Play & Dough.

So due to the despicable weather The Husband finally decided to tackle the jungle of a back garden with the lawnmower, our pensioner of a dog is now rather grateful that he can walk across the garden instead of having to leap and bound over the length of the grass.

Thing Two was absolutely ecstatic that she could go out in the garden again (it's either like a bog out there or a sun trap, neither ideal) and spent literally all her time after school bar coming in for tea out there playing and then we had tears and sulks at bath time because over three hours simply wasn't long enough to play outside and be satisfied.

Even The Dog was in a playful mindset and had a quick game of fetch and pull the rope.

The garden still isn't quite safe completely for The Toddler and due to the disgusting heat, far too hot for him so I got out the play dough I made the other week and he adored it.  Unfortunately he didn't quite agree with the concept of sharing and thus shrieked like a girl every time Thing Two tried to use any of the cookie cutter and the sight of him armed with my rolling pin was actually quite alarming, so we thought it best not to irk him too much, just in case he got violent.

However Thing Two did manage to stay in long enough to have a brief play with the play dough and surprised me by doing this for me.  She really is a little darling, sometimes.   The Toddler came up with some game that required his utmost concentration and kept him occupied for such a long time, he basically had me make small balls and splotches of play dough to which he gathered and planted on his large blob of play dough, The Husband took over when Thing Two bleated about needing me out with her to play football and the like in the garden.