New Books Are Here!

Our new Bayard books arrived today, and they are just fantastic as ever! In the StoryBox book there is a great feature from Wonder with WhizKid, this time explaining all about the moon. This should come in real handy to explain this fairly complex idea to the kids. The AdventureBox books looks great too, and I am loving the festive feel (I am sure you know how much I love Christmas!) There is a really nice feature about Polar bears in DiscoveryBox too, plus a real focus on green issues which are destroying their environment; something I feel very strong about and I am glad to have this to help the children get involved and understand this important things.

December? Already?

Wow how is it December already? Time sure flies when you have a family going in every direction! As the winter months set in I thought that it would be a great idea for everyone in the family to grow a plant that they could put in the garden come spring. We went to the local gardening centre where everyone could pick out their plant of choice. We returned with three packs of sunflower seeds and three packs of rose seeds. When we got home we put the soil in the pots and planted our seeds and placed them on the window sill above the sink. We needed a place that received ample sunlight. I can not wait for the plants to start to grow! This will be great for the kids to learn how to care for something and to take pride in the growth of their plant!

After all the planting I was craving something sweet. I decided to make Naughty Chocolate fudge cake. It was extremely simple to make. Other chocolate fudge cakes are usually very heavy and rich, but this cake was very light and airy. A great pick me up for the dreary weather outside! Hopefully there is a nice say coming our way soon!

Christmas Game For Kids

The weekend is nearly here and even thought it is going to be another cold and wintery one we have lots of fun things planned indoors so it is all good.

We are obviously all looking forward to the X factor this week; following Jamie’s shock departure last week who knows what will happen! I am starting to predict Olly, Stacey and Jedward being in the final. Then again I change my mind every week. I am hoping the single will be number one this week in the charts as all the money goes to Great Ormond Street Hospital, a very worthy cause!

We will also be playing lots of games and having lot of general indoor fun. I came across a new game from StoryBox as well yesterday which will be fun for the younger two. Plus it is totally free, which in the run up to Christmas is a winner for me! The game features the StoryBox Favorite character Polo and is very interactive for the kids. They can “hunt” for the Christmas shapes around Polo’s tree-house.

Creative Cooking!

After my freezer clear-out yesterday I was left with a number of unusual ingredients to use up. This included some scallops and prawns, that rather embarrassingly have probably been there since last Christmas! So I typed in the ingredients I had into google for some recipe inspiration and a risotto seemed like a winning idea. So I had a go at it and wow, it was delicious! I should be clearing out my freezer more!

I am going to try and find some more chestnuts this afternoon to make some homemade chestnut stuffing for christmas (I freeze the mix and then defrost and cook on the day). I imagine most of the chestnuts will have gone by now but I thought it might be worth a shot!

Tuesday Blues

I’m feeling rather grumpy today and I am sure it is S.A.D (seasonal affective disorder) kicking in. Last winter I bought a special lamp to help out so I hope to spend some time with that later today. Keeping busy is another great way to distract me, so later today I am going to clear out the big chest freezer in the garage in preparation for Christmas. I am sure this will leave me with some interesting meals for the next day or two as I struggle to put together some meals with odd ingredients, but sometimes this is when my most creative dishes are created. Plus I am hoping to do round one of the Christmas shop today… wish me luck

X Factor Single Is My New Must Have!

Well, despite the horrible weather we still managed to have a lovely weekend. It certainly seems like Winter is here and here to stay don’t you think!?

On a brighter note, we have had a mad X factor weekend. It just seems to get more and more exciting. Plus I was very moved by the Great Ormond Street feature on last nights show; as a mother of four I know just how important the work this charity does is and I am very happy to support it by buying the X factor single.

I thought the single being performed was really good too so I’m sure we will have a lot of fun listening to it and doing our very best impressions of John and Edward’s infamous dance moves!

Pad Thai a Winner

Well, the Pad Thai dish went down really well, I will definitely be making it again. Plus I was surprised how quick and easy it was to make. The whole process only took about 10 minutes, so it is definitely a dish I will consider on evenings when I am a bit pushed for time. The kids all thought the noodles were great fun (like skinny spaghetti apparently) plus the liked the lime and squeezing it all over the dish!

We are off to see my sister in London this weekend which is going to be lots of fun, if not a little tiring. I am hoping to try and get a bit of Christmas shopping in and take the kids to Hamleys, although I am dreading the busy busy streets. Still though, my sister has agreed we should have a nice relaxed evening in, so perhaps a cheeky takeaway and X factor – how lovely.

Dress Disaster

Sadly, yesterday I realized that when it comes to making dresses, I am not supermum as I first thought. Darning snags on clothes is one thing, but making a dress from scratch… I don’t think my skills can do my little girl justice on stage so I have been looking into buying something instead. I do feel a bit guilty about that, but still, I don’t want to let her down with my shoddy attempts. I gave up after about an hour yesterday having come to realize that I really was not up to the job.

Some good news though, James our little hamster is doing very well now! We bought him after one of the Bayard books did an article on hamsters and the kids were determined to own one. We also have lots of chickens (who lay me delicious eggs) but Michael was joking the other day as this month’s DiscoveryBox has a really cute feature on macaque monkeys and he was saying he wouldn’t be surprised to come home and find a cheeky monkey running around the place. Whilst I do admit my place might sometimes be considered a bit of a madhouse, I don’t think it has quite come to that yet!

What a Shocker!

Well, wasn’t the X factor results show a complete shock last night!

Whilst I have been slowly coming around to “Jedward” (especially as my younger kids do love them) when they were in the bottom two with Lucie, I was certain their X factor journey would have to come to an end. Lucie is BY FAR the better singer, a really talented young lady in my opinion! When Simon chose to put it to the public vote though, I was completely gob-smacked. I thought then that Lucie would be going home, as I know the twins do have a cult following, and doubted they would have received the fewest votes of all. Whilst they are thoroughly entertaining and I don’t mind seeing them again in the competition, to me it seems so unfair that Lucie had to go home. I suppose that is just the nature of the competition.

I was excited when Dermot mentioned about the charity single the contestants will be releasing for the Great Ormond Street Hospital children’s charity.
I really can’t wait for the single to come out! I have just joined the official group on Facebook too to follow the updates.

On another note, wasn’t the weather lovely on Saturday? We all went for a lovely walk through the woods and it was just delightful. I love this time of year, as you have to wrap up as it is pretty chilly, but with the beautiful blue sky combined with all the beautiful russet autumn colours set against the green of the land makes me feel very content indeed. That and watching the kids run and leap through the leaves on the ground makes me go all gooey inside too. I think it’s moments like that that make me feel like the luckiest person in the world, with four beautiful children and a wonderful husband.

I have been teaching the kids, with a little help from the latest Adventurebox book, all about the leaves too and helping them understand more about the seasons.

Right, I suppose I really must stop reminiscing about my lovely weekend; I am supermum and I have a Dorothy dress to get making. Wish me luck!

A much better day

Well, thank goodness it is all good news from my house today!

James the hamster was suffering with a case of constipation, and the vet says he will be just fine. I feel very guilty of course, as the suspected cause is too much dry food. James is going on a diet now… He had some medicine, and we are now going to feed him more vegetables instead of the dry food. Apparently it is just one of those things really, but we are going to be very cautious in future.

The other good news is that my eldest daughter Ellie, has just phoned me to say that the parts in the school play have been announced today and she has been given the part of Dorothy! She is so thrilled, she gets her script today and rehearsals are going to start on Monday. I just hope its not all going to be too much for her, as she has started on the Netball team as well, and is starting to get a little but more homework to do this academic year; all preparing her for the start of secondary school next year I suppose. Still though, I am one very proud Mummy today!

Guess who is going to be making one of these then soon?

Have a lovely weekend everyone!