Hot Cross Bun Bread and Butter Pudding

Wow, now this is an amazing recipe.  As I'm on a tight budget we only used Aldi everyday value hot cross buns but made sure we added lots of extra sultanas and freshly grated nutmeg.  Mr T made it pretty much all on his own.  He doesn't tend to like trying new foods and was just going to serve us and not try the finished pud but then he surprised us all by trying it and then liked it enough to have about 3 portions!

The recipe is from frugalfeeding blog here.

Den Making

A lovely fresh wintery morning was spent building and playing in dens.  I loved dens as a child and made many in my garden.  Our garden is so small that the children's den making has to occur out and about!

Pond Dipping

A lovely day for pond dipping with friends.  Mr T and Miss E found lots of ramshorn snails, Miss E found a giant pond snail and Mr T found a pond skater.  Their friend Bella found a male newt, I've never seen one close up, he even had a little stone stuck to his foot!  One of the Mum's bought a fab Usborne book with her so we were able to identify everything the kids found.

Drawings made when we got home.

Taddies

I remember fondly being at Primary school as a child and the excitement of watching tadpoles grow into frogs.  This year I decided we would look after some here so the children could watch them grow and change.  We went out to try and find frogspawn a few weeks ago and came back empty handed but while we were away friends said their local canal was filled with tadpoles so as soon as we got back we drove over to collect a few.

I don't have any pictures of us catching the tadpoles as the canal was quite low so we left the fishing out to a grown up!  Here are the children drawing them on the day we picked them up.

They are now living in a tank in the garden with a huge rock in as apparently when their legs start to grow they need to be able to climb out of the water or they will drown.

Quarry Bank Mill

Last weekend we made the most of a free National Trust offer and enjoyed a day out at Quarry Bank Mill.  I have been before many moons ago but it was the children's first visit.  Mr T loved all the machinery etc in the mill, Miss E loved the cafe and the toilets (!!) and I enjoyed the gardens and the Apprentice house as I never made it to that part before.  Mr T decided apprentice life wouldn't have been too bad as they ate a lot of pork (his favourite food!) and Miss E has been telling everyone we meet about seeing leeches that "suck your blood out"!  I was very grateful for my recently acquired satnav as the roads around the airport were very confusing but a great and tiring day was had by all.  (I can also heartily recommend the white choc and cranberry millionaires shortbread in the cafe!)

Science Fun

This is Mr T's favourite book at the moment, he has been doing lots of the experiments and the crafts from it.

This week he and Miss E decided they wanted to make the climbing bugs.

They both chose the ladybird type beetle as they decided the lizard looked too tricky to draw.

Here is Mr T's which he drew all by himself.

Miss E coloured hers on her own but I drew it and cut it out for her.  They were really easy to make, all you needed was card, a metre of string, a plastic drinking straw, 2 beads a 1p and some selotape.  

Here is Mr T demonstrating how it climbs up!

Of course when the beads came out Miss E decided she needed to make some bracelets and the beetle was forgotten.

If you look closely you can see one of my current knitting projects, and of course the obligatory "pink Princess" who joins in most things around here at the moment!

Christmas and Everything After

Wow.  That was a long and unplanned absence.  As in most houses with small children (and most probably most houses without) things have been busy busy busy.  I have been super busy knitting, baking, planning, shopping, wrapping and generally "keeping going" as I find winter really hard work.  I have come to the conclusion that I most probably suffer from SAD, and really feel the need to hide and hibernate through the winter months.  Obviously this would never be possible, especially with my little Etsy shop as the run up to Christmas has meant a lot of knitting.

Anyway, I did "keep going" and got all my orders sent out, all my gifts bought and wrapped and all the Christmassy food cooked, served and eaten.  My head is now busy planning and gathering ideas and inspirations as to what to knit for spring and summer.  I want to focus on children's things, along with a few adult items thrown in, but I am also thinking about creating things for the home...any ideas?  I have a few but they are still only in the whizzing around head stage at the moment!

I'll leave you with some photos, here are just a few of my knitty bits from the last few weeks...

And here are some pictures of the some of the other bits and pieces we have been doing...

Snowy villages with plenty of glitter of course!

A very proud Mr T with a decoration he sewed all by himself.

A lego version of Mr Man and I having a brew in our own camper van.

The tree with a very crooked angel

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, what are your plans for the new year? :)

Roald Dahl Day

On Thursday it was Roald Dahl day so at our Home Ed group the children did Dahl themed activities.  They invented new creatures with a "Creature Creater", decorated cakes to look like Mrs Twit's glass eye (and ate them of course) and made their own Roly Poly birds.  Some friends brought in a Mugglewump sock monkey they had made and both Miss E and Mr T loved it so we took a copy of the instructions.  Now we just need to find some socks and get sewing.  Mr T suggested using some of his Dads old socks but as Mr Man wears them until they fall apart (plus smelly man feet...bleugh!) I said we would buy some new ones especially!

The Bat Walk

Getting ready to stroke the bat

The bat detector  

This little pipistrelle was too feisty for stroking!

Blue

I had noticed I have been knitting a lot of pink at the moment so I asked for Mr Ts help to choose a yarn he thought he would like to wear.  Of course as we are in the middle of a very strong colour stereotype phase in this house (thanks mainly to Miss E and her pink obsession) he chose blue.  It is a very nice blue combo though so after the pink hat I have started some blue mittens.  I have a little meeting coming up with a lady at a local shop so I am trying to knit a few items to take along to show her.  After a busy day yesterday and a quiet evening while Mr Man and Mr T were out at a bat walk look how many I have managed to rustle up

The boys loved the bat walk, although the tiredness in Mr T is making today a bit stressful already and its only just past breakfast!  The bat walk was organised by a parent from our Home Ed group and it seems that everyone loved it.  I will nag Mr Man for the pictures he took to post on here as they even spotted a toad.

Damson Crumble

Here it is, went down very well with a swirl of cream.  I had altered the recipe and cut down on the sugar but after Mr T told me it was blowing his head off we sprinkled on a bit extra.  I used Delia's recipe which added a bit of cinnamon, and because I had two wrinkly looking Bramley apples they went in as well.

While we were out shopping I remembered some maths lessons I had in primary school where the teacher taught all sorts of maths using chocolate.  The fact that I can still remember them to this day probably says a lot so I got a few packets of Smarties and we did a bit of Smartie maths in the afternoon.  It proved very popular, especially when everyone could eat a few!

I'm still knitting like a mad woman, have almost completed yet another pumpkin hat and have started a pair of baby fingerless mittens from this pattern.  I'm using Adriafil Knitcol but I'm not sure of the colourway.  Any ideas of a title for the colourway?  Its reminding me of sweets but I'm not sure which, maybe Dolly Mixtures??!!