Tuesday's Fly On The Wall

We're waiting in the queue at Morrisons. E.M is sitting in the buggy whinging, complaining and generally being miserable, minding her sister's behaviour and shouting at her for walking away. I've already told her off several times and she's wearing me down. J.R to E.M:

"Do you WANT to go to bed?"

E.M "No."

"Then STOP SHOUTING at me and leave me ALONE or Mummy will put you to bed!"

Cue sniggers from the customers around us...

Boxing Day

We had such a busy day yesterday that today we actually lazed about in our pj's until midday, all four of us! Then to add to a perfectly easy going day (for me anyway) Daddy made us all a nice lunch :)

The house is cluttered with presents everywhere, there is a big pile of brand new clothes for the girls sitting on the table, bathtime goodies on the hall table and new pyjamas on the stairs ready to go up but no-one's had a minute to spare!

And to top it all off, two gift bags choc full of the girls' sweets and treats sitting in the living room - talk about temptation!!

I will get it tidy in here, no...WE will get it tidy in here. All it needs is a good blitz... but we're all so busy chilling.

Oh and the dishes need doing now too.

Alright, i'm going.

Making: Easy Festive Wreath

A really easy-to-make festive wreath. Which as E.M demonstrates, is so easy to make it can even be made by a 2 year old.

You will need: 1 paper plate, some white paper, green paint, PVA glue, red tissue paper and scissors.

Draw some leaves on the white paper, paint them green and leave them to dry.

Cut the centre from a paper plate - this forms the base of your wreath shape. (Of course the adult has to do this.)

When the 'leaves' are completely dry, cut them out and glue them to the paper plate base.

Tear up the red tissue paper and scrunch into little balls for berries.

Glue the 'berries' to the wreath. Messy this bit.

And there you have it - Easy Festive Wreath! My E.M is so proud of hers...i've put it on the wall and she returns to admire it every once in a while :)

Tuesday's Fly On The Wall

Having just arrived home from a three hour shopping spree, we all pile out of the taxi and J.R turns to me and says:

"Mummy, I had a GOOD day today."

Aww how nice is that!

As One Of My Facebook Friends Put It...

"If this country was a business it would be constantly in liquidation.

The slightest bit of SNOW and it causes chaos!

The slightest ray of SUNSHINE and we have a water shortage!!

The slightest dribble of RAIN and we are flooded!!!"

All Dressed In White...Still

Despite all the blinding sunshine we're having, the snow isn't melting.

Our garden is still under a blanket of white, and although most of the main roads are back to normal again, the side roads are still dangerous.

Just this morning we saw two cars sitting at the bottom of the hill, hazard lights flashing, one had gone down the hill too fast and tried to turn left at the bottom - unsuccessfully - she ended up smashing into the car waiting at the junction instead. Daddy's been driving everywhere very slowly, not taking any chances.

You're not in a hurry, what's the point? Better to be safe than sorry. We already had two near misses on friday, when we went shopping. Not good.

Read what happened on Friday 18th December, if you haven't already.

It's Snowing!!

It seems the snow was waiting for the holiday's to begin! I woke up at 4am, desperately needing some cough medicine, and spotted the snow falling outside. J.R heard my footsteps on the stairs and asked me for a drink, lucky thing got to see the snow before her little sister. I pushed their bedroom curtain aside and lifted her up onto the window sill to get a better look. She got so excited. "It's a snow! Lots and lots and!" Indeed.

The snow was falling pretty fast. And now our garden has disappeared under a blanket of white. It's freezing, but it does look lovely.

Last Minute Xmas Shopping

Last minute shopping today, this is the last chance we'll have to get out and do any bulky shopping with daddy before christmas day. But despite the crowds it was surprisingly easy to get what we wanted. I've found if you do all the 'thinking' at home and put your final choices on paper, you can't go wrong!

Anything I think of later i'll have to manage on my own with the girls, and nothing is gonna be easy in this weather... The traffic is slow cos the roads are still hazardous, we ourselves had 2 near-misses in the car this afternoon. First one was coming down a very slight incline towards the junction at the level crossing, Daddy braked but the wheels crunched on the ice and the car kept moving. We were sliding slowly, but because of the traffic, the first car in the queue was unable to move back and Daddy had to swerve so as not to clip his headlights. No damage done.

The second instance was in the multi storey car park, we were on the 4th level and there weren't any cars around. We approached the down ramp slowly but on turning right (to go down it) the wheels crunched and slid on the ice again, meaning we slid left - towards the barriers. SO CLOSE to clipping the front of the car on the corner of the brick wall! But once again Daddy managed to steer us out of trouble and thankfully we got home safe.

Snow Forecast?

This week? We'll see.

But this is what we've woken up to this morning...

Ok so not really snow, more a light frosting LOL

But one thing's for sure, it's REALLY chilly!

The bookies have started putting the odds on for a white Christmas

- Now wouldn't that be nice :)

The Holidays Officially Begin!

Today the holidays officially begin for us. I had J.R's little Christmas Party to go to. It looked quite fun - they had a huge bouncy castle, which she's been looking forward to attacking all week - it's always nice to see her having a good time. Brought with us a punnet of seedless grapes and two boxes of chocolate covered cupcakes. Oh, and 19 mini christmas cards we spent most of last night writing out to friends J.R can remember the names of!

I am such a procrastinator, I always wait until the last possible minute to do cards and Christmas shopping, Lord knows as much as I enjoy shopping, I don't really enjoy the 'Christmas Shop'. But the four of us are heading off into town tomorrow either way, i'm sure it'll be fine!

Nativity Show @ Pre-School

We were so proud of our little Diva today, she did really well. Singing along she was, occasionally glancing at me and Daddy to make sure we're watching, but then lowering her head in embarassment!

When the children first came out and climbed the steps onto the stage, J.R saw us sitting in the second row and ran over babbling in excitement, and was equally disappointed when we told her to join the rest of the children! She went into a bit of a sympathy cry, bless her. (We just laughed it off!)

But she was fine after that, this is her second christmas at the pre-school, and just like last year they made up DVD's of the play and photos of the children all dressed up in their nativity costumes. What was new this year is they also made up a couple of photo baubles - I bought the lot. I love her professional photo, J.R was an angel again and although both this and last years photos are nice, this time she is smiling at least :)

This is gonna be the last christmas she spends at this school.

Next September she starts junior school... Where has the time gone?

Just a quick note to thank my mum and dad for the birthday cake AND unexpected mini chinese buffet this evening. Delish it was. Even after they left none of it went to waste ;)

A Real Birthday Treat

Aren't they beautiful!

Today after work Daddy got to the front door and the first thing he said to me?

Happy birthday? Nope.

The first thing he said to me today was "No, no no! Go into the kitchen, you can't see this." I did as I was told.

I did as I was told, there was a lot of bag rustling and fuss, and he called the girls upstairs with him.

After about ten minutes of waiting, I was then ordered to sit on the sofa. Ok.

Then, slowly but surely my family re-emerged.

First there was J.R, she came running up to me with a box of chocolates in her right hand and a bunch of pink roses in her left. "Happy birthday Mummy!" She exclaimed. It was perfect :)

Then came Baby E.M, with a card in one hand, and ANOTHER bunch of roses - white ones - in the other. I greeted her, she was excited for me...but rather interested in my chocolate too.

Then last but not least, Daddy emerged with A THIRD bunch of roses and another card. Apparently my face was a picture. I was holding three bunches of roses - pink, white and red - they were beautiful, I couldn't stop smiling. I still can't!

And tomorrow night, he's taking me out for dinner and cocktails at TGI Fridays...

A Million & One Things To Do!

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to follow your own advice?

Yeah well...here I go.

I know i'm supposed to be making time for myself, but I just CAN'T!

There is just NO TIME SPARE! I have the biggest To-Do list right now, I blame the run up to christmas. And it's my birthday in a few days. I can't remember how old I am, and I had to ask Daddy. Oh dear, that can't be a good sign.

Easy Like Sunday Morning?

Today has been - hands down - the easiest sunday i've ever had.

But don't get the wrong idea, I haven't been given a day off, i'm talking about my girls' behaviour. Regular readers will know, sunday is the day I dread the most, so i'll spare you the details.

But no, today was surprisingly easy going, compared to the usual conflict we find ourselves in every sunday.

I must have come across different today: she means business.

Cos i've definitely had a crappy last couple of weeks when it comes to handling these girls. Today something, somehow has clicked into place.

But I could bet money on it all being back to 'normal' tomorrow.

There Is No Way...

I would not NEGLECT my blog. It's ironic that as soon as we get our internet back up and running December kicks in and i've just been so so busy.

It's been absolute chaos round here, what with our windows being changed (to double glazing, well overdue) and christmas coming up, there's always something I need to remember for dancing or to bring to pre-school...

The list goes on and on! But now dancing has finished until January and the school will be closing soon too. Plus i've actually started my christmas shopping, things are looking a little more organised, and I only hope you can forgive me for not updating as much as I should - believe me when I say it will get done...it's just gonna take a while.

Madness

My apologies for the late posts, we are having MAJOR trouble with our cable modem box and have only had internet access at certain points throughout the day and for limited periods!

It really has been a complete nightmare, and our cable TV has followed suit over the last couple of days. Daddy got so bored without TV that he started watching the children's DVDs. I've been going crazy having to faff with the cable modem every single day.

To say i'm 'fed up' with it all would be a huge understatement.

And the so-called Customer Support department have been no help. Having made a total of 7 calls to them, 3 of my calls were still unanswered after over 30 minutes of waiting on hold each time. It's so aggravating, but luckily a technician came today and replaced the cable box with a brand new one - well, it's working so far...

J.R Brings Home The Bat Trousers...

Today J.R came home from pre-school wearing pirate trousers!

A member of the pre-school staff noticed she was still wearing them just as she was walking out the door... and since she insisted on keeping the 'bat trousers'* on, they told me we could bring them back tomorrow.

*J.R is having a hard time accepting that Halloween is over. Bless her.

She loves everything about it, the spooky costumes are her favourite, she loves the elaborate witches dresses and manages to find something spooky in everything. She named the trousers bat trousers because the black colour and jagged edges remind her of bat wings.

Tuesday's Fly On The Wall

A sneaky way to get a little something, even after i've told her she's not having a snack:

J.R (whispers) "Mummy i've got a secret! Come here it's in the kitchen....it's a treat! Come on lets get it!"

Storms & Flooding Hit UK

On the bank of the Thames/Pangbourne.

Heavy rain storms and high winds hit Britain this week as forecasters warned that flooding would spread across the country. The Environment Agency has flood warnings in place for the Midlands and north England and Wales and the Met Office has issued severe weather warnings for north west England and south west Scotland. The official Floodline service received more than 7000 calls over the past 24 hours, all from concerned people wanting to know if there was a warning in place for their area.

Meanwhile, it's all over the news that Cumbria (in the north of England) has been affected most so far. Rain is still falling on land that is already saturated in water and it's not flowing away. A total of 21 schools have been forced to close due to flooding.

But the rain is expected to ease off the area very soon as it moves into south east England - where we are. And although the rain continues to fall for most of the day, we are lucky enough so far to have no warnings in force for our area.

Daddy Does Dinner...Kinda

Ok, so this was supposed to be fish fingers, chips and peas.

Simple right? Apparently not.

Daddy oven baked the fish fingers fine, it was when he tried to use the microwave that things started going wrong.

First of all he tried to cook the peas in the microwave using a jug of water (just like I always do). He cooked them for 10 mins on medium high then removed them, presuming they were done. Then he remembered he had a bowl of chips left over from lunch, so he tried to reheat them in the microwave, but for too long, something went BANG - and the most horrible burnt metal smell engulfed my entire kitchen. You could smell it upstairs.

Slightly worried now I thought i'd better go check up on him, just in case he needs me. When I got downstairs I found the kitchen door closed.

So I opened it to find Daddy standing in the middle of my kitchen, both windows open wide, desperately trying to fan the smoke outside with a tea towel.

The microwave door was also open wide, and the horrible smell was coming from inside. Needless to say I asked him what happened!

So in the end, the peas were undercooked, still hard inside and the chips were ruined. So Daddy decided to play it safe with bread and butter and a nice salad instead...

Yummay!

The Weather Is Terrible

What's going on? So much strong wind and heavy rain...

It feels like some sort of hurricane season, and we don't even have a hurricane season!

We've been given an storm warning this week and I feel sorry for those who live on the coasts, 'cos according to the weather reports it's gonna get a hell of a lot worse. I'll keep you posted.

I Confess...

J.R and I sat up til almost 11 o'clock last night watching a very interesting documentary on a certain undercover healthcare scandal that took place a couple of years ago...

Oh, alright. I was trying desperately to bore the child to sleep because she WOULD NOT GIVE UP.

It was just one of those days when she was going 90 mph with no signs of stopping, and i'd run out of ideas.

Can you blame me?

Didn't I Say I H8 Health Visitors?

So my appointment is 9.30am at the doctors surgery, I leave and drop J.R off at the school five minutes early just to be on time. And I check in and wait in the waiting room until....9:45.

What's going on?

I ask a receptionist where my HV is. "Oh she left a few minutes ago..." came the reply. You what!? "Lemme go and see if I can catch her." She says.

So I sit myself back down in the waiting room. Still waiting.

Only to be told they couldn't catch her as she'd already driven off in her car.

Another member of the team apologises on her behalf and asks if i'd like to make another appointment, I decline politely and head home grumbling after half an hour of waiting.

Stupid woman. She made this appointment herself, I watched her write it in her diary for crying out loud!

Midday: Phone rings, a familiar voice - and sounding rather sheepish.

Yep you guessed it, it's the disappearing Health Visitor.

Literally the first thing she says, "Are you very mad at me?"

Turns out, DESPITE writing Appointment in her diary, she mistook it for a Home Visit. And her excuse?

"Most mothers are too lazy to leave the house and travel to the surgery with their babies so they say: Oh can you come to me instead? So I automatically went to yours." Then she asks if I want to make another appointment with her!

"No thanks, i'm alright." I said. She sounded gutted - but that's her own fault.

Remember, Remember, The 5th Of November...

It's Guy Faukes Night - also known as Bonfire Night here in the UK.

And although you'll hear fireworks going off every night this week, nothing really compares to the noise on the day itself - the 5th. From 5pm onwards, you can hear fireworks pretty much every couple of minutes round here.

Initial reaction to fireworks next door.

This year our next door neighbours are having a bonfire. Granted, they're actually burning the wood from their daughter's old wendy house to save them taking it to the dump, but it's a good idea nonetheless. We're not big on Bonfire Night in this house, I personally think the girls are too young to appreciate fireworks in their own back garden and Daddy and I just aren't bothered about them!

But this year, the girls have their very FIRST sparklers.

Daddy stayed close to help hold and dispose of the sparklers when they burnt down.

I only bought a pack of 10 gold sparklers, not sure how the girls (especially E.M) would react.

But I had a feeling J.R would enjoy them- Look at her go!

They loved them, and were practically fighting over the last one - even if i'd bought twice as many there still wouldn't have been enough!

Thought Bubble Thursday

♫ MRS Cellophane, Mrs Cellophane, Should've Been My Name... ♫

Ok, so these girls are really trying my patience this week.

The best way to describe it?

It's as if i'm INVISIBLE.

Everything I ask them, tell them, even the conversation I try to make as we walk down the street goes unnoticed.

And I just look like some crazy woman talking to myself because obviously neither of my children like me.

Although it's more J.R who has mastered the ability to ignore me.

E.M just keeps smiling and telling me NO.

I'm actually so stressed that i've had a migraine all day, and I don't get headaches. I'm one of those people who doesn't believe in taking painkillers for a measly little headache, but my god, today my head feels as if it's going to cave in on itself.

And I cannot ask anything normally - Oh no, I have to shout and scream just to get, and then keep their attention. I feel like the little kid. Even if I am face to face with J.R, down at her level, she will still turn her head away from me and not look at me at all. And when she does - she smiles a little smile and opens her eyes wide at me in the most annoying and sarcastic way ever....argh!

And she's started playing up at the school again, but at hometime.

It's not that she doesn't want to leave, more she doesn't want to leave with me. When the staff call her name she doesn't acknowledge it and when they tell her that Mummy's here, she goes into a fit of tears and refuses to come to the gate. In fact, this is the third day I have had to physically take her out of school myself since she will not go with me. And it makes me feel terrible.

I mean it looks bad as it is, in front of the other parents, when I approach her to carry her out she cowers and begs "No Mummy, no!" almost as if i'm going to hit her!!

I think it looks awful and I can't imagine how I must look to everyone else.

But i've told a HV of my trouble with J.R this week and how it's getting me down, and she's made me an appointment for a chat, see if we can find a way round this unruly behaviour.

In the meantime, i'm done ranting...sorry it was so long, and thanks for caring enough to read it!

First Day Back At Pre-School

I asked J.R if she missed it, apparently she did.

She's been out of school for three weeks in total, due to sickness and the school holiday - you know it's been too long when you can't remember where you put their uniform...

Rabbit Rabbit

Pick up the girls after lunch. But to us it's still first thing in the morning - we pulled a lazy one and woke up at like 11 O'clock. Having stayed up 'til some crazy time in the morning in a spontaneous movie-fest! Quality time, it was such a good laugh.

Still feel absolutely shattered though.

Having those naughty girls back at home today is gonna be a tough one for me.

But what's new there? It is sunday after all.

Meh, I Fancied A Night In Anyway...

So Daddy and I had planned to head into town tonight for mojitos and a couple of movies. A proper night out for the grown-ups - at last! Michael Jackson's This Is It and Saw VI is what we'd decided on. (For some reason, new Saw movies are usually first released in cinema's on Halloween. Adds to the thrill I suppose LOL.) Daddy and I have always preferred to go for the late night showings of movies at the cinema. Don't know why, we just always have. And the last showings at our cinema are usually at around 10.30pm. So we got there, usual time...

But it was well and truly packed! Swarming with married couples and teenagers dressed as vampires with fake blood dripping from the corners of their mouths and dead cheerleaders in stripey knee high socks - you know the sort.

There must have been hundreds of people. And all remaining showings of Saw VI were completely booked. We should've known this would happen. After all it is halloween, but for us that's just a coincidence. Now this was our first saturday night out in ages so we decided to fight our way through the crowd in an attempt to salvage our movie date.

Squinting at the screens above the box office, I soon realised that unless it was seriously boring - it was fully booked. And it was my idea to head home. So here we are. I'm on here writing this, Daddy is in the kitchen rustling up something to eat and in a minute i'll go and choose a DVD for us to watch.

Oh well, you win some - you lose some!

It's Halloween At Last!

We've just got back from Nanny & Grandads, the girls are going Trick or Treating at around 4pm and I wanted to get them all dressed up ready and take some photos. J.R's been looking forward to "Halloween Day" for weeks. E.M made a fuss but it's only a cry for my attention, as usual.

Nanny had lots of activities planned for when they got back - colouring books, mini pumpkin painting and DVD's. There aren't enough hours in the day!

Do feel like i'm missing out a little bit, but I know they'll have a good time and that's the main thing.

Anyway, here they are in their Halloween costumes:

J.R's costume this year is the most expensive yet, with sparkly tights and lots of other accessories.

But it didn't take much to get E.M sorted - most of the clothes she owns are black anyway - if anything I had to brighten her up a little bit, with pink glitter and SPIDERS!

(And yes, Grandad did give them a handful of goodies in the bottom of their treat bags to 'start them off'. That's just an excuse really isn't it...)

Ooh and check out the scary faces on these cupcakes that J.R decorated this morning:

That's HER drawing. Weird huh?

The Free Weekend Starts Here!

Me and Daddy are about to head off to London for a photo shoot.

I've only had one professional photography session in my whole life, when I was teenager and I remember having such a good time but not being able to purchase any prints because they were so expensive! So this time I put down a deposit in advance for my photos, and have blown a tonne of money on new clothes (I haven't spoilt myself in a long, LONG time) so it's all good. The girls are spending the day and night at Nanny & Grandads and they've offered to have them all the way through until sunday afternoon. The lucky things are going Trick or Treating for the first time!

Anyway, I must get on before I make us any later...I still gotta fit all those clothes and accessories into my bag!

See you when we get back.

Thought Bubble Thursday

Come Dine With Me...

And tonight's host - Baby E.M!

Tuesday's Fly On The Wall

A conversation between me and Miss J.R, on our way home.

J.R "Mummy, i'm Lola."

"Are you, who's the baby then?"

J.R "No, baby is nothing. Mummy YOU are Charlie!"

"But hunny, I can't be Charlie - Charlie's a boy..."

J.R "No, Mummy. I SAID YOU ARE CHARLIE!"

"Ok, ok i'm Charlie."

.....

J.R "Nooo, you're not Charlie, you're my Mummy."

The House Is A Tip! But For A Good Reason...

I'm having a HUGE clearout of Baby items, from toys to clothes and even buggies - it's all going. I've already found a home for the pink Bumbo babyseat we had sitting in the girls' bedroom cupboard...and that's been there for eons! But it's in vgc and it's original box and is making me a tidy £20 tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile i've sorted all the baby clothes into age groups and labeled/bagged them up accordingly. But all this work still wont have made it any tidier in here by the time Daddy gets home!

Introducing A New Weekly Feature

"Thought Bubble Thursday" starts this week :)

It's simply a thought for the week and could be a parenting related thought...or just completely random! Hope you enjoy it.

Wow! Is it Sunday already?

I ain't gonna lie, it has been a tough one today, but for fear of sounding repetitive (Everyone's shouting at everyone else round here! Argh!!) i'm gonna go ahead and say it wasn't all bad news...

It's fast becoming tradition that when Daddy leaves for football Baby E.M plays up. BIGTIME.

That child really is the original little terror when her Daddy isn't around.

She runs from me, points her finger at me and tells me no, or just ignores me altogether! And she loves to wind her big sister up. So it's become mandatory that she takes some time out - on her own - in her room, every sunday afternoon. Mostly i've found that she gets her toys out for a bit but then goes for a nap during this time. Either way, I get some peace at last.

Meanwhile, J.R (following a stern talking to from both me and Daddy yesterday afternoon) has shown a vast improvement in her potty training today.

Whereas before she used to be uninterested and just generally too lazy. I was angry because it's a complete waste of money buying expensive Pull-Up pants for a child who can feel she is very wet, or even dirty but doesn't care!

She even got to the point of lying to us about being dirty when we asked her, just so that she didn't have to stop what she was doing and get cleaned up.

But as I said, today we've seen some really good improvement.

She's been wearing real knickers all day, is willing to tell me when she needs to go and has been for a wee on the toilet four times today, with only one accident. What a brilliant effort!

I hope you enjoyed the recipe posts this week, all for National Baking Week 2009, and maybe even tried your hand at a little baking yourself? If not, don't worry 'cos we resume normal posting again tomorrow - no more of this baking talk! (Well, not every day anyway.)

And last but not least - although this only applies if you live in the UK - I trust you turned your clocks back an hour today?

If not, I hope for your sake you didn't turn up for work an hour early this morning LOL

I'm one to talk though, I was NOT about to get up at 2am on a sunday to turn all our clocks back an hour...but then I came downstairs this morning and freaked out thinking i'd woken up at lunchtime!

Recipe: Carrot Cake

It's the first time i've ever made a carrot cake, and this is the recipe I used. When cooked just right it makes the most lovely, moist cinnamon-sweet cake!

You will need:

300g plain flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

200g soft brown sugar

4 eggs

250ml oil

1 orange, zested

200g carrots, finely grated

And for Cream Cheese Frosting:

125g unsalted butter at room temperature

50g icing sugar

250g cream cheese

Preheat the oven to 150°C/Gas 2. Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together and stir in the sugar. Beat the eggs with the oil and orange zest. Stir in the carrots and fold everything into the flour mixture. Divide the mixture between two tins and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted through the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool.

For the frosting, beat the butter and icing sugar together until soft and then beat in the cream cheese. Chill the mixture until it's thick but spreadable. Place the first cake topside down on a serving plate and spread a thick layer of frosting on top. Carefully place the second cake, topside up this time onto the first cake and cover both cakes with frosting.

Note: I made this cake in your average sized shallow sandwich tin - remember the finished cake will be double that size!

Recipe: Brownie Bites

I love these myself, and so does everyone else who's tasted them!

It can sometimes be a bit tricky to judge how well done they are, but it gets easier with practice :)

You Will Need:

• 100g dark chocolate

• 110g butter

• 225g sugar

• 2 large eggs, beaten

• 50g flour

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp salt

Pre heat the oven to 180°c/Gas 4 and grease and line a shallow baking tray with baking paper. Break up the chocolate into small pieces, then melt it together with the butter on a low heat.

Spoon the choc/butter mixture and sugar into a large bowl.

Add beaten eggs to the mixture.

In a separate bowl mix the flour with the salt and baking powder, then add to the main mixture and stir well. Transfer the mixture into the baking tray.

Bake in the oven for around 30 minutes making sure not to over cook.

Turn the oven temperature down if unsure. The outside of the brownie should be crisp with the insides remaining quite sticky.

Leave to cool, then remove from tray and cut into bitesize chunks.

Recipe: Easy Garlic Bread

Everyone loves garlic bread! Why not try swapping the baguette for some ciabatta bread and grating some of your favourite cheese to melt on top?

You Will Need:

3 large cloves of garlic, 100g soft butter, 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley, 1 baguette.

Preheat the oven to 200°c/400°f/Gas 6. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Mix the chopped garlic with the butter and the stir in the parsley. Take the baguette and make diagonal incisions about 3cm apart using a sharp knife. Make sure you don't cut straight through the bread! Spread the garlic butter generously between the slices. Then wrap the baguette in a sheet of tin foil and bake in the middle of the oven for around 10 minutes. Then open the foil and allow the top of the baguette to crisp for an extra 3-4 minutes.

Recipe: Speedy Chicken Pie

This recipe has been adapted slightly, and the original can be found in The Baby & Toddler Cookbook & Meal Planner by Sara Lewis.

When you first look at the ingredients list for this recipe, you'd be forgiven for thinking - Crisps?

But trust me, it turns out yummy!

This is what you'll need:

• 1 celery stick

• 1 small tin of sweetcorn

• mayonaise

• 2 cooked skinless and boneless chicken breasts

• 1 or 2 packets of plain crisps

• 1 bag of grated red Leicester cheese

Preheat the oven to 220°c/425°f/Gas 7.

Rinse the celery, slice thinly and place in a bowl with the drained sweetcorn.

Dice the chicken breasts and add to the bowl, mix together with just enough mayonaise to coat all the ingredients.

(The more mayo you add, the creamier the pie mixture will turn out.) After mixing well, spoon into a shallow oven dish and level the surface.

Roughly crush the crisps and sprinkle over the chicken mixture.

Top with the grated cheese and cook for 10 minutes until the pie is piping hot and bubbly. Cool slightly then serve with peas and brocolli.

Spot The Baby...

It's been a long day for our E.M LOL

E.M & The Laundry Bag

E.M has taken a liking to the laundry bag.

I can't for the life of me remember how it started, all I know is that she absolutely loves being dragged around in it! She fits in it perfectly, gets in AND out of it all on her own - and has named it Choo Choo :)