Easter: Banana cupcakes with Cadbury Philadelphia frosting

These are delicious. Seriously. You may have already seen my constant tweets about how delicious they really are. And now, lucky you, I am going to share my recipe with you!

They are also a great way to use up over ripe banana's.

Simply made Eastery (Yes, that is now a word!) with some Cadbury flake and mini eggs used ever so cleverly (ahem) to create a nest.

Oh and did I mention the delicious (over use of this word is needed with these) Cadbury Philadelphia cream cheese frosting???

Do you know what? Forget me blabbering on about them and try them for yourself. You will see! Here's how:

A week in tweets

Slummy single mummy started this over on her blog last week and I thought it was a fab idea so I'm joining in this week with my 2 year olds week in tweets (or what they would have been if she was on twitter...... or could write for that matter!)

For more entries and the a bit more information on what this is about then pop over to Slummy single mummy's blog now!

Show me Show me: Chris and Pui Roadshow 2012

Copyright Chris & Pui 2012.
www.chrisandpui.com

Yesterday we were lucky enough to be able to go and see TV's favourite double act....

NO, not Ant n Dec!!! This pair.

Copyright www.chrisandpui.com

My daughter, like most her age, absolutely LOVES Show me Show me. We have it on series record (Thank the Lord as it's no longer on Cbeebies so I my daughter can no longer get her daily fix there!) and she requests it on at least 5 times per day, broken up with some Mr Tumble in between fixes.

Silent Sunday

Outdoor Art

Now the weather is brightening up its a great time to start taking the indoors out!

These activities are really really simple but the kids love them.

Chalkings

Spring: Sowing Sunflower Seeds

Source

What better way to welcome spring than to sow some seeds? And what better seeds to sow that sunflowers? I love them! They are a sunny, happy flower which kids of all ages will love to get involved with and it's always fun to add a bit of healthy competition into the mix with 'Who can grow the tallest?'

The best time to plant sunflowers is just after the last frost of the season if planting straight into the garden or anytime around now (March) if planting in pots.

We have done both just to see which do best as the worst of the weather seems to be over with.

For planting straight into the garden choose a very sunny spot and somewhere close to somewhere to tie it to when it gets tall, like a fence.

There are many different types of sunflower but for maximum competition potential we chose the giant sunflower and for maximum prettiness and colour the red sunflower!

Easter Giveaway: 'Little Chick' by Amy Hest

Easter is not too far away now and I'm sure the kids are looking forward to all that chocolate already but as a nice change why not give your little one a book this Easter too?

And lucky for you, we have the perfect book to giveaway right here!!

Source

Little Chicks written by Amy Hest, illustrated by Anita Jeram

RRP £10.99

Age Range: 2 +

Meal Planning Monday (W/C 19/03/12)

Linked up at At Home with Mrs M

Being a childminder (and mum!) it is so so important to plan my meals in advance. For one it helps with just general organisation knowing what I am doing each day, being able to prep food in advance where possible and a reminder to get meat out of the freezer the night before (something which I am normally terrible at!). It also helps for me to make sure the children are getting a well balanced diet with their 5 a day included and it is great for money saving! Planning my meals means I only buy what I need to and can minimise waste.

Most childminders do a 4 week rolling rota for meals but I like to plan weekly as I do my shopping weekly no monthly and I like to see whats on offer, keep things new and varied and to always use seasonal veg (some of which comes from our garden that I can't plan too far in advanced with)

The advanced menu is also great for parents and children a like to see what they will be eating that week. I would normally do a plan all meals including snacks etc but today I'll keep it easy with just main meals.

So - Onto this week! This week is a funny one as we normally buy all of our meet in bulk from a local butchers and I then split it into freezer bags for each meal but this week the Mr went to the butchers and when he got back he plonked it all straight into the freezer without splitting it up. So now I have huge amounts of meat we need to eat up in a few days so trying to keep things varied is difficult *rolls eyes*

Monday: Mediterranean Chicken with Potato wedges and balsamic roasted vegetables.
Tuesday: Cantonese Sweet & Sour Chicken with Steamed rice and Vietnamese Prawn Crackers.
Wednesday: Sausages with Cheese & Potato Pie and Baked Beans
Thursday: Spaghetti Bolognese
Friday: Toad in the hole with Roasties, Veg and onion gravy.
Saturday: Quiche with New Potatoes and Salad
Sunday: Roast Dinner

*Note: I am a vegetarian so where it says any meat in a meal i.e. Chicken or Sausage, I always have the vegetarian version to keep meals simple*

Book Review: Phillipa Knickerbocker Glory and the Ice Cream Castle

Author: Sarahjane Funnell

Age Range: 3- 6 years

Price: £7.99 direct from website

Website: www.phillipaknickerbockerglory.com

Silent Sunday #4