Would you buy a five year old girl a Rihanna t-shirt?

You know that difficult age where kids feel they are too old to like "babyish" characters but you feel they are too young for more "grown up" ones? Missy Woo is precisely at that point.

Is it me or is that more likely with the characters aimed at girls? She feels that Peppa Pig is not for her any more and although she still likes her Dora duvet and her Charlie and Lola one, neither form part of her viewing habits these days; it's more CBBC than Cbeebies, more Nickelodeon than Nick Jr. She's a bit of a Disney Princess fan and thankfully, her favourite appears to be Rapunzel who is pretty kick ass . I'm not keen on Barbie and all the model type dolls around because of the whole body image thing that it can stir up. And then, there is Hannah Montana. Missy Woo's never even seen it but she does like some of the merchandise - her school bag is Hannah Montana but she chose it for the sequins more than anything.

I figured it would be a few years before she perhaps started being considered a tween by the marketeers. It seems I was wrong.

It all happened when Argos asked me if we'd like to try out their kids clothing range. When I looked at the range, I was perturbed at some of the items on offer for girls her age. There were a lot of Justin Bieber clothing which is more disturbing from a music point of view than anything, as well as The Wanted, One Direction, The Saturdays. And Rihanna. Yes, there is a Rihanna t-shirt for 5-6 year old girls. I was shocked. I honestly have nothing against her, I think she is a great singer and I like some of her songs. I'm sure kids like her songs; mine sing them in the car. I don't however think she has the right sort of image to be sold to kids in that way; she's just a bit too "adult", isn't she? I actually do struggle to understand why anyone would want their child to wear such a t-shirt. I mean, look at her face. She is a little angel (mostly) - if you ignore the odd look on her face there. Why would I want her to wear a t-shirt with a picture of a woman known for being racy and who got told off by a farmer for being "scantily dressed" in his field in Northern Ireland?

Thankfully, I did manage to find something for Missy Woo to try. A Tangled nightdress with hairbrush, of course. To back up my point, I found it less difficult to find things for Monkey, so much so that I couldn't choose between a Lego Harry Potter hoodie and a Lego Star Wars one but we were delighted to be sent both. They were meant to turn up in early December but an out of stock item meant they didn't arrive until Christmas Eve. They turned up beautifully wrapped with ribbon so we decided on the fly to give them to the children as a little something to open on Christmas Eve before they went to bed. Missy Woo adored her nightdress and it is really beautiful. She could happily wear it as a dress - it feels very soft and it's obviously well made. With her long blonde hair, she really does look like Rapunzel wearing it, it's a very pretty and special nightdress.

Monkey was also overjoyed with his hoodies, especially the Lego Harry Potter one. He lived in it for days over Christmas, I virtually had to peel it off him to get it washed. Again, it feels nice and is well made, plus it washes up nicely too, which is a bonus as Monkey is a pretty messy child. That's boys for you.

I'd happily buy more things from Argos, especially as at the moment, some of the items are half price and full price, I do find it quite expensive for children's clothes although I accept you get what you pay for. I do, however, have huge reservations about some of the items available in the girls range, which is meant to be aimed at under 10s. Very possibly, some of the things could be suitable for girls at the upper end of that age range. But for 5 year old girls? I don't think so. Certainly not Rihanna.

(I was sent the above mentioned items by Argos to review. I have not been told what to write and I have not been received any further compensation.) 

Easter Baking Competition (for kids!) - Win a Kellogg's goody bag - entries and winners

Phew, it's been fraught in the house today! We've been scanning through all the entries for the Easter baking competition for kids we launched about 10 days ago and trying to choose a winner. After a few arguments, (and yes, I do argue with my children, what of it?!) we have come up with a winner.

First and foremost, a big thank you to everyone that did take the time to bake and send us an entry. I thought I'd share them all with you and so have put a little slideshow together. Huge apology to Jack - whatever I do to one of the pictures, and despite preview showing it correctly, it just won't show the photo up the right way.

Some lovely colourful entries there, and very hard to choose between. Soooo..... after much deliberation and arguing, we have chosen a winner of the competition.

And the winner is.....

Matilda and Seth! Well done both - your goody bag will be winging its way to you very soon. 

Thanks again for all the entries and well done to everyone who took part.

Easter Baking Competition (for kids!) - Win a Kellogg's goody bag

You may remember back in January, I went to a Kellogg's event in Manchester and wrote this post about breakfast and the importance of it to children in particular. Since then, Kellogg's have kept in touch and recently, asked me if I would like to receive an Easter surprise. Last weekend, not one but two huge parcels turned up for me. Inside were two goody bags, containing nearly all you need to make some crispy Easter treats - Rice Krispies, marshmallows, dolly mixtures, recipe cards, gingerbread man shaped cutters, gel icing, chef's hat and aprons.

We had a bit of a play today with one of the bags. First Missy Woo dressed appropriately for the occasion:

Then, we set about melting 45g butter and 300g marshmallows (minus one or two the children may have taken) to make Easter Bunnies. The idea was to add 150g Rice Krispies to this mixture then roll into ball shapes. Well, now here's a thing - whatever we did to it, the mixture stuck to our fingers like superglue so I pressed most of it into a tin. Maybe we should have waited. We decided to use the gingerbread cutters to make Krispie men, which was also hard work but after cutting them out, the mix was easier to mould into ball shapes for the bunnies.

Missy Woo decorated the men with the icing pens first.

Then, I left her in the kitchen (yes, I did) to decorate the "Easter Bunnies" her way. And these were her babies.

(Several Dolly mixtures may have been consumed during the making of these bunnies. There are leftovers.)

As I have two of these fabulous goody bags, I've decided to give one of them away to one of you lucky lot. Well, actually, your children. What I want you to do is get baking or making cakes over Easter, then either blog about it, tweet a picture of it or just email pictures to me. You can make anything like you like, but the main rules are is it needs to be something sweet (so Krispie cakes are fine, but that won't win you brownie points) and it must be made by a child or children aged 10 years or under. They can have help from a grown-up, of course, but please ensure they have been involved in the making and/or decorating.

If you blog, please link back to your post with photographs in the comments below. If you tweet your link, feel free to add the hashtag #kidseasterbaking and mention me (@kateab) when you tweet it so I can see it.

If you don't have a blog, don't worry, you can still take part. Either tweet your picture, adding #kidseasterbaking to your tweet, and mention me (@kateab) when you do so that I can see it. Or you can just take a picture and email it to me at kateab65 [at] gmail.com. Don't forget to tell me the name of your creation, and the name and age of your child(ren). Leave a comment to remind me you tweeted or emailed so I don't miss any entries.

Entries will close at noon on 1st May so you have all of Easter week and Royal Wedding to make, bake, photograph, blog, tweet, email etc.

I will choose the best entry along with Monkey and Missy Woo. I'm the easiest to please here - to give you an idea, Monkey likes football and riding on his bike and his favourite colours are blue, red and Ben 10 green whilst Missy Woo likes princesses and colouring in and her favourite colours are pink and purple. (Gender stereotyping? I swear I tried not to!) We'll be looking for creative, colourful (and yummy!) entries.

The winner will receive the Kellogg's goody bag. The winner will be contacted by me and asked to provide a UK postal address (sorry, I cannot send this prize outside the UK). The prize will be sent via Royal Mail Special Delivery so you will need to ensure that someone is available to sign for the parcel, otherwise you'll have an annoying trip to the delivery office with photo ID to claim it.

My decision is final on all matters. Just because I enjoy the power, bwahaha. Happy baking... and good luck!

Review: Feel Good Kids drinks

We love Feel Good sparkling drinks in this house. I love the different flavours and that they don't add sugar to their drinks. The sweetness all comes from the fruit juices they use - which should mean it's better for you as fructose is way better than sucrose or glucose.

So, when I was asked if we'd like to try out the Feel Good Kids drinks, the answer had to be yes. Monkey and Missy Woo are good drinkers, Monkey exceptionally so. He'll gulp drinks down in 10 seconds if you don't keep an eye on - I swear he'll be ace at Yard of Ale competitions when he grows up, not that I want to think about that right now. These drinks are still and made up of two-thirds fruit juices and a third of water. And that's it. Nothing else. 

The drinks arrived in neat little cardboard boxes. All the cardboard is recyclable so that is a huge bonus over that horrible shrink wrapped packaging that lots of drinks use. Only the straw and the film covering it are not recyclable. The cartons inside are a good size to fit inside a lunchbox, and the straw is unusually easy to insert.

There are two flavours - Blackcurrants, Apples and Grapes and Oranges, Pineapples and Bananas. Within half an hour of the samples arriving, the children had tried both flavours so I grabbed a quick sip of the drinks to report on the taste. Both flavours are nicely fruity but all I could really taste was blackcurrant with a hint of apple in one and pineapple and some banana in the other. They were neither too sickly sweet nor too sharp for young children.

The packaging says they are "Not for Grown Ups" but I'd be happy to have one as a drink. That would be if my kids let me. Monkey and Missy Woo love drinks in cartons so I had to make sure they didn't drink them all in a day. As you can see from the pictures, they enjoyed drinking them very much.

My only reservation about these drinks is the price. They cost £1.99 for a box of 4 drinks. If I was buying them for lunchboxes for my two, a week's worth of drinks would cost me a fiver, which I think is quite a lot for a family on a budget, and there are similar products that cost much less. As an occasional treat, I would definitely buy them or perhaps when they are on special offer, a tactic I use with the Feel Good sparkling drinks. I like what Feel Good stands for, so I am the sort that will probably make the occasional effort to buy them for the children.

And maybe next time, they'll let me have one of my own.

Feel Good Kids drinks are available in Waitrose or Ocado, and also in BHS cafes, Little Chef, London Zoo and David Lloyd leisure centres. From September, they will also be available in Asda.

(I was provided with 4 boxes of Feel Good Kids drinks to review and have received no other compensation. The opinions stated here are my own and have no way been influenced by the aforementioned compensation.)

Kids food - Quick Quesadillas

Wraps. My kids love them, but they haven't worked out the right way to eat them so they make the unholiest of messes, particularly as they like cheesy beans in them. When they want wraps, and I have leftover stuff to use, I offer them quesadillas because it's a cross between wraps and pizza - which they also love - and makes less mess (nothing my kids eat makes no mess).

Pretty much anything that can be chopped up and cooked in a pan can go in the filling. I add chicken, sometimes minced beef, but frequently, it's just veg and cheese. It helps get certain veg down them that they sometimes won't eat in other things. Beans are a a nice vegetarian addition to make it more substantial.

How much this feeds will depend on the size of the wrap you use. This time, I used Asda ones which are small so it fed 2 but the Discovery ones are much bigger; you need a lot more filling and I can feed 4 small children with those. Alternatively, make your own. My children are quite good with spices as long as they are not too hot. Rein back the spices as you see fit.

Here's the recipe for the specimen as featured on this post. It takes 15 minutes to do so great if you're short of time.

Quesadillas

Ingredients

2 wraps
1 tbsp oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed or chopped
1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 tsp mild chilli powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
Large handful of button mushrooms, sliced
1 small red pepper, deseeded and sliced into strips
1 small courgette, halved then sliced
1 tbsp tomato puree (optional)
1-2oz cheddar cheese, or to taste (I use extra mature)

Method

Start by turning your grill onto medium high.

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan or wok. Add the onion and garlic and fry until softened. Add the spices, and stir for about a minute. Stir in the veg, allowing the oil and spices to coat everything and cook for up to 5 minutes. Add the tomato puree and cook for another minute. Taste and season.

2. Place one of the wraps on a baking sheet. Spread the veg mixture evenly across the wrap and grate over two thirds of the cheese. Place the other wrap over the top, and grate over the rest of the cheese.

3. Place under the grill until the cheese is melted and slightly golden; this rarely takes more than a couple of minutes so keep an eye on it. If you have a griddle pan big enough, you can place it in a hot griddle pan for a couple of minutes per side. I don't bother as it involves turning the whole thing over but it does mean you get those pretty griddle lines on it.

4. Remove from the grill and cut into wedges.

I like to do carrot sticks, cucumber sticks and cherry tomatoes for the children to eat with it but as you can see, we only had cherry tomatoes in the day I made this! Don't make the filling too wet and work fast once you put the veg on the bottom wrap otherwise it can go soggy. Using a griddle pan would probably solve this but it's too fiddly for me - I reckon the filling would fall out turning it.

If I do add chicken and using raw meat, I slice it thinly and cook it through before the onions,  remove it and add it back in with the veg, which is the same point at which I would add cooked chicken or other meat.

Feel free to make up your own variations. Have a go and I'd love to see your efforts if you try. Happy cooking!