Making paper snowflakes and Vileda review

Wow, life has been utterly hectic lately!

I always find this time of year manic, not just from the usual Christmas lead up with school performances and extra activities, but from it being 4 out of 5 of our birthdays within 3 weeks. We gave the boys a party each, which for me means more cake making because I never just make things easy for myself. But if all that wasn't enough this year we also had a nasty sickness bug which wiped out at least one of us for over a week (James was the only one to escape!) and also a friend's wedding too!

The snow day just about tipped me over the edge when I thought either Sam's party would have to be cancelled or no one would turn up...thankfully though we carried on and enough could make it!

So after all those very busy weeks, I was quite glad when the Monday came around and the boys school although not fully shut (they'd said if it was too dangerous to come in not to worry...I didn't fancy a 50min round trip with the buggy in the snow) we took advantage of a possible lazy day in the warmth.

We were all shattered, especially Sam who was still getting over the lurgy and his birthday. By mid morning I'd actually had enough of them and thought we should at least try and do something festive...I'd been in full on birthday mode up until then!

I decided it had to be something very quick and easy. So we made good old fashioned snowflakes from white paper.

It's something I used to love doing as a kid, and still fun to do now as you never quite know how it will turn out.

Simply get a square piece of paper, fold into a triangle, and fold again to a smaller triangle, and then for a third time.

Open up the third fold.

Bring both side of the triangle to the middle fold and cut off the excess paper.

Now the fun part, cut your design.

Alex had free reign and did his own thing, Sam was more frustrated (due to tiredness) and needed more help so I drew some simple triangle shapes for him to cut. With his snowflake I made less folds too, for ease of him being able to cut it.

Look online if you want a more challenging design too.

Once they'd finished we layered them in so much glue they went soggy lightly put some PVA glue on them and sprinkled with some glitter. We couldn't find silver glitter so made do with some bronze coloured one.

Most people would cringe doing this sort of thing at home with the glitter, but it's super easy to tidy with the right tools.

We had a Vileda 3 Action Broom to try out, now normally I'm not a great lover of brooms as I find they don't pick up the small bits of leave a bit of a trail behind them.

Once the boys had finished and there was the mess of the paper, glitter, and their snack all over our kitchen floor (which is a horrible vinyl...) I was thinking that the broom wouldn't be great if I'm honest as I never have much luck with brooms.

But this one was different, because of the 3 different brushes within the broom head it picked up everything really well and with ease. Even most of the glitter moved with it, and we all know how hard it is to get rid of glitter!

So if you're in need of a cleaning aid this Christmas this broom is brilliant for the quick jobs after crafting, baking, or when you get that call from an unexpected visitor saying they will be round in 5!

This is especially handy for us at the moment with Zachary crawling, I don't always have time to grab the hoover so can do a quick clean of our kitchen and hallway if need be (which quite frankly with 3 boys and a husband in the trade it's always needed)!




The broom was given to us to review but all thoughts and opinions are true and our own words

Blogtober: Babies

Babies.

That word might but the fear of God into some people, but for my husband and I we knew it was something that we wanted.

Admittedly at 19 when we found out I would be expecting on my 20th birthday it was a bit of a shock to the system, we were scared, I was panicked, I was wondering what everybody would be thinking of me, dreading the bump and the looks off of strangers. Most of all I was dreading telling my parents, so much so I made James do it!!

But once the idea had all settled and everyone else had started to get excited about it, and we had our home then I relaxed.

On the 20th November, 6 days early Alex was born at 7lb 10oz.

Two and a bit years later we got very broody again, and after a rocky few months where I felt dreadfully sick my bump grew and grew and Sam was born on the 9th December, 8 days early (thankfully as was dreading going late and over Christmas) at 7lb 14oz.

Sadly last year I suffered an early miscarriage. It shock me up a great deal, we've been so lucky and fallen pregnant first time so I just thought that my body would be great as it had been previously.

When we came around to the idea of having another baby I was so nervous, nervous and more aware of what could go wrong. I don't think that feeling ever left me during the whole Zac's pregnancy. Zac kept us waiting until his due date, 6th May at weighed in at 7lb 12oz.

I don't know where I'd be without my boys! They drive me mad, but they all give so much love!

Blogtober: All about me

I've been off the ball with blogging of late so thought this little challenge would be good!

I'm doing an A-Z of me.

A Alex

He's our eldest son, and nearly 8 years old. He's almost catching me up height-wise (up to my chin), a lively soul and very much into cars, football and computer games. He's challenging at times and we do clash, but he has a heart of gold under all the tough exterior.

B Boys

I'm surrounded by them! I have 3 sons with my husband, James, who can sometimes act like the 4th boy at times. I also have 2 brothers, and James has 4 brothers with only one sister, so you could say that I am rather outnumbered. It's a good job I'm not a 'girly girl'!

C Cars

I'm nearly 28 but alas I don't drive, James recently bought a car that is automatic, in a hope that I will renew my provisional (from when I had about 20 lessons at 17!) and have a bit more confidence in at least starting to learn again! Confidence is something that I severely lack in many ways!

D Danielle

That's me! And also the name behind my business Danielle Louise Designs. I'm on maternity leave at the moment but will be using a couple of my 'keeping in touch days' for a few Christmas markets. I love creating, it's my little bit of me time and escapism from every day life. I can't wait to have a little more time to start up again, I know that it's never going to be anything big, unless anything drastically changes but love creating art and keepsakes for people.

E Energy

Something I am very much craving right now, with 3 kids who seem to not know how to put things away in right places, cause havoc around the house, a husband who works lots and creates more mess than the kids, a baby that still doesn't like sleeping through night energy is something I rarely have these days!

F Family

Although they drive me mad at times, family is really everything to be, I don't know what I'd be or do without them. They are my life, I couldn't bare to be apart from them for long. Most our immediate family live close by, siblings starting to stray further afield now (James' brother in USA) but that makes moments together so much more special!

G Greed

I hate to admit it, but I always want more. Whether that's more me time, more money, more time as a family, more clothes, a bigger house. As much as I want to enjoy everything right now it's so hard to switch off the greed and hunger for more, as much as I am also so grateful for everything that we do have and what we have achieved in 10 years. 

H Hunger

At the moment I cannot stop eating, I think I got into bad habits from when the morning sickness stopped in pregnancy, and then breastfeeding just seems to make me hungry 24/7! I am known for getting very hangry (just like my father haha), feed me and my mood will change, especially if it's freshly baked cake!

I Ice cream

The perfect addition to any freshly baked cake! Also one reason I am slightly larger than I should be right now as I have been known to eat a fair amount of Ben and Jerry's since I was pregnant with Zachary!! 

J James

My husband of just over 3 years, and this September my partner for 10. We started dating when we were 17 and for a couple of our age have certainly crammed in a lot! 2 Houses, 3 children, 1 wedding, and lots of happy memories and stressful times in-between! James really is my rock, I do not know where I would be without him, he is such a hardworking and kind man, I feel funny writing man as he really is a big kid! But I love him so much, if only he would pick up after himself a little more ;)

K Kids

I always knew I wanted kids, and well that dream has come true and we have 3 beautiful boys!

L Love

Some other things that I love: chocolate, baked goodies, fresh sunny mornings, crunching through leaves, cold side of the pillow, being hugged to sleep, having my head stroked, craft shop.

M Mother

That is me now as much as I love it sometimes at home I wish I was called something else so I don't constantly hear MUM, MUMMY, MUM, where are you  MUM haha. Deep down I wouldn't have it any other way though.

N Nonsense

With 3 boys and James there is a lot of nonsense in our house, and well, if I'm honest I have to join in too sometimes...I'm not going to be seen as cool for long I fear so might as well give them a few laughs whilst I can get away with it!

O October

October is the time of year my mind has to go into overdrive. It's the month I HAVE to start planning (at least in my head) the upcoming 4 birthdays before Christmas, and also start stocking up on Christmas presents too.

P Popular

I've never really been the 'popular' one, I've always been pretty shy and hide behind other peoples personas. I would crave to have a friendly relationship (other than James) with someone that I can call no matter what time, about anything at all. Although I''ve had best friends etc, and I do have friends, but I'm such an introvert that I've not helped myself throughout the years

Q Queen

A band that the older two keep asking to play on Alexa. It's quite funny as now they are recognising the songs and singing along. Although Alex often asks for King instead!!

R Roast

Mum's home cooked roast is the best. I still can't manage to time a roast right when I cook it, no matter how hard I try I just get it right! I can never beat Mum's roast potatoes!

S Sam

Is our middle son who will be 5 in December, he's a funny little boy with such an infectious laugh! He loves snuggling under a blanket and watching a Disney movie or TV. just like Alex he is hot wheels mad too!

T Tentative

I am far to tentative! I always overthink, worry, and am hesitant to change. It's something I need to work on for the future!!

U Undecided

James would say that one of my bad traits is my indecision with so much!

V Voice

I need to find my voice more, not only to be more outgoing and vocal, but to speak out and get passionate about something and not worry so much on other people's opinions of what I am saying

W Work

I've only had one job, the one I started when I was 17 (I think), it was working in the stockroom at Next. To some extent I enjoyed it, and in some ways I would love to get back into some sort of work, but I've been out of work since 2012 as I didn't go back after having Sam so it will be a huge hurdle if and when it does happen!

X ray

I've had one X-ray before, I really busted my hand playing netball once. I took a tumble and landed on the tips of my fingers, my hand the next few days was very swollen! Thankfully it wasn't broken (somehow) I miss not playing netball, but with the 3 boys and out weekends already being taken up by football and parties I don't think it would be fair just now to take a few hours out on a Saturday.

Y Yes

Yes is a word I should say more rather than 'maybe', 'in a minute' 'after this job', I need to be more positive and take more opportunities.

Z Zachary

Last but by no means least. Zachary is our newest addition to the family, and he has slotted in very nicely. Although he doesn't like sleeping through the night (much to my disappointment) he really is such an easy baby otherwise, he's already got the Spencer cheeky grin like the rest of the family and everyone loves him so. Can't wait to see what he turns out like in the years to come, his personality is shining through already.

Behaviour charts vs jars

I can't believe that it's been 21 weeks since Zachary entered the world!

It's been crazy, fun, at times a little hard to juggle everything but I wouldn't change it for the world.

You may have read my last post  about our challenging behaviour from the older two, in particular Alex.

We first tried a type of tick chart, with really quite basic things on such as routine tasks etc, with Alex I added 'go into school well and Sam 'eat my vegetables'. Alongside that we had Pom Pom jars which they could put a Pom Pom in if they'd had a good day or did something nice, friendly, helpful without being asked. With these things in place I am pleased to say that things have improved. The last few weeks of term were still tricky getting Alex happy about school but the difference was we didn't have to physically drag him trough the classroom door!

I will admit I was dreading the start of the summer holidays.

At the end of term, I awaited nervously as I collected Alex from the classroom as I just didn't know which Alex I would be picking up, the happy, chatty chappy or the angry, aggressive and short tempered one.

I was worried we'd have a lot of the latter over the summer holidays, especially more worried about the weeks my parents were sunning themselves in Greek islands.

It turns out James had a week off before we went camping for a week, this broke up the holiday loads, and gave me a huge extra hand with the boys over the time where I had no one else to help me!

Of course over the holidays, routine and bedtimes seem to have gone out the window, so we stopped the behaviour charts we had started for the boys, but have kept the jars that they each fill with pom poms when they have done some good.

These jars have helped massively, obviously there are still times we want to pull our hair out with the kids not listening, Alex still has the odd anger blow out, but on the whole the outbursts are much shorter (thankfully).

The jars are a simple concept, Alex and Sam each have their own jar. When they do something good, especially something without being asked, they can pop a pom, pom (or in our boy's case a cotton ball as they figured they were bigger!) in their jar. For example, Sam got one the other day as he actually got dressed and brushed his teeth without being asked, this is a HUGE deal for us at the moment as he NEVER does this.

Once the jar is full they can get a small treat, in our case that is often choosing a hot wheel car, despite having over 200 in the house already!

I am hoping with the start of school and routine we won't have to go back to the tick charts we'd had, that sort of thing isn't really me, I am too forgetful but if the behaviour slips I will have to start it up again, if they get so many ticks a day they get a pom pom. Ideally I'd love to just have the pom pom jars and keep it simple.

I'd originally written this before school went back when we were busy finishing school projects, but here we are a month in already and the holidays seem like a distant memory!

The hardest weeks of my life

Being a Mum  parent brings lots of challenges and guilt.

Once you've cracked one problem there's swiftly another to be solved. 

I knew adding a 3rd baby into the mix would make family dynamics change and get more difficult.

I knew balancing 3 children would have it struggles.

What I wasn't prepared for was the struggle we had since the May half term.

It was a long half term due to Alex having teacher training days added on, as well as being shut the polling day too. Also my mum is often around the holidays as she works at a school, alas she and dad were enjoying a lovely holiday.

It was pretty hard balancing a young baby, who I had only just got to grips with feeding myself without being too sore, and keeping the older 2 occupied, happy and not fighting!!

One day started very badly with Alex, angry, temper tantrums, not doing anything he was told to, lashing out at his brother and hitting me whilst I was feeding, he tride to run out of the back garden too!!

I thought things had finally calmed down when Alex and Sam had gone quiet upstairs, so once Zac had fallen asleep I started heading upstairs to see if I could join in the fun with them...

Then, half way up the stairs I heard the spray of a deodorant can and soon realised they weren't playing lego like I thought they had been.

Then the smell hit me like a wall. It smelt like the perfume shop had exploded.

Our room was a mess, there were spray marks over the walls, mirror, window, cupboards and more. Our duvet had been spread with my make up, a football sized patch covered in foundation and bright red lip gloss smeared in places also. The thing that made me most mad was the babies bed matress had been ruined from them pouring half a bottle of expensive, and strong smelling perfume.

Not going to lie, I was livid, not only was I disappointed, I was upset that items I don't normally treat myself to had been ruined and wasted. I rarely spend money on myself so I was gutted.  

This day was the start of a lot of change, Alex changed, it's like the red mist hit him and nothing would change it.

We had weeks of terrible outbursts, some lasting more than two hours, he was breaking things (like cutting the straps off brand new shin pads we had bought him the week before as he's just started football training), throwing items and just generally been mean, angry and at times quite scary.

My parent's witnessed it too, I think they thought I was exaggerating things at first but were surprised when he wouldn't stop for them!

June was just such an awful month throughout, one day he refused to go to school for a good 10 minutes purely because he's forgotten to choose a golden time toy despite being ready to leave for 15 mins. I had Alex going one way, Sam starting to head off (and crying because he didn't want to be made late for preschool) and Zac in the pushchair, I will admit I didn't know what to do and could feel the anxiety and anger bubbling away inside.

There was a bad sickness bug going around his class too, as he has a severe fear of being sick this made everyday another battle, as it was constant questions like "am I going to be ok" "but what if I'm not ok" "am I going to be sick". We had tears before school, some days I had to drop him off practically forcing him through the door with his teachers, some days the only way he'd eat at school was in the class not hall. He's never been in trouble at school before but I got called over at least twice in as many weeks for being awkward and just not nice.

How do you deal with angry outbursts? Time out has never worked for him as it leads to even more battles (he can go on for over an hour if in a really bad mood).

What tips and tricks do you have?

Thankfully since this happened things have eased a little but we are still having issues, it definitely started as a cry for more attention after having Zachary, but the anger is still there or a day to day basis.

The final weeks of pregnancy!

On Monday I had my final blood test and unfortunately along the way I had been bitten by a dog!! Luckily it really wasn't that bad but it had managed to break the skin in 2 places. Because I knew I was heading straight to the doctors I just rushed off-I do hate confrontation with strangers!!

I was quite shaken up, and as soon as the nurses in the room asked if I was ok, I sort of half burst into tears and felt very embarrassed. It was one of those moments when I really wish they hadn't asked if I was ok as that just let the flood gates open-at 36 weeks pregnant it doesn't take much at the best of times!!

Anyway whilst there I asked whether I needed to take anything or buy special cream and as they were unsure they said to ask reception for a call back from the doctor. Unfortunately I need antibiotics for the next week! So now have indigestion pains from them as well as baby!

Tuesday morning I had my 36 week midwife appointment (potentially could be the last...) and was pleased to see it was with my normal midwife this time (not that there was anything wrong with the fill in one last time), always nice to see a friendly face.

I was so pleased that the bloods came back fine, I have been on iron tablets since the last blood test and luckily my levels are around 12 so I am fine to have baby in the birthing centre.

I am so, so relieved with this, I found Sam's labour in the birthing centre so much more relaxing than when I had Alex on the ward, it really didn't feel like I was in the hospital at all, I do have a little bit of a fear of hospitals generally otherwise!

She measured bump which was all good, she noticed how tight it is under my ribs and how little room there is left, I was pleased to find out baby is head down, with it's body to the right and limbs on the left (explains the weird poking out bits I've had this past week)! Baby wasn't engaged, but in bed last night I had a really bad sudden discomfort down below a few times and lots of pressure, so I am wondering if maybe it is now or making a start!! EEK

I am tempted this time to try a water birth, the pools were in use when I had Sam, and I won't be totally disappointed if they are again, I just think it would be nice to try, and with this being my last pregnancy I would really like to give the opportunity a go. I am just wondering whether I would get too hot and then start feeling ill.

We are almost sorted with everything baby, my parents kindly took the boys away Friday night-Monday night in Bournemouth and as James had the weekend off we sorted out our room, cleared some rubbish from the house, and after a year of having no thresholds after laying our hallway floor we finally got them down along with some hallway lights up, as it was so nice weather-wise we didn't do as much as we had planned too. But we only really have the babies crib to make up now, the rest of the DIY will probably wait another few months to a year I'd expect!!

It was so nice to have some time to ourselves and just have ourselves to think about without worrying about feeding, bathing, and bedtimes! We caught up with some friends and family, and took a wander around Cirencester-where we had a yummy lunch!

Plus the boys had a fantastic time away and it was probably much needed as we really don't have much planned this school holiday!

So I am going to try and enjoy the last few weeks of pregnancy, despite the tiredness and general aches and pains, and also being without a working car at the moment (hopefully being sorted asap)! I also have a haircut appointment today which is much needed as I haven't had my hair cut in over a year and I so need it!!

Easter crafting: shaving foam marbled paper and Easter hats with Marigold.

We've been busy crafting this past week ready for Easter.

Spring is a great time of year to craft, the sun is out and it's time for lots of bright colours too!

On a day where Alex had gone to a friend's house to play after school I took it as a good opportunity to do some crafting with Sam one-to-one. Which I will admit I've not done enough of over the years!

We collected some cards and papers, chose the colours we wanted and bought some shaving foam. (Please read the bottle when buying...we bought the gel one first time and had to head back to be able to make this project)!

How to make shaving foam marbled paper:

Things you need

• Shaving foam
• Paint (at least 3 colours)
• Thick paper or card
• Cocktail sticks/kebab skewers/fork
• Tray with foil (saves on lots of washing)
• Ruler or something else to use as a scraper

How to make it:

• Make sure you clear a space, thanks to Marigold we had plenty of sponges and cloths to wipe down the table and kitchen worktops. 
• Wear gloves if you want to...this would be advisable if you wanted to use food colouring instead of paints.

• Set up the trays, and squirt a generous amount of the shaving foam all over. 
• Choose which colours you want to marble together and dab small blobs all over. 
• Using the skewers etc, make patterns with the paint. Tip: start off with bigger gaps, when you reuse the same shaving foam over a few times you will get a 'tighter' marble affect anyway. 
• Once happy with pattern made place a piece of paper on top. Don't press too hard, but enough for the paint to take. 
• Gently peel off the paper, place on the table.
• Using the ruler scrape the excess shaving foam off, press firmly when doing this.
• Leave to dry
• Put the excess shaving foam back in the tray and mix with the skewer again, repeat until you want to stop. 

I will admit this is quite a messy make! But it is fun, and I will also admit that we aren't too precious about our table as it's on it's last legs. Again having Marigold to help with the clean up was great-as you can see our table needed it!

We actually used these papers this weekend, the boys used templates and cookie cutters to cut out spring shapes for their Easter hats. 

These were really simple to make as it was simply a piece of card for each hat, cut into 3, 2 stapled to fit their heads, and then the extra piece bridged over the top. The 'grass and box of carrots' were from Asda at a £1/e I thought these were pretty reasonable! Using my glue gun I got them to tell me where they wanted their shapes placed.  

Hope you enjoyed this, let us know if you will be crafting this Easter!

This is a collaborative post with Marigold

A Christmas catch up! (A little late)

OK, OK. It's January and I am posting about Christmas, I apologise, but this is the last post catching up before we get into the new year-promise!

Early December we popped along to a local farm to choose our Christmas tree, we got a slightly smaller tree than previous years and actually I am glad we did. We got a 4-5ft tree, so nice to support a local farm, and the boys loved choosing it and were very excited about decorating it when we got home-I wish I was but in all honestly I was so tired and didn't really want it up the first weekend in December! 

When we got home we let the kids have free rein decorating it, I will admit on the Monday I did re-decorate it (I know terrible!), and got my craft wooden tree out for them to decorate on the landing upstairs. 

The finished tree

I think this is actually the best tree we have decorated, I stuck to golds, whites and reds, and there are a few of my own makes on there too! This actually lasted amazingly well, we had it up until the 5th January and it was still looking very green and hadn't dropped that many needles at all. I fed it with some lemonade and water this year and I think the lemonade definitely helps (for whatever reason I don't know)!

December was crazy busy! We had James's Birthday, Sam's birthday, James went to America for a week, Sam's birthday party, and then the last manic week at school with plays, discos, Christmas parties, fundraising and more (or course this was the week James was away too)! 

Alex's play was born in the barn, unfortunately I have no photos, we were able to take them but as he was at the back and I didn't have the best view it was just impossible, I was really hoping they would take individual photos in their costumes like in previous years, but apparently they didn't this year which is disappointing. He was a bird, so was in black with a big beak, singing his heart out, the kids all did a great job. 

Sam's nativity was on the last day of term, and it was super cute, the 3 and 4 year old's did an amazing job. Sam was a shepherd, handy as Alex was at preschool too so had no worried when sorting the costume. Sam loves singing and kept smiling away at me. They had some stalls afterwards, and we got lucky on the tombola for a change! 

Alex had Christmas jumper day on the Friday too, of course we had none and of course I then felt guilty and had to make one up on the Thursday night, sometimes being crafty has it's upsides! I had loads of people saying I should make these to sell next year...I'm not so sure after how long it took me to do!

As I mentioned above, James was away for a week in December, he went out to Florida with his family, his brother lives out that way and he whole family were heading out there until after Christmas. We all had the opportunity to go but in all honestly flying, especially long haul is one of my nightmares let alone when 4 month pregnant, and as it was for the week the boys were happy to stay home. With Alex being ill that week, and then seemingly developing big anxiety over eating and going out we were all very pleased to see James walk through the door that Saturday, he was so lucky with his journey home so was home about an hour earlier than we expected. 

That week before Christmas James was mostly off, we had our scan, and sorted the last of the Christmas bits, as ever we don't have the money for buying everyone presents so we did a big bake off on the 23rd! Photos can be deceiving though, it looks like we are happy families here, but in all honestly it was a day of the boys arguing and being hard work!

However we made lots, cranberry and orange shortbread, gingerbread with lemon icing, marshmallow, and cheese and rosemary straws. These all went down extremely well, I think my favourite were definitely the shortbread....although the other makes went down nicely too!

 Christmas eve was mainly spent having a quick tidy up, wrapping the last of the gifts, seeing a couple of friends and heading out to a Christmas service at the church we got married. It went by in a flash and it was soon time for pj's, hanging stockings, and leaving mince pies etc for the big man himself, Sam remembered we had reindeer food last year and was worried we hadn't got any this year so the boys quickly stepped out the front and sprinkled some oats out. It wasn't long before he visited!

I woke at 4am, and thought I could hear the kids, they were both up in Sam's bed chatting away like 2 old women, they sort of went to sleep at 5ish, Sam ended up in with us and I didn't get back to sleep, so was a bit tired the rest of the day! James and I didn't do gifts for each other again this year, and we purposely didn't get the kids much either, a. to save money and b. they just didn't need nor want much! The kids were happy with their bits, and actually didn't get a huge amount of time to play them as we went to my parent's for lunch, we were back there the following day as my grandparents were there, the following day we went to Reading to visit my other grandparents and all of my Mum's side of the family, as James' parents were back we also popped into them on the 28th, so it was a lovely but manic few days!! I will be honest even now in January the upstairs still has some of the boy's stocking fillers left on the landing as I haven't had the energy or time to sort much out!! 

So from our home to yours, we hope you had an amazing Christmas, a lovely new year and all the best in finishing those Christmas food gifts to make a start on healthy eating again (please say that isn't just us)!

Alex's 7th birthday, Thor hammer cake

Firstly, happy new year to you all! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a great start tot he new year too. 

Secondly I have a couple of catch up posts to write before getting into the new year posts so here is the first!

Alex turned 7 in November, he still really wanted a party this year, so we managed to scrape some money together for a bowling party, he had a few friends from school as well as James' younger brothers and Sam. They all had a great time, and it's the first party I've ever done where all I have had to do is supply the cake and party bags...apart from the price I can see why so many people do this as there was so much less stress. 

I just didn't think I could face a party at home this year with not long getting over the morning sickness stage, so bowling was perfect, and I think that age group is a great age for it too, anything younger I think it may have been more of a challenge! 

I made a simple Smartie covered chocolate cake for the party and then a 'Thor hammer' cake for back at ours later with our families. 

This wasn't the best cake I have ever made but Alex was happy with it, so that is all that counts really! I made a chocolate sponge, but the hammer was made from rice crispie cakes, really easy if not a little messy. I let the marshmallow/rice crispie mixture cool slightly before moulding into shape. I greased my hands up with butter whilst doing this and loosely wrapped in cling film too. For the hammer handle I moulded it around a kebab skewer leaving enough to stick into the hammer head. I let this cool in the fridge for a while before icing it. 

Alex loved it, but it had a couple of crude comments from my brothers haha.  

Autumn half term fun, salt dough leaf imprinting

With any school holidays I am filled with both excitement and dread.

I love the lazy mornings and not having to rush around (no one likes the time limits of the school runs do they)! BUT the arguing between the boys and trying to keep them constantly entertained is difficult and wearing at times! Sam constantly asks to watch TV, Alex comes up to me every 5 minutes saying he's bored, and asks to play on some form of technology pretty much on and off all day!

Today was one of those days! Alex sneaked his tablet in the morning so was quietly playing that in his room, cue tears when I took it off him, after breakfast they started fighting over hot wheels cars and which one was the fastest or the best...this went on for some time!!

So after my shower and a bit of a shouting match I decided it was time to do something fun, I made up a batch of salt dough and we went out to collect some leaves (short walk to clear the head ache for me also)!

The recipe I used was simply, 1 cup flour, 1 cup salt and about 1/2 to 3/4's cup of warm water.

After returning i sprinkled flour over the table, got some geometric cookie cutters out and a couple of rolling pins. I let the boys pick the leave and also a couple of acorn cups they had found.

We rolled the dough to about 1cm thick, and then laid a leaf down upon the dough and lightly rolled over the leaf-hard enough to leave an imprint but not too hard to flatten the dough (this happened a few times with my two)!

They then cut with the cookie cutter, using a straw I poked a hole in each shape made in case we want to hang them at a later stage.

We placed them on some baking paper on a baking tray.

The boys also used acorn cups for making imprints, Alex had the idea of making circle indents in his dough which Sam quickly copied, we tried rolling the acorn cups to leave a pattern but this didn't really leave a great effect.

Once all the dough had gone I popped the shapes into the oven at about 140C and cooked for about 2-2 1/2 hours turning them over half way.

They came out reasonably well, whenever I have cooked salt dough in the past it has puffed so I am glad it didn't this time!

We may draw or paint on them another day...will update if we do :)

This was a fun and cheap activity to do and they had a great time.

Alex's guardian angel

I don't know who or what was looking over us today but I am thankful!

We left the house at 8ish to head to Alex's school we have a mile cycle to get there, Sam on the back of the bike with me, Alex on his own bike.

Our area is quite built up, there is one dual carriageway running through the middle of lots of housing, it has been notorious for red light jumping as there are so many junctions along it.

Today we were crossing at the first junction we need to cross over, the light turned red for the cars, a car and tanker were starting to go from the shop side and our light turned green. I told Alex to go across as did I. Then I heard the engine told Alex to stop and move back and there was the car.

It narrowly missed hitting Alex, I think he may have clipped the front of Alex's bike but it all happened so fast I'm not really sure what happened exactly.

At first he didn't even realise it was his fault, I don't know if he'd been looking down or at a phone, or if it was the sun that caused him not to see his red light. Then I think it dawned on him that it was still a red light and completely his fault.

We were all shaken up, the man stopped, and checked we were ok, he was a dad too apparently and seemed to genuinely be sorry and I don't think he could quite believe how close it was, and what potentially could have been.

I just can't help but think of the worst outcome, and how I should of checked the road again and again before even saying 'yep it's green go'.

I got his number plate, he offered his number but I stupidly was too shaken up to take it, my legs were shaking so much, and I've never been in a situation like it, and as I don't drive never been in a car accident where you need any details or anything either so I really had no idea what the right thing to do was, that and any anxieties I have don't help!

I just thank our lucky stars Alex was ok, someone was watching over us today.

How to create a simple Iron Man head birthday cake

So as you may have read Alex turned 6 on Friday and he had asked for an Iron man cake, at first I was filled with dread but in fact the cake was relatively easy, normally when I bake birthday cakes, or cakes of some importance something goes wrong, but this one time it didn't (phew)!

I baked 3 large rectangle chocolate cakes, 2 x 3 egg cakes and the bottom layer being a 4 egg recipe to make it slightly thicker.

I printed out an iron man template (plenty found online) and cut the template out of the cakes (each layer separately).

Then layered the cakes on top of one another on the board I was presenting the cake on with a thin layer on vanilla butter icing to bind them and underneath the cake so make it stick to the board.

Following some images online and the template guide I started to carve the cake into a shape, I probably could have shaped it slightly more, but I didn't want to go too far and ruin it-this was the first time I have tried cake carving after all!

Once I was happy I put a thin layer of butter icing over the whole cake and put in the fridge to harden for about 15mins creating the crumb crust (something I probably haven't had the patience for before now but I now know why it is vital)!

This year I bought my icing from Hobbycraft using the Renshaw brand. This is the first time I have used them and I will definitely be using it again, it rolled so nicely, I have never been able to ice a cake without it tearing or sticking terribly, but miraculously this time it worked pretty much perfectly for a novice baker like myself! I used as little icing sugar as needed and followed this ladies tutorial for tips-and it worked for me!

I covered the whole cake with red icing, then used my template for the yellow icing and likewise for the eyes.

For the black outlines I used some black decorating icing also from Hobbycraft, by squirting some into some decorating/writing tubes I own using two different thickness's. I will admit I wasn't as happy with the result of this but I think it looked better once it had dried as I liked the cake much more the next morning! You really need to concentrate and mind your hands with this, I had kitchen roll on hand to clean the nossle regularly which helped.

I was so pleased with the cake, and it got lots of complements, I hear the kids even ate it before they got to their cars (I did feed them honest)!

Superhero party on a budget (games and ideas)

So last Friday my eldest baby turned 6, and yes I say this every year but where did that time go?

He has flown through his first year at school and now we are almost at the Christmas nativity (in which he is one of many shepherds)!

Alex has a thirst for information and since I bought an Usbourne Atlas book for him for Christmas he has loved Geography and also finding out which things are in which country which is really great and nice to see he wants to have knowledge of it all too.

Being a typical 6 year old boy he is also in to many typical boy things like lego and superheroes so there wasn't really much surprise when he asked for me to make an Iron man cake for his birthday-I did however persuade him that making the whole of iron man would be a bit tricky and that just his face would be a lot better ;) for my cake tutorial please check in this weekend...

With money being usually tight I knew we couldn't afford a 'proper' party this year as they are just so expensive, but luckily Alex just wanted a party at home, great I thought until we saw the list of people he wanted. The thought of 16 kids in the house with just myself, mum and James to control them was a little un-nerving but we got there!

It was chaos and they were hyper but we did have some vague plans and times at which to do it! Pinterest as always was invaluable! (Here's my board for the party for more ideas).

I had spent hours making lots of super hero masks using these templates. I think I made about 20 so they had a choice and to leave extras in case any went wrong or got lost. I used cereal boxes and then covered in coloured paper, this would be a lot quicker if you have thick coloured card (I just tried to make it as cheap as I could for myself using bits we already had)!

Alex's mask

I went onto Baker Ross to find they have some super hero stickers and tattoos, I also needed star stickers, sticky back gems and elastic for the masks, they also sold glow sticks which I needed for a game and for the party bags.

They came in and made their masks straight away-this actually didn't take as long as I had hoped it would ;)

As some were finishing up their masks they gradually all queued up to play pin the badge on batman. I'd just cut a large black piece of paper up in a rough batman shape and used yellow paper to make the badges and stuck double sided foam shapes on the back.

After that Alex wanted to play traditional games such as musical bumps and statues which they all really liked as most kids that age do.

Then we played the game 3 corners (usually 4 corners but it was in our lounge so had to cut one corner out due to space) I placed a super hero in each of the three corners, the music played and they danced in the middle, when it stopped they ran to one of the corners whilst I had 3 pictures of the super heroes behind my back and picked one-whoever is on that person are out and you just play on until there is one left.

Then I manically got some of the food sorted that couldn't be done until last minute whilst they played this game, which my husband said they loved. They sat down on the floor in a circle and I got a bunch of 6 green glow sticks taped together and we called it kryptonite (which kills superman if I am correct). Basically they pass this around to music like pass the parcel, but whoever landed with the kryptonite was out and instead of waiting around they came into the kitchen to get their food. This worked really well as meant there weren't 16 kids all around the table choosing their food at the exact same time. James said it was quite hard to get to a winner so the last two spilt the 6 green glow sticks to keep in their party bags.

As we had so many children and have so few chairs in our house we put out picnic rugs on our kitchen floor for them to eat on, surprisingly they really didn't make too much mess and they also had very healthy appetites, I am not sure the school fed them lunch that day!!

We did a typical party buffet of pizza, sausage and cheese rolls, sandwiches, cheese and pineapple, crisps, bread-sticks, cucumber and carrots. After their savouries we sang our happy birthday's and then moved onto dessert.

I'd made a traffic light jelly, and made plenty of cupcakes, I'd bought super hero toppers for them on eBay which Alex loved, I also put out some biscuits of party rings and chocolate fingers!

After the food we played a quick game with some t shirts and balloons, Alex and two others who he chose wore James' and my old tops and we had blown up plenty of balloon (really small) and the kids had to fill the tops up to make them look muscular like super heroes. This was a fun game but it did get rather hectic so would may be better with slightly fewer children!

I loved how Alex ended up looking

After that we had about 10/15 minutes to spare and we were reaching the end of our tether slightly as they were bouncing off the walls, James put his projector on in the playroom and they started watching The Incredibles until their parents arrived-they were sat down so quietly for this and it actually worked out really well for pick up time too as we just called them out with their parent was there.

Alex had a great party, and although hectic there were no problems and for the most part the kids did behave (James did however move his TV upstairs after it nearly being knocked a few times in the first few minutes!), I am hoping next year Alex will choose slightly less children though ;) As ever my mum who works in a nursery was the best of help too, don't know how I would do it without her help!

We had our family over literally straight after so I didn't get to sit down until late at night and then couldn't sleep until gone 2.30am, Sam delightfully woke me at 6.30 too...! The next few days we spent building and playing new Lego sets mainly as he was so lucky and had lots of new sets along with lots of other cool gifts too! I would say that's all the birthday's over for a while but it was mine yesterday, James' on the 3rd and Sam's on the 9th Dec!

Planning a super hero party

So Alex turns 6 in just under 4 weeks!

Not sure where those years have gone!!

Anyway I must be mad as the invite have gone out to 15 children saying to come here for a party at our house on his birthday! Ouch, wine will be drank after it! We just couldn't afford a 'proper' party and there is no way I am spending £200+ on a party even if I had the money! Luckily Alex did only want people at ours anyway.

I am starting to panic slightly on how I will actually cope with it, I have roped in my Mum (an expert with children after working in a nursery for many years!) and have told James he has to be home to help too!

So a house party like this needs much forward planning, he wants to have it Avengers/superhero themed so pinterest was my first stop for ideas!

Lots of them are from American sites where they have huge house and back yards with lovely weather, obviously a party in November doesn't have that luxury so I had to be quite selective!

Here's some of my ideas I have found so far on my board.

I think to begin with I will get them to decorate a mask, as you can quite often be waiting for people to turn up which makes party games slightly more difficult. I just need to decide whether to use some of my felt supplies, or just stick to card...

Then I think I will do 'pin the star on captain America's sheild' or pin 'Batman's logo on his body'.

Before food I think I might snatch this idea I found, pass the kryptonite (green glow stick) and then whoever ends up with it gets out and then gets ready to sit down for food. It also saves buying a present for pass the parcel too which is a winner in my eyes!

There are some fab other games too but not sure I can cope with them with lots of kiddies in a confined space we shall see, Alex wants to play musical statues etc too so I am sure we will.

Alex wants an iron man cake, I have discouraged him wanting the full iron man so he has agreed to just have the face...must save I am a little nervous about doing it so any tips greatly received!!

I may make this punch box so they can grab their party bags before they leave in a bit of a hulk smash kind of way...