Perfect autumn day

I took the girls swimming on my own today for the first time ever. Chris often takes them on his own (since the Leisure Centre changed hands and now allows as 1:2 adult:child ratio), but I’ve been a bit nervous about, as I’m not as confident with water and freak out a bit about children swimming (I am largely to blame for RoRo taking so long to get into swimming, though thankfully she has made up for lost time). It went very well, anyway, and there were no problems. I wasn’t as much fun as Chris, but they’re happy that I can do it on weeks when he can’t, so I call that a success.

But it was a beautiful day today, so we didn’t just go swimming. We stayed and did some other things, too. After swimming, we went to the cafe and had crisps, milkshakes (or tea) and cheesy chips (a huge plateful between the three of us, which I was impressed with).

Then we went off to explore in Stratford Park. There’s a muddy bit (which I think is probably the compost heap!) that RoRo has been wanting to explore for a while, so they went off down there.

Then RoRo found a tree and examined some leaves and wrote them up in the book which she had brought with her.

Then we to Stroud Museum (which is fabulous; if you’ve never been, you should really try it) and looked at the exhibition which was some fabulous tree sculptures. Then we went round the museum, looking at things, trying things out and exploring.

 

After that, RoRo used her money to buy LaLa and her an ice lolly each and then I had to hold them lots while they climbed a tree.

Then we walked home, taking a few wall-walking detours and going across the footbridge very quietly to avoid any lurking trolls. We popped into the Co-op to pick up fruit for tomorrow (and RoRo bought LaLa and her a Fudge bar each) and then walked through the park, stopping to look at the poppies and talk a bit about the soldiers who had died in wars and to climb some more trees, swing on some railings.

When we got home, the fun didn’t stop there, because the girls immediately went outside to play, adding lots of herbs to their ‘potions’ and, once they came inside, they then got to make a den with covers hanging from their bunkbeds and finally had toast and jam and are now sitting watching some Wallace and Gromit (first thing they’ve watched all day).

So, yes, all in all, a perfect autumn day. Though I’m pretty wiped out.

 

By the way, if you were wondering where I’ve been, apart from being a bit blogged out from Halloween Book Week, I’ve mostly been drawing and painting (which I am really, really loving at the moment) and you can see much of what I’ve been doing over at my illustration blog. If I’m ever a bit quiet here, do check over there.