A Week of Firsts

I would like to say I don't know where the time is going but I do its busy working with M and her IGCSE coursework, it is going ok but its a lot of work for her and I! On top of this she has been practising badge work for gymnastics and wanting me to check her positioning etc, she's now achieved her bronze and learning drama speeches for her Lamda exams which we had hoped would be Easter but are now the beginning of February.  She has now mentioned that she might be put in for her ballroom and Latin exams in February too, these are all classes she loves but it is extra work, we have also manged to do some Christmas shopping.

Hubby realised he still had holiday to be used up before Christmas, still waiting to find out if he will be on call over Christmas but it does mean he will be having some long weekends, so have some day trips planned.

L has been desperately wanting to go on a train, so Monday last week, we took the bus into town and then the train to Oxford. While there we visited the  Oxford Natural History Museum so she could see some fossils another first and the Pitts Museum. She loved the train ride and on the bus on the way home hubby took her upstairs, another thing she has been desperate to do, I do not like the stairs on the bus especially with a small child.

The Natural History Museum is lovely, lots to see and do with out being overwhelming, L loved the fossils, the various animal displays, the black bear was adored and the displays of birds from around the world. Though she did get rather upset with one display where a bird had killed a rabbit, so quick talk about life cycles and what might happen if the rabbits had no predators, how different our world would look, upsetting but it is life. Pitts museum, lots to see and maybe a little overwhelming as their are loads of cases, with lots to see! I loved the display of bobbin lace and lace patterns, clothing from around the world, musical instruments, L enjoyed doing the mouse trail, definitely somewhere to visit again.

The other first was taking the girls to a hairdressers, we normally have a lovely friend come to our house but she has been unwell for a while now, felt guilty going somewhere else but desperately needed haircuts. M really didn't want to go somewhere else but actually enjoyed the experience especially the big mirror and being able to watch what was going on, for L it was too noisy, didn't like the clippers and hairdryers going.

We have also been doing lots of baking, M has experimented with scone base pizza recipe but decided she much prefers a bread based one, L and I have made oat cookies and an eggless ginger cake.

Oat Cookies

200g self raising flour

200g oats

125g brown sugar

200g margarine or butter melted

15ml golden syrup

15ml hot water

2.5ml bicarbonate of soda

1. Mix flour, oats and sugar together in a mixing bowl.
2. Add in the melted margarine and golden syrup
3. Mix hot water and bicarbonate of soda together and add to the rest of the ingredients,mix well.
4. Roll into small balls in your had and gently pat down a little after it is placed on the baking tray.
5. Bake at Gas 4 for 15 minutes.

Eggless Ginger Cake

275g plain flour

5ml bicarbonate of soda

10ml ground ginger

125g treacle

125g golden syrup

125 g margarine or butter

125g brown sugar

150ml milk or milk substitute, we use oat milk

1. Sieve flour, baking powder and ground ginger.
2. Put treacle, golden syrup, margarine and brown sugar in a pan and gently warm until margarine is melted.
3. Add melted ingredients and milk to the dry and mix well.
4. Bake in a lined loaf tin for 1 hour.

I finally made it to the cinema, the last time I went to the cinema was with O to see Jurassic World, so a while ago. It wasn't the planned trip with my husband, still not managed that but went with M and a good friend to see Murder on the Orient Express, loved it wasn't sure how I would feel about a new Poirot, David Suchet was such a good Poirot but actually liked Kenneth Branagh portrayal of him, though still not 100% sure about the moustache.

On a crafting front I have finished the simple little dress, another present done and working on the blue one, loving the simple the pattern. Made the mistake of popping into a local charity shop to browse books and spotted a set of Nicci French ones we hadn't read, so came home with them. Hubby and I have read the first one, Blue Monday and enjoyed it, hoping the rest are as good! Now planning activities and crafts for our advent calendar, we always make one with a different story, craft to do, film to watch for each day of advent, always have way too many ideas for the number of days in advent! Do you have a favourite Christmas film, story or poem, would love to hear what they are.

St George and the Dragon

Ended up with a quieter end to last week and weekend than originally planned as L came down with a mild temperature, sore throat and cough, so she spent a lot of time needing cuddles or sleeping. So I have spent a lot of time sitting on the sofa with her, reading stories, watching films and crafting while she sleeps, which means I have knitted her a pair of the workhorse mitts in some teal green wool I had left over and also managed some cross stitch. She is hopefully on the mend now, still a bit croaky and was rather tired by bedtime tonight. Any way yesterday we read Saint George and the Dragon and today we read two dragon stories from A Year Full of Stories, one from Britain and the other from Poland. The end of the Usborne book has a nice map and talks about were St George is patron saint of and some other nice info that we read through.

I had planned some bread making in dragon shapes and maybe painting or chalk pastels but the children decided to draw some pictures of the dragon, love the different facial expressions.

We've been doing lots of counting and L and one minded child seems to have really learnt all their numbers to 10, so today thought I would see what they could remember, so out came the crochet bowls, button pot and some number cards. They love sorting buttons into the bowls, so this is a fun activity for them and I am pleased to say they can recognise their numbers one to six and add the right number of buttons to the bowl. This is the  pattern for the rainbow nesting bowls

I then added some mirrors and coloured lollipop sticks, this is great way to introduce the idea of symmetry, reflection, half etc in a fun way, love the oh wow when I demonstrated how you could turn half a lollipop man into a whole man. They then had fun creating their own patterns.

In the garden the sunflower seeds we planted the other week are just peeking up above the soil, the peas are doing the same at the allotment and some of my Californian poppies that seeded themselves last year are now flowering. The children love these and have been watching how the buds develop, open and now seeing the seed cases form, at some point we will have a dried seeds that they can then plant.

L's fingerless mittens, she is really pleased with them, the colour looks really blue in the photos but it is a teal green in real life! Hoping we won't have much need to wear them until the Autumn! Joining Frontier Dreams for Crafting On

I came across an eggless carrot cake last week and L and I had to give it a go, it is really delicious and moist. It's great to find another dairy and egg free cake to add to my list, the recipe can be found on Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth blog  Carrot Crazy cake we didn't ice our cake as I find it a bit too rich. My photo of a little slice doesn't do it justice but had to show that it isn't a dense cake at all, which I sometimes find when trying eggless baking as you don't always get that light fluffiness that you get with eggs.

Angels and Mince Pies

We started of the weekend in between gymnastics and dance lessons making some, in L's words, yummy scrummy mince pies.

Mince Pie filling

10ml cornflour

175ml water

5ml vanilla essence

175g currants and raisins

50g mixed peel

70g sugar

5ml ground cinnamon

5ml mixed spice

2.5ml ground ginger

1. Mix together cornflour, water and vanilla essence and place in a saucepan.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients to the saucepan.
3. Bring to the boil and then simmer until thick.
4. Spoon into pastry cases and cook at Gas 4 for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden.

M still loves to do some scrape art and she loved these ones from baker Ross.

Paper plate angels made by L and my minded children, note to self, next time need to make the heads a bit bigger so it's easier for the children to draw the faces!

M and I had a go at some origami angels, tried different tutorials on you tube, the yellow and white ones were fairly easy to do and instructions can be found here and the pink one I found rather fiddly is here.

We have taken down our Autumn window decorations and now making some Christmas ones. I am hoping to find time to make a scene with the Kings in and then one with Mary and Joseph but need to do some Christmas present sewing first. 

I came across the lovely fox pattern last year on Cutesy Crafts, the pattern is free to download, the embroidery came from a Christmas cross stitch magazine the design was originally on a heart shape but changed to to circle and backed with some felt, now just need to put the tree up.

Linked up with http://frontierdreams.blogspot.co.uk/

Carrot Cakes

We made some lovely carrot cakes, we used this egg replacer and was very pleased with the results, first time I've used it in cakes, usually use it when I need to make eggless yorkshires. L is getting very good at peeling and cutting the ends of the carrots, she did have a go at grating the carrot but decided she didn't like doing that. My youngest mindie decided to join in the mixing, normally prefers to watch but this time seemed to thoroughly enjoy the mixing and then using the bowl and spoon to drum on.

Carrot Cakes

155g soft brown sugar

150g plain flour

7ml baking powder

7ml bicarbonate of soda

5ml cinnamon

2.5ml nutmeg

180ml sunflower oil

3 eggs or equivalent amount of egg replacer

2 medium carrots grated

50g raisins

1. Combine dry ingredients, then add oil and eggs and mix well.
2. Add the raisins and carrots and mix.
3. Bake for 20 minutes at gas mark 4.

Makes 12 little cakes.

Cinnamon Rolls

Our advent activity for today was to make cinnamon rolls, they are in my opinion delicious! The children love to help weigh out, mix and roll, as well as eating their cooking. I had seen Chelsea buns made in the shape of tree so thought I would try it with these buns, it sort of worked, at least it still has a sort of tree shape. They look better when cooked in a round tin but then again they are rather yummy and they are eaten quickly in my house. I adapted the recipe and made some eggless, dairy free ones for L, she is a very happy little girl, her special recipe is further down the page.

Cinnamon Rolls

225ml milk

75g butter

425g plain flour

70g caster sugar

10g fast active yeast

1 egg, beaten

For the filling

100g butter

65g caster sugar

15ml cinnamon

5ml vanilla essence

1- Heat the milk and margarine in a saucepan until nearly boiling, turn of heat and leave to cool.

2- Mix together the flour, sugar and yeast.

3- Add the egg and warm milk (not hot) to the dry ingredients and mix well.

4- Cover the bowl, I usually place a large plate over the top, leave to rise for at least an hour.

5- Mix all the filling ingredients together.

6- roll out the dough to form a rectangle about 25 cm by 40cm, spread the filling over it and roll it up

7- Cut your roll into several equal slices and place in a tin, not tightly packed as they need room to rise.

8- Cover and leave to rise until double in size.

9- Glaze with milk and sprinkle with some caster sugar.

10- Bake Gas 6 for about 25 minutes, rolls are cooked when they sound hollow when you tap the base.

Eggless, Dairy Free Cinnamon Rolls

250ml oat milk

90g dairy free margarine

425g plain flour

70g caster sugar

15g fast active yeast

For the filling

100g butter

65g caster sugar

15ml cinnamon

5ml vanilla essence

1- Heat the milk and margarine in a saucepan until nearly boiling, turn of heat and leave to cool.

2- Mix together the flour, sugar and yeast.

3- Add the warm milk/margarine (not hot) to the dry ingredients and mix well.

4- Cover the bowl, I usually place a large plate over the top, leave to rise for at least an hour.

5- Mix all the filling ingredients together.

6- roll out the dough to form a rectangle about 25 cm by 40cm, spread the filling over it and roll it up

7- Cut your roll into several equal slices and place in a tin, not tightly packed as they need room to rise.

8- Cover and leave to rise until double in size.

9- Glaze with milk and sprinkle with some caster sugar.

10- Bake Gas 6 for about 25 minutes, rolls are cooked when they sound hollow when you tap the base.

Yesterday we enjoyed watching Elf as our Christmas film and then we read The Little Fir Tree, then we  made some Christmas tree decorations.

I put together 3 green lolly pop sticks, then they stuck a green triangle of kite paper on the back and set about decorating them. Towards the end they asked for presents to put under the tree, I thought they meant that at Christmas time they had presents under their trees. Then realised that they were asking for presents for the trees they were making, they had remembered that earlier in the week we had used foam stickers that had presents in them. So we rummaged through the box till they found the ones they wanted to add to their trees. We also made some Rudolphs using lolly pop sticks, I just need to attach some ribbon to them so the children can hang them on their trees

My little ones really love playing with the baby dolls, it is something they have out every day, they love to create little rooms for them, this is one they made yesterday, I love it.

We have also made some window stars, planning on making a few to decorate our windows.