Loved having the girls at home, do they have to go back to school?

Hmm have realised it's a bit like writing two blogs now I have the pictures one.... wonder how long I can keep this up?!

Anyhow today is the last day before the girls go back to school after the Christmas holidays. We had a very lazy morning in pyjamas, watching the rain pelt down and the wind pick up everything in sight. Sasha wrapped up presents to put back under the tree - she's been doing this for the past 3 or 4 days in a row, sometimes more than once a day. She likes to help with the sellotape, or occasionally the folding, and every present must have a bow on. The 'presents' are always her own DVDs - one for her, one for Tamsin, one for Terry and one for Pooh Bear. Very sweet but getting ever so slightly repetitive and time consuming now. Not sure how she's going to take it when we take the tree down on Thursday...

Later when it calmed down, we popped out just a 5 minute walk away to have a little play some school friends. They were lucky enough to have had the school hamster to stay over the holidays, so Tamsin was very keen to go and see her (Candy is her name...). Tamsin is mega excited about February (better than Christmas apparently), as that is when we get to have the hamster in our house for a weekend. Yippeee. I was quite looking forward to that too, until I saw the huge bite it gave the other school friend today!! Vicious thing. Strangely it doesn't seem to have put Tamsin off.

Over Christmas I soaked off the lovely baby border in what used to be our nursery bedroom. The border-removing was quite a cathartic process, as it took a while and some effort but also gave me a much needed break from the girls for a couple of hours (over a couple of days!). Whilst doing it I remembered fondly all the hours I had spent in there, sitting feeding in the middle of the night, cuddling the girls to sleep, and even changing dirty nappies! My next big job is to repaint the room.

I spent this afternoon changing the old nursery into a sensory room for the girls. Well, very loosely speaking that is - all I've done so far is open the boxes and get the exciting new toys out! Things like a massage mat, star projector, blackout tent and flashing lights; all good fun for both girls but designed really to help Sasha and give her somewhere to escape to where she can control the environment. 

We then made pizzas for tea, and played some more before they shared a lovely bedtime bath. Lately it's been getting more and more difficult to persuade Sasha into the bath (and definitely always a 'NO' to hairwash!) but the coloured foam did the trick today.

Am slightly apprehensive about the return to school tomorrow; am just hoping that Sasha will remember how much she enjoys it really. When you think about it, it is a big contrast from lazing around, having what you want when you want during the holidays - in fact, a bit like returning to work, and I know Chris wasn't keen on that! For me it'll mean a chance at last to get the house back in some sort of order... although that may take a few weeks!!