To X Factor and To Christmas!

Well, well, well, the X-factor finalist 2009 has been revealed! I must say, I had no idea who would be taking away the prize, I was on the edge of my seat to say the least! I’m so happy for Joe, I’ve always had a soft spot for him (especially after I found out he’s a campaigner for Great Ormond street). It was such a good show, and looking retrospectively it just goes to prove that old Aesop fable of the tortoise and the hare – slow and steady (and consistent) wins the race! I also found out that he had applied in 2007, so if first don’t succeed try, try again (it worked for Alexandra too!)

I tried making it more fun whilst the adverts were on by making up our own ‘judge panel’ with the children – with who they think will win and why and to give their best X-factor singing and dancing skills.

Overall, I had a fantastic weekend, the X-factor buzz was definitely much appreciated after doing most of Christmas shopping. Staying true to my colours, I organized it to militant precision with where to go and what I needed to buy, I know without it I would have been as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Thankfully it was crispy blue skies around London which made shopping and meeting with my sister all the better. We ended up having coffee and a lovely catch up in Covent Garden, apparently there’s an outdoor lido which is open all year round near there – I know it was clear skies but it’s going to take a lot more for me to step into an outside swimming pool!

So after an exhausting (yet enjoyable) Saturday shopping, I was feeling rather unadventurous with preparing dinner so went with a fail safe pasta bolognese, it always goes down a treat. We all gathered round and watched Stacey voted off, although I thought she had done a cracking job. I put my feet up because I knew the Sunday I had a big day ahead of me.

On Sunday, I prepared a special roast (Christmas decorations and X-factor final!) I decided to roast parsnips and have lashings of beetroot to give the plate a burst of colour. During the day we all spent getting the decorations out from storage and letting the children pick out the tree and getting all in the festive spirit!

A handy little hint, a way to keep the little ones busy is buy making some decorations ourselves, I particularly like to teach them how to tie bows with simple gift wrap ribbon (make sure it has the wire edges) to then pop it on the tree. Watching the X-factor with nothing but Christmas lights made it even more magical. Here’s to Christmas!

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!

Ponytastic

Afternoon everyone! I hope you all had a lovely weekend, we certainly did as we popped into my friend with the farm (which happens to have 2 horses on it) on Saturday. As we often go to hers I took over the lunch as I thought it was only fair, and made a really scrummy salmon en-croute with a spinach and feta cheese filling. She seemed really delighted with it and it was actually really easy to make (and indeed transport) so I would definitely recommend it for such an occasion.

We all had a lovely time we the horses (even Michael had a short go on the bigger one, called Charlie). The kids really do enjoy going to see them and feeding the lots of treats like apples and carrots. Then of course home for X-factor, although we really are missing Louis and hope he is going to be able to come back soon. It must be a very hard place for him right now, not that I would really feel for the terrible twins for not having their mentor around!

We also carried on with a bit of the DIY on Sunday so slowly slowly we are getting there!
My oldest has her first Netball match this week, I really want to go and support her but she keeps saying that I will make her nervous and she won’t play well! Bit of a tricky one – wonder what other mothers have done in this instance? I might just end up there anyways – so proud of her for making the team!

Lovely Weekend Ahead

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!

Dinosaur Fun!

After watching the Dinotopia DVD a friend loaned me, we’ve gone dinosaur mad this weekend! Even if we don’t win a copy of it in the AdventureBox Wordfactory competition we will be sure to get a DVD soon I am sure of it! We had a go at making papier-mache dinosaur hats which were a big success and used in many dinosaur games in the garden on Saturday afternoon! We also had prehistoric feast on Saturday night (which I shamefully prepared whilst watching Britains got talent – I’m hooked!). I decided to do a semi-buffet for a fun change, and had one half of the dinner table the “herbivore” side and the other the “carnivore” side! On the carnivore side I made a homemade pizza base in the shape of a bone (surprisingly easy I promise) with lots of organic sausage slices on it (or dinosaur meat!) and we had a big green salad on the herbivore side along with lots of other little nibbles on both sides! It was great fun!

Scary Stuff!

Thumbs up for the Roald Dahl Museum

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a lovely weekend; we certainly did here. On Saturday we took a trip over to the Roald Dahl museum and it was a really great day out. The weather was lovely for one and we put on an audiotape of Fantastic Mr.Fox to listen to in the car on route, which really got us in the mood for some Dahl appreciation! We weren’t disappointed when we arrived either as the all the kids were given Story Ideas Book (which they loved). I was given a visitor’s guide, which really helped us make the most of it. As we finished enjoying the museum after about an hour and a half and it was such a lovely day we decided to explore Great Missenden (the village where Roald Dahl lived) too so it was a really great day out. I would definitely love to go again (as would the kids I’m sure) so I’m still hoping that we will win a Golden Ticket in the Adventure Box competition!

On Sunday we took another trip to my friends farm as the kids were dying to see the horses again! I took over a whole Salmon for us though as I felt bad for all these visits! We all had a lovely feast though (Salmon, lemon buttered new potatoes and green salad) and it was so lovely we ate outside. Another great weekend, and the kids are back to school today after the Easter holidays so I can get the house looking lovely again!

Time to distract!

Hey there everyone,

Since yesterday’s riding session the kids have not been able to stop talking about horses! We’ve gone a bit horse mad in fact! I’m waiting for “mum can we get a pony?”; and the look on Michael’s face! It would be quite nice I’m sure, but also very expensive and time consuming, so I’m afraid the answer will definately be no! At least it’s a good excuse to visit my friend more!

To try and distract the kids we are going to all go to the Roald Dahl Museum and Storycentre tomorrow! I have been wanting to go myself since hearing about it in this months AdventureBox books competition We have entrered the competition too, but I just couldn’t wait! Since the kids will be back at school soon its the last Easter treat. I will be sure to let you all know on Monday how it all goes! Have a lovely weekend.

Horsey Thursday!

The pate we made yesterday was a real success, totally delicious and nutritious!

After the success of our day out at the point to point on Monday, the kids have been a bit horse obsessed this week, so I have agreed to take them riding later this afternoon! We are going to visit my friend on her farm as she has her own horses and ponies. She breeds them actually, they are various different types of Welsh horse; the section A’s are the smallest and the Section D’s are the biggest (I think I have that right!) I persoanlly love the big chestnut the best, he is bred from one of the top Welsh Section D’s “Derwen Quartz” and he has a beautiful long flaxen mane. Plus he just adores kisses and cuddles; it suprised me just how affectionate he can be!

It will be lovely to see her as it has been a while, and as a thank you for playing with her horses I will be taking the rest of our haddock and egg pate, along with some chocolate crispie cakes the kids and I made last night. It should be a really nice day.

Wonderful Easter!

Hello everyone. I hope you all had a lovely Easter – We did!

Sorry I didn’t get the chance to blog yesterday but we were out having a lovely family day at the point-to-point near Winchester. The weather was just stunning; I think I even have a bit of a tan today. It was a really great day out, although I am quite exhausted today. Michael and I both went with all four kids and we managed to set up a very nice picnic area right next to the finishing line. I even had a little bet on the first race but sadly lost my 2 pounds! I’m really not the gambling sort, although it was exciting cheering the horses on across the finish line! Sadly my horse, Future To Future, fell on the last lap, even though he was leading for the first two! The kids really enjoyed all the other activities, like ferret racing, and we won some lovely plum liqueur on the tombola! It really felt like summer yesterday! Hurrah!

Sadly the weather is not too great today so we are having a bit of a lazy day! The kids have been quite tired from yesterday too, so have been happy reading their Bayard books, and relaxing and so on. Sounds good to me!

I love Roald Dahl!

Hello everyone!

I’ve been getting really nostalgic lately about Roald Dahl having seen the latest competition from Bayard.. You can win the chance to go (as a family) to the Roald Dahl museum and story centre!

We entered at the weekend and I’m keeping my fingers crossed, as I think it would be an amazing day out. To be honest, even if we don’t win, I think I would still like to go. I loved all of his books so much as a child, and I love reading them to my children today, who love his adventures as much as I ever did! I really couldn’t say which was my favourite book, as I think they are all so wonderful, however, a few that really stand out to me are Georges Marvellous Medicine, The Twits and of course Charlies Chocolate factory.

The orginal movie of Charlies Chocolate factory is to this day, still one of my favourite films, and although Jonny Depp is one of my favourite actors around, the original Willy Wonka played by Gene Wilder stands out to me as one of the greatest performances ever. I really believe he brought Dahl’s Wonka to life!

I think the kids and I will watch the film later this afternoon in fact, along with some delicious homemade popcorn!