I want to try to do Veganuary again in the new year. I tried a couple of years ago and only managed 12 days so I really want to challenge myself to complete the whole month this time. When I tried it before I hadn’t long been trying to be gluten and dairy free and I found it really hard to cut out meat and fish too. Over the last two years I have tried a lot more vegan recipes and therefore have more of a variety of foods I know I can eat and will like.
Being a working mom with various interests and hobbies often means there will never be enough hours in a day to truly do everything you want to do. Things will end up being moved to the schedule for tomorrow, thus bumping another item on the list for the next day, and so on. It’s one thing to embrace the paradox of unpredictability kids bring into your life, however, when your own time ends up suffering consistently, it’s a whole different problem.
And then they were seven! Seven seems so much more grown up than six, don’t you think? They are getting so big! They had a normal school day and swimming lesson on their birthday. They opened their presents in the morning with Daddy and then Nana came round in the evening to have tea with us and a brownie. We had a party at a local leisure centre a few days after. It was chaos but they had a brilliant time!
The last four weeks of these two being six. The last couple of months they’ve suddenly seemed much taller. Half term went by in a flash, with our trip to Wollaton Hall to see the Jurassic Kingdom exhibition, a family brunch at The Pudding Pantry and Halloween. I love the autumn feel and the colours in this month’s photos from a park trip on the 11th. The boys wanted to go on their skateboards but ended up moaning and bickering the whole time so we just gave up and went to the playground!
Making a Birthday cake for my boys has become a tradition, something that my Mum always did for my brother and I, and so something I wanted to do for my children. Each year I do something a little different but the one constant factor is chocolate! I have been using the same recipe for the sponge and buttercream for five years now and we all love it. The sponge is soft, light and wonderfully chocolatey and the buttercream is just addictive! I’m no pro when it comes to looks and decoration but my boys don’t care, they just like the fact that I made it and that it tastes good. I hope they will remember these cakes just like I remember mine.
Nottingham is an amazing place to live. So many different people and cultures means a wonderful variety of places to eat, with food from all over the world to try. In this post I’ve put together a list of our favourite places (and in our opinion, the best places) to eat. I will make sure I keep adding to it as we discover more places in the future.
When we’re heading off a long trip with our kids, snacks are an essential item! Unfortunately, convenient snacks for kids are often pretty unhealthy not to mention expensive. Keeping our small kids occupied in the back seat can be challenging at the best of times, without constant cries of “I’m hungry!” resonating around the car (which can drive anyone crazy!).
We found that they are loads of healthy snack ideas out there, but so many of them have the capacity to create a huge mess in the back of our car. If you’re looking at ways to save a money on snacks, keep the car relatively clean and keep your kids as healthy as possible, take a look at our yummy ideas.
Oh October, where have you gone? British Summer time has ended and Winter coat weather is here. My Instagram feed is filled with pumpkins and autumn colours and the highlight of our half-term was a family trip for breakfast to the new Pudding Pantry that has opened in Sherwood. Daddy had severe FOMO (fear of missing out) and decided last minute to come too and I’m so pleased, because it meant we got the photos below.
A crisp autumnal day, cold but sunny and a beautiful setting. Wollaton Hall & Deer Park (Batman’s house!) is one of our favourite places in Nottingham and it’s the perfect place to see the impressive dinosaur exhibition that is Jurassic Kingdom.
Another month has gone by and we’re now officially in Autumn. The boys have been busy at school with a bright jumper day, drama workshop, learning about the Fire of London and a library trip. They even got to wear shorts (and we know they love that!) again twice last week as the weather was so mild.