What we're watching over the Easter holidays

With two weeks and three weekends to fill, the Easter holidays can be a little daunting. Last year was fantastic, as the weather was gorgeous the whole time but it seems this year that we've had our nice spell just before the holidays start.

It's always good to have something on standby for when the weather is not good enough for the children to play outside. Handily, a few nice people have sent us some things that will very handily fill a wet afternoon or be used on the children's movie nights - when they draw the curtains, even if it's light outside, settle down with a DVD, eat popcorn and any other unhealthy snack they can wangle out of us, and watch "movies". This generates far more excitement than them just sitting down to watch a DVD. It must be the curtains.

Especially for them, and perhaps the grown ups too, Warner Brothers sent us a Happy Feet 2 parcel as it came out on DVD this week. Great timing. In the package was also Happy Feet and March of the Penguins, some stickers for the kids and a hat. Monkey told me excitedly that he's seen March of the Penguins at school - as penguins were the subject of their topic in class for half a term and the teacher showed it to them. He can't wait to watch it again, as he really enjoyed it and also to show it to Missy Woo, who will get to learn about penguins next year.

Back to Happy Feet 2. The kids love the Happy Feet films  - they're simple stories but it holds their attention. It feels magical and looks beautiful - and the baby penguins are cute! The films celebrate everyone's differences - in this story, Mumble's son Erik doesn't like dancing so runs away from the flock, only to meet a penguin who can fly! Erik respects this new father figure in his life. Mumble brings everyone together to save everyone from disaster and in doing so, earns the respect of his son once more. It's voiced by some big stars - Robin Williams,  Hank Azaria, Pink, Brad Pitt, Maaaaaaaaaatttt Daaaaaaaammoooon, (sorry) and Elijah Wood, to name but a few. Warner Brothers also sent me a video clip featuring some action and interviews with some of the stars but it was fouling up the rest of the post, so you'll have to make do with the trailer from Youtube instead.



When the kids have gone to bed, I'll be settling down to another DVD that I've been sent. It's the complete first series of Two Greedy Italians that comes out on Monday, ahead of the second series starting on the BBC this April. The series, if you haven't seen it, features TV chefs Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo travelling round Italy, looking at the food in different regions and how it's changing in some places yet has remained largely unaltered for years elsewhere. The episodes are thus part travelogue, part cookery show as the two chefs - who left Italy over 40 years ago and spent most of that time living in the UK - cook dishes they have created as well as some of their traditional favourites.

The dishes are quite typical of their cooking styles - generally fairly simple, often using foods foraged from the countryside around them. You can see easily how Jamie Oliver's rustic style developed - Gennaro Contaldo became his mentor when he went to work at Carluccio's restaurant in Covent Garden in the 1990s. This double disc features all four episodes of the first series and includes 4 recipe cards, allegedly so that you can cook along; not that I could cook and watch at the same time! I will not be telling my husband that one of the cards is for Chocolate and Amaretto pudding, as he loves both (whereas Amaretto is not my favourite thing at all).

Despite being old friends, they squabble like an old married couple at times which adds an extra dimension to the chemistry on screen between them. If you like to cook Italian food beyond the standard spag bol, carbonara and pizza and also like to learn about food in its original context, you'll definitely enjoy this DVD.

(I was sent a Happy Feet 2 package containing 3 DVDs, stickers and other memorabilia and the Two Greedy Italians double DVD to review. I have not been told to write but requested to include relevant links. All words and opinions are my own.)

LifeCircle 2012: Stepping forward

OK, OK, I am more than a little bit late with this. Between setting the task and the day that the linky should have been published, I found out that a project I thought I'd have a couple of weeks to complete had to be done and dusted by Friday and I had to put in double my usual hours and everything went out of the window. As much as we can make plans, life sometimes throws a curveball and destroyed all our carefully laid plans. I've had a couple of days out since and I'm trying to catch up with the lack of blogging I did last week.

Many apologies if you have been waiting to link up. The linky will be here today but there will be no new task tomorrow. Instead, I'll post a new task on 7th April over the Easter weekend but this will be a longer task and you will get more than a week to do it as I have the perfect task to fill that time plus it can be our Easter break.
So, how have I been doing with my Life Plan? At the moment, I'm kind of stuck. I am making progress with work but I am waiting to find out how much work I will have over the coming months, so I'm waiting on other people. I am trying to be slightly more proactive at it as I need to be earning money so I'm trying to do more to secure the work I need to move me onwards.My task for the next week is to clarify this but it's not always easy when relying on others for answers.

My main frustration is with my health / fitness. I seem to be stagnant with my diet - I do well for a few weeks an then it goes to pot. Well, not actually to pot; it's just I'm not tracking my intake and I know that means I eat more as a result. I really really need to get a grip and yet I'm facing two weeks of Easter holidays. Recording my intake is what works best for me and I know I have to do it.

The other things I had on my lifeplan largely depend on my earnings and how I do workwise. As ever, all things lead back to money so I really need to sort that out before I can make other spending plans, especially on the car front. I have to do something about that before my tax runs out this year in August.

So, how are you doing? What have you identified as going well or going badly? What do you really need to sort out now to keep your progress going? I'm sure you all have lovely posts for me to read and again, I'm really sorry this is so late.

You have plenty of time to link up. This will stay open until 20th April (to allow people to catch up if they miss this post publishing.

Looking forward to reading your posts, and see you again on Saturday 7th for the next task.

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.)

Slow cooker risotto - a recipe for success

I love my slow cooker. Regular readers of my ramblings will not be surprised by this revelation as I might have mentioned this before. They are so useful if you want to save money and time, once you learn a different way of cooking - it's not massively different but you do have to adapt recipes for the slow cooker, generally needing less liquid as less evaporates during cooking.

Until recently, I have never considered cooking risotto in a slow cooker. In theory, it should be a prime candidate for slow cooking to save time as risotto does require a lot of attention - constant stirring means you're stood at the hob from the moment you start cooking. After all, I make very passable rice pudding in a slow cooker and the basic ingredients are the same - rice and some liquid. However, I couldn't get over the thought that risotto does need so much attention for a reason - because that attention is what makes it so nice. I'd always steered clear of oven baked risotto recipes for the same reason but people do rave about them.

Putting my prejudices to one side, I decided to give it a go and trawled around some recipes. The first thing that struck me was how many used brown rice, not risotto rice. Maybe I'm a food snob ("Yes!" I hear you shouting at your screen) but I want my risotto to be as authentic as possible and I couldn't see how brown rice could give a risotto that lovely creaminess. Eventually, I found a recipe using risotto. The cooking time  was 2 hours - rice pudding often takes 2 to 3 hours so it sounded right. I put it on one day just before the school run, and checked it after one hour. There was very little liquid that hadn't been absorbed and rice was already well cooked. Overcooked, in fact. By the time it was actually tea time, it was very overcooked. It tasted nice though but the rice needed some work.

I decided to give it another go but keep a closer eye on it to see just how long it needed to make rice that wasn't overcooked (or undercooked, for that matter) because it was obvious to me that it needed much less time. The result I got was pretty much near perfect for my tastes. Husband said it was still slightly different to conventional risotto but the children both loved it and asked for it again!

I use the high setting on my slow cooker. If you want to leave the risotto longer, then do cook it on a lower setting but it can take anything up to twice as long to cook. It might be a case of knowing your own slow cooker to get it right.

I'm making my risotto with leek and mushrooms because that's what we had in. Raw meat should be cooked before you add the onions or leeks.This serves 2 adults and 2 children - if you have 4 adults to feed, or very very hungry children, increase the rice to 300g and stock to about 800ml. The stock doesn't need to be boiling - it will cook quicker that way so only use boiling stock if you really are in a hurry.

Slow cooker leek and mushroom risotto
Serves 4

Ingredients
knob of butter
1 tsp olive oil
3 leeks, thinly sliced (or 1 onion, finely chopped)
200g mushrooms, sliced
250g risotto rice
650ml hot chicken or vegetable stock
50g parmesan, grated


1. Melt the butter in a large pan and add a splash of olive oil so it doesn't burn. Add the leeks or onion and the mushrooms and cook over a medium low heat until the leeks or onions are soft but not coloured, which takes about 3 -5 minutes.

2. Add the rice and stir until it starts becoming translucent, about another 3 minutes. Tip everything in to the slow cooker.

3. Pour in all but 50ml of the hot stock and give everything a quick stir, cover and cook on high.

4. Give it a quick stir if you can after about 20 minutes. After 40 minutes, check the rice to see if it's done  - much like pasta, risotto is best slightly al dente, with a little bite to it. If it's not cooked, test it again after another 5 minutes. When the rice is done, turn off the slow cooker, and quickly stir in remaining stock and most of the parmesan, reserving some for a garnish. Put the lid back on and leave it for 2 or 3 minutes.

5. Spoon into bowls and top with a little parmesan before serving immediately.Buon appetito!

Easter eggs will never be the same again

I've mentioned this before on many occasion, but I am not a huge chocolate fan. Yes, I eat it but I don't have to have it. That said, if someone is going to offer me free chocolate, I am not going to turn them down, because the rest of the household would frankly lynch me.

Hotel Chocolat offered to send me one of their Easter eggs and I wasn't about to say no. We've tried their products before and they are always welcome. We picked out one of their Extra Thick Easter eggs to try - the Rocky Road to Caramel one to be precise. Now, Easter Eggs usually leave me cold - they promise so much but deliver so little - thin chocolate eggs and a few extra sweets with a lot of packaging. It was going to have to be amazing to change my opinion and at £26, it is not cheap.

Getting the golfing bug

This is a sponsored guest post. Stick with it though as it makes some interesting points about getting children into golf. Monkey is just getting into golf, is now the proud owner of two golf clubs and wants to go to lessons.

Photo credit - jhonnyt

Nowadays it is getting harder and harder to entice your children into the outside world and away from all the suffocating technology of the house. With more and more children suffering from obesity in the United Kingdom, there has never been a better time to strap golf equipment onto their backs and introduce them to the amazing world of golf.

Quite often people are put off golf, as the overall consensus is that golf is a sport for the well off or retired. However, with golf equipment becoming cheaper as the days pass and community golf courses springing up across the country, this could not be further from the truth.

Besides this, most people find it best to start teaching children about golf within their very own back garden, or if this isn’t an option, in the local park. Here you are given an unlimited amount of time to teach putting and really making sure that your children are getting a grip of the club. Of course, once the putting is sorted, it is time to move onto the most exciting part – the swing.

Throughout the United Kingdom and often attached to golf courses, there are golfing ranges where you are able to practice and teach your child how to well and truly hit a ball. Here, like the park there are usually no time restrictions, as you pay by the ball, meaning that you have all the time in the world to teach your young one the ways of the golf club.

Of course, once you are confident that your youngling is ready to set foot on the golf course itself, there are golf courses all around the country that are happy to accept new people, young and old. Most communities also have the afore mentioned community golf courses. This means that instead of paying annual fees (although this can be an option), you can instead pay by the round, as this is a great way of introducing your child into golf; once you have both decided that golf is the sport for you, it is then time to consider monthly, or even yearly membership fees.

For just about anyone in the golfing world, a full 18 holes can be quite daunting. That is why it is often best to start playing in halves, either by playing the front nine, or back nine.

A front nine consists of the first nine holes of a golf course and is often the way to start as a full 18 holes can be very tiring for a beginner. If the mood suits, you can quite often play what is known as the ‘back nine’ although this is less popular than playing holes 1-9.

The benefits of introducing your children to the sport can be huge. Not only is it a healthy and productive sport but golf also teaches children about patience and respect to other people. Whereas most sport revolves around disadvantaging your opponents, golf revolves around deducting yourself and being truthful to others. What better ethos could you teach your children than this? With lessons that can be used for a lifetime, golf is a sport that can carry a person throughout their entire life and is often a popular sport at work.

But of course, that is years away, what you need to focus on now is the fun and enjoyment of the sport. Why not try by taking your son or daughter out on a day at the nearest crazy golf course? This could be a great introduction into golf in general and a place where you can plant the idea of the sport into their minds. You never know, the person currently trying to whack the ball under the scary clown could just well be the next Tiger Woods.

(I have been paid a fee to publish this post). 

Why I will no longer apologise for being proud of my children

Photo credit - msegura

Last week was Parents Evening, and I'm pleased to report it was all good for both children. Very good, in fact. I mentioned it on Twitter but I held back from blogging about it, until now.

I put it on my Facebook status and then I saw someone tweeting about how they hate all the smug updates about how everyone's little darlings are doing so well at such times, and that not all the children can't ALL be nice and polite. It niggled. First, because it intimated that teachers issue platitudes they don't really believe, and secondly, it suggested that it was wrong to be proud of our children.

The main reason I put it on Facebook is that it is the main way we keep up to date with family. We have family spread from Cumbria to Devon, plus another that spends half his time abroad. We have friends around the world who know my kids and like to hear how they are getting on. I'm sorry if that's wrong but if I didn't put it on my status, I'd have to type it out several times over.

I know the teachers were genuine in their praise when we went. It rather astonishes me that Monkey's teacher cannot say a bad word about him. She gave him As for effort rather than A*s because she wants him to keep trying and told us "Really, he's excellent (but don't tell him I said that!)". I knew he had done well in his reading test because she told me a month ago that he had come top of the class in a very hard reading test, having only got one question wrong. Missy Woo's teacher was honest with us too - and said her only fault was she could get a little too chatty if she sat next to the wrong person, but that she was always mortified if teacher had to have a word with her.The children they spoke of were recognisable as my children, albeit the immaculately behaved version they reserve for school hours.

These teachers weren't lying. I would know if they were and I'm certainly not lying either.Yes, they are good kids but they are not angels; they are just normal kids who have their moments, and thankfully, the good outweighs the bad. Both children are already at, or beyond, where they are expected to be by the end of the school year. Their teachers expect they will move up further during the next term - Monkey's teacher expects his reading to be that expected of a child finishing Year 4. He's in Year 2. Missy Woo is expected to be at the standard of a child in Year 2, a full year ahead of herself. Those facts blew me away. In fact, it still does.

But why is it wrong to be proud of this? They have both worked hard and tried their best in class and know we expect that of them. We do not push them, we encourage them - we read with them and do spellings as requested by school but the rest of the time anything we do with them is spontaneous. Why can't I be proud that they both try their best and are progressing so well? That they both love to read, to write and to add up? That they both love learning?

I accept there is a fine line between pride and boastfulness. When the children were babies, I avoided the Baby Olympics. I was open-mouthed when some parents were displeased that a friend's baby was ahead of theirs. One even told me she was worried her daughter wasn't walking - she wasn't even a year old. And yes, I talk about my kids, but never in a my-child-is-better-than-yours kind of way - they're just different, with their own personalities, strengths and weaknesses.

My children are my life. Their care and upbringing takes up the most time in my daily routine and it's been that way for the last 7 years. I think we've done a good job so far. If I can't be proud of that, what can I be proud of? I've had enough -  I am reserving the right to speak up when there is good news to report. From now on, I'm going to be a proud mummy and be unapologetic about tt. I won't bang on about my children endlessly but I will celebrate their achievements. I want my children to know that I am proud of them (which they do, I hope) but I want them to know it's OK to be proud in a gracious way, especially when it is something they have worked hard for.

I want other parents to join me, to demonstrate that pride in your children is a good thing. I've even made a badge to display on your blog, to show that you are proud and don't feel the need to apologise for that. Feel free to grab the code to do so, to put on a post or a sidebar. I'd love to know what you think about it, either in the comments or in your own post - what makes you proud about your kids? How have they made you proud recently? Is parental pride a good thing and when is it ever bad? If enough people write in response to this, I'll open a linky but I won't if there isn't a demand for it.

<a href="http://thefivefsblog.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKN_fUBGGa9OBhFhgky24uevpylg2gjtuiXI8vfdZM0oDYGk8CMsry_lBjjQKnGZ5lD4-QoCBBi3n5Za9ZkdRKqCjOnrhz6DI1QNX23-CYNV3Vd_H6bltbvrhiZ8aJjp9_CC9a-5IPxma4/s1600/ppcblogbadge2.jpg" border="0" alt="The Five Fs" /></a>

Let's show everyone we are proud of our kids - we've spent ages growing and nurturing them, we have every right to be. In doing this, I'm hoping our kids learn pride in themselves - how to experience it and handle it, without losing friends over it. Mostly, I just want them to know people ARE proud of them because, God knows, children and young people take enough stick these days, and not a lot of it is justified.