Our first Kite Festival!

As a family on a budget I am always on the look out for ways to entertain the kids and spend some quality time together for little or no money. We spend lots of time outside going for walks and to the beach and I am so thankful for where we live!

The other day I saw a Facebook post advertising a free kite festival in a nearby coastal town. I wasn’t sure about it at first as I have never been to a kite festival and wondered whether it would have enough to hold my kids attention for long. I decided to go for it though as it was completely free, sounded fun and the weather looked good for the day (always a bonus when it is an outdoor event on the beach)! I took my five year old son, eight year old daughter and seven year old niece (plus my youngest sister for some adult company)!

We travelled there on our local train and my wonderful gran had given us some money to treat ourselves to chips for lunch so we bought our chip lunch and headed quickly to the beach!

The kites were amazing! So many different kinds and something for all ages. The kids (and myself) were all completely enthralled by these beautiful kites flying in the sky. It is one of the quietest and most peaceful meals I have eaten in a long time! (Hey, maybe I should set up a few kites in the garden?……) They sat there watching the kites for a while before deciding to play on the sand. Next we headed to the bouncy castle, where for a small charge the kids could play on for as long as they liked! I was impressed with this – usually you pay a small fortune only to be told five minutes later that the time is up! This gave me and my sister some much needed time to sit and catch up whilst the kids were happily playing. Spending time with my youngest sister is very precious at the moment as she is hoping to head off to university in September – a university which is right at the other end of the country! I am going to miss her terribly – as are my kiddies!

 

After we had spent a few hours at the festival we caught the sea ferry back home to our village which was quite honestly a perfect end to a very lovely day. The kids had a lot of fun and are already asking to go to the festival next year – I think that means that they enjoyed it!

 

Fathers Day cards – (bath puff required)!

Fathers Day is tomorrow here in the UK and my kids love nothing more than making cards for their Dad to let him know how much they love him. I wanted to share with you how they have made these brilliant cards with some paint and an old bath puff! (Yep you read that right! Bath puffs are brilliant for printing with, simple to use and give amazing pattern results)!

To make your Fathers day card you will need – paint, an old bath puff, card and glue.

1 – Begin by squirting some different coloured paints onto a plate. (We used a paper plate but any old plate is fine).

2 – Use your bath puff to push down into the paint and print onto your paper.

3 – Once you are happy with your print, leave to dry. Once dry, you can cut out whichever shape you like. We used tie shapes for our cards! Mount onto card and ta – dah! My kids decided to add stickers to their cards too for some extra sparkle!

 

This is a lovely, simple way to print and make some slightly different Fathers Day cards! We really hope you like them.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Simple chocolate chip cookies!

I love cooking and baking with my kids! As a child my Gran would often bake with us and I have learnt many recipes from watching and helping Gran in the kitchen. What she probably didn’t realise at the time is that those endless cooking experiences have turned into some of my most favourite childhood memories.

I often look after my two year old nephew whilst my sister works and I am delighted that he seems to enjoy baking as much as I did when I was little. We decided to make some simple chocolate chip cookies the other day!

Chocolate chip cookie recipe – 110g butter, 175g plain flour, 165g chocolate chips, 55g sugar, 2 tablespoons of water, and few drops of vanilla extract.

1- Begin by preheating the oven to 160c.

2 – Add butter and sugar to a large bowl and mix well. Next add the vanilla and water, then stir in the chocolate chips and flour. Mix until you have a dough. (We tend to knead to form our dough – we do love messy hands)!

3 – Roll out your biscuit dough then use cutters to cut out your cookies. My nephew chose to make circle shaped and gingerbread men shaped cookies!

 

4 – Once you have cut out your cookie shapes lay them onto a baking tray covered with grease proof paper.

 

5 – Bake for approx 20 minutes or until golden brown! We like to sprinkle some caster sugar over them once cooked.

They tasted so good and certainly got a big thumbs up from my nephew!

 

Yummy, simple chocolate chip cookies to bake as a delicious treat! Enjoy!

 

 

Fork printing!

As a lot of my regular followers will know, me and my little ones love experimenting with different ways to paint. Don’t get me wrong paintbrushes are fantastic but we also love using other items! Fork printing is a super way to paint and kids love experimenting with different ways to use the prints in their art work.

To fork print you will need – paint, paper and forks (that’s it)!

Begin by dipping the back of your fork into the coloured paint of your choice and pressing down onto your paper ( you may need to roll it slightly to get the full fork print). My daughter decided to make a sunflower picture so she used a yellow then dipped the tips in brown paint to form the sunflower seeds. She also used a paintbrush to paint her leaves.

We did quite a few fork print pictures so we ended up with quite a collection! Here are a few of the kids pictures –

We really enjoy printing with forks. My son used to get a little frustrated with this as it can take a little practice to roll the fork, but now he loves it! My kids love mixing the fork prints with brush painting to make their art. We hope you like our pictures!

Happy Thursday!