst all the green ones. I was trying to be polite and enthusiastic and working on a way to escape when the "leaf" spread it's wings. It kept opening and closing it's wings for a while while I stood there totally impressed. I really wish I had taken my good camera with me but all I had was my iPhone which I guess is better than nothing!
One last photo... of this beautiful blue butterfly. Of course I have no idea of what any of these are called but this one was my favourite. There were several of them all flying around together. then I peered down under this slightly sheltered area and saw one taking a break.
We had a really fun time and once we got home, Nana and C went out to play at the park and N and I went up to Ikea as I needed some more storage boxes that I had bought last weekend. It was pretty crowded but we had a good time together. We got home in time for bathtime and bedtime so it was a pretty busy day.
I better go to bed as I have to be up in 7 hours. I like to get up 30 minutes before N so I have a moment to drink coffee and just get mentally prepared for the day. Once I drop her off I have a gym training session in the morning. In fact I think it's a relatively easy day tomorrow. Perhaps I'll spend a bit of time decluttering as the house is a tad overwhelmed again!