A Mother's Ramblings

At the rate at which the weeks are passing it is going to be Half Term pretty soon, which is a good thing but it does mean I'm running out of time to do all the things I want to do! Monday - Cheese Sandwich It's Picture Day! I believe that all pictures are taken before lunch and snack time (at least I hope they are, I know my children all to well and they will be covered in something if it's after) and I'm off to talk to some lovely people in London too, so I can't even run a spare sweater up to them if they need it! Today's lunch is Picture themed, by being a Cheese Sandwich or possibly roll, it depends what I make when I get up tomorrow! Tuesday - Chicken Wrap Daddy actually cooked the chicken on Sunday, (I was busy being a personal food shopper for my Mum) and he made a bit of a hash of carving it so I actually have a lot of chicken left on the carcass, enough to give both children a wrap and for my dinner tonight! Wednesday - Ponyo Pasta Ac...

So last week a few changes happened to our dinner menu. Daddy was out on Wednesday night and so the children and I decided that we would rather have Mince with Yorkshire Puddings instead of Spaghetti Bolognese, we ended up having a takeaway on Saturday instead of Pizza and on Sunday we ended up having Roasted Chicken and Chips because we had to call an Ambulance out after I decided to to remove one of my fingers... So on to this week! Saturday - Anniversary Dinner It's mine and Daddy's wedding anniversary today. We've been married for eleven years and so we are either going to go out and have dinner together (either Red Hot World Buffet or maybe the local Beefeater) whilst some unsuspecting relative babysits for us and if we can't con  find anyone to help out the childcare front then we will hide the children in their bedrooms and have a takeaway! We will treat the children to a take away either way as they have been absolute darlings this week (for the most part). ...

I love making different lunches for the Children each week, I think that having a super special lunch each Friday is just a small way that I can show them that I love them, that I'm thinking of them even when they are at School and that I'm interested in what they eat and by making it fun they get the best lunch in School and a good giggle too! This week I decided that what the children really needed was Hot Dog in Dog Shaped Rolls! Making the rolls was really easy... especially as I had a can of fresh rolls in the fridge! Instead of pulling them apart and making them into Six rolls I made two large dough balls (two rolls each) and held back the the last two rolls to make the add on parts of the dog. With the large dough ball I rolled it out so that it was fairly flat and wide and then rolled the actual Hot Dog into the dough so it was all covered. I then used the last two rolls to make four legs, two tails, four ears and two snouts which I stuck on using water and...

Everybody knows that Top Ender is going to be a fashion designer when she is older. She tells everyone, and answers all questions with a statement about how she is going to live in Paris, have a fashion house and design clothes; Even if the question was something like "Do you like Oranges?". At the last parents evening at least five minutes of our appointment was spent discussing Top Ender's future and even in a recent Parents Welcome Assembly she managed to sneak in a reference to her future career! There are hundreds of sketches all over the house of dresses, tops, trouser suits, skirts, shoes, handbags, dog clothes, cat clothes, children's clothes and she does have a couple of verbal orders for wedding dresses, so I do think that she will one day live her dream and keep me in the manner in which I'm sure I could get very used to very quickly! The problem is when you are on a tight budget and you have a fashionista for a daughter, you can rarely keep everyone ...

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School has been back for a couple of weeks now and both Top Ender and Big Boy are in full swing of coming home after school, changing out of their School Uniform and then getting in to their after school clothes. I do have to keep reminding them that they need to give me their dirty uniform so that I can wash it, but they seem to be ignoring me on that part and I keep finding discarded pieces of uniform all around the house which I gather up to wash so that they are ready for the next day. I was really worried about Big Boy having his first PE lesson as I was sure that he was going to come home wearing Uniform that didn't belong to us because of his habit of stripping off and leaving his uniform where ever it landed. So the PE Lesson happened. Big Boy used up lots of energy running round and had a low blood sugar because of it (which was sorted out before lunch) and so his teacher helped him out by putting his PE Kit back into his bag for him. That evening when he walked out o...

This week is going to be fun, like I said yesterday we're trying to use up all the bits and pieces that we have in the Freezer and cupboards and so it's a good old clear out! I got given a Filofax to play with and I've been using it to make notes of what lunches the children can have and ideas of things they could have for Friday Lunches as well as keeping a note of Big Boy's blood sugar levels after different foods so that I can make sure he stays stable through the day at School. Monday - Chicken Bagels We have Chicken bagels today, Big Boy really loves them and Top Ender didn't get a chance to eat her ham one last week after she was only given FIVE MINUTES to eat her lunch! As you can guess I wasn't too happy and did kind of BLOW UP about it as soon as I knew. Luckily Top Ender's teacher had part of it in hand and a strongly worded letter handed to the new Head Teacher the next morning had things slightly better the next day but it's not stopping...

We're eating cheap this week, it's nearly the end of the month and so I'm trying to make our budget stretch as far as possible and I really need to finish running down the freezers (we have three) now that I know what's in them! Saturday - Pizza Gluten Free Pizza isn't always as lovely as it should be but we have it tonight because we have some bases in the cupboard, we always have tomato purée or paste in the fridge or cupboard and there is always Ham, Cheese and Pineapple hanging about too. Just a shame they won't be shaped like Top Ender's Hello Kitty Friday Lunch or Big Boy's Mario Toad Mushroom Friday Lunch  just a plain circle. Sunday - Roast Dinner A Roast is the highlight of the week for the family. We love sitting together and eating and chatting and just generally having fun together. Daddy is always trying to make the children laugh instead of eating their dinner and I'm always trying to make them eat their dinner without lau...

I love Pinterest for the ideas I get for food at home (If you want to see if you can guess my ideas for the weeks Friday lunch follow my Top Ender's Friday Lunch and Big Boy's Too pinterest board) and this weeks idea was straight from Pinterest! Edible Rainbow Pasta. Making the pasta was incredibly simple and just a matter of adding food dye to the water you are going to cook the pasta in. As pasta absorbs the water it also absorbs the colour from the food dye and you end up with coloured pasta! I did this before the children got up this morning and luckily I remember fairly well my colour mixing charts, but this would be a great one to do with children learning about what colours added together make what colour. I only had liquid food dye in the house, as my gels have run out, and as such the colours weren't as vibrant as I was hoping that they would be. The Red has come out as a dark Orange, the Green actually came out Yellow and the Purple came out Green (I hav...

I love September. For me it's an important month because it's the month I think of the year starting. We are back to School and Daddy and I were married so it was the start of my married life too! I love to think of September as the last part of the Summer, but as it is cooler it means that it's a time for camp fires and blankets and sitting on the beach in the Sand Dunes with picnic blankets round your shoulders... so I came up with a plan. A couple of weekends ago, on what we thought might be the last warm day of the year I had a plan for a camp fire in the back garden, thanks to an Eco Grill that had been sent to us. We started off the evening by roasting hot dogs over the fire, the children thought it was great fun although they weren't too keen on the smoke that blew in all directions thanks to an all directions wind that picked up. Daddy and I thought it was great, we loved cooking over an open fire, it's so different to cooking on a BBQ! The great thing too...

Before he started School Top Ender told Big Boy that at School she has to sit down and work, that the teacher tells her that they are going to do Maths or Writing or French or something else and everyone has to do it. After a few days of going to School, Big Boy has realised that his School day isn't like Top Ender's. His School day doesn't have designated times to sit and write, or do Maths or French. His day is more about playing with the water table, painting or cutting or sticking and sometimes reading stories with a teacher or a teaching assistant. Big Boy is upset because he hasn't been doing any work at school just playing. He's complained to me about it, he's complained to the teacher about it, he's complained to the Teaching Assistants about it and I think finally one of them broke down and gave him some actual work to do just to stop him complaining that he didn't want to play any more. I think that this is his way of still keeping u...

It sounds wrong to say that Big Boy had a low blood sugar reading at School and I was happy about it, but that is exactly what happened. Yesterday was the last day that I was supervising Big Boy having his injection at lunch before the staff at the School take over fully. I had wanted Big Boy to have a low when I was there so that those responsible for looking after him would be able to see how to handle it, to know that it is as simple as giving him some fast acting sugar and then his injection and lunch if it was before lunch, some fast acting sugar and a slow release follow up if it was at any other time and that there was no reason to panic. They did of course panic. It wasn't the wild eyed running around that I had imagined, but there was the wide eyes as they realised that this wasn't normal. They knew that they had to act on something, something that they hadn't yet practised and had only read about happening. I knew they would panic and because I was ther...

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We had a Jungle Junction Twitter party this evening, co-hosted by several bloggers with UKMums TV . Some of our guests were unable to make it at the last minute (I don't blame them I'm a rather random Mother in the School Playground and they only just met me), but my Sister and her children arrived ready for lots of fun and food and of course some tweeting! Big Boy has been so excited about the party ever since the box of prizes and toys to play with arrived. He had a lot of ideas about what we would do and was very vocal about the food we should have too. Luckily as I mentioned in my meal plan post earlier this week what I had planned was pretty much what had been suggested and was also what Big Boy thought was good party food. I'm not sure that my words can convey all the fun that we had at the party, so instead here are some pictures that my sister and I took during the two hours that we were officially having the party (my sister is rather like me and alw...

Tom Conti. That was all I needed to read to know that I wanted to see Rough Justice. It's not that I have an inappropriately placed crush on him like I do Alan Rickman, it's just that it's TOM CONTI! The play is a about a television journalist called James Highwood (played by the lovely Tom) who has made a career out of challenging the British Justice system in documentaries (I'd probably watch them if they were real!) and now finds himself brought to court on a charge of murder (his brain damaged child) which he admits to, but pleads manslaughter. For some reason he decides to defend himself and seems to just want to annoy the judge! I don't know much about the courtroom but I'm pretty sure you don't want to annoy the judge. My Mum and I listened to a lot of the audience around us who had different views on the storyline and if James Highwood should be found guilty or not and about the morals of mercy killings never mind the legality.  ...

After tomorrow I won't be going in to the School at lunch time to supervise BB having his insulin injection (unless there is an issue) so this week I'm trying to be extra careful with what is in the lunch box just to make sure that both he and Tops have great lunches that are healthy, balanced and allow them to concentrate all afternoon too! Monday - Chicken Wraps  It's a Monday and we had Chicken for lunch yesterday, which means there is a Chicken breast with my children's name on it! I'm giving them both a yoghurt today too so I'm guessing that BB is going to come home covered in it! Tuesday - Frittata I've made another Frittata and frozen it, so the children will have it heated up and kept warm in their thermos lunch boxes. As this is another lunch that is quite high in protein but low in carbs there is some special cake in the lunch boxes today. Wednesday - Ham Bagel Big Boy has just discovered Bagels, he is amazed because they are round l...

At the moment Daddy isn't "feeling" food. He doesn't fancy anything for dinner and he isn't suggesting meals. I'm not sure if he is coming down with something or if he just isn't fancying food because he is having changes in his body from the exercise he is doing. Anyway it means that I'm having to come up with everything on my own, so we are back to basics! Saturday - Hot Dog Spaghetti We had this what seems like ages ago, but it is a proper people pleaser. Who doesn't like hot dogs and Spaghetti? I'm only going to cook a few pieces of spaghetti in the hot dogs as I'm rather eager to try colouring the spaghetti into different colours as I've seen on Pinterest so frequently in the last few days. Sunday - Roast Chicken Sunday=Roast Chicken here. I think that I make a rather lovely roast and I am always careful with the portions so that BB, Tops, Daddy and I get a treat and we don't make BB's sugar level go too high! We ...

I don't normally do inforgraphics, but this one from Savoo.co.uk made me think about the real cost of the children going back to school especially now that I have two children going to School. Do you spend anything close to this or do you have some smart tips for saving money with the back to school expenses? Have you added A Mother's Ramblings to your RSS Reader ? Make sure you never miss a brilliant lunch or a fantastic family moment.   Also don't forget to follow my Weight Loss and Fitness Journey at Pippa World too!

I was really excited about lunch today. So much so that after Aqua last night I went to the shop to buy the ingredients I had forgot at the weekend and found myself skipping round Tesco in anticipation. I even got up super early and instead of going to the gym made pizza. Hello Kitty Pizza. Ignore the pizza to the right, that's Big Boy's Toad Pizza which you can read about in his Lunch post! So, the Hello Kitty Pizza is really easy to make. Make Pizza dough, (or like me buy a pack from the Fridges in Tesco that is reduced because it has a sell by date of the next day) and then shape in to the classic Hello Kitty/Cat face shape. Spread pizza sauce over the pizza, sprinkle cheese, add a pineapple nose, some stripes  for whiskers and eyes (Aubergine) add a ham bow to her ear and you are done! How adorable right? Tops has actually only got half the pizza to eat at lunch as it's rather a thick base having "swelled" up in the oven more than I anticipated....

As I said in Top Ender's Friday Lunch Post, where I've made her a Hello Kitty Pizza , I was so excited to make these Pizzas I was skipping round the supermarket when collecting the ingredients we needed. Making the Pizzas this morning was rather fun and the children got to see the pizzas before they went to School because I had to cut them in half as they rose more than I thought they would! To make the toad shape (who I think looks more like Tigger from Pooh Bear) you shape it so that the top is more bulbous than the bottom in a classic "mushroom" shape after all Toad from Mario is a Toadstool. I then covered the stem in "white" cheese (it's a mozzarella and cheddar mix) and using a cookie cutter made two circles of the white cheese on the cap. I then covered the rest of the cap in red cheese (Red Leicester, which as we all know is actually Orange but close enough you know!) before placing two Aubergine stripes for eyes. Big Boy knew what...

The other night when my Mum and I were going to the theatre we decided that we would make a night of it and go for a meal first. As if Red Hot World Buffet had read our minds, they asked if we wouldn't like to go and have a meal on them and let you know the good, the bad and the downright tasty aspects. Being big fans of Red Hot , we of course said YES and I booked a table for 6pm on the Monday, leaving the family at home with some Sausage Casserole . My Mum has been to Red Hot a few times, and we were shown to our table next to the window that overlooks part of the Theatre District. As soon as we were sat down our drinks order was taken (Diet Coke for my Mum, Lemonade for me) and we were told to go and help ourselves as soon as we were ready. As the restaurant didn't know that I was reviewing them, I thought it best to only take a few pictures surreptitiously (ooh look at me I even spelt it right first time!). The first thing I noticed was that the different dishes n...