We Love London

The sun arrived just in time for us all to head to London for a few days. We've never taken the kids on a city break before so we were all excited to be getting on the train and experience London together. The kids insisted on dragging the cases to the train.

After arriving at the wrong hotel - only a minor set back as we walked to the correct one around the corner - we dropped our bags and headed straight out. First stop was The Shard and a trip to the 72nd floor. The sun was shining and with no clouds around the views were amazing.

We then jumped onto the tube and headed to Covent Garden - we had a wander about watching the various street performers, the kids were enthralled by them all. Then we headed to Masala Zone restaurant nearby for curry, we all had the Thalia which was really good. We decided to walk back to the hotel via the London Eye down the Embankment.

We had a little drink at a lovely bar/restaurant close to the hotel before we called it a night - the kids were excited to know what we were going to do the next day.

We stayed in the Southwark Premier Inn, the location, staff, rooms and breakfast were perfect and having filled our plates more than once - croissants were the favourite thing for pink monkey - we headed out to our first stop of the day the Natural History Museum. After standing in one of the longest queues I've ever seen we soon made it inside and headed straight to the Dinosaur exhibition

There were more than 20 exhibits we could have looked at but the kids chose to look at the mammals and Earthquakes (as it had a shaking room in it). After a couple of hours we decided to head back into the sunshine towards Hyde Park where we would stop to have lunch.

We walked through Hyde Park, stopping for an ice cream and a play on the kids park, then continued on down through St James park to Buckingham Palace, as pink monkey knew the flag wasn't flying so The Queen wasn't at home. By this point all the walking had taken its toll so we headed back to the hotel for a relax so someone could recharge their batteries.

A mini recharge did the world of good and next stop was to jump onto a boat trip and head down the Thames

Spotted around were various Sean the Sheeps - raising money for GOSH - every time we found one the kids loved it, especially pink monkey who insisted on having lots of pictures taken. It was time for food so we went to Zizzi's near to the Tower of London - we can never go wrong with the choice of pizza and pasta so everyone was happy. After everyone was well fed it was time to head back to the hotel but once again we decided to walk back. It was getting later now but the lighter nights and the warmer weather meant it was perfect for us to all stroll home via Tower Bridge and The Embankment

Day 2 was definitely a success, we ended the evening with a drink in the hotel bar before heading up to bed - 4 exhausted but happy people.

Day 3 was our last day and we only had half a day to squeeze a few more things in. First stop was Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and a special request from blue monkey to go to Westminster Abbey.

Then we headed towards Hamley's toy shop - the walk took us past the statue of the Duke of York, cue a sing-along

 I remember being taken to Hamley's as a child and loving it and I wanted to see if my children thought the same. They both had some spending money and both picked out a treat each, but blue monkey said "it's good Mummy but there was too much choice" very profound indeed. My opinion was it needs an update.

Final stop was lunch at Wagamama's and a walk through Borough Market on the way to catch the Tube back to Euston.

It was a fantastic, fun packed few days we can't wait to take them again.

2014 in photos

What an amazing year - this is April-December (Jan-Mar need downloading from the laptop)

Can't wait to see what 2015 may bring

Perfect weekends

It's been a busy couple of weeks here but we've had some perfect weekends. 

The sun was out last weekend so ensuring football was packed we headed off to Heaton Park to burn off some energy. Watching blue monkey climb the huge slide not a care in the world makes me realise how grown up he now is - he's certainly not the baby I like to think he is. Pink monkey was happy keeping her feet closer to the ground.

Then off to play football - in the summer the park can be so busy but luckily for us there was lots of space to kick about. All four of us ran around not sure who was the best player.

Then it was off to see the animals and an ice cream treat before dragging everyone up to the highest point of the park.

It was just one of those perfect unplanned afternoons to round off a lovely weekend.

This weekend M and I have been child free. Both nights out at friend's for meals - and I drove so no nasty hangovers. Clothes shopping - I don't want to look at my bank balance! Decorated blue monkeys bedroom - with some help, it's being a long process but nearly done now. Then last night when all jobs were done we had steak for tea and poured some red wine and watched 22 Jump Street - it was just a lovely end to another perfect weekend.

What did you get up to? 

Macmillan Coffee Morning

When my Dad was ill we were lucky enough to have a great Macmillan nurse who came to visit him regularly and who we could turn to when we had questions. When nothing more could be done he was the person who helped arrange my Dad's last few days in peace. So Macmillan Cancer is a charity I love to support as I know what a massive difference it can make to peoples lives - and sadly so many of us are impacted by the C word.

So today I arranged the annual coffee morning in work. Luckily I work with people who enjoy baking as much as I do. My contribution was the "ice cream" style cupcakes which I've been wanting to make for ages. I saw the strawberry syrup for sale in Aldi as part of their baking event which gave me the opportunity to finally make them.

There were Cookie Monster cupcakes that looked great - L was very clever making them - banana loaves, lemon drizzle, flapjacks and cookies, various flavours of cupcakes and some impressive eclairs.

Everyone found something they liked. 

 

Some of the plates were piled high!

In total we raised £200 a great amount for Macmillan it will help support another family through a difficult time.

If you are having a Macmillan coffee morning I hope it's a success - and I do know how many sprinkles are on the cake! 

Great Brandleshome Bake Off

This week has been the local Scarecrow event. 120 families and businesses built scarecrows ranging from Star Wars to Rapunzal and everything in between. There was a map so one night after work and school we drove round finding as many as possible the monkeys loved it especially the Spider-man with the button saying press here - E was the brave one who pressed it and the theme tune came on - cue mini dance in the street.

Today all the scarecrows were moved to the local church where the prizes were announced - Spider-Man rightly won one as did an amazing farm display.

There was also a cake competition being held so I thought I'd enter. I don't have lots of spare time I work full time and have 2 children so yesterday in a hurry I scoured my cake books and found a John Waites raspberry and white chocolate cake receipe I'd made once before and thought would look good. I baked it yesterday and made the white chocalate ganache this morning to hold it together luckily not too stressful and I thought it looked nice.

I had a feeling though that the other cakes would be decorated and I was right there were some brilliant creations - the scarecrow in the allotment was amazing.

We left before the results were announced - I certainly didn't expect to be in the top 3. An hour later we are all in the garden and I'm chatting to my neighbour "did you get your prize?" she asked. "Prize? What prize?". I'd won 2nd place I don't think there was a a prize but there're is a rosette floating around somewhere and I am happy with that. Apparently my cake tasted great - and that's what's important - looks aren't everything! 

So a successful weekend. Plenty of baking ahead as I'm organising the Macmillan coffee morning at work on Thursday. Are you taking part?

Comfort baking

When my weekend is hectic I like to squeeze in a quick simple bake - it's therapeutic knowing that in 10 minutes something will be in the oven and in the hour it bakes I can get through some more of my to do list with a lovely treat to look forward to at the end of it. I have a go to cook book and normally a go to page - Mary Berry's Banana Loaf - and dependent on what I have to hand I either bake it exactly as it says or add something extra. This weekend I decided to add some blueberries to it - I love the way they pop in a cake the juice so vivid when you cut into it.

Here's how it turned out - and a big thumbs up from the kids. 

The Mary Berry receipe is:

100g butter softened

175g caster sugar

2 large eggs

1 ripe banana

1 large handful of blueberries

225g self raising flour

1 level teaspoon of baking powder

2 tablespoons milk

Mix all the ingredients together - putting in the blueberries at the end and folding them in.

Oven 180 bake for 1 hour.

Next weekend is the Brandleshome Bake Off I'm wondering whether to enter and if so what to bake.

What's your comfort bake? 

A fresh start

So I've been MIA for a year and what a year it's been. I've missed this little space and want to start again - if I'm allowed. 

This sums up our life at the moment 

Lots of love and smiles and plenty of baking being squeezed in. 

So I'm going to restart where I left off a year ago. This time though I'm going to be writing more about what I love, baking, making, eating, drinking and adventuring with the monkeys.