The final stretch...

We are on countdown, N goes back to nursery on Tuesday next week and she is *desperate* she asks me, at least once, every day if she can go back.

I am trying to dig deep and make this week as fun as possible.  The blog has been a little stagnant as I felt like I was repeating lots of our activities and didn't have much new insight to share but today's comes with a recipe to inspire!

This morning I desperately needed to get a few things from town and so off wee trotted, N did really well and walked around town all morning (I hadn't even taken the double buggy for emergencies, I am trying to wean her off it in time for bump being a baby!) and then we did a quick pitstop at the supermarket on the way home.

Slightly frustratingly, in an attempt to leave the shop as quickly as possible because M had started eating the food in our basket and peeling labels off of things, I forgot to buy butter which I needed to do the baking I had planned with N this afternoon but twitter came to the rescue with lots of suggestions, the winner was....[insert dramatic drumroll here]... peanut butter cookies!

As it happened I had dropped a jar of peanut butter a few days ago, breaking the lid in the process, so this was great for using something up too!!

The recipe we used was this one, only tweaked a little because I had crunchy, not smooth, peanut butter and because I've never found an affordable chocolate chip that is fair trade we just cut up a chocolate bar!

Here is N having a go at spooning the mix onto the baking sheets

And this is what the finished article looked like, the rest are in the oven being baked! (They come out the oven very squashy but rest assured they crisp up while they are cooling)

And to prove we have done some other things the last few days, here are some pictures of our holiday happenings!

A trip to a new park

"picnic"

These photos were taken thanks to a top tip I once heard (and will now share with you, obviously) when you go on a day trip or similar, take a photo of your child BEFORE anyone is allowed to run off anywhere, so that if the worst comes to the worst and they get lost you have an up to date photo of them in the clothes they are wearing that day.  I do feel a little better for doing this, although clearly you should keep an eye on them too!

We made a medal by wrapping a cardboard circle in paper and taping some wool (or ribbon would work) to the back.  We have, in fact, made a LOT of medals this summer, I think it must have been the commonwealth games that made us do it!

Here we are enjoying a snack with a friend (this is at the friends' house, I love their improvised sand table in the background.  They just sit boxes of sand on top of storage boxes that contain their garden toys)

Finally, I let N and M start a Mister Maker activity a few days ago (I was assuming it would be on the cbeebies website and I could link to it but I can't find it anywhere!)

Here are the girls painting sheets of lasagne ready to break into pieces so they can make a mosaic picture with them.  We haven't done the picture part yet, I'll let you know how it goes.  I used half glue, half paint (having only been half watching the telly when it came on) but it seems to be cracking poorly and can confirm that M managed to paint both sides and get lots of newspaper stuck to her pieces!

Here's what it looks like broken up!

The idea is just that you draw a picture, I assume the simpler the better, although Mister Maker drew a crab! and then "colour" it in with the bits of pasta.

And my final tip, if the summer holidays are really proving too much is that Tesco has Cardbury's Marvellous Creations  chocolate on offer!  Clearly too good for the kids, but Mums and Dads should eat to help the day pass!

Still summer, still surving

And here's how...

I don't have many photos from this morning, we walked into town because I had a few jobs to do.  The reality is that I often need to take the children with me for mornings like this and summer is no different so we went to the bank, bought some cards that were needed, went to the chemist and went to the bed shop to complain about the bunk beds that have broken after less than a month of use!

Let's be serious, times like this need to happen but they're really aren't fun for the girls so we took them to a shop to get a milkshake and Grandma (who is a big softie) bought them a cake to share!

I try and let both girls stamp around in the shopping centre if it's not too busy as that helps tire them out a bit and stops them getting bored quite so quickly.  I also take a packed lunch so that if things take longer I can provide some food which normally buys me about half an hour before I really need to give up and come home.

There was a quick pit stop in Tesco because this pregnant Mummy can only go so long without a loo break so the girls were left with Grandma and when I got back they had been furnished with a Peppa and My Little Ponies magazine each.  The girls have been looking at them almost all afternoon, in fact so nicely that I got to sneak off for a wee nap (while Grandma supervised the girls)!

Anyway, enough talking, the rest of our day has included banana loaf (follow the link for a recipe)

Playing in the garden (although as I went to take a photo the rain came on so this photo is from another day, such a cheating blogger!)

I've also just discovered that while I was sleeping N made this with her Grandma

Finally, the girls got to taste some of our home grown vegetables today! We have spent a reasonable amount of time with the girls planting and watering, here are some pictures from along the way and one of N being proud of her spoils!

carrots

potatoes

peas

courgettes

onions

feeling proud!

another offering of summer holiday activities

Here is what we've been doing today (and actually a couple from yesterday that didn't get included in yesterday's post).  Let me know what you've been up to and if you have any favourite's of our activities in the comments below...

Here is N doing the dishes, she loves doing it, it is essentially water play! and as it happens she is quite good at it, I just make sure I have done all the sharp knives and similar before I let her at it.  It saves me a job too, everyone's a winner!

Grandma has come to stay! Hooray! AND today is her birthday so this morning we went to a cafe to have some cake and a coffee/smoothie.  The best cafe in my town if you have young children is actually the one in Sainsbury's it has plenty of space and isn't so busy so you don't feel like you are ruining everyone else's coffee.

 Birthday's need balloons so today we have lots and we have been experimenting with static electricity by making them stick to our hair :-)

N was very happy to get some time to play with Grandma, here they are playing Crazy Chefs.  It's a great wee memory game from Orchard toys.  I love it, it teaches turn taking, helps with memory and encourages them to develop observational skills and all the while it is fun, who doesn't like to make cupcakes!

And finally, we've been baking again, like I said, it is Grandma's birthday so she needs a cake!

Summer holiday goings on

Continuing with my activities for the summer holidays here is a run down of what we are up to today...

Lots more playing in the garden, it's supposed to be raining tomorrow so we need to make the most of the sun.

Baking! This is less stressful for me that crafty messy play because at the end of it you at least get to eat something yummy!

While I am at it I shall try and share my tips for making it as stress free as possible.

1.  Unless your child is old enough to help work the scales measure out everything in advance so that the activity is more one of pouring and mixing

2.  Adjust how you do things a little.  For example, I wouldn't normally use a pastry brush to butter my dish but N can understand the concept of "painting" the dish so it's not so messy (I got this idea from watching Katy's "I can cook" on cbeebies.

3.  Avoid your child getting frustrated by recognising the things they CAN do.  N is really good a cracking eggs so we do it in a dish first in case we get bits of shell escaping in but she is always proud of herself when she achieves it

4.  Make sure they are working at a sensible height.  I let N stand on a chair so she can reach the work surface, you can buy special things but this does the job as long as I stay close so she is safe.

5. Enjoy your spoils! (in this case with some cbeebies)

Today we made baked oatmeal, ideal because it is a shove-everything-in-and-mix type of recipe

Ingredients:

3 cups oatmeal
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup soft butter
2 eggs
2 cups milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
A handful of sultanas

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celcius

Mix all ingredients together and pour into 13 x 9 inch buttered pan.

Bake at 190 degrees for 25 minutes. (so said the recipe but my oven is rubbish and it took an extra 10!)

M is now having a nap so I let N finish her toadstool picture from yesterday

and the finished article (well, once the glue is dry)

We have a friend coming round to play this afternoon so that will just take care of itself!  How are you occupying your little people today?