Even though the weather hasn’t been quite as consistent this week so far Michael is still intent on barbecuing whenever and wherever possible!
I though I would therefore try and spice up the traditional take on a kebab and made some free-range chicken and lime kebabs, with chillies, herbs and even apples, which Michael cooked and we ate with some new potatoes with a lemon and olive oil drizzle and a green leafy salad. It was really tasty and really quite healthy too. I would definitely recommend giving the kebabs a go at your next BBQ/party as they were very simple but were an interesting change!
On another note I have heard that the Finchley Road (O2 Centre) cinema are running an Ice Age 3 promotion this weekend. Sadly I won’t be able to make it down into London, but is sounds really fun! To celebrate the special feature in last month’s DiscoveryBox book, there will be people there dressed up in fun Ice Age 3 t-shirts giving away free copies of the book with all the behind the scenes features. If you haven’t seen the movie yet I would definitely recommend going down there on Saturday to see it, especially as there is the event running!
Well what a weekend it has been. The weather has been lovely and we had the most glorious BBQ in the garden yesterday.
I loved watching Andy Murray win convincingly on Saturday and am really looking forward to watching him play today (good luck Andy!)
Of course the media has been totally dominated with the death of Michael Jackson and I was pleased to see his greatest hits had made number one in the album chart yesterday. Indeed Michael and I have always been big fans of M.J and we played all his greatest hits very loudly as the soundtrack to our BBQ. I think the true sign of how much of a legend the man was musically is the fact that the kids hadn’t really heard a lot of his music and they have loved listening to him this weekend. I think that his music is truly timeless and will be loved for many generations to come. Despite the darker side to Michael’s personal life, I think there is no denying we have lost a real musical legend, and that’s what it should be about. Too much attention is payed to the celebrity status of music stars today and this means we focus much less on the music, which does not bode well for the future.
I am always trying to encourage the children to express an interest in a wide and diverse range of music and have loved introducing them to a lot of Michael’s classic songs which were very well received. They have also loved the 2 free Putumayo songs offered by Storybox this month which has been introducing them to world music. By encouraging them to seek further than the commercial tracks that dominate the charts today I hope to see them as well-rounded music lovers (and maybe even producers!) of the future.
My thoughts go out to Michael Jackson’s family at this difficult time. I think it was apparent that his later years were very troubled and I do hope he now rests in peace.
After our trip to Longleat last month the kids really enjoyed seeing the lions there and have since been keen to learn more about them and as they learned they were at such threat as a species they wanted to learn more about ways to help them.
In this month’s Storybox there is a great feature all about Lions with lots of facts presented in a very child friendly way and the kids have absolutely loved it. I’m really pleased the children are showing signs of being very conscientious about all living things on the planet as green issues are very strong to my heart!
As the children are on half-term this week we have decided to take a visit to Longleat in Bath today! The kids and I love watching it on the television and have always wanted to go. It’s a shame the weather isn’t as good as it was last weekend, but hopefully this will keep the big crowds away. As we have been learning lots about Giraffes with this month’s StoryBox book, the kids are really hoping to see lots of them there today. Personally I am very excited about seeing some Lions, as I think they are such beautiful and majestic creatures. Anyway, I better get going else the kids are going to get mad at me!
Well the frittata went down very well last night; everybody loved it. I served it with a delicious green salad dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and for pudding we had poached pears and ice cream which was totally scrummy. I am hoping to take the kids out to Longleat Park tomorrow as it is half-term and we haven’t been out this week so far. Plus they really want to go see some giraffes after reading all about them in this month’s StoryBox! It should be a great day out!
Well the good news is that scrambled eggs and brie recipe I tried last night was really delicious and when you are feeding six mouths everyday its good to have lots of thrifty recipes to hand! I will definitely be doing that again. The bad news however is that the boiler has well and truly died and it is going to cost us in the region of six hundred pounds to repair it. I think holiday will have to wait to be booked now! I’m going to have a go at a vegetable casserole tonight too. I have lots of veg that I need to use up so in terms of keeping with the healthy but thrifty cooking theme, it’s all good!
Having spent the best part of last weekend learning all about Tsunami’s as we built our own model version of the potentially devastating enormous wave, imagine my surprise to find that in this month’s Discovery Box book there is a big feature on volcanoes! If only we had had the giant foldout feature last weekend when we were building the Tsunami for the “Natural Disasters” project for school. Oh well, at least the kids now have a very comprehensive about natural disasters now, which is good as it is clearly a big feature on the curriculum. Also, there were a lot of people who did volcanoes for their project but only a handle did tsunamis so it’s good to be different!
Clearly all the long hours helping out with the Tsunami project at the weekend paid off as my daughter was awarded an A+ for her presentation and model. She was very excited last night when she told us the news and apparently her speech went very well. We had a pizza night last night to celebrate with a homemade spinach and ricotta pizza to enjoy. (Healthy and fun; perfect!) The models will be staying at school for the rest of the week but I will be sure to upload them as soon as I can! With all the excitement going on lately, I forgot to mention that our new Bayard books have arrived, and as always they are fab! The kids love them too, so after pizza they were all happy to have an early night, as they were allowed to read in bed. This gave me the opportunity to spend a bit of time with Michael, which he totally deserves after he treated me to the surprise spa session on Monday!
I’m feeling all loved up again as Michael took me out for a surprise day at the Roman Spa in Bath yesterday! (He is such a romantic at heart). My parents had the kids for the day and we had a lovely 2-hour session in the baths, as well as a lovely lunch at Café Rouge. What a wonderful Bank holiday Monday! I had a lot of fun with the kids making the Tsunami for the “Natural Disasters” Project. Our wave went in this morning into school and I’ll let you know how the presentation went and hopefully get some pictures on later this week!
We have a wedding to attend this weekend as well up in Manchester so its all very busy and traveling around at the moment!
We had our first Barbeque last night, which makes me feel that summer really is here. Michael cooked some free-range chicken marinated in some Reggae Reggae Sauce, which was delicious.
We had barbequed corn-on-the cob with it as well, which is one of my all time favourites; its so simple but utterly delicious. As a naughty treat for pudding we had our flakey bananas. You take a banana and slice it in half and place a chocolate flake inside, then wrap in foil and place on the barbeque. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream it is totally divine. Michael and I also have a splash of rum on ours before we wrap then in foil for a really naughty treat. It was so much fun and the kids played outside until it started getting dark. The most fun we have had on a Tuesday school night for a while!
