September: Endings and Beginnings

Saying goodbye to the house was hard, probably harder than I expected as it felt like an ending of so many things. 

Blow up mattress giggles.

This dear gorgeous boy who will be forever remembered as their first pet. 

Final fires and time drawing together.

And then new crafts in new places, and Orion's space to work. 

Kiwi crates to make everything seem normal.

And a first prom. 

Journeys into the woods that we can access from the caravan park.

And Orion began his Dance GCSE at the Dorset Foundational College of Performing Arts. 

Cute people doing cute things.

Art sessions resumed at Russell Cotes for my teens group.

These too are so alike and so close. 

Cooking classes started back for Gabe.

We all watched the Queens funeral and made a cheesecake because we don't have tins to make a Victoria sponge but still wanted to make something traditional. 

Thea and I saw the most amazing and memorable production of Othello. 

And I keep trying to find ways to make treats last longer. 

New Normal

Three more weeks and more things stripped away to leave the basics behind. Only doing what you really love to do does make some things easier, schoolwork and illness aside. 

Sooooo many park trips with their scooters...

So many flower walks...

and when necessary running laps at the track.

We collected as many colours as we could and made flower fairy peg dolls.

Painting with water when you just can't face another clean up. 

And melting crayons to make volcano pictures to finish Gabe's project.

BBQ's and cooking

Wondering when exactly I'm going to get round to buying a proper BBQ.

Painting with 'friends' watching.

Gabe building a selection of flying things from his Kiwi box for this month, his favourite was definitely the rocket launcher.

She's just too cute, even with her crazy hair.

She's in love with puzzles now.

And of course finger painting... well, all forms of painting.

We took on the garden project, and went from this...

with a lot of child labour...

to this with a little bunting made along the way. 

Makeshift tents to create some shade.

and lots and lots of growing in our veggie patch...

And naturally, there could never be too much baking.

And if you take your eye off her for two seconds!

Gabe's second favourite flying object he made this week...

She was a little cross, her's didn't work as well as his.

And a moment to recreate our favourite Edinburgh moments. 

And for the times when we've needed outsiders, there has been plenty of zoom classes all round.