Don't get me wrong, I'm not some kind of Cartman trying to assert "my authoritah" but I am shocked that some people won't even approach a child if they see them doing something stupid/dangerous/darn right wrong.

There have been a couple of incidents in the past year that have really got me wondering why some people prefer to turn a blind eye to bad behaviour rather than stand up to it. 

The main event in question happened last summer holidays in Legoland. Yep, more fool me to brave such a place at peak season. As we have annual passes we don't try and attempt the hour long queues and opt for the playground and building zones. In the imagination zone you can test your building skills by making a tower from Duplo and simulate an earthquake. We arrived to find two older children standing and wobbling on the machines. 

I don't like telling other people's kids off. I would rather I told my own children off than another adult doing it, but I appreciate that that can't always be the case. I stood and looked around for a parent. Other adults in the building didn't appear to be associated with the boys. No one was telling them what they were doing was silly. They could have hurt themselves, broken the machines but most likely it was going to encourage younger children to do the same. They would me more likely to hurt themselves. 

I spoke to the boys and asked them to get down. They weren't apologetic, more defensive. Why should they? Eventually they both got down with a few grunts of discontent. One left, and another went to his Grandma who had watched the entire thing. I was pretty annoyed at the situation. Annoyed that the kids were questioning why they couldn't stand on the Lego machines, but even more annoyed that not one adult in there had said anything to them. Not even those that were looking after them. 

I know that standing on an earthquake board isn't the end of the world, but if no one actually tells a child that they are doing something silly/dangerous where does it end? Do you stand by whilst another child hits a classmate? (Yes this happened too and yes I did say it was wrong.) Do you turn a blind eye if you see someone shop lifting? Do you say anything if a large group is taunting a child? 

Surely as adults we are role models to all younger children around us. If we are too scared to tell a child they are in the wrong for fear of upsetting them or their parents, where does that leave us?  

What would you do? Have you confronted other people's children or do you take a step back and hope that their parents will say something?

After having made some hidden heart cupcakes last week, I had some left over cake. I may have eaten a few bits but there was enough left to have a go at making some heart cake pops.

You can see my standard cake pop recipe with hints and tips here.

I started by mixing the pink sponge cake and frosting together. I then pressed out heart shapes using a small cookie cutter. These then went into the freezer for 10 minutes.


I then melted some white chocolate cake covering dipped the sticks into the chocolate before putting them into the hearts. I again put these back in the freezer for 5 minutes.


Finally I dipped the hearts in more melted chocolate and added some sprinkles. These are slightly more fiddly than round cake pops as it is harder to cover the heart in chocolate. My boys thought they were just as tasty though!

As it is National pie week, Charlie Bigham's send me some vouchers to taste their pies. When it comes to pies I am fussy. I don't buy supermarket pies as I am always disappointed. There is generally too much pastry, not enough gravy, and if you manage to find any meat in them, then that seems to be a bonus rather than an expectation!

The Charlie Bigham pies can be purchased from Waitrose and Sainsburys and come in a variety of flavours. They only had the Steak and Ale pies at our Sainsburys store which made chosing easy. At £7 for 2 individual pies, they are not cheap. I spoke to the checkout assistant about them and both of us doubted that they were worth the money.

Taking the pies of the packaging, you can see that they come in their own ceramic dishes. This is obviously going to be one of the reasons that the pies are expensive.

I brushed the pies with egg and put them in the over for around 25 minutes.

As you can see they looked really appetizing.



Was I disappointed?

No. I was really impressed. These are really good pies. There are big chunks of beef, lots of gravy, and although looking at it, there looks to be too much pastry it is exactly the right amount.



They aren't an everyday pie, more of a treat, but I would look at buying them again.





I was given the pies for the purpose of this review but the opinions are my own.

"Yes, I would like to book a character birthday cake please. The child's name? That is Mike. He will be 70 years old."

The lady on the phone had to double check the age, whilst chuckling. There was no way that we were taking my Dad to Disneyland Paris for his 70th without a character coming over and drawing attention to the fact that it was his birthday.

Cafe Mickey is a must if you go to Disneyland Paris. It enables you to meet a number of characters without having to queue for 30 minutes in the cold. I would strongly advise that you book a table at Cafe Mickey before you arrive as unsurprisingly it gets really booked up.

We had booked the Halfboard Plus meal plan so just had to pay extra for the ice cream cake and wine. The food was nice. I had a lovely pizza. I really don't recommend the strawberry fromage blanc.

I love the photos we took. Here is my whole family.



Little man has his eye on the wine and clearly middle man was so hungry he couldn't put down his roll!







I think the photos show that you are never too old to have cuddles with a Disney character! Here's to lots more smiles. Happy Birthday Dad!

Photo Credit Tech 21

You know you hear stories about people getting their brand new iphones and smashing them within seconds of walking out of the shop? Well that was pretty much my husband. It wasn't quite seconds, but not more than a couple of weeks. He didn't have a case. His screen smashed and after a long wait to get an appointment just to get into the apple store, he had a hefty repair bill on his hands.

When I went into get my upgrade, I wasn't leaving without a case. I was also keen that it would be a case that I didn't need to remove the case in order to charge my phone as this was a problem when I had bought a cheap case previously. The manager at the store recommended the Tech 21 case. My husband was so impressed by mine that he got one of his own when of his own as soon as he had got his screen repaired.

I am not one of those people that is going to throw their phone around the room just to prove the case works, but I have dropped my phone a couple of times and it has protected it.

So if you are stuck for something to buy for Valentines Day, why not invest in a Tech21 iphone 6 case and keep your phone safe. Nothing spices up a relationship like a romantic message sent to your loved one. Tech 21 cases are designed to withstand accidental knocks and drops making them perfect for romance in the digital world.

I have recently been asked if I would like to review a Tech 21 case. As I already think they are great, they have kindly offered it as a giveaway to one of my readers instead. All you need to do is complete the rafflecopter below. Good Luck.

a Rafflecopter giveaway



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 tech 21 classic case tri band blue for the iphone 6.  No cash alternative. If it is out of stock it will be replaced with a similar case. 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 24th March to respond with their address. If they fail to respond a new winner will be drawn. No PO Box address Competition closes on 24th Feb at 12.00am . 

- See more at: http://www.theprizefinder.com/content/tech-21-case-iphone-6#sthash.mWHgjsC1.dpuf

Why is it that no one tells you just how much children affect your lives, even down to the furniture you have? When big man was born we went out and bought a lovely cream shaggy rug.

What were we thinking?

Well I was thinking that it looked pretty. I was not thinking how awful it would look after every bodily fluid possible had been secreted on it along with a mass of raisins that would hide in the lovely wool yarns.

Now the boys are getting bigger, and slightly less messy, I really want to make our living room a prettier space. To be honest there isn't a lot I really like about our living room at the moment except for our cable and cotton lights. Changes won't happen overnight, as the boys are still untidy and I don't want to see everything ruined immediately. However, if I start looking at some things I like now, we can slowly work there.

A Facebook conversation the other day got me thinking about this. The question was about how much money should the parent pay their child if they obtained certain grades at school.

My immediate thought was nothing. I managed to pass my GCSE's perfectly fine without any financial carrot dangling under my nose. Surely you should want to get good grades? Infact I remember being really shocked that my parents bought me a gift after I received my grades as they were proud of me. (To be honest I think I would have got it no matter what grades I had got, as it was more of a you have worked hard present.) However, I had no knowledge I was getting it so it didn't affect how hard I had worked.

Having been a teacher myself, I know that lots of parents do this as an incentive, especially at GCSE's, but with other exams too. As a teacher I also know that most of the kids that brag about how much they will get if they get certain grades, probably haven't worked as hard as they should of throughout the year. Does this last minute bonus in a hope that they will do some revision make any difference on their score? I'm not sure.

So there you are. My answer is no you should not pay your child for each grade they obtain at GCSE as they should want to do it for themselves not for money.

Then I took big man to football. My friend and I sit outside with the kids while it is going on, doing homework. Her child is in year 2. She had done all her homework, but her mum was trying to get her to go the extra mile. "It's up to you, but you know you will only get extra stickers from your teacher if you do extra work." I sat there thinking,  I wouldn't bother for a few extra stickers love, you want some cold hard cash as an incentive! Which is when I realised that the whole topic isn't that simple.

From a really young age we use reward charts and reward positive behaviour with a treat. Is it any different to this? No. My husband works really hard in order to obtain his bonus. Same kind of thing. So is it wrong? No. It's a choice. Thankfully one that I don't have to make in the near future so can think about it more.

What is your view? Good idea or bad? How much would you even pay? Would you vary the rate depending on the ability of the child? Gosh I really hope that my boys just want to work hard for themselves as thinking about it all is just too confusing.

With Valentines day coming up, I decided that I would have a go at hidden heart cupcakes. they take a bit of time, but aren't too hard and I am really pleased with them.

I started by making a standard sponge mix for 24 cupcakes. I took a third of this and added some red food colouring. I then baked these in fairy cake cases. Once cooled I took a small heart cutter and pressed these into the cakes. (I then put the spare bits aside to make cake pops.)


I then set these aside in the fridge to get cold. The idea being that don't over cook when you put them back in the cakes.

I then took some larger cupcake cases and marked on the botton a line to show the direction of the heart. If you don't cut into them the right way then it wont look like a heart.

I then mixed some cocoa powder into my remaining mixture and place a spoonful into the bottom of the cake cases. Next I placed the cold pink sponge hearts into the mixture.


I then placed more mixture around the sides and the top and baked for around 10 minutes.

When they came out of the oven, they looked like this:


I have to say I doubted myself and had to cut one open to check it had worked. I was rather chuffed that it had!


I then made some butter icing and coloured it pink before piping onto the cakes and adding some chocolate hearts.

As a thank you to my lovely readers, I have arranged a giveaway thanks to House of Fraser for a Kenwood Tri Blade Handblender. I have to admit that I hadn't really shopped in House of Fraser until Christmas when my husband had asked for a designer scarf and it was selling there at a good price. I ordered it online and the process was smooth and quick with his scarf being delivered really quickly. I have since seen a few deals that have caught my fancy and they sell a whole array of kitchen products including hand blenders at a budget to suit most pockets.

The Kenwood Tri Blade Handblender comes with a 0.5l calibrated beaker and a 0.5l calibrated chopper with lid. To enter just complete the rafflecopter below. Good Luck!

Photo credit: House of Fraser

a Rafflecopter giveaway




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I have to be honest here and tell you that pretzels don't really excite me. For some reason they are a thing that you buy at Christmas and well mainly like mine covered in chocolate. However, Pressels tagline is they are not just a pretzel.

I have to admit I am impressed. The "EVERYTHING" ones are particularly good. They have seaseme seeds and caraway seeds on them along with a fair amount of salt. They are really tasty and not your usual bland pretzel. Infact I had decided that they must contain MSG as they are so moreish but then saw on the packet that this is not the case. They also have no added artificial flavours, preservatives or added food colours. They also have the added bonus of having 75% less fat than ready salted crisps.


I also like the shape of them. Personally I think they would taste really good dipped in homous and their shape would help with this.

Pressels have kindly offered selection packs to 10 of my readers so you can see what all the fuss is about too. Just complete the Rafflecopter below. Good Luck! If you aren't lucky, then you can get hold of these in Waitrose.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

- See more at: http://www.theprizefinder.com/content/10-x-pressels-selection#sthash.HhOAW80L.dpuf

Gosh I can't believe I have just written that title. My baby has started pre school! People ask me if I am sad. I'm not. Yes it is the end of an era, but I am tired. Tired of the endless games of Octonauts that I am not actually allowed to play. Tired of the tantrums at school drop off and pick up. Just tired, most of the time. Little man is only in 3 sessions a week to start with, but it is time away from me to be his own little person. At the moment he is clinging onto me as I leave wanting me to stay. I know it's an act. I know that 5 minutes later he is fine and painting or playing in the sandpit. It still pulls at my heart strings every time. Oh course the tears may well have just been down to the fact that I checked his pockets and found the packet of jelly sweets that he was planning on taking in.

So now is a time for looking forward. The baby phase is over. I have had my fair share of nappies and sleepless nights. I wont pine the days that were but instead look forward to the times that will be. The boys are getting more fun and able to do more things. Big man has a fantastic sense of humour and I love chatting to him when he stays up later at the weekend. Yes the baby phase is over but there is so much more exciting stuff to come. So I hope that the tears at drop off are short lived little man, as you are now learning to be you. If your brothers are anything to go by you will be great.

We have been to Disneyland Paris a few times with the boys and have always had a lovely time. This year we went to celebrate my Dad's 70th Birthday. It was after Christmas, but they still had all their decorations up and it was absolutely lovely.

Main street had a Christmas tree and Mickey garlands.


Up by the castle there were snow characters.



The parade was changed to a Christmas one, but I was slightly taken back to seen Santa was there. I had expected him to leave after 24th December!




Elsa and Anna also came past about 15 mins before the parade. This was slightly disappointing as it was just a horse drawn cart with some Frozen songs playing. However, I am sure it would have made any little Frozen fans day.


It's a small world also had a Christmas vibe with decorations and Christmas songs.

The Disney Dreams Show is an absolute must, and this was a winter one. Olaf was projected on the castle and the fireworks and laser show was amazing.


I had been worried that it would be too cold, however I took my salopettes and was fine. The only downside was trying to get food inside in Walt Disney Studios as it was heaving due to the small number of outlets and the weather. They could also do with some hot drink stalls throughout the park so I could get a coffee!

After having a difficult Christmas this year, it was nice to have a little bit of Christmas magic, even if it was in January. If you are wondering whether Disneyland at Christmas is a good idea, then I would suggest it is - just wrap up warm and enjoy.



 

As Christmas was even more stressful than normal this year, I wanted to make a simple cake for my Dad's Birthday. I know that a Mickey Mouse Style cake isn't the obvious cake for most 70 year olds, but as we were having a break in Disneyland Paris with him it seemed appropriate.

I made a standard sponge cake and covered it in red icing. I then made red and yellow icing beads to put around the edge of the cake.


I then cut out some yellow circles and added these to the bottom half of the cake.


So the cake itself was simple. The oreo Mickey that I can seen on Pintrest was much harder!

Here you need to make sure you melt some chocolate to put the lollipop stick in place.
The Oreos easily break so be careful.


I added Icing to the Oreo to match it with the cake. the biggest problem here is that Oreo seems to get everywhere!


So there was my pretty simple Mickey Cake and a Happy Dad/Grandad.