Ava's 4th Birthday Fairytale Party

Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Ava who wished for a Fairytale Party for her birthday...

On Monday afternoon, her little wish came true...

It was such a fun afternoon... four year olds are just the best age. Enthusiastic and excitable! We were overrun by Princesses, with a few knights and dragons to boot, and the children just threw themselves into the party with full force. Ava loved it - fairytales, princesses and all her little friends around her. What more could a little four-year-old girl want?

So in case you're planning to throw a Fairytale bash anytime soon, here's what we did!

The Food

I maintain that you can always tie your food into the party theme with a little creativity, and a little help from Pinterest. In terms of party themes, I always try to keep them fairly broad (in the past we've had a Safari party, a Rainbow party and a Frozen party)... it just helps give you a wider spectrum of possibility! Here's what we had for the birthday tea...

Royal Rolls  - bread rolls filled with jam, ham or cheese
Jack's Beanstalks - Cheese Straws
Straw, Sticks and Bricks - Mini chipsticks for straw, chipsticks for sticks & carrot & cucumber bricks
Neverland Fairy Clouds -  Mini Marshmallows
Goldilocks Porridge Cookies - Oat and Raisin cookies in Papa-size, Mama-size and Baby-size
Jack's Magic Beans - Jelly Beans
Cinderella's Carriages - satsumas
Non-poisoned Apples - self-explanatory!

The food went down a treat and the table was pretty cleared by the end (only a few Jam Royal Rolls and some non-poisoned apples remained!). The children loved sitting at the Royal Feast, and Ava was in her element surrounded by her little friends!

The Activities

The first half hour of the party was free play, but we'd set up a few themed activities around the edges of the room for the children to have a go at...

Grandma's Cottage: Our new fridge freezer box was transformed into the front of Red Riding Hood's Grandma's cottage... Inside was a role play area complete with kitchen! This was a real hit!

Build a Little Pig House: a basketful of art straws, lolly sticks and building bricks, and a few sticks of glue, meant this was a table with a constant flow of little builders!
Colouring Station: A variety of fairytale colouring pictures and this table was easy to set up. I find a colouring activity is always a success at little girls parties!

Decorate a Crown or Fairy: an opportunity for our little fairytale characters to get creative with stickers, pom-poms and googley eyes!

Face Painting: my incredibly talented friend Kirsty came along as the Fairy Godmother and a did a great job transforming the children (and some of the adults) into role! (If your local and looking for a face-painter, I have linked to Kirsty on my Facebook page)

The Costumes

We had a huge variety of Princesses... And amazingly only one was doubled... Rapunzel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Anna and Belle were accompanied by knights in shining armour, Thor, Captain Hook, Dragons, Fairies and even a Dalmation! All the children looked fabulous and it just added to the fun!
 
The Games

Even your party games have to be themed, right?

What's the time Mr Wolf? Well, we had to get that Big Bad Wolf in somewhere, didn't we? This game is SUCH a hit with this age. They just love it!

Cinderella's Shoe: The children were split into two teams. All the children removed one show, and placed it into a big pile in the middle. The children then raced each other to hop to the pile,find their shoe, put it on and run bag to tag the next team member.

The Emperor's New Clothes: A fancy dress race... A hat, scarf and large jacket were laid out for each team. They raced each other to get dressed, run to the end of the room, come back, return the clothes and tag the next team member. Some of them looked hilarious!

Sleeping Beauty: That age old game of sleeping lions!

The Cake

The cake was inspired by Pinterest. I wanted to create a storybook cake with a castle on it. I made a large rectangular chocolate cake which rose in the middle. I then sliced the cake horizontally across the middle and filled it with chocolate icing. I then cut the top half of the cake in half, and turned the risen centres to face out the ways, so that it was shaped like a book. A bit of Regal icing later and voila!

Needless to say, our little lady loved it!

The Favours

The knapsacks (more details in a previous post) were a roaring success.the children loved swinging them over their shoulders and heading off on an adventure home. Cheap and cheerful, but so effective!

Our little lady had a wonderful time. She literally grinned from ear to ear the whole time she was there (except when I told her she had to finish her Royal Roll before eating any more sweets - mean Mama!) when I put her to bed that evening, she put her little arms round me and said "That was the best party in the world. Thankyou for making it for me Mama"

I tell you what, the hours of baking, gluing, cutting, drawing, printing, organising, shopping, sewing and building were worth it just for that comment.

And who am I kidding... I absolutely loved organising it too!

(All photos of children are used with parental permission)

Me and Mine: March 2015

Mealtime.

The staple part of any family's day. We are old traditionals when it comes to food. Dinner is round the table without the television. An opportunity for us to talk, share about our day, enjoy each others company (for the most part)...

Our mealtimes start with Heidi. She is our table-layer and chief food lover, so she is always the first to the table. Some days she sits happily and waits, chatting as I finish getting the dinner ready, or playing with her fork and spoon. She repeats the same old stories. Like the time Nanny flushed her pants down the toilet and said "Goodness Me!" (Yes! That did happen this week!), or the time Ava bumped into her. Other days she is a little more demanding.

It's hard waiting for your dinner when you're two.

And then dinner is ready, and Papa will arrive home, and there will be a flurry of activity as food is served, aprons are donned and drinks are poured.

And then the meal will begin. Every meal begins with the ritual announcement from Ava; "OH! This is my favourite dinner!!" regardless of what it is. There will be a time to thank God for his provision for us again. And then we tuck in!

There may be things to fill Papa in on as he's literally just through the door from work.

There may be school tales from Ava.

There may be potty training clapping and cheering for Heidi.

There may be giggles for no reason between the girls.

There may be battles about pudding without dinner, or wanting to stand up in your high chair, or play with your food.

There may be jokes from three-year-old humour, like how funny it is to stick your drink up your nose.

There may be just sitting quietly and listening and enjoying your dinner.

 Each mealtime is different. Some are a joy and a pleasure. Some are a battle and hard work. Whichever way it goes, I realise mealtimes are a training ground for the girls. They are learning to be grateful for what they have, they are learning how to listen, they are learning how to communicate, they are learning to share with the people they love, they are learning manners and self-discipline.

Most of all, they are learning what it means to be a family.

Our little family. Me and mine in March...

 

Heidi's Frozen 2nd Birthday Party!

On Saturday we celebrated Heidi's much anticipated Frozen Party... I say much anticipated because for the week running up to it, I had a flurry of little high-pitched voices persistently asking me "How many more sleeps 'til the Elsa party?" Needless to say, we were more than ready for it when the big day finally arrived!

I have to admit I wasn't overly excited at the prospect of another Frozen party. It's the biggest fad right now amongst almost anyone under the age of seven, and so the last few parties we have been to have had, for the most part, a decidedly Frozen theme.

But of course, with a little help of Pinterest, a few ideas were born, and soon enough I was possibly just as excited about the party as the girls were!

So in case you ever find yourself needing to throw a "Frozen" party, here's what we did!

The Food
The food is always the fun challenge for parties... tying it into the theme gives you the opportunity to get very creative without actually having to put much work in. I mean, who ever heard of whole mini carrots at a birthday party? But name them "Sven's Reindeer Snacks" and suddenly you have a posse of two-year-olds devouring more fruit and veg than you've ever seen in your life before. I can't take credit for any of the food ideas though... they were all straight from Pinterest, and I tried to find something fun to eat for each of the main characters...

Prince Hans' Sandwiches
Sven's Reindeer Snacks (a platter of grapes, raisins, mini carrots and chip-sticks)
Queen Elsa's Coronation Cupcakes
Olaf's Noses (Wotsits)
Anna's Snowballs (Popcorn)
Kristoff's Melted Icicles (flavoured water in little bottles)

As I said, minimal effort (with the exception of the cupcakes) and yet lots of happy little eaters!

The Costumes
We had encouraged people on Heidi's invitations to come dressed in white or blue, so there were a flurry of little snowy bodies running round the room, and there were no shortage of characters from the movie either! (Children's photographs are posted with parental permission)

 
It was pretty cool to have a snow monster at the party!

The Cake
A simple Victoria Sandwich with butter icing (except that I dyed the butter icing blue!) made this one a pretty easy make (close-up at the top). I cheated on the Regal Icing and bought it ready to roll in Tesco for around £2. I kneaded a bit of blue food colouring through a bit of it to cut out the snowflakes, and Olaf was a simple marshmallow/cocktail stick job. It took me a couple of hours start to finish and there was one happy little lady by the end of it. I'm still very much a novice when it comes to cake decorating (I don't know how people make these incredible creations you see on the web) but we were pretty happy with our humble attempt!

The Activities
This one was good fun as I found there were lots of ideas on Pinterest, but none that were really suitable for two-year-olds... I always think 2nd birthday parties are a bit of a challenge. The children are old enough to get involved in some activities, but there's still not a lot they can do completely independently. I was also conscious we had a good few boys coming, so didn't want everything to feel too  girly... so here's what we did!

* Ice block tower building - a whole stack of white boxes and white foam blocks (the kind you get in packaging) and we were good to go. This kept loads of the kids amused for ages, and they enjoyed both the building and the knocking down. Ava's school class had been doing a topic on "Ice and Magic" the previous half term and had kindly donated me their supplies, so we had no shortage of ice blocks!
* Colouring Corner - a few "Frozen" colouring pages led to happy little artists!
* Hunt Olaf's Noses - This is the only one that I had to prep in advance. I hid eight different coloured carrot noses around the room, and the children had to find them and tick them off when they had each nose. At the end, we talked about which nose was the right nose for Olaf! The children enjoyed hunting them down, and, with a bit of help from Mums and Dads, every child was able to get involved!

The Favours
This was a total Pinterest steal! I had seen these cute little "Do you wanna build a snowman" packs and knew it would be a sweet little gift for Heidi to give her friends to thank them for coming! A few marshmallows, twiglets and raisins and an orange jelly bean was all it took!

We had a fabulous time... Heidi was pretty grumpy for the firs half hour - lets just say no-one ever likes to be woken from their nap... not even for their birthday party! But pretty soon, she was running round with the other children having a whale of a time. It makes all the effort and preparation worthwhile when you see their happy little faces...

... and I still can't believe my baby girl is two!!!

Advent Day 18: Bake Day: #SavouringtheSeason

One of my favourite things to do with the girls is to bake... Yes it's messy, yes it goes everywhere, yes it particularly sucks when your dishwasher has decided to give up the ghost a week before Christmas and you have to hand-wash everything... but you know what? It's worth it, for the little cake-mix/biscuit-dough smeared smiles that greet me afterwards.

And this week was no different.

This week we made three big batches of our mixed spice biscuits, packaged 'em up and handed them round the neighbours with big smiles and a confident "merry Christmas" from Ava and a very cute "may cwistmas" from Heidi. We handed out invites to our carol service on Sunday too, and do you know what? It was just so fab to meet some new neighbours. We have been here four years now and are good friends with our neighbours on either side, but it was just great to get to know some of our further afield neighbours and extend a bit of Christmas cheer.

And yes, though it started well, it did end with two rather cold and very grumpy children, I don't want you be imagining a picture perfect family here. It. Was. Far. From.

But anyway, I thought I'd share some of our favourite Christmas biscuit recipes for you to pick and choose from. Though I'm holding back on the gingerbread... Our gingerbread house is on next week's to do list :-)

Our Austrian Christmas Biscuit faves can be found here...

Other German Christmas biscuits can be found here...

White Chocolate and Cranberry cookies can be found here...

Enjoy! Who's joining me for a gingerbread house challenge next week?!

Savouring the Season is all about celebrating the season we find ourselves in...whether it be recipes, crafts, outdoor adventures or reflections on life, link up and share some comment love! And don't forget to grab a badge!

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Rainy Day Baking: Autumn Spice Biscuits

One of our favourite things to do in autumn is bake. There is something utterly autumnal for me in the scent of mixed spices, cooked apple and pumpkin soup in the air... that fresh baked smell that draws small children to the kitchen.

And this recipe is one they love to get stuck in with.

So for all those rainy afternoons it seems we're about to experience... here's a little recipe for some Autumn Spice Biscuits that we've been enjoying on these stuck-in-the-house days...

Because its true, isn't it?

Photo courtesy of Pinterest

You need:

175g brown sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

100g margerine

3 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

350g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 egg, lightly beaten

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***

 

Heat the sugar, golden syrup and butter in a saucepan until they are melted.

Mix the flour and spices in a mixing bowl

Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in 1tsp of cold water.

Make a well in the flour mixture and add the melted sugar mixture, the egg, and the bicarbonate of soda mixture. Mix through. The mixture will feel soft and sticky. 

In the bowl, cover the top of the mixture with cling film and leave to cool. Once cooled, place in the fridge for one hour so that it firms up.

After an hour, heat the oven to 190C/Gas Mark 5

Remove the mixture from the fridge and knead on a lightly floured surface. Roll it out and cut into shapes with cutters. Transfer onto baking sheets, leaving room between each shape for them to spread.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until biscuits darken slightly.

Leave to cool on a wire rack!

EAT AND ENJOY!!!

Unfortunately, they were gobbled up so quickly, that I never had a chance to get photographs of the finished product... 

... but they were utterly delicious, and a total hit with the little ladies!

Bake Day Recipe: Lion Bread on the Menu!

Anyone who reads this blog regularly will know pretty well that our eldest is a big fan of lions. And so, on Friday morning, after we'd gone through the normal routine and I'd suggested to the girls that we could bake some bread, it came as no surprise to me that "Lion Bread" was the order of the day...

Zopfbrot is a fairly regular bake in our home. It's dead straightforward, doesn't have any funny ingredients and tastes DIVINE straight out of the oven with a bit of butter and jam. It takes time - there's a fair bit of waiting for dough to rise - so we always write out a morning to make it. But at that first bite, it's worth every second! With two little ladies also eager to help out, it's a fairly foolproof recipe that's pretty difficult to ruin, which is always a bonus. Zopfbrot is a type of Austrian/Swiss sweet bread that somewhat resembles brioche, and it became regular staple for me when I was living on the Swiss border of Austria. Ten years after moving back to England, and I'm still baking the stuff.

And so we donned our aprons and set to work; pouring, mixing, kneading and rolling. We had great fun and were totally chuffed with our lion bread by the end!

Of course, we couldn't resist packing up some Zopf rolls for our friends and family!

So in case you have a free rainy morning ahead, and would like to try your hand at some good old fashioned Swiss sweet bread, here's a little how-to for you all.

And if you really fancy getting into the spirit of it all, just plait your hair and yodel as you work!

How to make Zopfbrot

1kg Zopfmehl (150g bread flour mixed with 850g plain flour)

40g fresh yeast/ 2 packets of dried yeast
2 eggs
500ml milk
2 tsp salt

160g caster sugar

90g butter

- Warm the milk in a pan until it is lukewarm.

- Remove 2tbsp of the milk into a mug, and add the yeast and 1 tsp sugar. Stir until well -mixed and put in a warm area until the mixture is creamy and begins to rise.

- In a mixing bowl, mix the rest of the milk with the eggs, sugar and salt and the melted butter with a whisk until everything is mixed in.

- Add the yeast mixture and gradually work in the flour, a bit at a time, until you are able to knead the dough (you can add raisins too if you like).

- Knead the dough for approximately 5 minutes, cover and then put in a warm place to rise for approximately 1 hour, until the dough is approximately double the height (I usually put mine in the oven on the lowest temperature setting).

- (Cue opportunity for stories, puzzles, games and general merriment)

- Lay the dough on a floured surface and knead it again for approximately 5 minutes

- Cover and leave the dough to rise in a warm place for another half an hour. Preheat oven to 170 degrees

- Shape or plait your bread and leave to sit for 15 minutes
- Glaze the bread with egg and place in the oven for approximately half an hour

- EAT and enjoy!

Our Little Food Monster!

From the day this little lady entered the world, she has been a big fan of food. She loves anything and everything, and we've yet to find a food she will turn down... she'll eat it off her plate, or pinch it off your plate, or be found secretly shoveling down the leftovers from the floor. However, she has yet to beat her older sister's breakfast record of 2 weetabix and a slice of toast at 11 months old!

Until last week, that is!

The lovely people at Heinz for Baby sent us a gift pack full of breakfast goodies and we excitedly cracked it open... yummy boxes of muesli, breakfast pots and Breakfast Biscotti... a little more exciting than our normal weetabix and toast, and the girls excitedly tucked into their Strawberry, Raspberry and Blueberry muesli. The muesli is suitable from 10 months, but as its packed full of vitamins and minerals vital to little girl growth, its just as wonderful for my big girl as my little! Ava wolfed her muesli and biscotti down in a matter of minutes, and then was off to play again.

My youngest, however, was not finished!

Holding out her bowl, I heard the familiar cry...

"More!"

I took her bowl, and refilled it up with another bowl of muesli, adding just a little bit of milk (making it VERY easy in comparison with some of the other baby cereals we have come across with water/milk measurements!) and watched her gobble that down too. Then suddenly...

"More!"

Now this was a record... I don't think Heidi's every gone for more than two bowls of cereal, so asking for a third told me this Heinz muesli was going down pretty well. I'm sometimes conscious of not wanting to OVERfeed this little lady, but knowing that it counted for one of her five a day, and contained 12 key vitamins and minerals, I didn't feel too bad about pouring out her third helping. I watched, eyes wide, as she devoured her third bowl, before watching, with disbelief, those chubby little hands hold out that bowl to me again!!

"More!"

Well, I'm sorry folks, but I put a stop to it there... however much I sometimes find it hard to provide the girls with their five a day, however convenient this cereal was to make, however  packed full of goodness this muesli was... three bowls for breakfast struck me as being enough! I wiped my little food-monster down and set her off to play, secure in the knowledge that she was definitely not lacking the most important meal of the day!

This week, we will crack open the Apricot and Peach muesli, and then I'm going to investigate the 11 flavours of other breakfast cereals they have...

* The Heinz Baby Breakfast Range is available in Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Sainbury's and Boots *

* Muesli is suitable for 10+ months and comes in 2 flavours (mentioned above) *

* Muesli has an RRP of £2.15 for 200g *

* Heinz Breakfast Pots can be eaten hot or cold and are suitable from 4 months at £1.19 for 2 pots *

* Heinz Breakfast Biscotti are available for babies age 6+ months at £1.99 for 32 biscuits *

Disclosure: We were sent a gift pack by Heinz for Baby for the purposes of this review. We received no further incentive and all thoughts and opinions are our own.

Make Your Own Pretty Placemats!

For Easter, I threw together these pretty burlap and lace placemats. It literally took me about 5 minutes to make all four of them and I'm seriously pleased with how they turned out.

I just think anything burlap and lace is adorable... don't you?

So if you want an easy project, that requires NO creative skill whatsoever, but looks super-cute and you can say you made-it-yourself, then this is the project for you!

You need:
* Half a metre of burlap or equivalent (hessian)
* A metre of lace
* double sided sticky tape

Step One:
Cut your burlap into whatever size placemats you want! Burlap shreds, so they will look a bit shabby chic, but that's part of the appeal, don't you think?!

Step Two:
Put a strip of double sided tape down the left-hand side of each placemat, then simply roll your lace over the top.

And that's literally it! You're done! Just dress them up with a nice bit of crockery, and a flower or two if its a special occasion... and there you have pretty placemats, whipped up in no time at all.

Pretty tableware always puts a smile on my face!

So there you have it... a nice little weekend project for you all!

Pancake Party! Savouring the Season: Linky Party 24

Pancake Day fell on Heidi's birthday, this year. She had her "Rainbow Party" at the weekend with all her little friends, but still, it only felt right to have a little celebration on the day itself, so what better than a Pancake Party for the family??

Everyone loves the classics - sugar and lemon, chocolate spread, maple syrup, a little bit of jam, but given that this was a little more special than every previous pancake day, I thought it would be fun to experiment a little...

I found a basic pancake recipe, and had quite a lot of fun coming up with some alternative concoctions! Why not have a go??

Chocolate Pancakes

140g Self-Raising Flour

   3 tbs Brown Sugar

1 tbs Cocoa Powder

300 ml Milk

1 Egg

2 tbs Melted Butter

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl

In a separate jug, whisk together the milk, egg and melted butter

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the milk mixture a bit at a time, whisking as you go

Leave to stand for an hour

Make your pancakes!!

These were a big hit with Ava - aged 2 1/2

Cinnamon Pancakes

140g Self-Raising Flour

   3 tbs Brown Sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

300 ml Milk

1 Egg

2 tbs Melted Butter

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl

In a separate jug, whisk together the milk, egg and melted butter

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the milk mixture a bit at a time, whisking as you go

Leave to stand for an hour

Make your pancakes!!

 

The Cinnamon pancakes were absolutely delicious serve with apple sauce/apple puree!

Blueberry Pancakes

140g Self-Raising Flour

   3 tbs Caster Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

300 ml Milk

1 Egg

2 tbs Melted Butter

75g Blueberries

Mix the flour and sugar in a bowl

In a separate jug, whisk together the milk, egg, vanilla essence and melted butter

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the milk mixture a bit at a time, whisking as you go

Mix in the blueberries

Leave to stand for an hour

Make your pancakes!!

 

These pancakes were definately the favourites... they went like hotcakes. 

Very yum, even if I do say so myself!!

 

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What pancake fun did you get up to this week? Share all your pancake adventures for #SavouringtheSeason and I'll make sure I do the rounds. Please if you are linking up, make sure you go and visit and comment on a couple of other links too! Go on... grab a cuppa and get commenting! :D 

Hoping you all had a lovely pancake day!

 

Oh, and if you haven't voted in the MADS yet, and you enjoy the blog, why not drop us a vote below!

If you enjoy the blog, we'd love you to support us and cast your nominations for the "MAD (Mum and Dad) Blog Awards our way!

We're currently up for "Best Baby Blog" and "Best Family Fun" but you can nominate for any category you feel we fit into... Thanks to all of you who have already nominated! :D
Nominations close March 14th.

Rainbow Party Fun as Heidi Turns One!

On Saturday, we celebrated a very special party for our very special girly!

We chose the rainbow theme, because of its significance, but also because its just a bright, cheery, happy, colourful inspiration for any first birthday party!

We had  rainbow cake...

... and rainbow bunting...

... homemade rainbow playdough favours (instead of party bags)...

... and rainbow marshmallow pops... (inspired by my lovely friend Catrin!)
 (I've done a quick tutorial on how to make them here)

...Rainbow fruit kebabs...

... just all things bright and beautiful!

We had Sunshine Sandwiches, Cloud corn (popcorn) and a Rainbow vegetable platter too...

All the colours of the rainbow!
 

All the children dressed in rainbow colours...

 

... while little Heidi got ready to eat her first piece of cake...

... a rainbow cake, of course!

We had a fantastic time celebrating with Heidi's little friends and their families.

Now to get ready for the big day tomorrow...

Our Heidi's going to be one!!!

 

Our baby's growing up!