Gorgeous Homemade Gingerbread!

 Yet another rainy (August!) day provided the perfect opportunity to do some baking with the little ones. We opted to make gingerbread as it's pretty simple and is fantastic for the kids to knead and cut out by themselves as the dough can take a lot of handling. The recipe and method we like to use is this - 

- 7 oz plain flour

- 3 oz butter

- 2 oz sugar

- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

- 2 tbsp golden syrup

- 2-3 tsp ground ginger (we like to use 3 as we love ginger!)

- 1 tsp mixed spice

- 1 desert spoon water

Preheat oven to 190 C. Grease baking trays. Heat butter, syrup and sugar but do not let them boil! Once melted, take off the heat and add the flour and spices. Stir and add bicarbonate of soda and water into the mixture. Knead into a ball and roll out onto a floured surface. Then cut out using cutters. Bake for 

5 - 8 minutes depending on the thickness of the gingerbread.

 Our gingerbread tasted yummy and the kids loved the process of making the dough and cutting out all the different shapes. They taste much nicer than shop bought gingerbread too! You could also add choc chips/raisins/icing etc to decorate the gingerbread. A yummy rainy day activity!

Fruity Caterpillar!

Snack time this morning was shook up a little as the kitchen was taken over by fruity caterpillars! I made the kids a fruity snack using blackberries, cherries, and banana. I also added cucumber for the grass. The kids loved them and the caterpillars disappeared incredibly quickly! Super, fun way to get kids eating more fruit and veg! 

The Great British Blackberry picking!

 This morning the kids decided that they wanted to go blackberry picking as there are lots growing where we live at the moment, and my daughter really wanted me to make a blackberry crumble! My niece and nephew were visiting for the day too so I thought it would be a lovely activity to fill the morning! (I refuse to pay for blackberries when they are so readily available for free in our area )!!!  

 Even though it was raining we donned our raincoats and headed out! Living in Wales, we live by the motto that 'there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes!' 

 The kids had a fantastic time spotting the blackberries, picking them and filling their plastic cups up. We popped into my sisters home on the way back as we were soaked through, and she made us some very welcome hot chocolate! 

 We made a crumble afterwards with some of the blackberries and it tasted lovely. I always think kids eat so much better when they are involved in their food in some-way. Lovely way to spend a morning!

Our Chocolate Bakery!

I saw a post on Pinterest the other day to make homemade chocolate play dough and thought I would give it a go with my 2 kiddies on a rainy afternoon. It was so simple and smelt amazing! The recipe and method we used was as follows -
* 1 and 1/2 cups flour
* 2 tbsp vegetable oil
* 1/2 cup cocoa powder
* 2 cups water
* 2 tbsp cream of tarter
* 1 cup salt
Mix all the ingredients in a large saucepan. Stir constantly over a medium heat. Once a ball is formed, take off the heat and allow to cool. Then knead for a while and that is it!!! Simple and it smells so good! My daughter commented that our home smelt like a chocolate bakery! So we decided to set up a chocolate bakery for the afternoon! I set the kids up on the table with cookie cutters, food bags, sequins/beads to decorate with and a play cash till. We also had a play phone for me to call the 'bakery' with my sweet treat orders! We had great fun and played for hours. My little boy usually struggles to hold his attention for longer than 5 minutes so this was a big hit! Recommended activity!

Eggs with a difference!

 Yesterday me and the kids collected a few pebbles on our afternoon walk as the kids decided they wanted to do some pebble painting. This is one of their favourite crafts and I love it as it is so simple, but looks super effective! As it is Easter weekend they chose to turn their pebbles into Easter eggs! We sat outside in the sunshine and they painted Easter egg designs onto their pebbles in some lovely bright colours. We used poster paint to paint our pebbles. To make them weatherproof you can add a coat of clear varnish once dry. I'm going to pop them around the garden to add some colour for our Easter egg hunt today, then they want to keep them in their playhouse to decorate it! Lovely, simple little craft!

Eggscellent egg decorating!

 Its a little bit of a tradition in our family to decorate eggs at Easter time and this year is no different! My 4 year old son decided he wanted to make a Mike Wazowski (from Monsters inc) egg and my 7 year old daughter opted to make an Easter bunny egg. 

 We started off by hard boiling the eggs and waiting for them to cool. After that they painted them with some acrylic paint which a friend had given them. These can usually be picked up relatively cheaply in art stores or on-line. My daughter added tissue paper for her bunny nose, googly eyes and a cotton wool tail, and my son added a hat made from tissue paper. They both drew on extra details with a black felt tip pen, and we used painted kitchen tube pieces as holders so they could stand up and be displayed. 

 We think they look great and will make a lovely table decoration at Easter time. Maybe you could decorate a whole bunch of eggs as a centrepiece! 

Fruity Boat!!! Ship ahoy!

 This is something I shared on my Tumblr page a while ago so thought I would share it again!  I love being a little creative when preparing snacks and meals for my son and daughter! I find by making food a little more fun it really encourages little ones to try new things.  My 4 year old son loves anything nautical so I turned his morning snack into a fruity boat. I used melon, strawberries and grapes and added a cheese mast. He loved it and its a great way of encouraging fussy eaters to eat up!