Artzooka Clingzooka Robots

The boys have been really busy with creative activities over the last week, one of the activities that the boys were busy with was the Clingzooka Robots. 

The pack includes everything you need for your pictures, there are:

• 6 base models
• 6 backgrounds
• 6 sheets of static cling stickers

Here is callum making his pictures, as you can see he is concentrating hard on sticking the stickers in the right places.

Here are his finished pictures, they took him about 10 minutes each if that, this activity is great if your children don't have a great attention span and bore easily, plus you can just flip the book shut and carry on where you left off at a later date.

The set retails around £8 from retailers such as Amazon. The set isn't huge and would make a great stocking filler.

Callum loved this as it meant he could make lots of crazy looking pictures. I loved it because it meant virtually no mess and the stickers only stuck to the sheets inside the set and nowhere else. 

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Huggies Pull Ups & Dry Nites

James is the last of my boys to be potty trained, in some ways its sad as my baby is growing up but in other ways its great as he is becoming more and more independent. We have finally cracked being dry all day and the only time we have any worries about him having an accident is when we are off on a long journey. However on a night he is still far from being dry, but we have stopped using nappies as we want to encourage him to use the toilet more and to get dry on a night. 

Over the last couple of weeks we have been trying out some Huggies Pull Ups and Huggies DryNites Pyjama Pants.

Huggies Pull Ups are great for children who are just starting potty training or if your like us and just need them in case of emergencies. Huggies Pull Ups are available from a size 4 which is suitable for children who weigh between 8 and 15kg, they go up to a size 6 which is suitable for children who weigh between 16 - 23kg. They come in two designs one suitable for boys and the other for girls. The girls design has Disney Princesses on them whilst the boy pants have Disney Cars on theirs. James thought these were great as they have Mater on them who is his favourite character. The Dry Nites are aimed at children aged 4 - 7 years old.

Both the Pull Ups and Dry Nites fitted James comfortably, They both fit like underwear and have very stretchy sides so that they're easy for a child to pull up & down. The Pull Ups have learning graphics on them and they fade when wet this helps a child to see the difference between wet and dry. The Dry Nites have pictures of motorbikes and sharks on them as they are aimed at slightly older children  Having said this even though James is only 3 but they fitted him well. The Dry Nites have a thin super absorbent pad that draws wetness away from the skin, together with leak guards and a moisture proof outer cover.

Both Huggies Pull Ups and Dry Nites are available to buy from most supermarkets and are priced around £5 a pack but this can be dependent on offers in store. The Pulls ups we were sent come in packs of 14 and the Dry Nites come in a pack of 10. 

Make sure you come back in 2 weeks time as we will be giving away a lovely potty training set that Huggies have so generously donated as part of our 12 Days of Christmas in November Competitions.

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And last, but not least...

If you've been wondering why my posting has been somewhat erratic recently, then here's the reason:

 


Our third baby was born yesterday morning, on November 4th. She weighed 3710 grams and was 50 cm tall - our biggest baby yet :)

Our oldest - a daughter born in January 2009 and our second child - a son born in January 2011 - are still quite small, 3 years 9 months and 1 year 9 months, respectively. So being heavily pregnant with two small kids needing the attention and trying to write a foodblog - the latter has often had to wait. But I'm still here, and hopefully you'll be patient enough to wait for my future posts - which will be about food, and not kids, I promise :)

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Having Fun with Yummy Dough

The boys have been very busy this weekend doing lots of baking activities. They were asked to review Yummy Dough.

Yummy Dough is an edible play dough that combines all the activities that children love doing best, they can shape, bake and eat it! 

The kit includes:

•  4 x 113g sachets of dough mix , the colours are red, blue, green and yellow)
• A measuring device
• A moulding tool 
•  An ideas leaflet. 

All ingredients are safe and tested to the highest UK and European standards

All you need to do to make the dough is to add water and mix it. Here is the dough when it is made up.

Once you've made you creations (see ours delow) you can put them them in the oven to bake.  Moulding and cooking with Yummy Dough encourages creativity and togetherness for the whole family.  Its not something we would normally do but we really enjoyed it and plan to do more things like together.

The boys had lots of fun making things from the dough, they enjoyed eating them afterwards too. 

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Moshi Monster Cookie Kit

We were recently asked to review the Moshi Monster Cookie Kit, my boys love any type of biscuit and I'm known to eat one or two custard creams with a cup of tea once in a while, so we thought we'd give them a try. The kit is priced around £5.

Everything you need comes in the tub, inside there is:

• 2 x Moshling cookie cutters - there are 6 to collect

• 2 x decorating gel tubes - we had purple and orange in our kit

• 450g of Cookie mix which is enough to make 24 cookies

• Free Rox code inside pack to be used om moshimonsters.com

• Full instructions included

To make the cookie dough all you need to do is add 65ml of cold water, stir it and then knead it into a ball. Once this is done you can roll it out and use the cutters to make the Moshi Monsters. The cutters are easy to use. Once you have cut the cookie out you need to turn the cutter over and press it into the cookie shape so you can see the monster design on the cookie.

Once the cookies had been cooked in the oven for 12 minutes we let them cool down, then came the really fun bit of decorating them. Callum decided that he wanted some funky looking Moshi Monsters and decided to use both lots of the icing on his monsters. Here are his master pieces.

The boys said they were really yummy and had a great time making the cookies. You can buy this kit for around £5, it is great value for money and will keep little Moshi Monster fans busy especially now the weather is turning colder and they can't play outside so much. 

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Sports Stars Football - Pitch and Play Set

Callum like most boys is football crazy, his favourite team is Arsenal. Last week he was fortunate enough to be picked to be a Mascot for them at their Champions League match against Schalke. It was a dream come true for him and he had an amazing time. So when we were sent the Sports Stars Football - Pitch and Play Set from Character Building to review he was a very happy boy indeed. 

The set includes everything you need to enable you to play a game of table-top football, In the box you get:  

• 24 pitch sections that you connect together to build your very own pitch
• 3 mystery player micro-figures represented in either their team’s 2012-2013 home or away kits. 
• 8 slider bases
• 2 goal posts, 
• 2 goal nets, 
• 4 corner flags with bases, 
• 2 goalkeeper bases 
• 1 football. 

Here are the 3 players we were sent, Callum was over the moon to spot Theo Walcott from Arsenal hiding in the box, He was also happy to see Ashley Cole and John Terry as he knew them from playing in the England squad in the Euro 2012 tournament. I was surprised as to how much the figures looked like the real thing. You can collect all the key players from the English Premier Leagues top teams including Manchester United, Liverpool F.C., Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea F.C. and Arsenal F.C, these are available to buy separately.

The set was quite tricky for Callum to assemble himself but with a little help from his dad and I we soon got it together. Once assembled the pitch measures 51 x 38 cm. The pieces fit really well together so are unlikely to come apart whilst playing, but the pitch can easily be dismantled once play is over with. 

Here Callum is showing off his skills. To play a game you simply pass, dribble and shoot by flicking your players across the pitch, pretty simple if you ask me although callum assures me there is skill and technique to 

it - i'm still not convinced as I could do it without much preparation and training. He on the other hand took it 

as seriously as any 7 year old boy would. He had both myself and Matthew in stitches with his commentary 

about his match too. Funnily enough my players were always off side when we scored!

The set is priced at £19.99 from most good toy retailers, it is aimed at children aged 6+. Callum says he loves the Sports Stars Football - Pitch and Play Set and can't wait for his friends to come round so he can show them his new tricks.

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Scottish shortbread, the way I like it

There's a personal reason to celebrate all things Scottish today - namely, it was exactly seven years ago that I met my dear partner K. at a reception at the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh (housed in the lovely building behind me on the photo above, though the picture is taken about 7 months later), which eventually led me to moving back home to Estonia, and living a very happy life with a wonderful partner and two gorgeous kids. Oh, and a lovely garden.

The Scottish dish I'm celebrating today is the wonderful, melt-in-your-mouth, buttery Scottish shortbread. It's soft, yet crunchy - the crunchiness is enhanced by the use of fine semolina in the recipe. You cannot have a cup of tea without those, really.



Here's the home-made Scottish all-butter shortbread - the recipe is from Delia Smith - and as it's a pretty classic one, there's been no reason to change it. I used a special shortbread tin, marked with the thistle, but you can just as well use a regular springform tin or even roll the dough out and cut into preferred shapes with a cookie cutter (remember to adjust the cooking time for smaller cookies!)

Scottish butter shortbread
(Šoti liivaküpsised)

175 butter, at room temperature
75 g caster sugar
175 all-purpose flour, sifted
75 g fine semolina/cream of wheat
a pinch of salt

Preheat  the oven to 150 C/300 F.

Using your wooden spoon, cream the butter in a bowl.
Add the sugar, flour, semolina and salt. Mix with the spoon until combined, then use your hands to knead the dough (or simply use a food processor). Avoid over-working the dough, however, as the butter might melt and compromise the texture!
Transfer the cookie dough onto a lightly floured surface. Using the rolling pin, roll into a 20 cm circle and transfer it into a 20 cm springform. Press lightly, then pierce with a fork thoroughly (this keeps the shortcrust pastry from raising during baking).
Bake the shortbread for about 60 minutes in the centre of the preheated oven, until it's pale golden and feels firm to the touch.
Remove it from the oven and cut into 12 wedges.
Sprinkle generously with caster sugar, if you want, and store in an airtight box.

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