A birthday party at home? I must be mad!

I haven't had a party at home for the children for years. I just didn't feel we had the space, particularly when trying to amuse a lot of boys who want to throw themselves around. But then, we got a chance to try out a home-based party.

You might remember we reviewed some Sand Art kits earlier this year. We were also offered the chance to review one of their parties. With Monkey's birthday coming up, I asked him if he was interested in holding one for his birthday this year. To my surprise, he said yes - I think it's testament how much the children enjoyed the kits.

So we set a date with Alistair, who is the owner of Kids Bee Happy. And then I thought - I must be mad; what am I doing? Have I lost my marbles? I let Monkey choose who to invite but ensured he didn't invite too many friends. We settled on 5 school friends and 2 neighbours, all boys. In other words, 8 boys aged between 5 and 8 and Missy Woo. I kept my fingers tightly crossed that they would enjoy it - keeping that many boys contained and entertained for 2 hours can be a tall order.

On the day, Alistair arrived bright and early. I didn't realise Alistair himself was coming as he is based in Scotland, but it turns out that he'd been down South working with some of his franchisees and had stopped over on the way back. The equipment took very little time to set up  - two tables, each with 6 metal bowls  filled with the different coloured sands. And that's it, apart from a laminator which we set up out of the children's way in the kitchen.

Making one of his pictures

The children were desperate to start making and were already making their pictures by the time the first guest arrived, as they already knew what to do. The other children couldn't wait to get started as they arrived and dived in. I was amazed how interested and thrilled the boys were. One of Monkey's friends said to me excitedly, "This is much better than I thought it was going to be!" as he dashed between bowls. Boys being boys meant it was slightly random - some colour mixing was definitely going on. But for the first 45 minutes at least, you would not have realised how many children were in the house, meaning I didn't need to worry about sloping off to cook pizza. After that, the boys gradually wandered off to play outside in the garden (thank God it wasn't raining!) whilst Alistair started to laminate their pictures. Most made two pictures to take home - Alistair even mentioned that some parents don't bother with party bags, even though we did.

The two hours of the party flew by - it was a good balance of activity time, letting off steam, food and cake, of course! All the children really enjoyed themselves and were totally absorbed by the sand art. Alistair was brilliant with the children, and I'm sure his franchisees will be too. They don't just do parties as they will also do sand art for school fairs, festivals, and weddings. It's so easy to do and the children get it really quickly.

What I loved most of all was how little mess there was - the mum of one of the boys stopped for a cup of tea after the party so we had a quick sit down whilst the boys played on the Wii, yet everything was cleared up well before 3pm, less than an hour after the party had finished.

I had 8 boys in my house for 2 hours and survived. It was quite relaxing actually - I never thought I'd say that.

Where do I get my medal?


(Kids Bee Happy kindly arranged for a free sand art party to be held at our house. I have not been paid further for writing this post. I have not been told what to write and all words and opinions are my own.)

Blogger Wedding Album - Five Fs stylee!

Often midweek, you'll find posts from me taking part in the Gallery. Well, there is none this week but you have to watch that Tara. She has a week off and then she opens the Blogger Wedding Album, so she gets us finding pictures from our wedding and sending them to her or blogging about them. As I have already used this picture once for The Gallery, I'll use it again and tell you a little bit more about the story behind the picture.

Our wedding took place in Key West in Florida. We wanted to get married abroad but research told me that trying to get married in Italy or Spain may have given me grey hairs with all the hoops you have to jump through, and extra cost. Some friends of ours had got married in Orlando but had honeymooned in Key West and sung its praises. As the paperwork required and the process to get a marriage licence was straightforward, we decided to go for it. We invited the family but offered to pay for our parents' flights. They were the only family members who did come to the wedding - but we liked it that way. We got married on the beach at Fort Zachary Taylor State Historic Park at sunset and it was lovely (even though it was trying to rain!).

Not having the rest of our family present for the wedding, we decided to have a wedding party after we returned to celebrate with them and our friends. We were lucky to get a really good venue - a local hotel which has a strange location but was actually lovely, the staff were great and they accommodated all our needs without charging the earth. They organised pretty much everything for us and all we had to do was bring a cake - which turned into a £9.99 personalised half sheet cake from Costco.

The party was a really fantastic occasion - it was a chance to wear my dress again, which I love (although actually, it's a top and skirt), catch up with family and friends all in one place without having to schlep all over the country to do so, and generally have a good time. The DJ did a fab job and the food was lovely. Not that I think I had a lot to eat. And then, someone - I forget who - took this picture of us cutting our very expensive Costco cake. And yes, it was in a corridor as they set the food up just outside the party room. Everything was perfect. I'd recommend the hotel to you all, but it got sold and then closed a few years later and lies empty. We tried to explain to the children its significance the other day, but they couldn't get the concept of us having a party without them. Bless.

So, there you go, Tara, that's my entry into your Blogger Wedding Album. Hope you like it.

Meal Planning Monday - the Monkey birthday edition

As the title suggests, it's Monkey's birthday this week. Friday to be precise, when he turns seven and obviously, this week's meal plan reflects the change to usual routine that this will provide. We're having a party at home, which I have not done in years for him and so, Saturday is a bit of a write off. He's asked to go out to Pizza Hut for tea on the Friday so we're going to be very pizza-ed out! That leaves us only 4 meals to plan this week as Thursday is always a riot of after-school activity so we just tend to have sandwiches for simplicity and speed.

Here, in meals, is our week. The recipes I'm using are from the latest edition of Good Food, which landed on my doorstep just as I was doing an online shop. None of the recipes are currently on their site, so I can't link to them but they will be there in a week or two.

Monday - Cod (well, white fish) with bacon, lettuce and peas
Tuesday - Smoky bean, bacon and eggy bread bake
Wednesday - Singapore noodles
Thursday - Sandwiches
Friday - Pizza Hut
Saturday - party so leaving free - probably leftover pizza but we'll see.
Sunday - Potato frittata with pesto and goats cheese

I also have some ideas in my locker for next week already, but you'll have to wait until next week for those. In the meantime, let me know what's on your menu and don't forget to check out Mrs M for MPM entries.

Getting in the Hallowe'en spirit

Hallowe'en has changed a lot since I was a kid. I remember learning about witches and making pictures but trick or treating was a strange custom they did in the USA when I was small. I think I was pretty grown up before I even heard of it happening here, but it seems like it's the norm these days. I'm really in two minds about it - I think it can be great fun for children and I don't mind joining in if the children are just out to get as many sweets as possible - that'll be my two then - but I don't like the ones that are quite obviously out for money and are vaguely intimidating if you don't offer coins. I mean, what the hell? I am not made of money. There are times I've sat in the living room with all the lights off in the front of the house and ignored the door. Yes, I know, I'm a killjoy - what of it?

The children love Hallowe'en. A couple of years ago, they got to go trick or treating for the first time, round at some friends who live on an estate where nearly everyone does it. Their friend's dad dressed up in an inflatable pumpkin and I don't think I've ever laughed so much in my life. My friend and I trailed round the estate with 5 children under the age of 5, knocking on all the doors. The children got so many sweets, they lasted until Christmas! They've been to Hallowe'en parties and the school, not being religious, holds Hallowe'en discos as fundraisers just before they close for half term.

This year, I've been sent a few things for Hallowe'en next Monday. I can't decide if we're going to go trick or treating as it's a school night but we have plenty of things in now to be able to mark the occasion. First, Poundland set me a Hallowe'en challenge to see how much I could buy with £10 vouchers that they kindly sent me. They were especially generous because somehow, I also got an envelope full of Hallowe'en tinsel, deely boppers with spiders, a witch's hat, a themed wine "glass" and some frog's leg sweets!

So, off to the local store we went. The children loved that they could choose things and actually buy them. (Can you tell I'm Mean Mummy?) We got:

- 2 flashing ghost lights
- 2 Simpsons Hallowe'en mugs
- Skeleton party straws
- Critters party decorations
- Jewelled ring
- 3 packs of Hallowe'en sweets

As the Hallowe'en items apart from the sweets were on 6 for £5, we had a pound left over. What did we buy? A book on times tables, at Monkey's request. Seriously! Poundland have pretty much everything, including some costumes in the smaller children's sizes, masks, all your partyware, sweets and decorations. We're sorted now for Hallowe'en; I might actually bother to answer the door to trick or treaters this year.

Something else we have been sent are a couple of items to try by Dr Oetker for a spot of Hallowe'en baking. They've sent me a bat cookie kit and some gel food colouring. I'm thinking of using the gel colouring to make a Hallowe'en version of my Neapolitan marble cake from last week for the day itself but we've made (and, er, eaten!) the bat cookies. The kit contains everything you need to make the cookies apart from 85g butter. You just rub the butter into the mix and bring it into a ball, then roll it out and use the bat cutter to cut out your shapes. I think my butter might have been a bit too soft as the dough was very crumbly. I tried bunging it in the freezer for a few minutes which helped a bit but my, it was fun trying to keep the shapes intact and onto the baking sheet.

Once the cookies were baked and cooled, there's also black writing icing to draw features on your bat. We've all had a go - and I discovered that writing icing takes a bit of warming up to work properly and you need to be slightly patient with it to get your designs drawn. I think my husband found his calling and did the best design on the bat:

(The upside down ones are mine, and the children's efforts are on the left hand side!).

As I said, the cookies didn't last very long - we had an afternoon cuppa (milk or juice for the children) and they were gone! They are shortbread like in texture: I made 8 whereas the pack said it made 6, but I thought the thinner ones were better as they were crisper. I would have rolled the dough out thinner had I been able to roll it out better so 8 is probably conservative.

I may not be a huge fan of Hallowe'en, but I think we're all more in the spirit of it this year.

(I was sent the items mentioned above by Poundland and Dr Oetker and I have received no other compensation. All opinions and words are my own, and I retain full editorial control.)

Dads

I've written about my Dad before, and I feel I've written about him enough. I've probably bored you all rigid talking about him in previous posts. So, today for the theme of Dads at the Gallery, I'm going to talk about another Dad - my husband's dad and Monkey and Missy Woo's granddad, my father-in-law.

At the end of last year, he was diagnosed with a bowel tumour. The prognosis was good but he had to have radiotherapy followed by an operation. The operation was either going to be keyhole surgery - for which a short hospital stay would be needed - or more invasive surgery, requiring a stay of one to two weeks. The irony for me was that he was having the operation on a day significant to me - the tenth anniversary of my Dad's death.

The operation didn't go well, requiring some quite major surgery. What we weren't prepared for was what happened afterwards. He moved wards several times as his condition dictated and sometimes to get the care he needed (sad but true), gradual improvement followed by relapses, and a lot of frustration. He managed to have a trip home one weekend to see how he got on, only for him to become really quite ill a few days later, extending his stay even further. The children weren't allowed into the wards he was on quite a lot, so they saw him a few times when they were allowed to visit but not half as often as they would do normally. Quite difficult for them as they love seeing Granddad (and Granny).

Finally, he left hospital, in mid-March. That one or two-week stay had become 3 months. Christmas didn't really happen. New Year was a blur. He went in during midwinter with snow on the ground and came out as spring approached.

Since leaving hospital, he's continued to improve - he's had regular visits to hospital for ongoing treatment, including one further overnight stay, but was soon home again. He's gradually become more mobile, although he's still walking with a stick. He's been back to see Blackpool play again (poor thing) and they even finally went on a Baltic cruise that they had previously had to cancel because of his illness.

The day after they came home this weekend, we held a family party. The weather was rank. The lady delivering hotpot managed to get lost coming from about two minutes away and someone had to be sent to help her find the house. It didn't matter. Everyone in the family made it to the party, except one grandson who had university exams. It was a lovely afternoon. One of those slightly chaotic but fun family parties.

There was a cake, which we put candles on and my brother-in-law made a speech. It took about 10 minutes, with various people cracking jokes and interrupting him; partly, I think, to relieve the tension. Because, by the end of the speech, everyone was in tears. After a difficult few months, it was truly a cause to celebrate that this Dad is still around for this year's Father's Day.

So my picture today was taken at that party. My father-in-law surrounded by his family.

Dad of five. Grandfather of fourteen. Great-grandfather of two. Happy Father's Day.

Easy Christmas party food - a compilation of ideas

Photo credit: DontBblu

So, the Christmas party season is upon us. In little over a week, kids everywhere will be ripping paper off obscenely expensive toys and the cooks of the household will be panicking about getting the big event that is Christmas Dinner just so. It can be a lot of work - although most of the work is getting it all ready at the same time without spoiling.

With Christmas lunch the star of the show, most people don't want to be spending hours making food for Christmas parties, whether it is just a few friends round for drinks and nibbles, or a whole houseful that leave your house looking like a plague of locusts has been and gone. (Or is that just our families that do that?). I know the answer for some will be to go to the supermarket but it works out pretty darned expensive and I find it a bit samey. Obviously, if it's after the big day, there's a possibility of leftover turkey etc - but this starts to wear thin quite quickly and it's nice to make something slightly different.

I have a few ideas that I use for parties, although I often resort to an oven full of jacket potatoes and a slow cooker full of chilli con carne to pad it out. I had an idea that I would put it out to the good people of Twitter to tweet me some nice but easy ideas for party food for Christmas time. I got tons of replies and am going to try and mention as many as possible.

Let's start with mine:

• Philly and Chilli (also suggested by @grealis) - put a tub of soft cheese on a large plate, pour sweet chilli sauce over it and surround with tortilla chips or kettle chips for dipping into the cheese. It is delicious!
• Pesto Palmiers - lay ready rolled puff pastry out flat and spread with pesto, then roll the pastry up from each of the short ends so that they meet in the middle. Wrap in cling film, chill for 20 mins. Unwrap then brush with beaten egg yolk and slice into 1cm slices and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 200C/400F/Gas 6 for 10 mins or golden brown. Grate over a little parmesan as you remove from the oven. Serve warm or cold. 
• Christmas Crispy Squares - melt 4tbsp unsalted butter, 2 cups marshmallows and 100g white chocolate chips in a pan over a low heat, using a spatula to stir them together. Add 100g rice krispies and 125g dried cranberries and stir until well combined. Quickly spoon into a baking tin lined on bases and all sides, and press flat with spatula or fingers. Leave to set for 20 mins. Lift out of the tin using the paper and cut into squares.

Moving on to ideas from other tweeters:

• Mummy Limited - Goat's cheese and fig wrapped in parma ham were a hit last year.
• Soggous - Bruschetta - lightly toast slices of baguette, rub with garlic clove, top with chopped tomatoes & basil, drizzle with oil. Or spread tapenade on toasted baguette slices. Another fave is smoked salmon on triangles of brown bread.
• @Jannism - brush tortillas with oil, place on baking sheets in a hot oven (200C/400F/Gas 4) for 5 mins so they puff up. Also, horseradish added to hummus is good.
• English Mum - Chicken tikka skewers! Marinate chicken in mixture of yoghurt, tikka paste and squeeze of lemon. Thread, grill, serve with raita. Also, I'm doing mince pies with a piped meringue top as little puds.
• @ebabeelikes - Italian breadsticks wrapped in parma ham, yummy and very easy.
• sezi13 - Honey and Mustard Cocktail Sausages. Mix together 2tbsp wholegrain mustard, 3tbsp runny honey, 1tsp white wine vin & 1tsp olive oil. Pour over cooked sausages and put in medium hot oven for 15 mins. (@Wholovesmecouk also suggested honey and chilli sausages)
• @Tracytid - Cheese Stars. Mix together 50g flour, pinch cayenne, 25g softened butter, 80g finely grated red leicester, and 20g grated parmesan by hand or in a food processor. Knead together. Roll out thinly and stamp out star shapes. Bake at 200C/400F/Gas 6 for 10 mins. 
• @Tracytid - cubes of beef on a stick with horseradish dip. (Sounds great for leftover roast!)
• @Tracytid - cut flattened slices of bread into circles, dip into melted butter and garlic, bake until crisp, top with cream cheese and salmon.
• DomesticJules - Mini Toad in the Holes. Make a usual recipe but make individual ones with chipolatas or cocktail sausages in a bun tin. Bake for 15 mins. 
• AFCband - Butter slices of bread and lay a slice of ham on top. Roll each slice longways, wrap and chill overnight. Slice into rounds. 
• TheMummyLife - Party Mini Pizzas. Mix 1 cup of flour (100g) and 1tsp baking powder in a bowl. Beat an egg lightly and add to the bowl with 3/4 cup/160ml of milk, whisking thoroughly. Add 60g grated cheese and 2 pepperami cut into bite sized pieces to the mixture. Leave to stand for 10 mins. Pour into muffin or cake tins and bake at 160C/320F/Gas 3 for 20-30mins until golden brown. Can be eaten hot or cold. (The veggie side of me would want to do this with peppers and mushrooms instead!)
• @putajumperon - Blinis with sour cream and lumpfish caviar or cream cheese and smoked salmon. 
• imperfectpages - Popcorn with paprika. Melt 2oz butter in a pan, add 2 tsp each of ground cumin, ground cinnamon and ground paprika, mix and pour over popped corn. Shake together with some salt and sugar.

Let me know if you try any of these and what you think of them. If you have any quick and simple ideas you'd like to share, then let me know by leaving a comment below. Thanks to everyone that tweeted ideas or emailed me recipes. Sorry if I've missed you out, but I had to stop somewhere - this post could have gone forever. 

May all your parties be fun-filled and stress-free. And most importantly, filled with lots of lovely food.

(Oh and as an afterthought, I've just thought that the ideas on my Tapas Tea might also be relevant. Russian salad, in particular, is great for parties and it's easy to make.)

The Gallery - Celebrations

No, no - not the chocolates... This week's theme for The Gallery at Sticky Fingers is Celebrations.  So, today, I show you the old me - before I became a mother, when I still had a waist, disposable income and reasonably gainful employment. For ages, it was my profile picture on Facebook as it is one of the photos of me that I quite like. Oh yes, it is a picture from our wedding celebrations. Not our actual wedding though.

We actually got married in Key West in Florida with only our parents present. So that everyone else didn't miss out, we had a party after we returned at a local hotel. It was slightly low key - the cake you can see us cutting was a £9.99 special from Costco. OK, so the dress maybe wasn't, but I loved it from the second I first put it on in the shop. Do you like it?

Why not pop over to The Gallery at Sticky Fingers and have a look at some of the other entries this week?

The Gallery - Food

I was really pleased when I saw that the prompt for this week was Food for the Gallery. After all, it's one of the five Fs after which I named this blog.

But when it came down to choosing a picture, I struggled. Most of the food photography (and I use that term very loosely) that I have done in the past few months has been when I've been making something that I have decided to blog. So they're already here. There aren't too many that involve pictures of the children as food.

But then, I remembered that I have a few pix on my phone on food that I haven't blogged about. This is the one I picked out this week.

This is Lemon Lapiz Pudding. I got the recipe from Paula at Battling On, which you can find here. It was Paula's entry for the English Mum July bake off. I thought it looked lovely when I first saw her post and mentally filed it as something to make soon.

I came to make it earlier this month when we were invited to a house party to celebrate the 30th birthday of one of Monkey and Missy Woo's cousins. I offered to make a pudding for the party as I hate going empty handed and after chatting to Paula, chose to make this. It's three meringue circles - which you could buy for a really quick pudding - layered with a lemon filling made from lemon juice, cream and condensed milk. I made the meringues one evening and the filling the next, putting it together and refrigerating it the night before the party. It needs to be made in advance so is great for a party, and it's even freezable apparently.

The pudding went down a storm at the party. The meringue is crisp on the outside, with a softer middle. The filling was like a lemon curd, but a lot quicker to make as it doesn't need the half an hour or more stirring over a double boiler! It was divine - like lemon meringue pie without the soggy pastry base. People kept telling me how clever I was but it really wasn't difficult to make. The cracks just added to the overall visual effect. It transports well, which surprised me as it had to drive all the way to Blackpool and I was worried it would shatter into a thousand pieces, but it survived the trip there. It didn't survive the trip home though - I left a small slice at the party when we left!

(This is my entry to Week 29 of the Gallery at Sticky Fingers - go take a look at some of the other entries; I think I can guarantee this week that they will make you hungry!)