A Family Fun Evening Out!

Part of what we love doing here at A Mothers Ramblings is making everyday fun. It might be that instead of doing the dishes we do water experiments (that sneakily get the dishes clean), or make a new game to play with each other such as a Marble Chance Game (even if I did have to wake up early to see it).

But what we are also love to do is to spend time with each other outside of the house. Having outdoor adventures and often in some unlikely places.

Budget Mothers Day Ideas Request and A Competition!

I am being sent a little gift from the Budget team for Mothers Day. Which is nice.

I always loved Mothers Day, even before I was a Mother to the two most adorable children ever*, there is something just so lovely about being able to say to your Mother;

You know I don't say it enough but I love you, I really appreciate you and you are doing a good job at being my Mum as I haven't lost any limbs/I can count to ten/I can boil an egg/Get dressed on my own.

A Home Made Marble Chance Game

When Daddy and I got married we decided to do some of the things that we used to love doing, but had soon grown out of... like playing Marbles. It was great being able to share childhood games with each other and one of the great things about having children is that we can teach them all the games that we played as a child... like Marbles! The other morning Daddy had gotten up with Baby Boy and Top Ender (to give me a needed extra hour or two of sleep) and after they had played and then eaten breakfast and done the dishes it was still too early to wake me up. So Daddy looked around and decided to make use of the various craft items that live in the living room, waiting to be used. So what does a grown man of 30-something do when faced with various cardboard tubes, a shoe box and some sticky tape? He makes a Blue Peter inspired Marble Chance game of course!

Late Night Snack - Wordless Wednesday

Children's Clothing from Boden - A Review and Giveaway

We were given vouchers to spend at Boden.

You can tell it is Spring, not only are there some lovely Daffodils, Crocus and Hyacinths in my garden and little Spring outfits in most Stores and catalogues, but when I open my back door in the morning, it doesn't get shut again until Top Ender and Baby Boy are going up to bed. Mainly the door is left open to get some lovely fresh air in the house, but also to allow easy access to the back garden for Top Ender and Baby Boy to play on their ever expanding collection of garden toys.

Yesterday evening when we got home from the School Run there was a parcel waiting for us from Boden. I must admit that before Boden approached me all I knew about them was it was a Yummy Mummy Clothing Choice. Even Wikipedia (my source of information for almost everything) says;

"Boden has a reputation for designing bright, attractive clothes for the upper middle classes"

I'm the Innocent Queen of E!

We received a small hamper of drinks, fruit tubes, t-shirts, magnets and some Endive (that's lettuce to you and me) from Innocent...

Epicurean's that we are, I am sure we all know about Innocent Drinks by now. They have that rather cute advert where a bottle of juice saves the day... well saves people from drinking non tasty drinks at least. Anyway seeing as they are a rather enchanting company they sent me a few goodies, including the new alphabet fridge magnets after crowning me the Queen of E! All I had to do in order to receive my elevated royal position was take a picture of the new letter E fridge magnet with something that started with an E. This started a great conversation between Daddy and I of words starting with the letter E. It went a little like this.

Elephants? No, they tend to not like magnets stuck to them. 

Entrance sign? No, we don't have one anywhere. 

Exit sign? See the previous answer.

Encoder? Nobody would know what that was unless they knew what an Encoder looked like.

Eggs? Innocent already did that much better than we could.

Epiphany? I am not sure how to photograph that...

Enormous? You thinking of taking a picture of my bum?

Eh? Didn't we already say Elephant? I'll elephant you in a minute!

Eventually however I had an idea and you can see it below. I rather like it, it's all effulgent and colourful.

Innocent E - Elastic Bands

Enough about me though and more about Innocent. You can join in with the fun by buying the Innocent products (Kids Smoothies and Fruit Tubes) which contain the new magnets and then take your own picture of the letter of the day and if it is the best picture of the day you can win prizes!

Everyone can find out about it at Innocent Magnet A-Z and of course by following the Innocent team on Twitter, where they are posting links about all the letters!

Find Me a Gift - A Family Portrait Experience

We received an experience voucher for a portrait experience from find me a gift.

When I was small every year my parents would take me and my sister to a local photographer to have professional photographs taken and then every few years we would have a whole family portrait taken too. They were all displayed in various rooms of the house and I loved that you could see the family resemblance between us all and that my parents were proud of the family that they had created between them. In my home I have a lot of pictures, but due to the difficulties of taking a photo of the entire family at the same time there are very few of all of us at the same time, so when find me a gift asked if they could send me a voucher for a portrait experience for Mothers Day I was very excited!

Thomas and Friends Live On Stage : A Circus Comes To Town - A Review

We received four free tickets to see the show.

Baby Boy loves anything to do with planes trains and automobiles. just like his Daddy. We will quite often watch Thomas the Tank Engine on TV and own the classic series on DVD (sorry Daddy owns the classic series on DVD) and so when we saw that Thomas and his friends were coming to our local theatre and it was confirmed that we had tickets courtesy of the lovely Press and Communications team at Milton Keynes Theatre I am not sure who was more excited out of Daddy and Baby Boy.

We made our way to the Theatre along with what seemed every other 2/3/4/5/6 year old in the local area and their parents and found several cast members walking around the seats talking in character to the children and their parents about Thomas and Sodor. Baby Boy didn't know where to look as he was so excited and when he heard Thomas making a "Peep Peep" from the stage he knew where to look and started to stare until cast members arrived on stage.

The story is about Thomas accidentally making a mistake meaning that all the engines on Sodor need to pull together to fix the mistake and allow Thomas to prove that he really is a useful engine. There were only eight cast members, but with clever costume changes there appeared to be many more and although the show only lasted 90 minutes including the interval with the number of up beat songs (many of which I recognised from the TV Show) it managed to keep Baby Boy amused for most of the time. Top Ender enjoyed the show despite her alleged dislike of anything to do with Thomas and with Daddy, Baby Boy and me cheered, shouted, clapped and sang along.

If the show is coming to a theatre near you grab tickets as soon as you can!

Design Your Own T-Shirts And A Giveaway!

We were given T-Shirts and Fabric Crayons to play with and to give away!

Top Ender may only be seven, but she has definite ideas about what she likes to wear and is always designing new outfits for her and her dolls to wear. So far I haven't let her loose on a sewing machine, but she has pretty much free reign over what she gets to wear and what clothes she can put with what. Even Baby Boy at almost three has a firm idea on what he likes to wear, and he loves wearing hats so much that at Christmas I brought him two Fedora's!

When we were asked by an online clothing company QTag, if we would like to design our own T-Shirts using Fabric Crayons on some plain white T-Shirts, I knew that this was something that Top Ender and Baby Boy would love to do. They had already customised some canvas bags at a School fete and I couldn't help but think that Top Ender would be in her element designing her own clothes! So one morning we sat down and I explained what we were going to do, and confirmed that that this time we were allowed to draw on clothes! Top Ender decided that her theme was going to be Butterflies, and set about drawing them on her T-Shirt. Baby Boy decided that dinosaurs would be his best option whilst I decided that my favourite season should be immortalised in crayon on a T-Shirt... more on that later.

Zoobles - A Toy Review

We were sent a Zooble toy in order to do a review.

Absolutely ages ago Top Ender was sent a Zooble to review. If you have children of a certain age (4-9) then you may well know by now what a Zooble is, but for those of you like me who have blinkers on so that major playground crazes sweep by without being noticed let me explain.

Zoobles are small animals that roll up into a ball (a little over 3cm in diameter when rolled) to move from place to place and to stay safe when sleeping in their happitat (see what they did there?!), and when placed upon the top of their happitat magically spring to life! Each Zooble has a happitat that is unique to them (although the magnets in the top of the happitats will activate any Zooble, but as I am sure you have guessed most little girls playing with them will have it memorised which happitat belongs to which creature!

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LeapFrog's National Short Film Festival

We love Leapfrog products in our house and have done since Top Ender was a few months old. If you look though Top Ender's and Baby Boy's most used Toys you will see that there are a lot of LeapFrog toys there! Now I am not turning this into an infomercial about LeapFrog, but it was just important that you knew that we really do love the brand and their toys.

You see I was asked if I would like to be a judge for the LeapFrog Short Film Festival.

I know how cool right?!

The competition is open to children aged between four and nice years of age and is giving the children a chance to be director and make a short film based on a fun Family day out (now you know why I am involved right?!). The lucky finalists will be able to attend the LeapFrog's Short Film Festival Premiere on May 31st at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden and will receive full celebrity treatment (including being photographed by Paparazzi on the Red carpet) and they will get to meet me!

Me at the Last Awards Ceremony I went to...

The other judges include Dave Benson-Philips (Yes him off the Telly) and Siobhan Freegard from Netmums and we will announce the winning film on the night and they will an all expenses paid family trip to Florida with an exclusive visit to Universal Film Studios. They can of course take me with them if they want...

To be in with a chance of winning just record your 90 second video of Family and upload it at www.netmums.com/home/leapster. Entries are accepted until April 17^th 2011 and the shortlist will be announced on the site shortly after.

And if you do enter... GOOD LUCK!

Tesco Baby Clothes And A Competition

At the moment the Tesco Baby Event is going on which means lots of savings all across the store on all things Baby. This has meant that Auntie and I have spent ages looking through the Tesco website, making sure that we are stocking up on all the brands that we like and having a good look at all the Baby outfits, making us both very broody! Tesco asked if there were any outfits that either Smallest Cousin or Baby Boy would like. Unfortunately for Baby Boy, he isn't so much a baby any more (he will be three this May!) but Smallest Cousin at Nine Months is well within the Baby size range. My sister had a good look through the baby clothes on the Tesco website and decided on three cute little outfits, which she thought adorable.

Unfortunately for my sister there were several more which she thought adorable, but luckily with the Baby Event on there is 20% off the clothes and so she is making a saving really! If you would like to take advantage of the 20% off then you have until the 6th April 2011 to do so and for five lucky readers I have a voucher code for £10 off your purchase too!

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning one of the vouchers is to leave a comment on this post and use the phrase Family Fun (just in case you fall into my spam filters). I will assign all comments a number and randomly choose five numbers and contact the winners after 8am on Tuesday 29th March 2011.

Top Ender shares her Love of Reading

Top Ender and I love going to the library together, it's part of how we encouraged her to learn to read and to learn to love reading. We make it a Friday night excursion and Tops thinks that she is very grown as she is allowed to go in to the children's library all by herself, whilst I quickly peruse the adult section (the Children's librarian let me know it was okay to let Top Ender look on her own whilst I checked out the adult section) and choose a few books that I haven't read yet.

When I got to the Children's section last week, I found Top Ender sitting on the children sized sofa's next to a small boy who looked to be about three. Top Ender was reading a book about diggers to this little boy who was sitting listening intently. I stood for a few moments just out of Top Ender's line of sight (the little boy had already spotted me) listening to her reading the out-loud.

Birthday Request - Baby Boy Giggles

Baby Boy is aware that it is his birthday soon and is making plans for some gifts that he might like to receive (Gator Golf, a Spiderman Outfit, some Lego Duplo and a giant trampoline so he can bounce high enough to see the boys who live a couple of doors down when they bounce on their trampoline too). Whilst Top Ender and I were in the library, Daddy and Baby Boy had gone for a walk around the shopping centre and had found themselves at The Entertainer Toy Store.

Daddy and Baby Boy wandered up and down the aisles with Baby Boy stopping at various items saying;

"I want that for my Birthday!"

Eventually Daddy and Baby Boy got to the part of the store where everything was something that Baby Boy wanted.

"I want this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this AND this for my birthday!" he said.
"Sounds like an expensive birthday!" said one of the store assistants

Play-Doh mistake - Baby Boy Giggles

Baby Boy loves play-doh. I mean seriously loves the stuff, he would take the tubs to bed with him if it was allowed (it isn't and never will be!) and whilst I don't mind the stuff I don't think that it is an everyday play item. Mainly because it never seems to stay on the mat and somehow manages to find it's way into my carpet, and then in the evening Daddy scrapes the dry play-doh off the carpet and sort of shakes his head at me.

I don't think he believes that I don't encourage the children to put it on the carpet.

At the weekend we went to a birthday party (You know I told you about it the other day when I said you could make your own wrapping paper) and the one game that both Baby Boy and Top Ender loved was pass the parcel. It turned out that Top Ender won and inside was a couple of mini tubs of play-doh and a mini Fun Factory Press which she passed to Baby Boy to have, knowing his love of squishy stuff. We managed to make it to Wednesday before Baby Boy remembered where I had put the play-doh when we got home and so it was agreed that he could play with it in the living room on a tray and mat. Baby Boy sat quite happily making an assortment of various foods, animals and shapes with me watching admiringly from a distance as I'm not allowed to play. Suddenly Baby Boy rushed over to me, tears in his eyes and looking worried.

Education - The Gallery

I am loving this weeks Gallery theme of Education. I was thinking about doing a year book, or even taking a picture of a brick wall (come on admit who got that reference in the comments so we can all laugh at those who didn't and feel old together) but in the end I decided that I wouldn't show *that* picture of me with the very short School Skirt (honestly I have no idea why my Mother let me wear it out, it was little more than a belt) and I am not going to show the picture of me with a perm either! Neither am I going to show the lovely picture of me and my sister that I carried around in my purse for years as it made a local shop keeper think I had children and sell me alcohol even though I wasn't Eighteen...

Instead I am going to talk about education in general... You see whilst we all went to School, that isn't the only place that we get an education. Since having Top Ender and Baby Boy in my life I have learnt more about myself and what I want and need in my life than the entire time I was in full time education. And I have learnt a couple of needed skills as I will explain...

Raisin Cookies - Wordless Wednesday

Sssh, I know this is supposed to be Wordless Wednesday, but if you want to make these cookies then follow the recipe from my New Years Day Cookies post and replace the chocolate with raisins! Don't forget to enter your link into the linky down the bottom and leave a comment!

Make You Own Wrapping Paper

Saturday saw Baby Boy going to his first non family Birthday party. We had managed to find a gift that we thought was suitable and fun and took it home eager to wrap it up and take to the party being held a few hours later. I went upstairs to get the stash of wrapping paper that we have and for some unknown reason couldn't find it anywhere. I think I swore, but as I was alone upstairs there was just me to hear so it was okay! I decided that rather go out and buy a roll of wrapping paper (this was more than a two sheet of paper job) that we would wrap it with brown paper and then decorate it ourselves, to make our own. Top Ender and Baby Boy were most pleased with the suggestion and I made a quick drawing on the side as seen below!

The Giraffe Family Cook Book - A Review

We were sent a copy of the Giraffe Family Cookbook to review.

At our local Shopping Centre there is a restaurant that when it first opened caused a lot of amusement between Top Ender, Daddy and I. You see we had never heard of this chain of restaurants before and so when we saw a "Giraffe" restaurant sign,  we weren't sure if it was for giraffe residents of the local area to be served giraffe cuisine (a bowl of juicy leaves for you Madam, a bowl of twigs and thorns for you Sir and a plate of acacia ants for the little one) or if the giraffe's of the local area were going to be our dinner...

We decided we would go one day to find out, but we are ashamed to say that we still haven't been. Partly because the restaurant is always busy and partly because we don't want to know what a giraffe burger tastes like. My sister has been with her family numerous times, and loves the place. She is always telling me that I should go and try some of the food as the restaurant is great from the family and I keep finding excuses. Then I was asked if I would like to try the giraffe family cookbook and I thought what a great way to introduce my family to the types of dishes that they can order at giraffe.

Swings and Roundabouts... Well Actually Just Swings!

Today we had a really relaxing day, together we just hung out, did things that we wanted to do, ate some fantastic food (yeah I know I cooked it, but it was a lush dinner) and made Top Ender and Baby Boy think we were the best parents in the world by actually building the swing set that they got from their Granny for Christmas!

It sounds like we have been really bad seeing as it is March, but we just haven't had enough time on a warm enough and dry enough day at home to put it up and there was a good few inches of snow here at Christmas. Luckily we were forgiven as they got a chance to swing together.

I called my Mum as soon as the swing set was up and we reminisced about the swing set that my sister and I had as children. It was almost identical, apart from mine being from the 80's was blue and orange not blue and green...

It got me to thinking about how different the childhoods that Top Ender and Baby Boy are living are different from the ones that Daddy and I led, (not worse not better just different) and I can't help but wonder how Top Ender and Baby Boy are going to turn out. I think that the early indications are that they are going to be pretty fab!

Making Chores Fun - Cleaning Shoes

Every Friday night when Top Ender comes home from school her routine includes taking her shoes to the Kitchen to be cleaned and polished. I actually really enjoy polishing her shoes, (just like I like cleaning the fridge!) but as I won't always be around I have been teaching Top Ender how to clean and polish her own shoes. Top Ender has taken it upon herself to start to play the Army game with polishing her shoes.

I am sure you know all about the Army game for cleaning shoes... but just in case you don't here is how to play! First of all you need a pair of shoes or boots that need to be polished. In this case it is Top Ender's School Shoes... but it could be any pair of shoes that you love and want to give some attention too.

Things To Do With Jiffy Bags - Wear Them!

One thing that our brilliant local recycling system doesn't recycle is jiffy bags. This can sometimes be annoying when I am a little over eager in opening the parcel and somehow rip the package, as then I can't give them away on Freecycle. So what to do with them?

How about Jiffy Bag Hats?

Think you'll agree Tops and BB model them well!

An Early Mothers Day Gift from Interflora

I recieved a bouquet of flowers and got to nominate someone else to get some flowers too.

Interflora sent me an email a little while back asking if I would like to have a bouquet of flowers for Mothers Day. I of course said YES! as I do love to receive flowers from anybody who knows me. Actually scratch that as the last time I said that I got four bouquets of flowers from different friends and family members who had read what I said...

Today after a trip to one of our local supermarkets, Baby Boy and I returned home just as an Interflora Delivery Van pulled up to a house a few doors up the road. Baby Boy and I had a chat about the flowers that the man was delivering to a neighbour (they looked pretty!) and about the flowers that we had had in our living room a couple of weeks ago (My Mum brought me some when she came to dinner wasn't that sweet). A few moments later and our doorbell went. Looking through the side window I could see a huge bouquet of flowers and so I assumed that my Neighbour hadn't been in and the delivery driver knew we were in and so was going to ask if I would take them in.

Disney's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Minnie's Bow-Tique Review

We were send a copy of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Minnie's Bow-Tique to review.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is one of those shows that you can't help but like. Not only does it feature some of our favourite Disney characters, but it's also educational and fun. Baby Boy loves the show and will sit in rapt attention shouting for Toodles when required and helping solve the issues that the Clubhouse gang meet. As keen Disney fans we often have Playhouse Disney (soon to be Disney Junior) on, and have seen adverts for the British Television premiere of Minnie's Bow-Tique this coming Saturday (19th March 2011) as part of March being Minnie Month (which you can read about on the facebook page if you want). 

New Jumpers from Nanny B - Wordless Wednesday

Trees - The Gallery

This week the gallery theme is on Trees. Those who have read Tara's blog before will know that she has a bit of a thing about them. Now don't get me wrong, I like Trees just not to the extent that Tara likes trees. There are however three trees that mean a lot to me. I first talked about me three fruit trees last July. I was so pleased because my Pear tree was bearing fruit! The fruit that it was bearing tasted horrid, but it bore fruit!

What do you see when you look at me? 1 Word Meme

I was minding my own business and reading through the 30 or so blogs I try to read on a daily basis (on top of the posts I see mentioned on Twitter and if you think I should be reading you then let me know in the comments) when I got to Rosie Scribble. She had been passed a meme (created by Mummy From The Heart) which asks for the commenter's on the blog post to describe Rosie in one word.

I sat there pondering for a second what word I would use to describe Rosie. She is incredible, great fun, has a great sense of humour, a wonderful mother, a brilliant friend and to say that she is inspirational is an understatement. I couldn't think of just one word to describe Rosie, so I decided to think for a moment. Whilst I was thinking about Rosie, I thought of a time when a I took part in a similar game. There was a young lady in this group that seemed to hate me and even though I was a few years older than her it really irked me. I don't like to be disliked. Anyway this girl wrote;

It's A Matter Of Trust - Baby Boy Giggles

Baby Boy and I were playing chase in the living room, when I scooped him up to give him a cuddle.

"I'm going to let go of you and see if you can fly!" I teased him
"Could you let go of me over the sofa?" he giggled

Looks like that kid doesn't trust me!

They don't take after me! - Baby Boy and Top Ender Giggles

Whilst we were pretending to be living in the 1930's (you can read about it this week!) we did break one rule and had the radio on. We had it playing out of the speakers in the window recess and as it was dark outside we had drawn the curtains. Baby Boy was standing staring at the curtains when he suddenly turned round to face Daddy and I;

"The curtains are talking!" Baby Boy exclaimed

Daddy and I fell about laughing at Baby Boy's confusion, but Top Ender looked confused so Daddy repeated what Baby Boy had said

"So what did the curtains say? asked Top Ender

She didn't understand why Daddy and I fell about laughing again.

Home Made Doughnuts using Billington's Sugar

We were sent three packs of Billington's Sugar to review.

We had been shopping and sticking to our budget meant that we didn't have enough money to buy the packet of doughnuts that Baby Boy and Top Ender had been eyeing up. As we like making our own home made versions of popular snacks, we knew that our pantry had all the ingredients needed to make some of our own sugar ring doughnuts. And with almost perfect timing Billington's had sent us a lot of different Sugar's to try out so we knew we could make something quite scrummy and could try out some different brand sugar at the same time. Billington's sugar is unrefined, which means that it has been made by pressing out, cleaning and crystallising the juice from the sugar cane. This makes the sugar a darker colour and it smells lovely!

Top Ender, Baby Boy and I left Daddy to the making of the doughnuts as we had far more important things to be doing.. mainly playing, but it was important playing! Now this mix is fantastic for the Doughnut maker (it's The Simpsons one) we have, and it makes about 18 doughnuts in three batches. Daddy used Wheat free flour and baking powder, and I have made them using "normal" flour and they taste just the same!

Ingredients

100g plain flour
60g sugar
1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder
A pinch of salt
1/2 a large beaten egg
85ml milk
25g melted butter
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Method

Pre-heat the doughnut maker. Mix the dry ingredients together, then create a well in the middle and add the wet. Mix well until the batter is smooth. Add a spoonful into each doughnut well and cook for about three minutes.

The cooked doughnuts are then rolled in some sugar

and the result is two happy children with tasty doughnuts as a Saturday treat!

The Billington's sugar was very crunchy on the doughnuts and the perfect sugar for having a "Don't lick your lips whilst eating a doughnut" competition!

Home Made Pop Tarts

At the end of January I was surfing the internet, when  I came across an article on Babble about home made Valentines Pop Tarts. I thought this was a genius of an idea and decided that I would have to make some at home for Top Ender, Baby Boy and I to share for breakfast. I completely forgot about them until I saw an update to the post about chocolate pop tarts and knew that I really needed to make them or I would be craving them for months on end.

So early one Monday morning Baby Boy and I made some and had a lot of fun together making a surprise chocolatey pop tart breakfast for Top Ender when she woke up. We started by cutting the pastry in to six as it said on the Babble website, but we soon discovered that these were going to be far to big for little tummies and so cut them in half again.

Things To Do With Jiffy Bags - Hide In Them!

As I mentioned before, we get a lot of parcels in the post and so Baby Boy and I get creative with what to do with the packaging, such as jiffy bags or bubble wrap, so that we can have some extra fun before they get recycled or passed on to other people. The other day we received a HUGE jiffy bag from the postman and Baby Boy couldn't resist having a play with it.

I thought that he looked a bit like a Jack in the Box so we Sang "Pop Goes the Weasel" and pretended to be Jack in the Boxes, both of us jumping up when we said "Pop!". Baby Boy then decided that the jiffy bag would make a great sack for a sack race and started jumping around the living room. It was great fun and some great aerobic exercise for me!

Of course all good things must come to an end and so when Baby Boy jumped a little too high and ended up toppling over he decided that the jiffy bag would also make a good sleeping bag.

It just looked a little uncomfortable to me though!

Heinz Ketchup with Balsamic Vinegar... and A Fried Egg!

We were sent a free bottle of the Heinz Tomato Ketchup with Balsamic Vinegar to review.

One of the perks of being a blogger is that every so often a parcel arrives that you didn't expect. So when a black box tied up with red ribbon arrived at my house I was very keen to open it up and see what was inside. Inside was the new limited edition Heinz Tomato Ketchup with Balsamic Vinegar.

I was quite excited about it as we love Tomato Ketchup in our house, (using it as a secret ingredient, in bacon rolls, bullseye eggs or as fake blood on our Halloween food) and so thought that this would be a nice treat to have with some posh sausages, or even a bit of steak. The problem was my menu plan didn't have posh sausages or steak on it. Then Tim at Brining up Charlie tweeted about a sandwich he had just had full of fried egg and other yummy things and I knew what I had to make!

Barbie A Fairy Secret

Top Ender knew the date that Mattel's Barbie A Fairy Secret was coming out as she had marked it on her calender and was saving her pocket money to buy it. Since having purchased the DVD, Top Ender has watched the film several times and even I have managed to watch it twice! Barbie A Fairy secret is the sequel to Barbie A Fashion Fairytale, in which it was revealed to us that Barbie is a teen actress who stars in various films that Top Ender loves.

nakd. Bars - Daddy Guest Review

We were sent four nakd. bars to try and review

"Would you like to try some Nakd Bars" said Mummy.
Knackered what!? I thought
"Nakd bars. They are Wheat free." said Mummy reading my mind

Phew. Thought I was in trouble there.

nakd. Bars are a combination of raw fruits, nuts and spices, tightly packed into snack-size bars. Suitable for Vegans, wheat, dairy, gluten and GM free; everything was suggesting they were going to be pretty taste free too. I've tried enough Wheat and Gluten Free snack bars in the last two years and really not found anything I particularly liked.

One Word - The Gallery

I don't often take part in The Gallery over at Sticky Fingers. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I don't always have an idea of something that I can take a photo of and talk about. As you might of seen when you read my blog posts, I do have pictures but they are normally to accompany my stories. This weeks theme of One Word though really caught my eye as I had the perfect word, the perfect idea for a photo and the words were already in my head waiting to be typed across the page.

Given up for Lent - Wordless Wednesday

No more...

Chocolate (Save £5)

Dr Pepper/Fizzy Drinks (Save £10)

Take Aways/Fast Food (Save £90 as whole family doing it too)

Making Chores Fun - Clean the Fridge

There are some chores which make everybody happy once they are done and Cleaning the Fridge is one of those chores for our household. I think having a nice clean organised fridge sets the tone for the kitchen and it also allows Baby Boy and I some time to talk about where our food comes from. That's right just like when he helps out doing the dishes, I find a way to make it a learning experience for him (or Top Ender if she is around!). I'm not talking about the weekly clean out of half eaten bowls of food, and the emptying of the mouthful of juice left in bottles but the proper remove everything from the fridge deep clean.