Monday 19 August 2013




Well, I'm surviving the summer break and even ended up baking 3 cakes with 2ndSister at the end of last week. Still not getting around to making anything new, but I'm sure once Autumn and that back-to-school feeling hits I'll get inspired.....


Meat Free Monday ~ Veggie pizzas

Tuesday ~ Chinese chicken with noodles (got pak choi and mushrooms for this - it got bumped from the other week for some reason)

Wednesday ~ Beef meatballs in a tomato and chilli sauce served with pasta

Thursday ~ Chicken dinner or salad (depending on the weather)

Fishy Friday ~ Salmon or scampi with chips, depending on how much I feel like cooking!

Saturday ~ Probably a meal out somewhere

Sunday ~ Undecided

Baking plans ~ Still none, I have enough lemons for a lemon drizzle but after today's cinnamon toast/eggy bread and Friday's baking shenanigans, we're out of eggs! I may get persuaded into melting moments and banana and pecan breakfast loaf as the week unfolds, however.....


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Thursday 15 August 2013

Meal Planning Monday: 12 August


OK, it's official, these school holidays are officially sapping my strength blogging time! By the time I remember I have something to post, someone's playing computer games or doing their blog! And is it just me with four girls on growth spurts, but EVERYONE seems to be hungry ALL THE TIME, so I could really care less about food. Yes, you can tell it's over halfway through the holidays....still loving the down time, but ready for some personal space :-)

Meat Free Monday ~ Wholewheat fusilli pasta with vegetable sauce (cherry tomatoes & courgette)

Tuesday ~ Chicken cacciatore with courgettes in the sauce (leftover vegbox ingredient, can you tell?)

Wednesday ~ Leftover gammon with chips, egg, pineapple, plum tomatoes and HP sauce nom nom nom

Thursday ~ Chicken salad with a crusty loaf

Fishy Friday ~ Fish gratin and fries

Saturday ~ Wraps

Sunday ~ Mixed grill

Baking plans ~ I'm so over baking at the moment. Again, it's the lost impetus of the holidays...we're having guests over at the weekend and I've ORDERED cake and scones from Tesco rather than bake! Maybe it's the weather - the girls had great fun decorating gingerbread men in a kit we picked up from the supermarket today though :-)


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Monday 5 August 2013

Meal Planning Monday 5 August


oops, after being early last week I nearly forgot again this week - that's the summer holidays for you! I took 1st & 2ndSister swimming and for pizza today, having dropped the other two off at childcare facilities, and I am exhausted and feel like all those other people who rush around doing activities with their kids and barely have time to put dinner on the table. Thank goodness I was organised with a load of easy Greek food to put together! have a good week everyone xx


Meat Free Monday ~ Greek meze with falafel, pitta, tzatiki, feta & red onion salad followed by Greek yogurt.

Tuesday ~ Pasta with pesto, chicken and baby courgettes

Wednesday ~ Fish gratin & fries

Thursday ~ Chicken and veg in Chinese sauce served with noodles

Fishy Friday ~ Fishfingers, chips and peas

Saturday ~ Chicken drumsticks, fries and corn on the cob

Sunday ~ Baked gammon with all the trimmings (or salad if it's red hot again)

Baking plans ~ Hmm...we are really busy this week with soft play, cousins playdate and 1stSister's friend coming here so I'm not sure what we might fit in....


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Sunday 4 August 2013

Rate a Park # 8

White Post Farm Park Playpark

3 Sisters indoor sledging
Now I don't even think I have any pictures of the playpark at our nearest Farm Park, White Post Farm Centre, unless I find some on FabDad's phone in the next few days. This is really annoying because it is a fantastic playpark that keeps them occupied for hours! And when you consider that we paid just £40 for a family of six to see an animal show, lots of animals, milking, and we got to feed animals including a baby goat with a bottle of milk, the kids enjoyed the indoor sledging, the soft play area, the reptile room and the mini-golf course - AND there is a fantastic playpark (and go-karts!) - add to this a picnic lunch and a visit to McDonalds on the way home and 3rdSister's 3rd birthday was very perfect indeed for all of us. We're so blessed.

Goat feeding with FabDad

Anyway - they rate this playpark very highly, it suits all 3 big sisters (aged 8.5, 7 and newly 3) with slides, climbing things, obstacle course, trampolines and pirate ship.

Did I mention we all had an icecream too?

Admittedly we paid extra for face painting and paint a pot but even they were good value (£2 and £3.50 respectively...)

There was also the right number of people around, not too heaving but lots of kids having super fun, don't let that stop you from paying a visit to White Post Farm, Nottinghamshire, England if you're in the area though :-) There's also a farm shop (so I got some of my favourite Normandy cheese and FabDad picked up some real ales.)
4thSister loved the day too!






Saturday 3 August 2013

Rate a Park #7

Spider Park, Mansfield, Notts






 This relatively new park won plaudits when it was opened for being some kind of amazingly designed park specifically suited towards the kids of today.  All the girls enjoyed it and rated it highly.




It did have a wide range of play equipment including swings, things to climb, toddler-friendly items and a 'Witch's Hat' which is something you don't get everywhere. The only thing missing was a large, long slide and my only other complaint was that the roundabout would not turn. At all! And not just because of me being a weakling! But still, probably our most successful park so far.




I knew it was a good park because I sat for 15 minutes and fed the baby while all 3 looked after themselves. (It was an enclosed park, which is partly why I chose it at feeding time.) It brought out the sisterhood in them as they looked after each other. There was also much hilarity at snack time when 3rdSister found a crisp in her packet nearly as big as her head!












Thursday 1 August 2013

Rate a Park #6

Our Nearest Park (still a short drive away!)

The girls were desperate to go to this park on Monday even after parks 4 and 5, simply because we passed it when buying an anniversary gift for my parents (it's next to a local shop.) I thought we'd had enough parks that day, and planned to go here today instead as I knew the weather would be fine.





Fantastically, the Sisters' cousins were back from their Spanish holiday so Nephew (age 3) and Niece (age 18 months) and their Dad decided to join us and good fun was had by all. The park was quite busy due to the good weather, FabDad and FunUncle came along too, the kids had ice lollies and as much hot fun as we could manage on a hot English sunny day in August.



I don't know whether it was because of the heat, but 2ndSister gave it 5 out of 10 and 1stSister just 4 out of 10, even though there was plenty for them to do. I think the best thing was a chance to hang out with their cousins, we are so lucky they live locally! I regularly take 3rd and 4thSister to this park of a morning, and it was lovely for Rebecca to join the big ones (4thSister just went to sleep beneath her parasol, as she often does at this time of the afternoon.)

We've been quite lucky with the weather so far this holidays. Yesterday I knew it would be rainy so we baked a couple of things and just hung around the house. They were ready to get out today. Hopefully we can manage another park tomorrow. Then it's 3rdSister's 3rd birthday on Saturday followed by White Post Farm on Sunday, which, you've guessed it, has a playpark for us to rate!