Yesterday my lovely Husband bought me daffodils to keep me going until Spring :)

This morning we looked at clothes the Italians wore during the Renaissance.

Elodie and Lucia created their Italian project books today covering the aspects we have looked at so far:

Italy on the map, Italian flag, Venice, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Mount Vesuvius, Vivaldi, and The Mona Lisa

Drawing Mount Vesuvius.

We made Mount Vesuvius. This is such a fun experiment - red food colouring, bicarbonate of soda and add vinegar - FIZZZZZZ. I enjoyed it as much as the girls did.

Lucia had to touch the bubbles.

We built the Leaning Tower of Pisa...

Will it stay?

Any more bricks?

And then it fell! Lucia sniggered.

We rebuilt it and then the girls hugged it to stop it falling over again :)

We made a Gondola and Elodie took Lucia to see the sights.

We were listening to Vivaldi's Four Seasons this afternoon when Elodie picked up a spaghetti stick from the Italy display and started to conduct. We laughed very hard!

Lucia then took it one step further and conducted with the spaghetti, to Vivaldi, inside the Gondola. Very very amusing.

Thursdays are Trampolining lessons and Story Club days.

This morning we made pizza! We made the dough and the girls had fun kneading. We let it rise for 45 minutes while I cleared up my floury dining room and kitchen :)

Topping the pizza bases. The girls chose from the fridge: tomatoes, cucumber, cheese and green olives. I also gave them baby spinach and oregano.

Lucia's completed masterpiece.

We had pizza for lunch!

Playing with the watery lego Venice.

The girls painted egg cartons blue to represent the waters in Venice.

Dom is such a careful painter. Unlike Lucia, she does not like being sticky or messy.

Making and decorating Venetian Gondolas.

Gondolas bobbing about in the waves of Venice.

Elodie made Dominique a sandcastle, complete with flag which she ran inside to make. Dom is teething and was feeling grumpy so Elodie went into 'big sister mode' to cheer her up :) And it worked.

The girls. I managed to do some good gardening while they played.

Working on their Italian project this morning (on our new dining room table - hooray! - chairs next!).

Our dry Venice made of lego. We talked about living in a city and how people walk or drive in buses or cars - the girls had no idea what I was going to do...

...then we filled it with water (with blue food colouring). The girls were intrigued - I did not show them photos of Venice until after this experiment so they were just enthralled and then very quiet when they looked at the pictures.

We discussed the Alps, the Apennines, the surrounding European countries and Sicily as the girls coloured in their maps. We then located Venice and Pisa.

The girls' Italian flags. We made them out of material - just to be different this time.

We listened and danced to Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

Colours of the Italian flag. I face-painted the girls before their gymnastics lessons this afternoon.

The girls' first look at an artist. Leonardo Da Vinci was quite appropriate for our Italian project.

Elodie's Mona Lisa

Lucia's Mona Lisa.

Elodie working on her pic 'n' pin dolphin this evening.

We start a new project on Italy tomorrow...watch this space...

Feast of the Epiphany.

The Magi are filled with awe by what they see; heaven on earth and earth in heaven; man in God and God in man; they see enclosed in a tiny body the One whom the entire world cannot contain

I have been looking after a poorly husband and 3 partied out children so I didn't plan anything for today's feast... maybe next year :)

The girls went to another friend's party yesterday, their second in 2 days. It's a hard life when you're little...

Food time.

Today the children went to a friend's Birthday party. Elodie and Lucia had princess face painting done which threw me a little as they looked too grown up - but they had a lovely time and wore themselves out.

Food time :)

This morning the girls made ice skates with card and paper-clips as a little activity to start the day.

Ice-skates :)

Snow was forecast today so Elodie and Lucia each covered a pinecone in peanut butter and sunflower seeds to hang out for the garden birds. It snowed tiny snowflakes all day but they didn't settle.

Ready for the birds.

Drawing birds looking for food in the winter. The girls each chose a bird from our British Countryside book, drew the bird in pencil and used feathers and googly eyes to finish.

Making playdough:

4 tbsp flour

2 tbsp salt

drop of oil

2 tbsp water

food colouring

Lucia made pink playdough and Elodie made blue.

We had a cooooold walk today - it tried to snow but couldn't quite manage it.