Monday 31 October 2011

Happy halloween

So I decided to take the girls trick or treating with a couple of friends and their children last night as I thought it would probably be a bit manic tonight. I was pleasantly surprised at how many people opened their doors and gave sweets or pennies to the kids as this is primarily something celebrated by Americans. The only down side was that it decided to rain but they had a great time out which is all that matters and luckily no tricks only treats!!!!



xxxx

Thursday 27 October 2011

Who loves Justin Fletcher ..... Put your Hands Up

Well lovely blog readers I just thought I would let you know that I have been one of a lucky few chosen to receive a  copy of Justin Fletchers new album before it is officially released.

Hands Up the single will be out on the 14th of November and Hands up the Album will be out on the 21st November but it is available to pre order here : https://bitly.com/sQpZ46


You can now find Justin on twitter @_JustinFletcher 

and his Facebook page is   http://www.facebook.com/pages/Justin-Fletcher/170941312992806 where there is already a sneak preview of his new video!!!!!

This is already a big hit with my three girls, I know this one is going to be played on repeat. 

xxxx

Brick Wall

Don't they all look so lovely and angelic?? This is just a show for the camera, honest, I'm telling the truth!!!


For the past hours they have been arguing non stop about who is having what brick and who is building what, so far they haven't built a lot I have to say.

This photo however reminds me that I love them lots and lots even if they don't always get along with each other. God help me when I reach the teenage years!!!

xxxx

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Baking time

Well while it was pouring hard with rain and we were stuck indoors I decided that it would be a good idea to do some baking. After asking for some recipes on twitter and having a little google myself, I came across this recipe :

Peanut butter and Sultana Flapjacks

Ingredients needed :

  • 75g crispy rice cereal
  • 150g porridge oats
  • 75g sultanas
  • 75g brown sugar
  • 100ml golden syrup
  • 125g crunchy peanut butter (I prefer unsweetened)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

How to make

In a large bowl, stir together the rice cereal and oats and sultanas. Set aside. Grease a 23x30cm (9x13 in) baking dish.

Combine the brown sugar and golden syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat just until boiling, then remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla until smooth. Pour over the cereal and oat mixture, and mix well.

Press into the prepared dish using the back of a large spoon. Allow to cool, then cut into squares.

The girls helped me to weigh and mix the ingredients together and here is the finished result : 


My little taste testers all agreed that they were scrummy yummy. Little bit naughty but full of fibre and protein so a good little snack. 

Monday 24 October 2011

Great Weekend

Well what a fab weekend the Hazelden family had.

My father in law got married on Saturday to the wonderful Gabi. It was a day full of lots of eating, drinking and dancing!!!! The girls had a great time all done up in their pretty dresses, getting attention from everyone. I loved the fact that I didn't have to cook and daddy Hazelden was thrilled that it was free bar all night.

Sunday was made perfect by the fact that my lovely sister in law cooked a lovely roast dinner for all of us, topped off by angel delight for pudding. Perfection.

If carlsberg made weekends.......

Friday 21 October 2011

Winter woolies at the ready!!!

Well the time has come to break out the winter woolies.

For myself it is my hands the get cold when pushing the buggy. Now I found the best thing on Pushchair Trader, Mummy mitts, they attach to the buggy so that you can get your hands in and out easily but keep them toasty warm whilst pushing the buggy around.

Now Elise and Freya are fine, they love wearing their hats and gloves, Gracie on the other hand is a typical toddler and refuses to keep hers on. Now I wouldn't mind so much but my little lovely still doesn't have huge amounts of hair so her head has nothing to protect her from the cold. I've tried letting her pick out her own hat and gloves but so far it isn't working.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom.???

xxxx

Wednesday 19 October 2011

Knickees

Well the time for potty training has come round again. Gracie has decided that she likes doing her wees on the potty (sometimes) so who am I to stop her.

On Monday I let her pick her own knickers that she would like to wear and surprise surprise she picked peppa pig, she looks adorable in them and she really made me chuckle when she insisted on calling them knickees.

She seems to have got herself a tad confused though when she does a wee she says she is doing a poo poo and when she is doing a poo she says she is doing a wee wee, bless her, as long as it is on the potty I am not going to complain!!!

My baby really isn't a baby anymore.

xxxx

Monday 17 October 2011

We won with Pushchair Trader and Gander Kids


Well a few weeks ago I entered a competition with Pushchair Trader to win a P'kolino little reader chair and a book buggee from Gander Kids.

To my surprise I got a phone call from Andrea at Pushchair Trader a couple of weeks ago to tell me that I had won, it isn't very often that I win so I was so happy. 
Now Andrea was lovely, great customer service. She went through with me what I had won and what would happen next. 

Well on the 7th October my (well the kids) prizes were delivered. Yay. In the first box was the P'kolino little reader chair. Now this came in a choice of colours : orange, green, blue, purple or red. I opted for green as I was planning on putting it in my youngest daughters bedroom which is mainly green and yellow.
Gracie jumped at the chance to try it out.

I was impressed as the seat was big and comfy enough for Gracie who is now 20 months old, Freya who is 3 and Elise who is 5. It is made out of a suede material that is very easy to wipe clean, I had to test this when Gracie proceeded to put crayon on it the little monkey. It is very light and has a handle on the back so it is easy to move from room to room. It also has pockets on the sides to place books in as well. It was given the thumbs up by all my children and I think I now need to invest in two more to stop them from arguing over who is going to sit in it!!!!


In the second box we received the book buggee. I was also given a choice of colour for this, it comes in natural or orange, I chose orange as I love bright colours and it didn't disappoint. 


This is a lovely piece of furniture that allows your child to take their favourite books and even their favourite teddy around with them. Again it is very light so very easy to pull around. Gracie did try and sit herself in it when I first got it out of the box but we soon persuaded her the teddy would be more comfy in it. The book holders are wider at the top to make it easier to get books in and out whilst giving it a funky look.

The girls and I would very much recommend these products and there are so many more pieces of furniture and toys on their site to check out so go on and take a look!!!! 

xxxx

Saturday 15 October 2011

You know that Christmas is coming

Don't you find you hit September and then all the Christmas gifts, cards etc start appearing in the shops. I think they forget that there is Halloween before that.

Now I am noticing that at least every other advert seems to be a toy advert. Freya's response to every toy advert is " I want that for my next birthday", I've lost count now of how many things she is suppose to be getting.

What is worse is now even Gracie is joining in, an advert for a tinker bell toy came on and she sat there and said "I buy", she is only just 20 months old they are starting younger and younger each time, poor daddy hazelden won't have any money left!!!!!

Then the argos catalogue comes out, " I like this, I want this, what do you think of this?". I've told them they will have to start writing their leathers to santa, does anyone else do this??

If I am honest though they are all just taking after their mummy, bless them.

xxxx

Wednesday 12 October 2011

I won with Chocolate Library....

Well I must be a very lucky girl as last week on twitter I entered a fab competition with Chocolate Library (@choclibrary)to win a bar of chocolate. If you won you got to pick any bar of chocolate off their site and it could be personalised with anything you want.

On Friday I won, yay me!!!! I decided to pick a bar of chocolate for daddy hazelden as he does love his chocolate. It said worlds best daddy on it and I had it personalised with a message from the girls on the back of it. I had the choice of milk or dark chocolate so I opted for the milk chocolate.

I was surprised to receive the bar of chocolate through the post on Tuesday morning, I couldn't believe how quickly it came and the customer service was great.

At the moment they are running a campaign on their Facebook page The Chocolate Library where they are putting up pictures of their customers holding the bars of chocolate that they have received, here is my one :



So pop on over and take a look at their pages. There are so many different categories for different occasions to choose from like teachers, parents, weddings etc and they even do gift bundles so you can buy chocolate bars with a book, perfect. Also with Christmas just around the corner they have some great Christmas gift ideas. I can't recommend them enough. xx

xxxx

Sunday 9 October 2011

Friday 7 October 2011

They grow up so quick!!!

Well Elise had a play date after school yesterday but not just any play date, a play date with a boy!!!! I can't believe it my daughter is only six years old and she already has a "boyfriend"

Now daddy hazelden was understandably a bit worried he thought he had few years before he had to start worrying about boys. However Elise put his mind at rest, she said "don't worry I'm not going to marry him because I don't love him". And when asked if she was going to kiss him she said "well I'm not really sure just yet". I had to really try not to laugh.

Her next play date has already been arranged for next week, young love so sweet.

So how does everyone else deal with moments like these??

xxxx

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Got to love a bargain....

Well when Elise went back to school and Freya went back to play school I decided it would be a good idea to purchase a rear facing pushchair for Gracie so that we could talk when we went out on walks.

So the bargain hunting began. I trawled through all the normal sites and finally managed to find my dream pushchair on Gumtree . It was an Icandy cherry. This came with the pushchair and the carrycot with both rain covers. Well Long story short I managed to barter the price down to £100, bargain or what.

Now the only problem was in order to purchase this I had to sell my BJCM, which I love I have to add, as this was the only way daddy hazelden would agree to letting me have a new one. Well I finally managed to sell it on Pushchair Trader yesterday to a really lovely lady!!!!! Yay.

I arranged to pick up the Icandy today and I was in for a surprise, not only did it come with the pushchair and carrycot and rain covers, it also came with the carseat adaptors, parasol and footmuff, happy is not quite the word to describe how I felt, more like ecstatic. Well we put Gracie in and had a little test drive and I can't believe how easy and light it is to push. Very impressed.

In conclusion just call me the bargain shopper.  :-)

Monday 3 October 2011

Mummy I'm a big girl now

Well tonight we have reached another milestone in Gracie's short but eventful life so far. Tonight Gracie has been put to bed in her big girl bed. I am now sat downstairs wondering how many times she will attempt to get out her bed tonight??

I know it is said time and time again by so many people but it is true they grow up so fast, blink and you've missed it. I'm torn between wanting to keep my children all babies and wanting them to grow and become independent.

Gracie at 19 months old has now mastered everything except potty training, so proud of her and my other two gorgeous girls, Gracie has learnt so much from them already, all be it that she has learnt the diva strops from them as well lol.

xxxx

Saturday 1 October 2011

Family time

I find we seem to be able to spend quality time as a family less and less these days, what with work and school and different appointments to contend with.

Well today the Hazelden clan thought they would make the most of the beautiful sunshine and take a stroll down to the beach. It felt like we were abroad and made myself and Daddy Hazelden really want to be on holiday.

We went down and sat on the pebbles and had a paddle in the water whilst throwing the pebbles to see who could make the biggest splash and you will never guess who won.... well maybe you will, it was daddy who won. Gracie wasn't so happy about getting her feet wet, but to be fair to her the water was pretty cold.  Daddy Hazelden and Freya even managed to find a gorgeous green gem, who doesn't like treasure.


You can't beat days like that and who would have thought that it was actually the 1st of October today, madness!!!!

xxxx