Well, this is the final weekend before all the kids return to school on Monday so we thought we would do our best to make it extra special and enjoy some great quality family time.
Michael has promised to be home nice and early tonight after work so that we can have a games evening together while we also enjoy a mexican-theme food night. I have bought some fresh avocados to have a go at making some fresh guacamole, plus some sour cream and fresh chillies and coriander to try and make it as authentic as possible. I was inspired by Jamie Oliver’s new cooking show “American Roadshow” that was on the other night; he spent some time cooking lots of mexican dishes that looked totally delicious so I thought I would have a go myself tonight too!
I am really looking forward to making eating lots of delicious food and playing all of our games later; Guitar hero, cranium and of course our home-made skittles game
Then tomorrow we are all going over to one of my best-friends house for a lovely lunch. I have blogged about her before, she is the one who lives on a farm and has two lovely horses that the children just love to ride! I haven’t seen her all summer though so it will be good to have a catch up, plus Michael can enjoy a nice beer with her husband Neil.
Then of course in the evening we will all be gathering around the goggle box to enjoy X-factor and probably some homemade pizza and popcorn! I can’t wait. So far we are already all totally hooked by the new series, sad but true!
Good Friday everyone!
Michael is off from work today, and we are all going on another bike ride in a bit! Then when we get home, I have a lovely dinner planned. For starters we shall be having some delicious carrot and coriander soup, but the kids insist we leave a few carrots for the Easter bunny! For main course, a traditional roast chicken dinner; and for our pudding, we will be having a delicious Willy Wonka chocolate cake!
Looks like I have quite the busy day ahead of me! Have a lovely Easter everybody!
Hey there all!
I hope all the other mummies are having as much fun as me this Easter! We had a great time yesterday afternoon watching the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Wouldn’t you just love for there to be a real place like Willy’s? As a child, I often dreamed there was! Well, in fact, there almost is… I caught the latest instalment from Willie Harcourt-Cooze last night on channel four; he is the real life Willy Wonka with his homemade gourmet Venezuelan chocolate.
The Real Life Willy Wonka!
I just love him, and we will certainly be having a go at some of his delicious chocolate recipes for Easter! More than anything, I love his passion for what he does, it’s so refreshing to see these days.
Good Morning everyone,
I was wondering if anybody watched the program on Channel 4 last night about child prodigies? I must admit I found it very interesting. As a mother of four, I have a passionate interest in education and encouraging activities such as reading; I believe it helps a child develop strong intellectual and cognitive capacities that will set them up for life. However, what I witnessed last night was a whole different level.
I have always been fascinated by the concept of “nature V.s nutue” and my own opinion on this issue has been that it is almost certainly a little bit of both. Obviously some children are born with more able than others in terms of their genetic and brain structure, but as I have always said, without the correct nurturing environment, this can often go to waste.
In the program last night Mark Dolan the shows presenter met with children who had mind-boggling mental capacities. However the program sought to answer the question “are these young geniuses a force of nature or the product of some intensive nurture?” I’m still not quite sure how I feel about the answer to this.
The first child we met was a literacy genius and whilst she was clearly pushed by her parents, she did seem happy in her environment, if not a little isolated. This case was in the USA and I don’t think there were really any issues of exploitation. However, the other two cases were from the Far East and there were much darker connations as it seems that the genius the children display can be quite profitable. I just hope these children are happy. My kids can never complain again however about me pushing them academically that’s for sure!
I would love to hear your thoughts on this issue!
Bye for now!
Hello everyone!
I hope anybody that had a go at my soup enjoyed it and found it to be a success. Last night was VERY naughty at our house as we indulged in a very trashy evening. I don’t know if it is because of the weather, but lately I have been feeling tired and a bit down again, and this week I have been really struggling to get up in the mornings. Perhaps it is because of the change in routine over Christmas holidays, but the early mornings for the school run have seemed a real struggle this week. I do always seem to suffer mildly with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and I am wondering if that is why I the mornings have been so difficult lately. Does anybody have any advice on this matter? I would really love to hear from you. I think I may invest in a dawn simulator; does anybody have any experience with them?
Anyway, as a result of being exhausted at the end of the day, having done a big shop (the supermarket was heaving) and made the children’s packed-lunches, put them to bed having read them their favourite Bayard books, I was ready for bed myself and it wasn’t even 9pm yet! Michael and I don’t really watch a lot of television, but in my state of mind, all I wanted to do was snuggle on the sofa and watch a bit of trash. So I thought we’d see watch all the fuss was with Celebrity Big Brother. We never watch Big Brother at all, as I normally have no desire to watch inadequate individuals behaving like infants. However, I was surprised to recognize quite a few of the “celebrities” this year, and after 5 minutes of watching we were hooked. I really warmed to Verne, the actor who plays “Mini-Me” in the Austin Powers films (Which I do love!) as he seems a very warm and genuine person. I felt very naughty watching, but if I feel like I did last night, I may end up tuning in later to see what is going on. Oh dear, I better hurry up and get my SAD lamp.
Hello everyone – the good news is that I think the kids are on the mend and we didnt all go down with poorly tummys! Phew!
I’ve kept them off school again today as they are still not 100%, but they are cetainly better than they have been the last couple of days. They were well enough to get up this morning and try and watch TV – nice try guys I thought! I’ve sent them back to bed with their Bayard Books to try and keep the boredom levels low until they are back in school tomorrow.
I think we might do some artwork this afternoon if I can’t keep them in bed! Perhaps draw some more Christmas trees to try and get the perfect one – I’ll send in the best ones to take part in this month’s Storybox Books competitions. The best five they recieve will win a Christmas CD which would be a lot of fun in the car with the kids.
By the way, did anybody watch Willie’s Chocolate Christmas last night on Channel 4? It’s all about Willie Harcourt-Cooze who is a very eccentric chocolate lover who runs his own factory in Devon. He is quite the chef and puts chocolate in absolutely everthing!! He also seems like a really nice family guy who adores his wife and kids; he’s really quite dreamy – think i’ve got a bit of crush on him!! And the thought of a chocolate christmas – sorry Willie but I think we might be gatecrashing yours on Christmas day! Yum yum yum.
I’m going to have a go at his Chocolate mince pies this weekend to see how they compare to Delia’s which I made a few weeks ago! I’ll let you know how they go down – a bit more of an expensive recipe, as Willie’s 100% chocolate bars aren’t cheap, but they are a bit special and as we are so close to christmas now I don’t mind treating everyone.
Did anyone watch the Jamie Oliver programme on Channel 4 last night, Jamie’s Ministry of Food? I was shocked that there are mothers out there who don’t know how to cook and get take away dinners for their kids every night. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame these parents, I understand that they are in a situation where they don’t have the money to get fresh ingredients and they have never learnt to cook, but it still shocked me. It made me realise how important it is to pass on your knowledge to your children, so this afternoon, all the kids are helping me cook an easy peasy dinner, whether they like it or not! I think we’re going to cook Tuna Pasta Bake as that’s dead simple. I found a great recipe here on netmums.
Dried pasta
1 chopped onion
1 crushed clove or garlic
1 tin of tuna
1 tin chopped tomatoes
Mixed herbs or oregano
Grated cheese
Put the pasta on to cook for about 10 minutes (allow 75g-115g/3oz-4oz dried pasta per adult, and about half this per child). Drain the pasta once cooked.
Use tuna in oil if you have some. Pour a bit of the oil from the tuna into a pan and fry some onion and garlic (if you have it). Pour away the rest of the oil. Add the tuna to the pan, and heat through and mix up for a minute.
Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and some mixed herbs or oregano, and a little black pepper. Cook for 5-10 minutes.
Add to cooked pasta.
To make it into a ‘bake’ pile it all into an oven dish, and top with cheese.
Bake for 20-30 minutes at 180 C/Gas 4.
I hope they enjoy cooking as much as I do! Surely nothing can go wrong with this recipe, right?!
