Hot cross buns!!

I've been looking forward to doing this with the Aj's as I have never made Hot cross buns before, and I was interested in learning how to create the crosses and what they are made of.  On the morning Alyssa had had a terrible nights sleep, so was still in bed when we started, I decided the best thing to do was to make the dough first thing, then distract them with breakfast and getting dresed for the day whilst they were set aside to rise!

We started of by measuring out the flour and adding the butter, then I got Arthur to 'tickle' the flour to rub the flour and butter together, I also helped with this as well as it's quite hard for him to do. Then we added the other dry products, once he had had a chance to sell the spices.  Then he confidently mixed the wet ingredients into the flour and stirred it all together.  Having an electric scale I thought it would be a good idea to show him the numbers when weighing and get him to look for a five when weighing 50g etc to introduce some number recocnigtion, which he seemed to enjoy!

Once the dough was ready we had to roll the mixture into 8 balls, however Arthur wasn't very good at this as he was too interested in playing and stretching the dough rather than rolling it, but he was having fun so I just rolled all the others till all that was left was his one.

As i've said it was time for breakfast and getting dressed (and mummy to clean up) whilst the dough was rising then I mixed together the paste for the crosses, and helped Arthur squeeze the shapes out using a sandwich bag as a piping bag.  Then it was all down to Arthur to brush with the golden syrup, which I had warmed in the microwave for easier use.  During all this Alyssa was still asleep, in fact she was still asleep when they came out the oven so she missed the whole event.  She did however get to eat one of the buns for breakfast, so I think she planned it that way all along!  They were very very big however compared to the usual shop bought ones, so in future I may make double the amount, or just be greedy and have large ones!!

Adding the spices

"tickling the flour!"

Getting stuck in!

Mixing it all up and getting messy!

Adding the crosses!

We did take a picture of the finished buns, but it seems to have disapeared from the files, but theyy did look and taste great! I promise!


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Butterfly garden and Wrens

It's been a lovely sunny day today, so once the Aj's finished at nursery we all headed out to the field to see how the tunnel house is getting on and think about planting potatoes and onions in the field.  Once we arrived Grandad told us to visit the shed, where he had noticed a Wren had made a nest in some rope hanging on the wall.  It was very interesting to see a nest relatively up close, and interesting to see how they make the most of anything, I never would have thought a rope would make a good place for a nest!

Grandad was busy using the rotivator  to prepare the soil for the potatoes, and Arthur had a go at helping him to push it, but unfortunately the machine soon packed up for an unknown reason, and we were unable to plant.  It was a bit of a disappointment, but Alyssa had been having fun digging around in a little patch of soil, and Arthur soon busied himself with the ever so important task of watering the tunnel house.  It was nice to see that the strawberries are coming along and turning red already, and also the radishes are starting to poke up through.

Once home again we put some compost into some small tubs and sowed the seeds for our butterfly garden, it was lovely to see the Aj's working nicely together, taking turns adding compost, then seeds and finally watering.  All that is left for me to do now is print and laminate some little pictures of butterflies, to stick on lollipops to help the Aj's spot and identify some of the different types, as well as look up different foods that they like so when the time comes we can lay bits on a little tray for them.  We also had a little look at our Bug hotel, but as of yet we have no visitors, I guess it takes a while!

Wren's nest

Rotivating

Radishes looking good!

Dreaming of Strawberries and cream!

Digging away!

Looking thoughtful!

Watering the Strawberries

Potting the compost

Seed sprinkling!

Watering in the seeds

"Your turn Alyssa!"

Just have to wait for them to grow now!

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Tin can plant pots!

After seeing a recent picture on the internet of beautifully painted recycled tin cans, I was inspired!  I have been trying to make the garden a fun place for the children with a little Bug hotel nature area and dreams of a little weather station area and butterfly garden area.  And so I thought the idea of homemade plant pots made from recycled tin cans would be a great addition to making our garden brighter and more fun!

Once the children came home from nursery, as our usual trip to the tunnel house was cancelled due to Grandad needing to go to the dentist, we sat out in the garden the last of the days sunshine and painted the cans, Arthur ended up with two cans stacked  together so he could paint around it easier, and it was great fun to see Alyssa lunge forward and knock them over, although Arthur was not impressed. 

Once the tins were painted it was time to let them dry on the windowsill whilst we cooked tea.  All that is left for me to do is punch a few holes in the bottom for drainage and attach a bit of wire to hang them off the fence, then w can plant some lovely flowers in them! 

It's so lovely seeing how the garden has changed over the years since we first moved in nearly four years ago, the huge slope has slowly been flattened out to create useable areas, the rubble has slowly been removed to create a veg/herb plot and hopefully by the summer we will have some turf so we have some lovely green grass to play on bare foot in the sun, rather than spiky wood chip!!

Settled on the patio for a spot of painting!

Arthur does a balancing act

The finished masterpieces drying nicely!

TIIIIMMMMMBBBBBEEEERRRR!!!!

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Fluffy cotton wool sheep and chicks

We are now starting our Easter / Spring activities, I didn't want to start them too early as I didn't want the Aj's to get bored of Eater, but I still wanted to build up the excitement a bit, so the beginning of the month seemed long enough!

I wanted to get the paints out as the both seem to be fans of painting, but I also wanted to add a bit of texture to the fun today, so I opted for the good old fashioned cotton wool sheep and fluffy chick that I'm sure many of us did as a child!

Alyssa had great fun feeling the cotton wool and rubbing it on her face as it was soft, Arthur got on with the sticking straight away, Alyssa ended up with a bit of cotton wool stuck to her hands and couldn't quite understand why it wouldn't come off when she waved her hand around which was very cute to watch. 

Once we made the sheep, Arthur waned to do more so I made little chick shapes and got out the yellow paint to paint them after they had glued them, It wasn't one hundred percent successful, but the children had great fun so that's all that matters, maybe we should make some other little animals and Easter themed things and make a large mural /Easter advent!! Maybe next year??

Getting into sticking

"it wont come off!!!"

Painting chicks

Getting hands on!

Just need some finishing touches!!

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Bug Hotel

We are starting to work on the garden again now that Spring has arrived, Daddy is working on making it a bit safer for the Aj's and prepping the 'veg plot', and I am working on making it a bit more interactive and fun for the Aj's.  Today's plan was to get them to help me make a 'bug hotel', so we can investigate different bugs that come in the garden and make it their home.  I have seen many different designs on the internet including bundling bamboo sticks, but the log one seemed the simplest idea using things we already had in the home.  So we headed off to the garage and picked our biggest, nicest looking log, then grandad showed them how to drill a hole using a hand operated tool so they could have a go, then Daddy got out the power tools and drilled some more, the Aj's did both 'help' daddy as well a little bit, but unfortunately his battery wasn't fully charged so we didn't end up with very many, but it's enough for a start!

No all that's left is to start on the other sections of the garden and wait for the bugs to settle in!! If you want to create a wildlife friendly garden look at The RSPB website for some ideas!

Drilling a hole

Not quite got the hang of it bless!

Tada!

Watching Daddy

"Can I have a go?"

Ready and waiting for the new guests to arrive!

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Simnel cake!

To go with our wonderful Mother's Day Cards that we made the other day for Granny and Nanna, we attempted a bit of traditional baking.  A Simnel cake was traditionally made by young girls working in service as Mothering Sunday was the one day of the year they were allowed home, however now it is more commonly and Easter cake thanks to the Eleven marzipan balls on top representing the twelve apostles minus Judas!

Recipe:
350g currants
100g Sultanas
75g mixed candied peel, chopped
225g Plain flour
5ml ground cinnamon
5ml ground nutmeg
175g butter or marg
175g caster sugar
3 eggs beaten
milk to mix
apricot jam or beaten egg to use under marzipan top
Marzipan
Lined 18cm cake tin
Oven 170c for first hour 150c for final three hours

First of all we creamed together the butter and sugar, I really wanted Alyssa to get really involved in this as I am hoping that it is something we can do every year for mother's day to bring bake the Simnel Cake tradition a little bit, so once Arthur and I softened it up a bit we let her have a go, then we tipped in the rest of the ingredients and mixed it all up into a scrummy cake mixture, so scrummy in fact that Alyssa had a cheeky taste!! I sense trouble baking with these two in future, lots of extra mix needed to replace any they both 'taste!'

Once it was all cooked and cooled, we had a bit of time in the playroom whist this happened, we set about rolling out the marzipan and making the balls to goon top, Alyssa really seemed to enjoy having a go at spreading, and Arthur enjoyed stealing the marzipan!  I also let Alyssa have a little go at rollingout the marzipan with the rolling pin.  Arthur had the very important job of making the balls, as Alyssa is too small to be able to attempt them, so we had 22 varying sized, individually unique little balls to go on top.  All that was needed then was to brown it under the grill with a brushing of milk, and try not to eat it!!

Creaming the butter and sugar

Cheeky taste!!

Spreading the jam (with mummy's help!)

Adding the balls

Rolling

TA DAH!!! MMMMMMMMM!!

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Soda bread and all things Irish!

Today is St Patrick's day, so after breakfast we used YouTube to watch some Irish dancing and jigged around the front room, I then put some Irish music on to listen to in the kitchen whilst we made Soda Bread.  I really let Alyssa get involved properly for the first time this week, Arthur added the lemon juice, after tasting it and pulling amazing faces, and the let Alyssa stir.  Then we started sifting the flour, Arthur really enjoyed making it 'snow' then said "Alyssa's turn!" so glad to see him starting to understand the process of taking turns, esp with Alyssa.  When it was a dough, I let Alyssa play with it and touch it for a little bit, and she immediately started to push it like kneading, and prodding it.

After the baking I let them amuse themselves in the play room whilst I stuck little shamrocks all around the house, leading to a little rainbow with a pot of special 'rainbow salad' made by the Leprechauns for dinner.  After a little game of potato rolling racing for a bit of active fun, I told Arthur a little bit about Leprechauns, then 'noticed' a shamrock I had stuck near the door.  Arthur got so excited pointing to all the shamrocks saying "there's another one!" then he saw the rainbow and got even more excited.

I then told him that the shamrocks were magic too, and gave him a crayon and paper and showed him that rubbing the paper made the shamrock magically appear, which he thought was brilliant!!

Unfortunately neither of the Aj's were impressed with the salad, and didn't eat it, but they thoroughly enjoyed the soda bread with some cheese and ham.

Mixing the milk and lemon

Alyssa's turn

Playing with the dough

All baked and looking yummy!

Having a quick game of potato racing

'

"A rainbow!!"

The Leprechauns treasure

Shamrock trail

Crayon rubbings

YUUUUMMMMM!!!

MMMMMMMMM!!

A trip to 'Narnia'

After our Saturday night movie night film of 'Narnia', Arthur has become a little bit of a fan, watching it again the following day with daddy.   He started continuously entering the front room, sweeping his arm around proclaiming "welcome to my castle!"

So with a trip to the doctors in order for Alyssa who has been poorly again, I was looking for something to do that could easily be abandoned and then taken up again once the appointment was over.  So I set about recreating parts of Narnia in the front room.  We had 'Tea with Mr Tumniss' in front of his 'fire', meeting Aslan in his tent, the Beavers den including an escape tunnel from the wolves and the stone slab. 

I then grabbed a lovely waistcoat type outfit that was made for Arthur for Christmas (with other things given with it, it is a great home made wizard outfit), and used it as a regal gown for either Arthur or Alyssa, and Arthur's knight tunic from a previous Knights and Castles play day, he was very impressed to find Alsan on his outfit. 

Alyssa straight away was drawn to the tea set up, and played on the flute that I had left out and poured tea, whilst Arthur was more hyper and clambered in and out of the beavers dam escaping the wolves, fighting baddies, and cutting Alsan free from the stone table. I love setting up imaginative play then just watching them get on and play, especially when they play together, and include me obviously!!

Aslan in his tent

Beaver's dam inc (tiny!!) wolf

"Look mummy Aslan!!"

Cutting Aslan free

Tea with Mr Tumniss

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