Crimean War- Walking Wounded

Another long overdue post, that's been sitting here written for months that I simply forgot to post!

Nothing fills me with as much dread as dress up days for school, I can just about deal with a Pyjama day, simple easy and no fuss at all, but the rest of them, book day, always with a theme that makes it more difficult than just pulling something out the cupboard, and maths week which lets face it - is just so dull you can't make it exciting! So you can imagine the look on my face when Monkey-Moo came home from school with a letter instructing that their year would be doing a Crimean war dress up, girls as Florence Nightingale and the boys as soldiers! pffft.

I was happily about to send him off in a white t-shirt ("Pretend it's your vest under your soldiers uniform" I said )  bandaged up, and call him the Walking Wounded! Then after a few discussion at the school gate with other Moms, I started to get pangs of guilt that I wasn't putting much effort into this at all.

With little over 12 hours to go, one fabulous phone call from another mom, currently in the supermarket- " I'm picking up a Red Sweatshirt, it comes in a two pack, I'll drop it round on my way home!" SAVED!

OK send him in red with bandages, still Walking Wounded, it's good enough right? Right? No, didn't think so! Oh no dinner time. Kids to bath, Little Monkey to bed.

Light Bulb!

 

Get paper plates. Get gold paint. Bandages. Find old ribbons. Scissors. Double sided tape. and GO!

Enlist Monkey-Moos painting skills.

 

 

 We have buttons!

A bit of double sided tape, a snip or two, yes that will do!

 

 

More gold paint!

Send Monkey-Moo to bed, it's getting late. Wait for paint to dry.

 

Quick assembly 15 minutes before it's time to head to school, double sided tape all the way, throw on a bandage! (no fake blood here, but some great moms did add that touch.)

 

 

Ready to go! My Walking Wounded! Proud as punch!

 

Dotty Pottery

Oh my, it's been a while, hasn't it! I seem to have got caught up in life and housework, and work work, totally neglecting my little blog! So here is a post I had written ages ago, and simply not got round to posting!

 

We painted pottery.   The boys loved it.   It all got broke!   There were tears!   Its a Long story.   So we made another visit to the pottery cafe to paint up some more! Really there isn't much to say about painting pottery. It's paint, paint brushes, cups of water begging to be knocked over and a whole heap of patience! At aged 3 little Monkey-Moo found it tough to understand why the colours he choose didn't look the same when it came out the bottle, but thankfully we got there in the end.                              

To be fair, he choose a rather lovely colour palette. 

There he sat, happily dipping paint bush into the cup of water and plopping large dollops of splodgy paint all over his little truck. 

 

Despite the enthusiasm, asking a 3 year old to paint three coats was expecting a little too much, verging on impossible even. His solution- instruct Mommy to paint wheels and put Red (cause that's my favourite colour mommy ) on the bottom. All the rather more difficult bits to do, naturally! I even added a few small details to finish it off for him, like doors and hub caps. I may even have enjoyed it a little too much!

There was a moment when we thought we had a sulker, as bigger Monkey-Moo had disappointment painted across his face, not being able to find the same pottery to paint as he had done before the "Breakage incident" shhh we are not talking about it! Fortunately, he soon realised he could choose something cooler, smiles returned! Phew!In the end he was super happy about his ferocious shark, look we even got the thumbs up! He was reminded several times to do his three coats of paint, but in the end, those listening ears just weren't doing as they were meant to. So we left him to it.

A week later, and we have the final products, one truck, one shark and a rather dotty egg cup!

And I'm still convinced that I will get them to do an egg cup each the next time!

Just think how wonderful our eggs and soldiers would look with our very own individual hand painted family egg cups! That's what I'm aiming for!

Off to the Seaside.

We are off to the seaside tomorrow. Hooray! It's been a while since we took the Monkey-Moos to see their Great Grandparents, and what better time to take the trip than a long weekend.

With any trip and our Two Monkey-Moos: Preparation is key.

1. Prepare: Explain where we are going and why if necessary, preferably we have to start talking about it a few days before the event.
2. Set expectations: what behaviour is acceptable, how to speak clearly (essential when Great Grandparents are a little hard of hearing), being polite and manners in general.
3. Distractions: this is really just quiet time activities, colouring books, stickers and reading books usually do the trick, and any quiet toys (the ones that have no electronic bits)
4. Rewards: arguably the most important rule! Good manners and behaviour will result in:- a picnic on the beach, a trip to the playground, or any other fun thing that will get them to behave a little less like monkeys for day!

With preparation well under way, the Monkeys happy with the prospect of visiting the beach and distractions packed, this post turns into a baking one again.

Rather last minute, I whipped up two batches of cupcake batter. One chocolate and one caramel.

Taking advantage of being left on my own in the kitchen, and working quickly to keep it Monkey free (for a while at least.) I swiftly spooned dollops of each mixture into cupcake cases, swirling them together for a lovely marbled effect.  What a super tasty treat to enjoy with the Great Grandparents. A dozen large cupcakes headed for the oven. (key preparation point 4- Rewards, if needed.)

The smell of freshly baked goods led a little Monkey-Moo to the kitchen. Thankful that I got some time alone in the kitchen for a change,  I set out all the decorating essentials and under Monkey-Moos watchful eye, smothered the cupcakes in rich chocolate icing.

I left Monkey-Moo to add all the final decorating touches with chocolate sprinkles and balls. (most of which didn't end up on the cakes but all over the counter and a little on the floor!)

He was very pleased with himself, but truth be told I think it was sneaking bits of chocolate sprinkles into his mouth when he thought I wasn't looking, that he found the most enjoyable!

 

 

See that cheeky little face? And the chocolate evidence around the mouth? ha ha!

He emptied out the remaining sprinkles directly into his mouth shortly after I snapped this shot!

I packaged up the cupcakes into pretty little boxes ready for the trip to seaside in the morning. One box to enjoy with the Great Grandparents and one to leave for them to enjoy throughout the week.

Now the only thing left to do, was get the picnic things packed for the boys lunchtime treat on the beach!

Photographing Family

Last month we were blessed with some fabulously sunny weather, the first real promise of the coming summer months. We took this sunny opportunity to get out into the park, charge up the camera and have a little photography session. If there is one thing I regret, it was not taking enough photo's when I was pregnant with Monkey-Moo #1. There are just so few of hubby and me, and a belly fully of Monkey-Moo. We made up for it, with Monkey-Moo #2, some may even say we went a tad overboard. (hurrumph!)

That said, I couldn't allow my brother and his wife, who are expecting their second little girl this May, to let this precious time pass without capturing the memories in photographs. Natural light, outdoor setting and relaxed atmosphere made this glorious sunny day the perfect time to document a time before they became a family of four!

 I used their camera, and foolishly didn't check the settings in the glaring sun (not that looking at a camera screen is easy in harsh sunlight-but enough of the excuses!) and so the first half of our shoot was rather overexposed!Groan! More time to be spent editing photo's to see what could be saved. The best outcome seemed to be turning them into black and white shots. 

While all this was going on, two little Monkey-Moos were happily posing for daddy, who was snapping creatively away with my camera. Didn't he do well?

Despite the mishaps, we came away with a few super usable shots! Now we wait for Baby to arrive so I can snap away again, with them a Family of Four!

Easter Inspired Baking

Easter is totally about Chocolate! And that means any form of chocolate! Cake, egg, slab, milkshake,chick or bunny, in our house,we are anything but fussy!

 Which is what prompted me to whip up a batch of chocolate cupcakes while the Monkeys were being entertained at the park with daddy!

Yay for a clean, fuss free, assistant free baking session! (they are so rare in my house)

 

When the Monkey-Moos got home cupcakes were already cooling, and nearly ready to decorate. It didn't take long at all to whip up a quick batch of butter cream icing with a shot of vanilla for flavour, fill up the piping bag, break open the bag of Cadburys mini eggs, raid the pantry for some sprinkles and decorating supplies, then set it all out. And in less than 10 minutes the Monkeys had successfully decorated all the cakes! They may have gone a little overboard on the mini eggs, but that was egg-pected!

(Can you spot which ones I sensibly decorated?)

 

Gingerbread and Monkeys

School holidays can be very trying when you have two little Monkeys that need some structured entertaining and Mommy has a heap of work (lets not even mention the housework) to get on with.
Short of time, as working mom's often are, these little treasures were a godsend, Thank-you healthy baking mixes and the fabulous Sweetpea Pantry!

Setting aside some time to get two Monkey-Moos organised, hands washed, ingredients out, and everything measured, we made up the mix as per pack instructions. Leaving the mix to cool. (I grabbed this time to quickly shoot through some more work, the Monkey-Moos grabbed the time to drive some cars and argue about who gets to drive at the front of the traffic!)

Mixture cooled (a bulk load of work done) and once we had all gone through the whole washing hands, sorting through cookie cutters, (arguments over who gets what) and digging out the rolling pins, we are finally set for the FUN bit!

Roll and cut, lift and place on baking tray, repeat. Laughter filled the kitchen as we had amputated teddy bears, earless Easter bunnies and the joy of sharing cookie cutters finally sunk in!
So much fun! Into the oven they go, heavenly gingerbread smell wafting through the house (getting back to work is going to be tough) and two very apparently hungry Monkeys wait as patiently as possible for a taste test!

End result, Healthy, Yummy, Tasty ginger bread treats and Two very happily entertained Monkey-Moos! Success!

It's science experiment time!

Monkey-Moo was still getting over his chicken pox when Science week started at school. Monkey-Moo was a little upset at the prospect of missing out on any experiment fun that might be had so I promised him we'd do a little experiment of our own to make up for it.

A simple enough experiment to do with little monkeys.

You will need:

• Three glasses
• Two different food colourings (we used red and blue- as I didn't have yellow)
• Two paper towels
• Water

Experiment:

• Fill two glasses with exactly the same amount of water.
• Add Blue food colouring to one glass and Red to the other.
• Line up the three glasses with the empty one in the middle.
• Roll up a paper towel and place one end in the empty glass and one in the Blue water. Repeat the process with the Red water and empty glass.
• Now wait and watch as the coloured water travels up the paper towels and into the glass in the middle.

 

You should find that all three glasses end up with exactly the same amount of water, and fun for Monkeys is seeing what colour the water ends up in the middle glass (see we crossed over into some art related education with this one- mixing colours)

 

The best part of setting up the experiment for Monkey-Moo was seeing that little Monkey-Moo was just as interested in what was going to happen. It kept them both entertained, interested and most importantly quiet for some time. (it does take a while for the water to travel into the middle glass- so I do suggest setting it up and then leaving for a few hours)

 

Embracing Science week our little Scientist Monkey-Moo wrote out an experiment report to take to school and share with his class. Happy Monkey!

Pantry Staples.

Without a doubt these fabulous goodies from Sweetpea Pantry are going to be firm staples in my pantry cupboard. I found these little gems on Yumbles, and since Monkey-Moo had just been diagnosed with the Chicken pox, I swiftly placed an order!

Lets face facts, what was I going to do to keep him entertained for as many days as it would take before he was cleared to get back to school! There are only so many games, toys and movies before the Monkeys start to work on each others nerves!

I must have been putting out some seriously good karma, as the goodies arrived within 48 hours, and were greeted with great enthusiasm by both Monkey-Moos!

The bubble wrap was game number one (yay, that's one less game I had to think up to keep them busy) and on the menu for lunch, without a doubt were Grainy Brainy Pancakes! 

Once I had manged to get some work done for the morning, we all headed into the kitchen and got ready to have a go with our lovely Sweetpea Pantry mix! 

In one, two, three easy steps we had pancake production on the go!

 

These pancakes were so scrummy delicious,packed full of good stuff, the Monkey-Moos simply loved them! They were gobbled up before I could snap a photo of them looking all lovely and ready to be eaten! Here's the best I could do! 

Simply can't wait to try out the Sweetpea Pantry Ginger Giggles! 

Perfect Presents

There's nothing more stunning than a beautifully wrapped gift, one that looks almost too good to open, a gift within a gift itself. I simply love the creative and wonderful way some people can craft wrappings into works of art. I thought it was about time I stopped envying those that can, and gave it a good old bash myself.

With a lovely Baby shower to attend, there was no longer a reason to keep putting it off, have a go- what have you got to loose?

I decided to go with good old brown paper as the base (basically because that's what I had to hand, and tissue paper would have just torn with all the loose baby bits I needed to put inside) and accessorise with brightly coloured ribbon. It's a baby boy, so no bows and frilly flowers or anything girlie for this wrap!

I went simple, three ribbons, double sided tape and a gift tag.

In hindsight, I should have placed the gifts in a box, or wrapped something less awkward in shape, but I'll tackle that next time. Hope you like it just the same! I can hardly wait to have another go with the next gift that needs wrapping.

Back to Basics

Sometime we forget that the simplest things, the old fashioned things, are the things that can keep our little Monkey's entertained for hours.

I'd been out shopping back in January on a rare occasion without either of the Monkey's, yes all on my lonesome, it was awesome! (Mommy's you know what it's like, nothing better than a few hours without the incessant questions and jabbering of Monkeys in tow)While I was out I spotted two pairs of scissors, you know the kind that cut in patterned wavy lines- when I was little that meant, zigzags and only zigzags- but here were two that were a little different. I snapped them up, with the thought that at some point I'd need to entertain the Monkeys on a rainy day.

This was that rainy day, I fished out some coloured paper the new scissors, the box of crayons and a glue stick. With my fingers firmly crossed I set it all out on the little table, and prayed it would keep them out of trouble for at least 10 minutes.

Too my utter amazement, it was hours of entertainment. Littlest Monkey was having the time of his life working out how to cut, he littered the floor with hundreds of tiny bits of paper from cutting to his hearts content. 

Monkey-Moo One surprised me with an art work, not quite sure why we needed meteors crashing into the house but he worked quietly away for such a long time trying his hardest to get the shapes cut  just the way he wanted and colouring in all the extra little details.

I'm so pleasantly surprised at how such a simple activity brought them so much joy!

Sunny Weekend Mornings.

Blue sky and bright sunshine, after all the blustery winds and rain this winter and top that off with two Monkey-Moos letting us sleep in till after 8am - Is simply the most perfect way to start the day!

Sunny mornings call for impromptu batches of banana muffins! (do you really want to argue?)
Since it was still "Valentines" month, what better muffin cases to use than these gorgeous heart ones I received for Christmas. (all the way from New Zealand I should add)

You remember the vegan recipe I totally rave about. Well that's the way I started the morning. Filling the house with a warm baking smell. (I'd like to claim that it would remind me of mom's kitchen, but lets face it, she was never one for baking unless it was necessity! Don't get me wrong, she can whack out a batch of totally to die for muffins, biscuits, and loaf cakes, she just wouldn't choose to bake without a reason)

You can find full recipe and method here

Cup of tea and freshly baked muffins and we are ready to start planing our day. 

We couldn't possibly waste the glorious weather! Wellies on and out into the sunshine,we head off to our nearest city farm. We weren't the only family with that idea this morning.

It was busy.
Monkey-Moos didn't seem to mind. Owls,bunnies and cows, a couple pigs some sheep, horses and goats plus a stroll round the community garden and time to head home for lunch with four pairs of really muddy wellies!

Oat and Chocolate Chip Cookies

So last week was half term and I had two sick little Monkey-Moos, saying that, it's was just a cold and fever, croaky voices and snotty noses. But top that off, I was trying to work too. Slightly less successful on the working front than I'd have liked to be, so late nights at the computer it was! (when do I get a half term?)

We started off the week with two Monkeys that didn't really want to Do anything, a little Lego building and then begged for a movie which they curled up under blankets to watch.

Then a day that they both felt much much better (although to hear littlest Monkey-Moo croak you'd think otherwise). Not wanting to head outside as it's still a little cold (and I'd rather they get a bit better first) I thought a batch of yummy homemade cookies would keep them busy and help make them feel a little bit better too (comfort food! )

It was meant to be a team effort but Monkey One disappeared shortly after popping the butter in the bowl, and built Lego instead. So little Croak (as I've decided he should be known for this post) and I set about measuring out the rest of the ingredients, and making up some yummy oat cookies.

I don't often bake Oat cookies with Chocolate chips, as I simply prefer raisins, but for once the batch of cookies was not about me! Croak was being such a good little helper, and once we had one batch of plain Oat cookies in the oven, (yes, plain ones for me, I wasn't about to miss out entirely)
we set about adding in some chocolate chips to the mixture. 

Success! The Monkeys loved them!

Here's the recipe for those of you that want to have a go!

170g unsalted butter (or baking marg)
130g light brown sugar
2 large eggs
130g self raising flour
120g oats
60g chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 170'
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs one by one, beating well.
Sift in the flour and fold in with the oats. Now's the time to add your chocolate chips.
Spoon nice rounded teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto a greased baking sheet. They tend to spread so don't put them to close together.
Bake for 10-15 minutes in the centre of the oven.
Makes about 35 cookies depending on how much you heap that teaspoon!

Enjoy!

Superhero hullabaloo.

Monkey-Moo number one is Seven! It's happened so ridiculously fast! He wanted a Superhero extravaganza, and at the last minute, while I was in full superhero swing, decided this needed to incorporate a pizza making party too!

A week ahead of the party I was happily sewing up superhero masks and packing up superhero party bags.
Our lovely niece (aged one) was recipient of the cutesy pink mask, since she was the only girl in attendance!

I hadn't used my sewing machine in years, and yet still found the instructions and templates very simple to work with. 

Next was time to set about getting all the cupcakes ready. Back to my Pinterest board. There wasn't really one pin in particular that inspired the Avengers cupcakes, but more a mashup of several pins I'd seen.

I was very pleased with the results, and at the last minute ditched Thor and doubled up all the others- mainly as I was running out of time and the cake had cooled and I really needed to move onto icing that.

Monkey-Moo was over the moon with Ironman! It was by far his favourite! Little Monkey-Moo was all about my Captain America version, since I'd substituted the A for a star! He is a funny one that Monkey-Moo.

Right back to the cake! I was blown away by one I'd seen (and yes, it too is on my Pinterest board!) but realising that my skills were not up to that challenge I set about creating a similar, simpler, smaller cake! (here's the inspiration)

Paper, pencil and freehand drawing, I came up with a template for the Avengers faces, trying not to make them too scary, and to keep them in a similar "cartoonish" fashion.

 

I simply rolled out the fondant (store bought, coloured fondant) cut around my templates and set the pieces of fondant together until I was happy with the facial construction. The eyes were trickiest, but in the end both Monkey-Moos and I were happy they looked as they should!

 

Ironman and Thor were last to be constructed (juggled is more appropriate, as I was cooking dinner at the same time by this stage!)
Once the cake was iced in a lovely light blue, I set about "pasting" the faces at regular intervals around the cake, all the while trying to cover the "faults" and "folds" in my unskilled icing techniques! Eek!

Final touches with a few orange stars, and I think the cake was good enough to impress a room full of six and seven year olds!
 

 

It wasn't until the middle of the night, that I sat bolt upright in bed, realising that I'd completely forgotten to do Thor's hair!

 

After a lot of fun, stretching pizza dough and making some really wonderfully strange pizzas, the party was in full swing! All the boys were having so much fun, dressed up as Superhero's (mainly Ironman, although Thor and Captain America did make an appearance)  And then as quick as a flash, it was time to do cake!

 

We had one very pleased Superhero!

And one really exhausted Mom of Two Monkey-Moos!