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.

                                                                  

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.  

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.