Friday Film Night Popcorn

We like nothing better than to all snuggle down on the sofa on a Friday night and 

watch a film - making some bowls of popcorn, with the children's help, is all part of the ritual....

Here are two of our favourite flavours.......

Caramel Popcorn

Large bowl popped popcorn
4oz  sugar
1 tablespoon syrup
1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoon butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon vanilla

First off make some ...... Plain Popcorn

Cover the bottom of a large pan with a thin layer of vegetable oil (don’t use butter, it will burn).

Place 3 kernels of popcorn in the pan, cover with a loose lid that allows steam to escape, and heat.

When the kernels pop, pour in enough popcorn to cover the bottom of the pan, one kernel deep, cover the pan and shake to evenly spread the oil.

Shake as popcorn continues to pop.

When the popping begins to slow to a few seconds apart, remove the pan from the stovetop.

The heated oil will still pop the remaining kernels.
Sprinkle lightly with popcorn salt, if desired, and store in an airtight container. 

Caramel Popcorn

Line a large baking sheet with lightly buttered foil.

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup and water and bring to a boil.

Cook the syrup over medium heat, without stirring, until it becomes amber in colour; about 6 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in butter and salt until blended.

Stir in popcorn until coated. Spread the caramel corn in a single layer onto buttered foil.

Allow to cool before breaking into pieces. Store in an airtight container until serving time

Seussville

If you and your children love green ham and eggs; one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish; and (our absolute all time favourite) the sleep book - I think we can recite the whole book by heart!

You are all going to love this site - it's a gentle celebration of all things 'cat-in-the-hat'

There are loads of things to do here from printables to colour-in, learning and fun activities to do along with games to play and recipes to try.

Even if your child isn't quite old enough to fully interact with the site all the colours and animation will fascinate and entertain them.

We all love this site it's fabulous......

Check it out - here's the link.......

I couldn't write about Dr Seuss with out a few quotes........ 

• Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.

–      The Lorax

• A yawn is quite catching, you see like a cough, it just takes one yawn to start other yawns off. 

–      The Sleep Book

• It is fun to have fun but you have to know how.

–      The Cat in the Hat

• Don’t give up! I believe in you all! A person’s a person, no matter how small!

–      Horton Hears a Who

• A host has to put up with all kinds of pests, for a host, above all, must be nice to his guests.

–      Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose

• So be sure when you step, step with care and great tact, and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act.

–      Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Peaches

The smell from these peaches in my local greengrocers attracted me as soon as I walked in so I just had to buy them.

Nothing says 'summer' to me more than peaches and they remind me of long hot holidays in France where they would accompany some cold meat, cheese & wine for a lazy lunch......

Peaches are very popular as a first food for babies and young children. They are not considered to be highly allergenic - making them a good choice as a first food and are rich in antioxidants, peaches also provide vitamin C, riboflavin, potassium and fibre.

Here are some delicious and simple ideas for serving peaches to babies....

from google images

For babies 6 months or older...

... Cut a ripe, peeled peach into cubes and dust with cinnamon for a quick and easy finger food.

... Put peeled chunks of peach in the freezer and offer them to your little one to gnaw on when teething.

... Puree frozen peach chunks with banana for a refreshing dessert.

... Stir pureed peach - or soft peach cubes - into cooked rice or couscous

... Mash ripe peach and mix with cottage cheese.

... Poach peach halves in apple juice and puree.

....Puree peach and cooked chicken for a simple dinner.

Fun Peach Recipe Ideas for Older Children

All these recipes can be succesfully made by children - as usual just supervise when hot & choppy things are involved!

Peach Popsicles
3 or 4 ripe peaches - halved and pitted
Juice from one lemon

icing sugar to taste¼ cup freshly-squeezed orange juice
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Chop peaches in a food processor. Transfer 1 cup (keep the peaches somewhat chunky) to a medium bowl. Add the lemon juice, orange juice, and sugar (if the peaches need some sweetness) to the processor. Puree until smooth. Add to the bowl with the chunky peaches, then stir in vanilla.

Divide the mixture among ice-lolly moulds (or small paper cups). Freeze until beginning to set (about 1 hour). Insert frozen treat sticks into molds and freeze until completely firm (one hour more).

Marshmallow Peaches

Cut peaches in half and remove stone.

Place a marshmallow in each half, sprinkle with a little brown sugar and coconut and grill until lightly browned.

Serve with ice cream or yogurt.

Peach And Prawns Kebabs

Soak bamboo skewers in water for 30 minutes.

Peel and dice peaches and thread alternatively on skewers with prawns. Brush with melted butter seasoned with a dash of Tabasco and chopped coriander.

Grill or barbecue until cooked through.

Chicken With Peach Sauce

Pan-fry or barbecue 4 chicken breast fillets. Remove and keep warm. Add 2 peeled and thickly sliced peaches, 2 tablespoons marmalade and 1 teaspoon soy sauce to pan.

Heat and serve over chicken sprinkled with chopped chives and roasted almonds.

On The Rocky Road

• These chocolate bars are really fun & easy to make with your children.
• 
  
•  And, as long as you have chocolate in the house, you can make them with
•  anything to hand.......
• 
  
•             ...... cereals, dried fruits.....
• 
  
•                          ........... sweets such as M & M.......
• 
  
•                                      ................ nuts ................... anything you can think of really......
• 
  
• 
  
• Recipe
• 
  
• Makes 24
• 
  
• 125g soft butter
• 300g chocolate - broken into pieces
• 3tbsp golden syrup
• 200g digestive biscuits
• 100g mini marshmallows
• to dust icing sugar to dust

Heat the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in a heavy-based saucepan over a gentle heat.

Remove from the heat, scoop out about 125ml of the melted mixture and set aside in a bowl.

Place the biscuits into a plastic freezer bag and crush them with a rolling pin until some have turned to crumbs but there are still pieces of biscuit remaining.

Fold the biscuit pieces and crumbs into the melted chocolate mixture in the saucepan, then add the marshmallows - and any other 'bits' you want to add.........

Tip the mixture into a 24cm square baking tin and smooth the top with a wet spatula.

Pour over the reserved 125ml of the melted chocolate mixture and smooth the top with a wet spatula.

Refrigerate -  for about two hours or overnight.

To serve, cut into 24 fingers and dust with icing sugar.

Let's go fly (make) a kite

Thanks to my Mum informing my nieces that I once made a kite - the project for the next visit will now be........
 
   .......you guested it

              .......... kite making!

Now, considering that I haven't made a kite since I was about 15 (which was a long time ago!)

            not say how long - I might frighten myself if I work that out......

So I decided to do a bit of research because, I'm sure kite making has come on a long way from the two bamboo canes and black bin bag I used last time!

Well I came across this site and the kites are really excellent. There are a variety of shapes & sizes and also ones to suit all age ranges.

I'm going to forward a few of the designs to the girls for them to choose what they want to make and then we can be all ready to start when they come to visit...

I'll let you know how we get on .......

and if we manage to fly them........

and photo's of all the great stunts we can do........

(yah ...right!)

anyway here's the link to 'how to build kites' site

Lemon & Banana Ices

Wow it's really hot here at the moment and an quick ice would help to cool us all down.

This recipe for lemon & banana ice is really easy and requires only a couple of ingredients that I always have in the house - and you probably do to!

to make 8 ice lollies you will need

3 large bananas
Juice of a lemon
1 tablespoon icing sugar (optional)

Lolly mould & sticks
(loads of different moulds on Amazon & you can usually get some at the supermarket this time of year)

Blend the bananas with the lemon juice, check for sweetness if needed add the icing sugar & blend again.

Pour into moulds and freeze - will take a good 4 hours to freeze or leave over night.

This recipe is so easy and children just love to help make it.

We coated our with white chocolate to make an extra crunch.

Calendar Fun

Every year my nieces, Bethan & Jelly (nickname for Genevieve), have made their father a calender for Christmas.

Originally the pictures for each month were collages or finger paintings and hand prints but as the girls grew up the calender has become more & more impressive.

This year they have progressed to planning; staging & taking the photographs; editing & they also plan to upload the pictures to get the calender published.

This year the aim is to take loads of pictures of Timothy (my well loved bear) in loads of different places & poses.

So far he has visited France on a boat

 and played boule,

Posed with a impressive Knight

and I have no idea whats going on here!

The girls are having so much fun doing this and it is teaching them all about photography & editing. They are really inspired.......

If you and your children want to have a go at this all you need is a digital camera or phone.

Most catalogues and supermarket chains offer a publishing service on line and you just have to upload your chosen photo's. It's quite cheap to do - you can even have a mouse mat or a mug printed if you wish.
 My brother loves receiving this each Christmas and it is always in pride of place in the kitchen. Mike (my brother) has kept every single one and it has been a great way to look back & remember special events.

Colouring In

I do love a good colouring in sheet and you can now find loads to download & print off on line.

If I'm feeling really organised and need to take little ones with me at an appointment I try to remember to take a book or something for them to do with me. And I find the most successful thing is a couple of crayons and a colouring in sheet.

Some of the best designs can be found on 'made by Joel'

Here's the link - go & have a look there are loads of really great ideas.

Fruity Milk Shakes

These are really easy to make, healthy and fun to do with the kids - they can make it all themselves

First off get 500g of strawberries or raspberries (or a mixture) hull out the strawberries ( i.e. remove the stalk & the white core) and cut large ones in half. Peel 3 ripe bananas and break into pieces. Drop the fruit into a blender or large jug if using a stick blender. Add a litre of milk & 300ml of healthy bio yogurt and blend. 

Let the kids turn the dials but make sure they start off on a slow speed or it could get a bit messy.

If using a stick blender make sure they know to keep the stick down in the jug!! They all love seeing the milk turn pink! Pour out into glasses and serve cold.

 Quick Recipe
500g strawberries or raspberries
3 ripe bananas
1 litre milk
300ml bio yogurt.

You can also try blueberries or pineapple for other flavour ideas.

Simple crab lines

As I have mentioned before, in this house, we like all things to do with the sea and the girls really love to do some fishing.

One of their favourite summer evening activity is to take some home made lines down to our local quay and fish for shore crabs. 

The lines are really easy to make. All you need is a length of string about 4 meters for each line, some card, and the small net bags the washing powder tablets come in. you will also need some rashers of bacon diced up.

 (don't forget your line will need to reach the river or sea bed so don't choose anywhere too deep & make sure your line is long enough - if your river is more than 3 or 4 meters deep you may need to pop a pebble or weight of some kind in the bag to help take the line to the bottom)

All you do is take your bag, fill with bacon and attach the line. Cut the card into a small, hand size, rectangle and use it to roll the string on. Place in their buckets for safe transport and head to your nearest saltwater quay.

We have a few games whilst were crabbing - the obvious one being who can catch to most. Others we play are a few crab races where they choose their 'champion crab' and pop them on a start line about a meter from the water we then watch as they make their sideways run towards the sea - the first one is the winner - obviously!

And the last game - which is my husbands favourite and also any boys in our group! - is to place a pound coin in the bottom of a bucket, pour some crabs in the bucket as well and each take it in turn to grab the money - the kids get to keep the coins to add to their pocket money! 

All these games teach them to respect the animals and the water. It also shows them not be fearful of the crabs and we show them how to handle them properly so as not to hurt them - we all get to have a good look at them as well. 

And at the end of the day though, just a cheap fishing net can also provide hours of fun!!

Have a great weekend 

 Liz xx

Kids Cooking

I just found this idea on pintrest and now we need to have a go and make these little guys.

Looks easy enough for us all to have a go (little ones included) and it's a good way of getting fruit inside us.

If this is successful I might expand our range with grape snakes or kiwi Lochness monsters!

I'll see how it goes and let you know......

Here's the link to the strawberry mice

Egg Box Sea Life

This little guy is really cool

We love all things related to the sea in our family - especially rock pooling so these little creatures were a great fun project to do.

Really easy to make and it encouraged some fun pretend play

With a bit of imagination you can make a whole 'rock pool full' of little critters.....

Here's the link to make these at practical parenting

Soctopus

I love these little guys and so easy to make. I substituted wool for tentacles (it was all I had in the house!)

This is a great use for those odd socks we all have sitting in the sock draw!

Here's the link

Soctopus

Math Dice

This a really simple way of practicing maths.To play we just roll a pair of dice, put the two numbers in the box and then add them up - simple.

I have laminated ours so we can use it again & use our white board markers on.

Just go to the link below to download a printable of the above chart and then find two dice & 'let 'em roll'

Math Dice

paint pot idea

I love this simple but very effective idea.

I found it on pintrest and thought wow.

1 - it's such an easy way to dispense the paint into bowls

2 - you get to choose the volume of paint out and about in your house (you know what I mean)

3- You can mix up a big batch of poster paint and it will stay liquid & sealed in these squeezable

4 - you get a feel good factor for being recyclable (is that a word? it's a bit of a mouthful) and frugal.

All you do is clean out your used tomato ketchup bottles and refill with the paint of your choice. Just don't let the one with the red paint in end up in the fridge - your husband won't be amused with it on his bacon sandwich....... (although the kids might!)

Cork Boats

Another simple craft idea & a good use for all those left over wine corks stashed around the house.

follow this link below for the full SP

We have made them on a rainy day & had races in the tub; made them outdoors on a sunny day & had races in the stream and taken them to the beach for rock pool fun. Everyone can make a different colour sail & decorates them as well.

Cork Boats

Made by Joel Colouring sheet

Click on th link below to down load & print off this colouring sheet for free.


made by joel