Generally my husband is happy if a meal contains a bit of flavour and some cheese! There are lots of  tasty recipes on the web, but I decided to combine his favourites into a dish. Here is my recipe for Chilli and Parmesan Coated Chicken Kievs.

Serves 2

2 chicken breasts
25g of Butter
2 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of Schwartz Parsley
1 egg
1 slice of bread made into breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons on grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon of Schartz crushed chillies

Start by making the garlic butter. Chop 2 small cloves of garlic and mix it with the butter and parsley.


Partially cut the chicken breasts to make a pocket to put the butter.


Make breadcrumbs and mix with the chillies and Parmesan


Dip the chicken breasts in the egg and then into the breadcrumb mixture.
Cook the chicken breasts for 20-25mins at 180 C
I served mine with some fried gnocchi and broccoli stems.

Have you been to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 this half term? If so then here is a simple activity you might like to try with the kids - making your own pickles!

My biggest tip is to buy jumbo gherkins as mine were a bit small. Middle man will happily eat them with his new found love of pickles! Here is my attempt with some teeny tiny gherkins.

Last weekend we visited Peppa Pig World with the boys. Middle man kept disappearing but it was soon easy to work out where he would be. You see unlike in the supermarkets these all worked (well Mummy didn't have to pay for them as you just sat in them and pressed a button!)

With our Halloween party planned for Friday we have spent this afternoon testing out some of our ideas for food and games with a couple of friends. There have been many sweets and cakes consumed and the kids were even worse!

So here are a few of the games we played.

The Flour Game

A favourite of mine as a child and my boys love it too. A great one for looking spooky too if you are the "un"lucky one that gets to eat the chocolate.

Fill a small bowl with flour, make a castle and pop some chocolate in the top
Take it in turns to cut away the flour until the chocolate falls
Eat the chocolate without using your hands!


Dangling Doughnuts

Nice and simple and made me giggle as well as the boys.


Apple Bobbing

A must for Halloween. I have seen some people use red food colouring to make it look like blood, but I wasn't keen of the mess that it could make so we stuck to plain old water. Apples are a favourite of middle man's so he was keen to play this!



Frame it

Not so much of a game but a way of taking photos that my boys don't mind being taken. They love watching Art Attack so like their photo being taken with a frame and shouting frame it! Add a few Halloween masks, headbands and decorations for some more fun.


Yucky Dip

I made a dip using cornflour water and spaghetti and hid a black bat ring in there to find (and some orange ones to make it harder. Middle man did not like this at all as it felt too yucky!





For dessert, I made some jelly with hidden jelly skulls in and chocolate mousses topped with jelly snakes and crushed digestive biscuits. The jelly skulls had melted a bit so if you have a go, make sure the jelly isn't too hot when you add them. Chocolate mice are good too and big man would have preferred these.


For party favours I put a few sweets into some mini pumpkins that I had purchased from 99p stores.


I also made this pumpkin sweet holder. My neighbour did one of these for Halloween last year and it is a lovely way to put sweets out for trick or treaters, if you are out trick or treating yourself. Just pop a LED candle in it to light it up.



I still have a couple more pumpkins to carve, so if you have any good ideas on what to have a go at let me know. I have seen a nice looking spider one that I may try.....

Three months after the arrival of big man, I decided to throw my husband a surprise birthday dinner party. I wanted to make him a star wars cake but there was one problem. I have never managed to stay awake through a whole episode of Star Wars! However, thanks to the wonder of you tube and a fabulous star wars fanatic friend, I came up with this cake. I'm afraid I can't tell you which film it is from! The best part was that his friends stopped singing Happy Birthday when they realised what it was and started discussing it! Now I have another problem. Big man wants a star wars cake for his birthday too! And no I still haven't managed to stay awake through a whole film yet!

Are you a star wars fan? If so any great easy cake ideas for me? Or are you like me and no matter how hard you try find the films as dull as dishwater? (Controversial statement there!)

Every now and again, I get a bee in my bonnet about starting a new blog. My husband then reminds me that I struggle to find the time to write this one so maybe now is not the time. He is right. So why do I want to start another one? Well I like cooking so I like the idea of a food blog. I am worried that if I put loads of recipes on my "parent blog" then my readers wont like it. This got me thinking about how people read blogs.

Often I see bloggers worrying about how many reviews they should or shouldn't do. There are some strong views on this. Are they bloggers or blaggers? Do I read reviews on blogs? Now and then. Does it stop me from reading a blog? No.

I may be slightly controversial here, but I don't read a lot of blogs inside out. If I see lots of text I am put off and dare I say I sometimes skim read them. I prefer short and sweet posts. There are a handful of blogs that I read the majority of posts from. They generally aren't the top blogs in the rankings, but for some reason, in the past 18 months, I have built a bond with them. Whether it be that I have met the writer, they are funny on twitter or they started their blog around the same time as me. Other blogs I drop by on. If someone comments on my blog, I try out of politeness to visit them back. If I join a linky, I try to view as many blogs joined up as I can. My Bloglovin feed gets e mailed to me and I flick through to see what looks interesting. The same goes for twitter, if there is a tweet that catches my eye I have a quick look.

Another topic of debate is people claiming they have been fooled into reading sponsored posts. The way I view it is, if the blog is written well it is no different to the writer having a prompt. You don't have to click on the link and what is wrong with them wanting to make money from their blog?

So my conclusion is that I read blogs where I have built a bond with the writer and I click on those I see which take my interest with nice pictures and ideas of activities. I am pretty sure that I am not the only person that reads blogs like this. Am I? So, for now I will continue with my mishmash of parenting, cake decorating, crafting and competitions and hope that people continue to enjoy my writing. I don't expect anyone to read my blog cover to cover. I just enjoy writing it and at the end of the day I would still do it if no one read it. So it is just one blog for me until I get another bee or stop wearing a bonnet!

How do you read blog posts? Do you hate blogs filled with reviews? Are you put off my sponsored posts? Do you read the same blogs in full or are there a selected few that you return to and look at the others when they catch your eye.

My Dad does the BEST bubble and squeak ever. Once a year at Christmas. So when he was over recently, I asked him his secret. I can make bubble and squeak but it never tasted the same. His secret was simple. Fry it in butter. So here is my bubble and squeak recipe. Perfect for Christmas, but great to use with leftovers from a Sunday roast.

Bubble and Squeak Ingredients - serves 4

4-5 medium Maris Piper potatoes
120g of Spring greens (or left over cabbage/brussels from a roast)
half a red onion finely chopped
Butter

Boil and mash potatoes with a knob of butter. If you are using spring greens, steam them in the microwave for 5 minutes.


Finely chop the red onion and fry for a couple of minutes


Add the onion and the cooked greens to the potato and mix. Then fry in butter until it is golden brown.



I served mine with some honey roast ham and some Garners pickled onions. Yummy!



This post is an entry for #MarisPiperBritMums Linky Challenge sponsored by Potato Council for Potato Week 7 – 13 October, celebrating the varieties of potatoes and how we like to eat them. 

When Organix asked if I wanted to review their Winter Warmers range, I was going to say no, thinking that it was baby food. Then I realised that it is aimed at children aged 1-3. I have been having problems with little man throwing most of his dinner on the floor, so I thought I would give them a go. We started off with the soups with little success. He seemed to like dipping bread in but not actually eating any of it. I think that part of the problem here was the fact that I have been guilty of not really giving him soup before.

Next up we tried the pasta dishes. I gave middle man one too so that they looked the same. He did complain it was bland so I added some salami and cheese and he gobbled it down. Little man wasn't keen.

I realise that this might sound like a negative review, but I really don't want it to be. I think that maybe they just weren't right for little man. If you have a one year old and want to move them onto chunkier food that is more like the rest of the family eats then they are great. They don't have strong flavours but have more than a jar of baby food. I would definitely recommend you give them a go and some of the ones we were given had money back guarentees on. . I was hoping that the softer, and milder flavours were what little man was wanting. However, he must be going through a phase of fussy eating.

Are your children fussy eaters? Have you tried the winter Warmers range? What did your little one think?



We were given the winter warmers samples for the purpose of this honest review.

Big man is nearly 6 and has only just found any kind of interest in drawing and writing. So to do my best with encouraging him, I told him about a competition on This Mummy Loves. He was very excited to take part and has been asking me to get the drawing stuff out after school today.

I just love that he is trying hard and having a go at both drawing and writing at last. He might not be the best, but it is a step in the right direction. Clearly he will become a scientist like Mummy as his spelling isn't great and he insisted labeling his picture!

Here is his picture:



And here is some of his amusing commentary whilst drawing it!

"Mummy I hope that the person that judges has very good eyes so they can see the orange against the black as that's the pumpkin growing. Just so they know I might write down pumpkin growing"

"Not many people will draw bricks on houses, so if I draw bricks I might win..... unless someone draws better bricks.... but I might be the only one that draws a house!"

He was upset that he had written a d instead of a b for bricks. I pointed out that bricks had an r in as he had written bics "There is a silent r in it I guess?" Hmmmmm I wasn't ready to talk about the k too!

Just to clarify big man's picture is of a Mummy trick or treater, knocking on a house made of bricks with pumpkins outside, one of which is growing. In the sky there is a giant star and a moon.

Pushchair Trader is a website where you can find reviews on pushchairs, sell or purchase used pushchairs and enter competitions. Their current Bump to Toddler competition which is running until the 31st October is pretty fantastic. One winner will £6134 of baby products! looking through the prize list my particular favourites are the Gro company products, Trunki and Bibetta products.


The competition is open to UK entrants, but if you become a Pushchair Trader VIP, you automatically get 100 entries without even having to fill out a form. Becoming a VIP costs £12 a year and gives automatic entry into this and all competitions for a year. In addition you receive £5 voucher to the PT shop, exclusive discounts and the chance to apply to test products. Even better is that each new VIP subscriber currently receives a photobook from Albelli worth £15.95 too! Sounds good to me especially if you are expecting a new bundle of joy.

I am pleased that I can offer 5 of my readers a VIP membership to Pushchair Trader. Just fill in the Rafflecopter below and make sure that in the comment there is a name or twitter id so I can identify you when I moderate entries. Don't forget to read the T &C's. Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You would think that after meeting Marti Pellow in my dentists waiting room, I would be there at every opportunity in a hope that he was there again. This time I would have enough courage to get my picture with him. I must admit though that I am not the best at finding time to go. It is on my to do list, but so are a lot of things and it always slips to the bottom.

I don't massively hate going to the dentist. I have a nice one. He does seem to think that anyone with more than 2 children has had "an accident" but apart from that he makes me feel at ease as he prods around my mouth counting my teeth. I do, however, always feel like a naughty child when I go. The main reason for this is that he tells me to take care of my gums every time I visit. So when I saw that Oral B and Britmum's were hosting a linky I thought I would try out their Pro Expert Premium Gum Protection toothpaste. I have no idea if it's doing the job, but I haven't noticed my gums bleed recently so that is a good sign. It also has a dentist kind of taste to it too, which makes me think that it must be doing a good job. The test will be my dentist. I shall get to to the bottom of the tube and book myself an appointment. All being well I will come away without feeling like a naughty schoolgirl, and if I am really lucky a photo with Marti!



This post is an entry for BritMums’ #ORALBLoveYourGums Challenge  sponsored by Oral-B, promoting healthy gums – something especially important for pregnant women. Get tips and advice on www.oralb-loveyourgums.com.

On Monday I got little man to bed for his afternoon nap and then was set to tidy the house.

But I got distracted.

I saw a blogging competition which looked pretty fun and thought I would raid the fridge for fruit that was past its best. Alexa and Alexa have challenged bloggers to post their spooky fruit creations and so I had to have a go.

First up is my vomitting orange. I particularly like the fig for a great vomit effect.


Next I got a pear and had a go at a skull (little man's favourite halloween decoration!?!)


Grapes, a very old plum and some cocktail sticks were quickly transformed into a spider.


I felt like I was on a roll, but wanted to come up with something I hadn't seen before. What do you think of when you see a fig? A vampire bat of course!


It was no good, I was out of time, I needed to go and pick up big man from school. He returned, not shocked to see that Mummy had spent the afternoon making fruit creations but wanting to have a go himself. Here is his creation. He added a grape for a more "wicked" effect.


I know I am sometimes a big kid, but this was lots of fun and I would highly recommend it as a half term activity for the kids. So which do you like the best?


This is my entry to the Alex and Alexa Spooky Fruit Halloween Competition

Last night I was caught by a neighbour, lurking in the bushes outside our house with big man and a pair of the Spynet Ultra Vision Binoculars. Not the easiest thing to explain, so we just demonstrated the binoculars to him! They work really well, so well infact big man easily spotted the bucket in the alleyway by our house. He just failed to mention it to me! The idea behind them is it will encourage spy type imaginative play in older children. Big man loves them and keeps asking to go outside with them. There is a day and night mode as well as a thermal tech and ghost recon settings which just give you different effects. The thermal one doesn't pick up heat. There are focusing dials and long and short range settings.The pictures you take aren't the highest quality in the world, but I still think they are pretty good.


At £49.99 they are on the expensive side. They take 4 x AA batteries (not included) and if you want to capture video and photographs of your mission you will need a micro SD card too. Again these aren't included so it is worth factoring into the cost of these if you think that it is something your child would like. Big man was quite happy wandering around looking through them, however, he does like taking the photographs and if he managed to see the odd cat or fox, I think he would be excited to catch it on camera. Here is a video of me looking for big man who was hiding in the garden (apologies for me cackling at the end!)



Big man thought the binoculars were cool and has enjoyed playing with them. The main problem with them is that he wants to take them to bed with him and can spend ages looking at his room in the dark! More information on the spy games can be found on SpyNetHQ.com

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Update: After having used these more, I highly recommend that you get rechargeable batteries for them. My son forgets to switch them off and they don't turn themselves off so well worth while! They are also a present that only comes out now and then so worth thinking about if you are paying full price.
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We were given the binoculars for the purpose of this review but the opinions here are my own.

Middle man's favourite thing is watching TV. It is not something I am proud of, but sometimes it just makes life a little bit easier. The other morning he came in from pre school and put the TV on whilst I  got lunch ready. It was on the wrong channel and some police documentary was on instead of Mickey Mouse.

"Mummy I don't want to watch astronauts!" he shouted at me whilst I looked confused. And then I looked.



What funny things have your children been up to this week?

Having 3 boys means that parties seem to be centered around pirates, star wars and fire engines. My little men love any excuse for a party, so when my Mother in law said she would visit on her Birthday I decided to throw her a Madhatter's Tea Party. Decorations were simple to make and lots of fun. Big man was very pleased with the sweet watches and was forever eating them.

You can't have a tea party without cake, so I made eat me cup cakes with butterflies, stopwatch cupcakes using chocolate discs, and a really simple birthday cake with Cadbury's fingers, Malteasers, marshmallows and strawberry sweets



We had a box of hats and a picture frame so we could have fun taking photos.


Pass the parcel had a tea towel inside, and might have been slightly fixed so that only the boys and my mother in law opened it.

If you are thinking of throwing a party, I definitely recommend a Madhatter's tea party as it is really easy and fun too. Have you got any great ideas for a party?

At the beginning of the year I set myself some resolutions. I am usually pretty rubbish at these things, so I have decided to look back at them now whilst there is still a few months left to put them right. I managed to get my husband and I'm getting more organised on a weekly basis. My prediction for middle man enjoying more baking was correct and he couldn't have been happier when I bought a mini muffin pan and "dobber" for him at a Pampered Chef party recently.



One thing I am annoyed with myself for is the maintaining weight resolution. I haven't and to make it worse I've put on half a stone. So I am working on this one at the moment. My biggest problem is snacking when I am tired. I have tried to remove all bad things to eat in the house and buy things with raisins in for the boys. On a really bad day I will just pick out the raisins, but I am going to try and be strong! I am managing to get to the gym 3 times a week and have even started running. I may well look like Phoebe from Friends, but I am now up to a whole 20 mins at a pretty slow pace. Apologies to all the runners out there, but this is pretty good for me! I also have a goal. I have a girl's Christmas dinner booked for 20th December. We refer to ourselves as the Yummy Mummies and I hope I will do this title justice. More importantly I will be rewarding myself with a nice new evening dress. I'm thinking of a black number but maybe I'll be a bit bolder with a few pounds lost. Week one and I've lost 2lbs so let's hope for the same next week too.

How are you doing with your new year resolutions? Have you got your eye on a nice new dress for the party season?

This is a sponsored post.

Recently we have reviewed Justin's World Goldilocks app and Jigsongs app. Middleman loves them and I wasn't sure if he would like the letter sounds app as it is more phonics based. However, he seems to be enjoying it, and I feel less guilty about him playing on my phone when it his helping him with his phonics.


So if you are looking for an educational app for your little one and they love Justin Fletcher, then this might be worth considering. It can be purchased here from i tunes.


We were given the app for the purpose of this review, but the opinions here are my own.

Why is it that kids whine on and on about wanting to do something, and then when you actually say yes, back out and decide that "I'll do it if you do it with me Mummy!"
This is was happened with the climbing wall.
I looked at it, and thought it can't be that hard. Ok I am scared of heights but I'll shoot to the top as long as I don't look down.

Wrong.




Today I have learnt that it is hard work climbing up a wall! (I was probably wearing the wrong type of trainers!) Infact I barely made it half way up! I did then make the mistake of looking down and lost my footing. Big man did a good job for his first time too. Now I think I need to work on my arm muscles before I try it again. I did enjoy the bouncing down though!

So today's lesson has been that just because something looks easy, doesn't mean it is. But I can put climbing on my list of things I have now done. Next time with appropriate footwear, I will get to the top..... Or three quarters of the way up at least.