Middle man's main aim of the summer holidays was to make gingerbread men. Nice and simple and great for one of the many rainy days we seem to have had recently.

This gingerbread recipe has no eggs, and therefore is quite dry when you are kneading the dough. But it does mean that any left overs can be made into cookie dough ice cream!

You will need:

250g butter
200g soft brown sugar
7tbsp golden syrup
600g plain flour
4tsp ground ginger
2tsp bicarbonate of soda

lots of sprinkes and icing to decorate.

Heat the oven to 200C.

Melt the butter sugar and golden syrup.

Stir this melted mixture into the dry ingredients.

As there is no egg used in the recipe you may need to add a small amount of water to get it to the right consistency.

Roll out and cut out the shapes you require.

Cook for around 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.


Decorate with icing and sprinkles. This activity actually bought piece and quiet to the house for a good 20 minutes. Partly from the concentration in icing their shapes and partly from eating them.

When I told my husband that I had been offered the chance to review the BISSELL SpotClean Portable Spot Cleaner to review, he joked that his Nan used to rave about BISSELL. Well now I have one, I can understand why!

The SpotClean is a portable machine that can be transported around the house to where it is needed. It is small enough to fit on the stairs and can even be taken outside with an extension reel to clean the car.

It requires a small amount of assembly to start, which is just attaching the clips for the nozzle and cable. In the box are the 2 trial sized stain cleaning products that you need to use for the machine, the Oxygen Boost and Spot & Stain 2x concentrate, so that you can get using the machine immediately.

I decided that I would start with my rather stained rug. The flash of the camera makes it look even worse than I had realised. I used the measuring levels on the first jug to add the required amount of water and cleaners.


I sprayed the stains and then used the brush to really get into them. Considering these are old stains I was amazed at the result.


Here is what came out. Eewww!


I have to say that this started a bit of an obsession. I have now gone over all the stains on the carpets upstairs and have completely done the stairs. The carpet here is pretty old and worn but it is amazing the difference that using the BISSELL has made. I also thought I would try our dining room chairs. Again I achieved great results with just one use.


As the BISSELL SpotClean is portable I thought I might give my car a treat.


The BISSEL SpotClean Portable Spot Cleaner has an rrp of £129.99,  which I think is good value. The Spot & Stain 2x concentrate is £8.99 and the Oxygen Boost is £9.99, however, they have a 3 for 2 offer on at the moment which again, makes it quite reasonable. After my initial clean of the house and car with it, I expect I will only use it as and when something gets spilt. It is small enough to store and simple enough to use that it will be easy to get out when accidents happen. Having read other reviews, it is meant to be particularly good with cat sick so may be worth considering if you have a pet.

At Christmas my friend introduced me to the world of flavoured icing and last week I went to the local cake shop to buy some myself. Sugar and Crumbs do lots of different flavours and here I chose the black cherry to make a Black Forest gateaux style cupcake

Makes 12 Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
4oz butter
4oz caster sugar
2 eggs
3oz self raising flour
1oz of cocoa powder
chopped glace cherries (optional)

For the frosting:

250g Sugar and Crumbs Black Cherry icing sugar
125g softened butter
1 tbsp milk
A few drops of red food colouring.

Fresh cherries



Start by making the cupcakes. Pre heat the oven to 180C.
Cream the butter and caster sugar.
Mix in the eggs, flour and cocoa powder.
Chop some glace cherries in half and mix in.

Divide the mixture between 12 cupcake cases and cook for around 15 minutes.


Once cooled make up the butter cream up as per the instructions on the pack. Add a few drops of red food colouring.


Pipe onto the cupcakes and add a cherry to each one.

Top with breadcrumbs and more grated Mexican cheese and melt under the grill.


Enjoy!

I hardly had room for dessert by I managed to fit some in! It was the first time I had tried key lime pie and the warm chocolate chip cookie was lovely too.

Last weekend we were lucky enough to be invited to Ripley's Believe It Or Not! to see their new Wonderland Gallery. It was our first visit to Ripley's and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. We took the lift to the first floor and saw a collection of weird and sometimes wonderful artefacts. Giant chairs, a knitted life sized car, and some stuffed two headed animals were some of the first things we saw. Whilst the boys were "oh look a two headed lamb" and taking it in their stride, I wasn't 100% sure about it all. Then we watched a holograph explaining about Ripley and onto some more of the exhibition.


A picture of Micheal Jackson made out of sweets (complete with gummi bear face) first took my interest. Then there was Whitney made out of casette tape, and toast art. A computerised graffiti wall kept the boys entertained!

There were some statues with extraordinary facts - one was of a man who made a hole in his head to put a candle in when it was dark!

There was an upside down room which reminded the boys of the Twits.


The Wonderland Gallery is a special Pop Up this summer and big man was happy as he has been doing Alice in Wonderland in school. The boys went down (through) the rabbit hole and entered the wonderland of Alice.


Here is my Madhatter having a cup of tea.


The Ames room is very clever. If you get two people in there you can make one look like a giant and the other one small. Unfortunately the boys were too taken by the mirrors to get a good photo!

The mirror maze is great for every age and you really do need to walk with your hands infront of you.


There were bits of the tour that we went past quickly with the boys. I wasn't ready to explain to big man about the electric chair and I was a bit unkeen on the shrunken heads.

Some of the minatures gallery were amazing. I particularly liked the bible scences painted on pumpkin seeds.

Big man found out how cold the water was when the Titanic sunk and that he has a lot of growing to do if he wants to be the worlds tallest man!


Middle man found that he wouldn't like to be in a black hole.


Finally on the basement there is the laser race. A Mission impossible style laser room. From my time in that room I learnt that there was a reason that Tom Cruise didn't take his shopping bags and three children in with him on a mission. We broke a lot of lasers!

It took about 2 hours to go round and I actually really enjoyed it. It kept the interest of my 5 and 7 year old and my 3 year old was happy most of the time too. Tickets cost £26.95 for an adult on the door but there are savings if you book 14 days in advance and under 4's are free. If you are like me and love your Tesco Clubcard Rewards you can currently get a Ripley's ticket for £8 in vouchers and they are via e mail.

We were also treated to lunch at Bubba Gumps which is just a short walk from Ripley's. I can recommend it there too and you can read all about that tomorrow.

Ripley's have kindly offered a Family ticket* to giveaway to one of my readers. Just complete the Gleam entry below. Good Luck!

Ripley's Believe It Or Not!

*Family ticket is for 2 adults and 2 children.

Open to UK residents over the age of 18 only Entries will be moderated, so please make sure that you comment if necessary. There is one prize of a family ticket to Ripley's Believe It or Not! London. The ticket is valid for a family of four and will need to be used within a year of receipt. No cash alternative. No bulk or automated entries. If you have already won the prize on a separate blog giveaway with the same promoter they reserve the right to redraw a new winner.  The winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will be notified by email (make sure you leave your contact details) and will have until 17th September to respond with their address. If they fail to respond a new winner will be drawn. No PO Box address Competition closes on 17th August at 12.00am . 


- See more at: http://www.theprizefinder.com/content/family-ticket-ripleys-believe-it-or-not-london#sthash.MQGR42Y3.dpuf##

Did you know that Sunday is National Ice Cream Day? Me neither, until I was asked if I would like some goodies from Kelly's of Cornwall and Clarks to make an ice cream sundae. I decided to make an ice cream cake using all the usual ingredients that you would put in a sundae (well minus squirt cream, but I often think too much of that is used.)

Ingredients:

Kelly's of Cornwall Vanilla Ice Cream
Clarks ice cream toppings in Strawberry, Caramel and Chocolate
Almonds
Chocolate chips
Marshmallows
Glace cherries.

I started by getting a springform cake time and putting  a sheet of foil on the bottom.

I then arrange the marshmallows over the base. (With hindsight, mini marshmallows would make it easier to cut.)


I then mixed some of the caramel sauce with the vanilla ice cream and put it over the marshmallows.


I then added glace cherries and some strawberry sauce.

It's that time of year again where I am looking forward to the summer holidays. My boys are growing quicker than ever and I know that time is limited before I am deemed uncool or an embarrassment. I therefore want to make the most of every minute.

Now what does this mean?

Well it means a certain amount of TV in our PJ's, playing down the park and inevitable making a mess and making popcorn/playing sweet shops.

It doesn't mean I need to post every waking moment of our days on Facebook. Infact sometimes it's OK to not even take photos. I am sure any bloggers reading this are recoiling in horror. No photos? But that's what we do. And it's great to record some magical moments. But sometimes, I find it a bit too much.

Facebook, in my mind, is one of the most unsocial platforms of social media. People can spy on others without even giving a thumbs up. People post pictures of their "fantastic" days out. It can becoming a bragging station at the best of times but especially in the school holidays. I am as guilty as the next person for posting our happy family photos. It is only us that know it resulted in sweet bribery or a massive argument. God forbid anyone writes a slightly negative status as then you are branded as a bit crazy. Anyway I have digressed slightly. Yesterday I realised that sometimes it is more fun to enjoy the moment than just take photos of them and post them on social media.

I went to the boy's family event at their youth club. The thought of it filled me with dread. A room full of hot and sweaty kids running around bouncing on castles, high on penny sweets. Not exactly top of my things to do before I am 40 list. But the boys were excited. They wanted me there and little man got to go if I did. I won't lie, I could have cried handing over the crisp £20. But it was probably the best I have spent in a long time. My phone was tucked away in my bag as I had to bounce too. I felt very uneasy about that. My instinct is to take photos when they are having fun. But you know what. I have the pictures in my mind. I battled big man gladiator style. I fell over a lot with middle man on the wrecking ball. I climbed a rope ladder that hurt my feet with little man. They were happy and so was I. I managed a whole 2 hrs without my phone and not one single photo. I know that my boys will remember it in years to come even if there isn't a photo to look back on. Except the ones in our memories.

Do you find that you spend too much time taking photos rather than enjoying the moment?

Little man has finished nursery for the year on Friday. The last two terms have flown by. This isn't going to be a post saying how sad I am. Much the opposite. Nursery has been good for him. Unfortunately, it does seem to have highlighted my parenting fails. So rather than be sad, I will embrace that he is moving into foundation and hope that next year I appear to be a more competent parent than I have shown to be this year.

So what parenting fails have I had then? 

Well it started badly when on his first day I called him by the wrong name. Twice. The keyworker was clearly thinking she had the wrong child. No just a parent that regularly mixes her children up, so much so they no longer seem to notice. 

Then there was the library book that I denied all knowledge of. There was "no way that he had ever bought that home, but I'll have a quick look." Seriously, how little man managed to get that in the house and in his bedroom without me batting an eyelid, I'm not quite sure. Cue apology and request that we don't have anymore library books sent home. 

Forgetting a change of clothes is easily done. Of course this is the day that little man covers himself in water and returns home looking like a village person squashed in a 9-12 month t- shirt (he is 3 1/2!) 

And the biggest fail came on Wednesday. I looked in his draw before picking him up. I found 2 crumpled pieces of paper. I popped them straight in the bin so i didn't have to do the same at home. Little man ran out excited. Went straight to his draw. Then shouted to his keyworker "where my fan?" 

She looked confused. 

I looked guilty. 

I think they will be pleased that little man is moving up to foundation as they will no longer need to root through the bin looking for his prized possessions. 

Please tell me I'm not alone. What are your parenting fails?