I Love Lucy

This is my little Sister, Lucy. She is the youngest of all four of us but in many ways she is the most mature. She has an old soul and a wise mind and the way she looks at life is inspiring. She makes me laugh, she makes me smile, she is generous, kind hearted, hilarious, a bit of a wimp, a great shopping companion, a board game enthusiast, a movie watching, chocolate eating companion and she can calms me down with her 'this is life, just get on with it as best you can' attitude.  Since my depression came to light she has come back from London whenever she can, just to be here for me. To spend time with me, encourage me out of the house, help me with George, whatever she can do for me, she has done and for that, I am truly grateful. She came home last weekend so George and I stayed over at Amma and PopPop's on the Friday night and spent a lot of the weekend over there. So we did what all sisters do- We talked, ate, shopped, ate, watched a movie, ate, cooked, ate (all this eating included, home made cookies, Krispy Kreme donuts, wagammamas, home made marshmallows covered in chocolate, the list goes on)! But, the best thing we did, was laugh!

Laughing is not really something I've done a lot of recently, so to have a laugh, giggle, chuckle, cackle, snort (last two, both Lucy I might add) was so refreshing! I think it's true what they say about laughter being the best medicine. Since the weekend I have been feeling, better, brighter, a lot more positive, but it's always a bit crappy when she goes back. I miss her so much now she lives in London, but, I guess there is one benefit of having a little sister in the big city...... She brings us back Krispy Kreme donuts!

Here's some of the things we got up to over the weekend at Amma and PopPop's house... 

We had left over cookies and donuts for breakfast in bed (this could only happen at Amma and PopPop's house)! 

Played in the garden

Found a snake and a giant mushroom

Made swords from twigs and leaves! 

Made chocolate covered marshmallows, yum!! 

Oh and move over Ashley and Pudsey! Auntie Lucy and Ziggy are on the scene! 

So perhaps laughter really is the best medicine? 

No, wait, is it laughter and chocolate?

No it's laughter, chocolate and marshmallows...

Eeeer, is it Laughter, chocolate, marshmallows and Katsu Curry?

Nope. For me, It's Family. Family, Food and Laughter, the magic 3 to brighten up my day and put a smile on my face! 

Star lunches

I've done a few star themed lunches so thought I'd share them. 

This lunch is made up of leftovers really apart from the babybel with a star cut out of it. On the left are two mini cream cheese wraps (cheese left from a carrot cake I made) with two home made star food picks in. On the right is left over roast chicken and roasted new potatoes with a little bit of mayonnaise in a star shaped silicone case. The potatoes have the alphabet food picks in spelling 'super' for my little super star! 

This lunch was quick and simple to make. It consists of a star shaped ham sandwich on some chipstick crisps and the word 'star' in made with the alphabet food picks. Then three silicone star shaped cases with cherry tomatoes, ham wraps and grapes in with homemade star food picks. 

Finger Print Fun!

George and I have been 'getting our art on' (as we like to call it) recently and we've been having loads of fun with ink and finger prints! We got a fab book by Ed Emberely and have loved copying the pics out of it and making up our own ones so I thought I'd share some with u guys! 

I did this one for George...

George's caterpillar and snail...

Monkeys, butterflies, heart, snail and a cat, by us both...

Dinosaurs by me for George...

A dragon by me, requested by George! 

We've had fun creating these and they are so simple to do, you can get the book on Amazon as well as a cheap stamp set! Why not give it a go yourselves :) 

Home made food picks

I been meaning to make some food picks for ages now and I finally got round to buying some Fimo to do so!

I didn't have much time his afternoon so I just created a few simple dinosaurs to test it out! I did a green t-rex, a blue brontosaurus and an orange stegosaurs. 

I also got round to sorting my Bento bits and pieces out! I found this Box, which I brought ages ago and used to store fruit tea. I never really drink fruit tea so I thought it would be better suited to storing my bento bits! 

I'm really pleased with this as a storage solution for my Bento bits! I'm sure it won't do the job for too much longer, as I'm going to get to work expanding my collection with some more homemade food picks! 

Lion Lunches

A few weeks ago George was really into a TV show called 'The Lion Man.' It's filmed over in New Zealand and is about a man who keeps, breeds and trains lions. He breeds endangered species and rears the lion cubs so that they are tame around him and other humans. Members of the public can visit the park and the Lions are used in movies (such as Narnia). Any way, inspired for his love of this show, I made him a lion lunch....

I made two cream cheese wraps and held them in place with Lion food picks. I cut some 'grass' out of cucumber and place the picks low so it looked like they were hiding in the grass, ready to pounce I their pray (George liked that bit)! I carefully cut out the word 'Roar' in a babybel and placed alphabet food picks into grapes to spell 'Lion'. I finished it off with a few sultanas and stuck in a food pick fork with a lion on for him to eat them with. This lunch was simple to make (although the babybel carving was a bit fiddly). It was also great for hand eye coordination and physical development, through manipulating the fork and picking up the sultanas to eat! 

George has gone off on his first class trip today to Africa Alive Zoo! In the build up to the excitement of this, he's had a few African inspired lunches (mostly Lion based)! I had fun creating these, especially the one just below

This is an English muffin with ham and salad cream in (his favourite). The face is a made up of red grapes (for the eyes) and cucumber chopped into the shapes need for the eyes, nose and mouth. The lions mane is made up of cheese and carrot cut into triangles. 

The next Lion lunch consisted of two lions, lion poo and lion teeth! The two lions laid ontop of some dried mango. To make the lions I cut out some cheese for the manes using a flower and a star shaped cutter. The lion head was a piece of carrot with a face draw on with edible markers. I put a lion food pick in some yoghurt covered cranberries for the lion teeth and the lion poo was chocolate covered raisens with the word 'Lion' in spelt from the alphabet food picks. 

The day of the trip arrived and to mark it I made George a fingerprint picture in our shared scrap book. He loved waking up to this, it built on the excitement! 

Breakfast was a Lion (of course)! I made it using a pancake for the face, a bananna sliced up and dotted around the pancake for the mane. The mouth was made from dried mango and the teeth were yogurt coverd raspberries. The eyes were chocolate covered raisens and the nose was a dried prune! 

George ate all but two pieces of the bananna and then said "look Mummy, I've made a tiger" 

His lunch for the trip is pictured above. He had a ham roll and another cheese and carrot lion. Some grapes with the word 'Africa' spelt out of alphabet food picks. On the other side is some cold sausage with a little dipping pot of ketchup. Four pieces of ham rolled up and some cheese cut into small pieces. 

He had a great time at the Zoo and is still saying he wants to be a vet and then a safari vet! I love that he loves all creatures great and small- It brings a smile to my face and joy to my heart. After bedtime stories we got out our picture diary. He told me some of the animals he saw and I drew them, then we coloured them in together. I hope he remembers this day for the rest of his life, it was a day full of fun and excitement and memories to treasure. 

Nail Art

I got some of those nail pens for Christmas from my sister and finally got them out to have a play about with.The results were pretty cool (and cute) so i thought i'd share them. 

Cute black and white animal designs...

A Penguin, a Dog (Ziggy) a Rabbit, a Panda and a Sheep! 

George wanted some to, so I did a mini version of the animals for him, with a Zebra instead of a Penguin! 

Conker Bowling

Some time ago I posted a picture of the number conkers I made for George. I thought I'd show you a couple of the things he got up to with them. First up was conker bowling. He collected the conkers in a pot, laid down a tub trug and made up his own game! The conkers all had numbers on, so he decided that if he got one in, then he would get the score of the number that was written on it.

Surprise surprise, he got them all in! 

So he quickly got bored of this 'it's too easy Mum, I need to make it harder for the conkers to get in the tub'. So he went and got his buzz lightyear chair to make and 'obstacle course' for the conkers!

The new challenge all set up and ready to go.....

Tipping out all the ones he managed to get into the tub!

What to do next?

Make some numbers out of conkers....

Excited that he made an '8'

Making a '10'

and an '11'

So that is a couple of the things George did with the conkers. Better late than never to post hey! If yours are still lying around then why not have a go at conker bowling or making numbers, letters or pictures with them?!