Chicago Town Pizzas, the Little Superhero in Your Freezer

I'm very lucky that my children aren't fussy eaters, they will generally eat anything that is given to them but what they don't like is having to wait when they are hungry. As a mum what I struggle with sometimes is making food that doesn't take a long time to cook and with a large family I like to have leftovers that can be used in meals on other days too. Now there is a little superhero in the freezer that fits the bill and that's Chicago Town Deep Dish Pizzas.

Available in a range of flavours including cheese, pepperoni and club chicken, a flavour for everyone whether you are a meat lover or if you enjoy the plainer things in life. Coming in packs of two, these individual pizzas can be a real lifesaver when you are in a rush to prepare something and you should know that they are definitely not just for dinner.

Pancake Fun With Num Noms #NumNomsFoodie

Pancake day has arrived. I have to admit this totally beats Valentine's day! The kids tend to opt for something sweet, normally Nutella pancake rolls where as I like to go something more traditional with a bit of lemon and sugar. This year we were challenged to get creative with our pancakes and incorporate some of the yummy series 3 Num Noms characters. Challenge accepted.

We were kindly sent one of the brand new Num Noms Lunch Box packs for some inspiration and after much deliberation we came up with the ultimate pancake topping, a strawberry and blueberry sauce with lots of marshmallows sprinkled over. This was thanks to Softy Mallow, Sugar Stripes (who smells like strawberries) and Blueberry Stamp-It.

I used a quick and simple recipe for making the actual pancakes although I must admit I didn't manage to actually 'flip' them, I was a tad worried about them getting stuck to the ceiling. The recipe for the pancakes is as follows :

Read With Me #9 2017

Hello everyone and welcome to this weeks Read With Me. I was playing catch up on course work after half term week so my apologies for keeping this weeks post brief.

My favourite post came from Let Them Be Small with her post all about encouraging early reading skills.

My Sunday Photo 2017 #9

The calm after the storm. Storm Doris did indeed come and it bought with it an abundance of strong winds, I almost got knocked over, I'm now thinking high heels weren't the best idea that day but it didn't last long.

By the end of the day the weather had calmed down and I woke up the following morning to this, blue skies, although I'll admit it is still feeling rather fresh.

Little Loves February

Another month has officially flown by. More birthday celebrations, Valentine's day and a wedding anniversary have been celebrated. It has been busy as usual and packed with lots of memories and of course little loves.

Read

You all know I love a good read. One of my favourites from this last month was one from Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is fantasy and at its best, this author manages to create worlds that expand your imagination and really draw you in!

Watched

An absolute favourite for both myself and my husband last month was The Crown on Netflix. It was an interesting watch and actually had us researching more behind the history of the Royals as we watched. There was a lot that we didn't know.

One Of Us Is Lying February Book of the Month

I was recently sent a fantastic new novel from Penguin Random House Children's Publishers via Netgalley. One Of Us Is Lying is the latest book from Karen M McManus and comes under quite a few genres, mysteries and thrillers, teens and young adults. I was immediately drawn to it after reading the blurb.

Five students go to detention. Only four leave alive.

On Thursday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the bad boy, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the jock, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app. Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investi­gators, his death wasn't an accident. On Thursday, he died. But on Friday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they just the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose? Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

Read With Me #8 2017

Hello you lovely lot and welcome to this weeks Read With Me. I've been concentrating on reading with my youngest recently. She's at the stage where she knows her phonics sounds and now she has moved on to diagraphs (google it) and tricky words. I was surprised at how quickly she picked up on these terms, sounds etc because even as an adult it is a lot to take on board

When I'm reading bed time stories to her now she has begun to point out letters, words, trying to sound out and spell words that I'm saying to her, books really are a great way to learn anything. Even now when I read certain stories I'm still learning, there are certain words that even I struggle to pronounce so how children take things on board is quite inspiring really.

My Sunday Photo 2017 #8

The feeling of being appreciated is a really good one. It is one where you suddenly believe that all your efforts have been more than worth while and I definitely got that feeling last week from a couple of my work colleagues.

I've been volunteering at my girls primary school since September now as well being a midday supervisor up there. My volunteering has been based in just one class so I've got to know the children and the teachers in there really well so although I'm kept busy all of the time I have been really enjoying myself .

My Daily Skincare Routine

My daily skincare routine is one that has been found after a lot of trial and error. I'm a person with very sensitive skin. I'm allergic to quite a few products and from a young age I suffered from outbreaks of eczema and psoriasis. Even when I began to grow out of the eczema, I was left with patches around my nose, this always led to people asking if I had a cold. I seemed to get away with not having spots (a saving grace in my teenage years), but that wasn't to last as when I came off the pill after the husband had a vasectomy, I was left prone to horrible outbreaks on my chin. 

I said at the beginning that my skin is very sensitive and it has left me with a lot of confidence issues, especially when my lovely children point out just how many spots I have on my face on any given day. The problem is is that being sensitive makes it quite difficult to find products that won't lead to adverse reactions like dry or itchy skin and although I don't have the clearest of skin I thought sharing what I use/what I do might help others who have similar issues.

Frozen Bedding From Character World

I've always been lucky that my children love their sleep, in fact my youngest will be a total grump during the day if she hasn't managed to get 12 hours in bed and these nights of rest are aided by a comfy bed and snuggly bedding. However just because they love their sleep, doesn't mean that getting them to bed in the first place is the easiest of tasks. So when I was asked if I would like to review a set of Frozen bedding from Character World, I knew my 4 year old would be just that bit more eager to get to bed than she normally is.

In the end I was actually sent two sets of bedding. As my two younger daughters share a bedroom, this was more than appreciated as it meant one less argument to contend with. Each single bed set came with a pillow case and a duvet cover, each of which was reversible, kind of like getting two bedding sets in one. My little Frozen fans were more than impressed when they came home from school the other day to find their new bed sets.

Learning to Read Made Easy With Reading Eggs

Books are such an important part of anyones life, I bought books for my kids before they were even born. Having someone read to you is great, it builds up your language and you begin to understand certain things however there is nothing quite like being able to read a book by yourself. The process of learning to read can be a tricky one, a frustrating time for some children so sometimes a little extra help is needed and this is where Reading Eggs can come in handy.

I'd previously used a 4 week free trial with my now 7 year old but by the time we'd started using it she was already reading fairly fluently but when I was recently asked if I would like to review the service I knew it would really benefit my 4 year old. Layla is one of the younger children in her class, being a July baby she didn't have the best attention span when starting school, she didn't know any of the alphabet so it was a case of starting from scratch and at times it was hard to get her to concentrate.

Read With Me #7 2017

Hello everyone and welcome to this weeks Read With Me. Thanks to all that linked up last week and big waves to everyone linking up this week. I set myself a target this year to read one book a week, really slowing down my reading post to allow me time to get on with my coursework  but I just cant't seem to slow down that much. I actually read three books last week.

I was also sent a lovely book in the post, one of which I was not expecting but I thought deserved a mention. The lovely people at Little Tiger Press are celebrating 30 years and are doing this by publishing a fantastic children's book called Tiger Tiger.

My Sunday Photo 2017 #7

Flowers, I love them but I never buy them very often, something I should rectify. I got this lovely bunch on my birthday from my sister in law and they really brightened up my dining room table. If only I could get them to last longer!

Life is a Juggling Act so What Happens if You Can't Juggle?

Life is definitely a juggling act and that has never been so apparent to me in recent months. I've always been quite lucky to have been a stay at home parent whilst my husband went to work. Our roles were clear, he went out and earned the money to pay the bills, keep a roof over our heads whilst I looked after the children and kept the house in running order. But what happens when life just isn't this simple?

My life has changed quite a lot since September, with my youngest starting school and leaving me with more free time, or I so I thought. Skip forward to now and not only am I still doing the parenting thing and cooking, cleaning, washing etc, I'm also volunteering almost full time at the girls school, as well as being a midday supervisor up there and I am also trying to fit in a course to become a teaching assistant.

Now I've always prided myself on being quite an organised person, I'm a big believer in routine but I've come to feel like there just aren't enough hours in the day, like I've picked up too many balls to juggle. So lets say these balls that I'm trying to juggle are named work, parenting and everything else in-between, what happens if you can't keep them all going round, what happens if one accidentally drops to the ground?

Life is a juggling act so what happens if I can't juggle?

The Inventing Tubes Book Review

It is amazing the power of the internet. Only last week I was reading a review for a fantastic little children's books and after sharing that review on Twitter the author herself kindly offered to send a book to me so that my kids could read it too. 

The Inventing Tubes is the first book in a series known as The Pasta Kidz & Petz Adventures all created by Bryony Supper and bought to life with the fabulous illustrations from Julian Bray.

Marc Macaroni uses the inventing tubes to invent the fantastic Pastaball, Sarah Spaghetti, who is always impatient, tries to invent her own Pastaball without reading the instructions properly! The Pasta Petz arrive in the Pastamobile to save the day - but they are all so busy no-one hears the Pasta Beasties in the distance!

Lets Talk Lady Gaga and Fat Rolls

I've talked on my blog and Instagram often about my body, the way I feel judged and how I never seem to be comfortable in my own skin. The media and social media has a big part to play in this and just today the latest body shaming story has sprung. 

Lady Gaga dared to bare her skin and she had, wait for it, fat rolls!! Well not really fat rolls, her body was simply oh natural.

News must be slow if this all they've got to report on and the fact is rolls of fat or not the woman looks frigging hot!

It is articles like this that really get my back up. How are we meant to feel happy with how we look if people constantly feel the need to criticise. Slagging off other peoples bodies seems to have become perfectly acceptable in this day and age and I for one would love to know why?

Read With Me #6 2017

Hello you lovely lot, here we are in the month of February and it's time for the first Read With Me of this month. I managed to do a tad more reading last week and I even managed to get that post up telling you about all the books that I read in January and some of the ones that have been added to my TBR list.

Before I share my favourite post from last week I just wanted to say if you haven't done it already I highly recommend that you sign up to Netgalley, it is free to do so and you get to read some amazing novels in exchange for your reviews/feedback. You even get the opportunity to read books before they are even released. 

My Sunday Photo 2017 #6

Last weekend I had a day out with the husband as a celebration for my birthday. We managed to get a whole day and night without the kids and we decided to spend it walking around London and sampling the alcohol in many of their fine bars and pubs.

What I Read In January

Here we are in February, where did last month just go? I thought I'd try something new this year and share with you what I've been reading each month. I definitely slowed down my reading this year, more like one or two books a week rather than one or two a day. So for the month of January I read a grand total of six books,  my slowing down hasn't stopped me from adding more books to my TBR list though. 

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

SOMETIMES THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU IS THE ONE WHO HURTS YOU THE MOST

Lily hasn't always had it easy, but that's never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She's come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up - she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily's life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, and maybe even a little arrogant. He's also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily, but Ryle's complete aversion to relationships is disturbing.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan - her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

I waited a while to read this one but as soon as it came on offer for kindle I snapped it up, this is a book that really lived up to its hype, powerful and thought provoking!

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon 

Num Noms Are Back With Series 3 and Lights

Those cute little Num Noms are back with a brand new collection in the shape of series 3 as well as their first set of light up Num Noms. My girls had the pleasure of joining in with the Num Noms advent in December and their collection has significantly grown since then. We even have the fantastic Art Cart.

So what can you expect from series 3? Well the sets include Veggie Nums, Marshmallow Nums, Donut Nums, Fruit Nums, Candy Nums and Fiest Food Nums. Whilst the Noms still have the fab stamp its, they have changed the lip glosses slightly by making them 2 flavoured and you can now collect some adorable erase-it noms.