Where has the sun gone?!?!  Suddenly it is feeling quite chilly again!  We went for a walk along the seafront this morning with A, H & little R and it was bitterly cold with a biting wind.  We headed for their B&B/Hotel and had coffee.   A day for staying stopping indoors I think!!

Mimi waiting for her coffee!!!

Mimi has a mild dose of conjunctivitis we have been giving her drops and it seems a lot better today.  Poor little thing had to miss N's birthday party yesterday afternoon as I was worried about her passing it on to everyone else.
She was well enough to go out and meet with our friends which was good.  I am really hoping that we haven't given our germs to everyone.

Weight Watchers went much better this week.  I have lost a pound and a half..... YAY I finally got my "Silver 7" and my 5%.  So since Christmas I have now lost just over half a stone which I am really pleased with.  Still got about a stone to go but hey maybe we will see the bikini this summer after all!

This afternoon it is Pa's Birthday so we decided to make him a birthday cake.  We settled on a heart shaped cake.  Silly Mummy overfilled the tin and the cake including tin has merged itself into the shape of a shelf!!!  Not too sure what has happened to my baking skills lately everything seems to be a disaster.  I have definitely made better looking cakes - however it tasted okay.  I t need to work on my presentation!!!  We even managed to rope Daddy into helping.

                                                                  

Great weekend line up......

Great weekend line up.........

Last night we went to dinner at our friends E & A.  E cooked the most amazing pork curry.  I would never have thought of using pork in a curry.  I will definitely have to get the recipe it was truly amazing.  We took Mimi with us and she was such a good girl.  She played with S & M and then when they went to bed she slept beautifully on E & A's sofa until we left.  She made it all look so easy.  If only this was always the case!!!!
She was quite funny when she was playing with S & M last night.  M had a Buzz Lightyear and Mimi was in awe playing with it.  S was most disappointed because as a girl Mimi should have been playing with Barbie and not Buzz!!  Funny how the stereo types creep in from an early age.

Buzz V's Barbie

Today we have got some friends coming to see us who we haven't seen since we got married 6 years ago and Mimi has got a birthday party for her little friend N from play-school.

Mimi has finally stop requesting to be a scary tiger.  Yesterday morning before play-school (despite having a bath the night before) I had to really scrub her face as she had started to take on a yellow tinge and looked like she had jaundice.

Wow what a Scary Tiger

Yesterday we had our first trip to play-school since September without any tears.  Mimi is very strange I think it is an anxiety issue as being separated from us as we have to leave her screaming however we pick her up 3 hours later and she is like a different child telling us great it was.  Anyway I have resorted to bribery...............I told her what a brave girl she was and that if we didn't have any tears then she could have Slinky the dog from Toy Story, there was a request for Buzz however there was about a £45.00 price difference so we settled on Slinky.

Some of poor Slinky's rings are already a little bent but Mimi is quite happy.

Poor little thing has woken up this morning with what looks like an eye infection.  Wonder what are chances are of being seen by a doctor this morning?!?

A beautiful day.

What a fab day.  Can we believe that 3 weeks ago we were all shivering under -6.
I have been attempting to tidy the house most of the day, I even managed to get Mimi roped in to some polishing!!  Needless to say I haven't got very far!  Instead we spent some time in the garden blowing some long lost bubbles which we found in my tidy up, face painting, playing shops however you wouldn't want to pay Mimi's prices.  A cup of tea was hundreds of pounds! Mimi did come up with a very cute version of a cappuccino using my cotton wool face pads.

Mimi is wearing her new jumper from Next.  We have a big problem with
her refusing to wear a jumper/cardigan.  This one stayed on nearly all day.

I think Mimi must be growing at the moment as she seems to sleep quite a bit.  This afternoon I managed to get her down for an afternoon nap.  Wow what to do with my spare time?!?  I persuaded Mike to keep an ear out for her (I thought I'd best make this point in-case people thought I had left my baby home-alone) and decided to pop to Sainsbury's on my bike to pick up a few bits for tea.  On my way out I saw a single magpie..........  Half way into town I remembered I had forgotten the bike lock!  I ended up at the little hardware shop which seems to sell everything - I didn't fancy risking getting my bike nicked in town.  In a way I probably spent less than if I'd got to Sainsburys.

When Mimi woke up we decided to make some Weight Watchers Rock Cakes from my new cook book - (We adapted them slightly as we didn't have any cherries) They were surprisingly tasty however the recipe said that the quantities would make 30 - all I can say is that they would have been big enough for The Borrowers.  I managed to get 17, so instead of them being 2 pro points mine probably ended up nearer 4!!  They tasted fairly good (if double the points) and went perfectly with a cup of tea.  Mimi had fun playing with my brother who is off to Trinidad on Friday for a few months.

Last week I entered a survey with Mumsnet about the new film We Brought A Zoo which is opens on the 16th March.  Mike and I have been lucky enough to be selected as part of the Mumsnet panel to attend a preview in London next Friday evening.  I am so excited so watch this space for my review.  

Happy Days

I have finally got round to making and writing my Thank You cards for all my lovely presents I received when I left work. I was just so lucky and everybody was so generous.  It all still feels a bit surreal.  I know I have left but I hadn't finished some of the GCSE marking so I have been in for a few mornings to complete it.  I am hoping to have completed it by the end of next week.

Viners Cake Stand; Cath Kidson Patch Book;

We have taken advantage of the lovely weather this weekend and have been out and about.  Alongside other children Mimi always looks quite eccentric with her sunglasses and her crazy clothes.  She is fairly tall for her age and she can speak really well so I get a bit hacked off when people look at her and expect her to behave like a 4 year old at the end of the day she is still only two and isn't three until May.  

 We also spent some time painting cards for Aunty A & F, Grandma & Pa.  There was an attempt to blow the paint with a straw but I have a feeling that she might have sucked instead!  YUM!!!  When we did eventually get the hang of it I think we ended up with more spit than paint blowing but never mind.  As for the glitter somehow we ended up with some mixed in with our cheese last night!!  I keep finding the stuff everywhere.!!!

Weight Watchers Apple & Raspberry Sponge

Having been to Weight Watchers on Saturday and buying my new recipe book I thought I would give a couple of recipes ago.  The first one I had high hopes for were the butternut squash rolls.  I am not too sure what I did but mine definitely did not look anything like the ones in the book.  Mine wouldn't have looked out of place on the beach, they had a distinctive rock type look and texture.  I was planning on uploading the photos but on this occasion they have gone in the recycle bin along with the rolls.  What a waste of time, money and effort!  All was not totally lost, this evening for dessert (Mike always has to have a dessert!) I made a fab apple, raspberry and blackberry sponge.  Not only did it taste good it was really easy to make.

Basically it is fruit baked in the oven with some golden
syrup and a swiss-roll style sponge poured over the top.

  

Re-motivation.

Today I have:

• Been to weight watchers to be told that I have gained half a pound this week.  The blimming silver 7 is eluding me!!  Since Christmas between my exercise classes and weight watchers I have lost 6lb and I can definitely feel it.  However my motivation has started to waver somewhat.  I think I was expecting some instant hit and slowly the naughty treats have started to creep back in.  This is not being helped by the endless amounts of baking I have been completing with Mimi lately!!!  My problem is that I track what I eat for a couple of days but I find it so difficult to keep within my allocated pro-point allowance that I become demoralised after a few days.  Also I really struggle with snacking.  This week I am feeling a bit more motivated and I brought a new recipe book.  I think it is new out this week as I couldn't find a link for it.  Its got some really good looking recipes in it like, butternut squash rolls and Sri Lankan pineapple curry which I am going to try this week.

• Spent some time in the garden with Mimi.  With the weather being so beautiful and the first signs of spring and the daffodils coming up I decided we would start potting up some seeds ready for our vegetable patch.  Today we planted two types of beetroot and some tomatoes.  I expect we will have hundreds of plants which I will be desperate to give away in a few weeks!  Every year I get carried away with the tomatoes - forgetting what a pain they are to look after and they always end up falling over.  This year I am planning on being more organised, I am going to order some bamboo.

1: Boltardy; 2: Alto F1 Hybird; 3: Pomodoro Ciliegia; 4: Pomodoro San Marzano

• Listened to Mimi witter on endlessly about her ever growing Birthday wish list which now includes:

1: Toyota Aygo; 2: Teacup Piggies; 3: Fifi the Flower Tots

• Shouted at some bl***y woman who's dog was in our garden.  I was so incensed by this woman I stormed outside.  To set the scene:  Our house and garden open out directly onto a field, this field has a set of regular dog walkers who walk the perimeter on a regular basis.  We have since moving in put up a fence to prevent the dogs getting in (one once punctured Mimi's paddling pool) and Mimi getting out.  Today a woman and her son were walking their dog when it managed to slip under the fence and was eating the bird food which had fallen off the table.  The poor dog got stuck in the garden and couldn't work out how to get back out.  It was not so much the dog that p***** me off but the dog owner who walked off and left her dog in our garden.  I went outside and shouted down the road after her asking her to come and collect her dog rather than just walking off.  Her response was to shout back telling me that there was no point running towards her dog as it would make the situation worse.  I explained that I have a child and that the dog was in MY garden to which she replied she couldn't do very much about it.  I told her that she was on private land and that in future perhaps she should find somewhere else to walk her dog.  Bloody woman - No mention of an apology.

• I have finally got round to uploading my new banner (Number 37 of 101 to re-design my blog).  I am really pleased with the new look.  I am considering moving over to Wordpress (Number 13 of 101) where there is more freedom in terms of the design element.  I have got it up and running you can check it out here.  However it is taking some time getting my head around the technical element of wordpress.  I have got some HTML knowledge however it is still proving a bit tricky. 

A busy day.

I am starting to think that perhaps I have an actress on my hands.  I was eating my breakfast when she appeared looking like this!  She made me laugh lots.  What you can't see is the magic wand which keeps turning me into a FROG!

I haven't been feeling too well today.  I think I might have a cold coming, but it didn't stop me from going spinning with K first thing this morning.  It was fairly tough going and I did feel better having done some exercise.  I managed to get a couple of jobs in before picking Mimi up from play-school.  She is so funny about play-school, she was fine on Monday although they said she cried a little bit after I had left, today Mike took her as spinning started at 9.30am and apparently she was hysterical.  Pick her up and she can't stop talking about what a lovely time she had.  Today they had done painting/printing with Lemons.

I attempted to put her down for a sleep but she was having none of it so instead we set about planning our vegetable patch for the summer and I made a body scrub, something I have been meaning to make for ages.  

Previously I have used the Aveda Body Scrub and the Soap and Glory Scrub.  Both of these are excellent however having left work I am on a bit of an economy drive and decided that it was time to try and make my own.  Also it is Number 77 on my 101 in 1001 list.  I got the idea from Pininterest.  

My home-made sugar body scrub.

It was really easy to make.

225g sugar I used light brown sugar

200ml of oil (having gone into the local health food shop they suggested that for dry skin I could try sesame oil)

The grated zest of a lemon.

I mixed it all together and popped it into a jam jar.  I haven't tried it yet, I will let you know what its like in the morning.

Finally we topped the day off by taking Mimi to the Fish & Chip shop for tea.

I think that my first week at home has gone well.  I have loved every second of it.  Now I look back I am not too sure why I didn't do this sooner.  Only downside is that I need to work on my budgeting skills.