On a more cheerful note

Ia had a friend over today, and friend's mum, Auntie Z, made these items of dolls furniture with them. See the little rabbit doll modelling the swing? And next to that a sofa with pom pom cushions and feather trim.
When we went to the library at the weekend Ia chose herself another junior art book, and now she goes through it herself and choses projects. She made wooden spoon dolls (except we used spoon shapes cut from stiff card) all by herself, maashAllah.

The roses are in full bloom, alhamdulillah. there are even more since I took this photo. We are plugging on with the work, but not keeping too strictly to timetable. When the mood strikes everyone just goes out to the garden.

As for the triop project, by the Will of Allah we have a living creature in the tank. Actually there were more, but they were much smaller, just little dots darting about, and I think the big one ate them. In case you are wondering triops are crustaceans which live in desert puddles after rainfall. Their eggs lie dormant in sand, waiting for the next rain, which is how they can be sold in kits! So, we have a triop, and everyone is still very interested in its progress.