Kitchen Day

Today I have spent most of my day in the kitchen. I enjoy making things in the kitchen on my day off, and as I promised to make something yummy for Dani at work on Wednesday, I got my bake on.

I am thoroughly enthralled in The Great British Bake Off for the second year now, I just love the recipes and all the great hints and tips you can get. One of their technical challenges in the past weeks was a Chocolate Roulade. I hunted the same Mary Berry recipe down, and got cracking.

Just as I was about to take the sponge out of the oven, I had a text from Papa, asking to be picked up from Uni, being a car down is a bit of a pain. This meant I had to leave the house to do all my errands, in an absolute tip! Luckily it allowed the sponge to cool and was ready for me to prepare after we had our dinner.

I think Mary Berry would be proud! It rolled quite well, I remember getting a 10 out of 10 for my Swiss Roll when we made them in school, so I must just have the nack. I had to roll it whilst an eager Mr Bee was begging me for some, it really was tasty when we tucked in to it! I hope Dani enjoys it tomorrow!

Feeling a bit fancy, we decided to have Stuffed Chicken Thighs and Potato Rostis for our dinner. The Chicken, stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon was delicious, the rosti however wasn't so great. The taste was perfect, but I made them too thick I think and the baby one was the only one that was cooked through well enough. I have learned my lesson though, and will make them thinner next time.

Daddy Bees, Mummy Bees and Baby Bees Rosti

 We needed to make a quick dash to the shop, and Mr Bee said that he wanted to come with me, and not wanting to take too long I got the sling to carry him there and back. However, he insisted that Sonny, our cat, came with us, in the sling. So jokingly, I picked him up and put him in the sling! He was very calm about the whole thing, and seemed very comfortable. I just had to get a photo, the silly cat!
However, Mr Bee seeing someone else in his sling, on his mummy, didn't like it one bit, and insisted that he 'got doooooown' and that he got in instead. What a funny pair they are!



The Christening of Sophie-Mae

Today we all got together at Saint Andrews Church for the Christening of my niece, Sophie-Mae. It was another beautiful day, perfect for the special little lady.

Sophie-Mae



Louie and I in the church, we did get some funny comments about the toddler wearing!

 It was a lovely service, Sophie-Mae was a little star, so quiet and well behaved. So was Mr Bee, he had a really long sleep in my arms, soothed by the singing of the hymns.

Sophie-Mae and Nana

 After the service, we retreated to Martin and Beccy's 'local' for the little party. Mr Bee was proving to be very restless after his lovely sleep, which is so out of the ordinary for my bright little boy. We had lots of fun meeting all the families and also seeing Katie and Kayleigh from Nursery!

Louie and Emily

 Because Mr Bee was so restless, I thought it a good idea to take him to the park across the road to cheer him up a little. Emily came with us too. It was lovely to go to the park that I used to go to when we lived in our old house, about 16 years ago. It certainly brought back some memories.

Playing in the autumn leaves



 They had a lovely time playing together. We walked back and had our photographs taken with the family then headed home, as Mr Bee was clearly suffering. It was getting very hot and he has four teeth coming through. After moaning in discomfort all the way home, he finally fell asleep with me in the garden

I hope Sophie-Mae, Martin and Beccy had a wonderful day celebrating the baptism, as I know we all had a lovely time :)

Sudbury Hall

Today we visited Sudbury Hall, we had planned to go visiting on Tuesday but decided to go to Ikea instead. So as we were both around today, I thought it would be a nice day out :)

So we got up early, went to get a picnic and headed off :)

Sudbury Hall

"Don't get your pooey shoes on me!"

Whilst exploring the gardens, we found the most lovely little play park for Louie to play in. A little wooden climbing frame with houses at either end, a slide and a swing. We just LOVE the wooden play park toys, I would love to have a huge garden with them in for Louie to play with.

At Sudbury, there is a Museum of Childhood. There are exhibitions about how children worked in the Victorian times, the attendant commented that Mr Bee was too young to work yet, but he would be in the work house at the age of 6! We visited a victorian school house, but skipped out on the lesson ;)

We both saw lots of toys that we remembered from when we were younger, this one stood out for me. The Polly Pocket in the middle. I had that one when I was a little girl. I even still have it in my bedroom some where.
Then we stopped to have some lunch and Papa Bee treated us to tea/coffee and cakes, mmm! Mr Bee was eyeing them up something chronic!

Ladybird

Then we visited the Hall. Sudbury is where the BBCs Pride and Prejudice is set (yes the one with Colin Firth as Mr Darcy! Swoon!). It was very grand, Papa particularly liked the Long Gallery, and especially the decorated cabinet, which we didn't actually get a photo of.

Papa Bee's perfect desk!

The servants steps, see how worn they are in the middle.

My PERFECT stove!!!

The Long Gallery

The Library stairs.

I also wore Louie on my hip for the first time using the Ergo. I usually wear him on my back, and sometimes on my front, but as I know they are a bit funny in these places about having children on your back (even though Mr Bee is as good as gold) I wanted him to be able to see and enjoy the house, so we experimented with wearing him on my hip. It was surprisingly comfortable, and Louie seemed to like it, however I couldn't reach around to do the straps on my own, so it wouldn't be practical if I didn't have a helper. At least we got a photo for good measure though :)

We both really loved it here at Sudbury Hall, and we will definitely come again. We plan to go later on next time though and head into the village and find somewhere nice for some dinner. I also picked up a leaflet for Hardwick Hall (we were debating between Sudbury and Hardwick Hall today, we went to Sudbury as it was a shade closer) so I think that will be our next NT visit. It looks beautiful.

Crazy Hats 9th Annual Charity Walk!

On Sunday morning, we got up very early (with protest I may add!) after a manic few days, to drive down to Wicksteed Park in Kettering for the Crazy Hats 9th Annual Charity Walk!

This is the second year that I have attended. Last year, I was a mere 5 weeks post partum, and bearing in mind the state I was in, I was very proud to have completed two of the five miles, carrying Louie in a pouch sling. Everyone cooed at him whilst he slept most of the way!

Crazy Hats Walk 2010

March 2010, 5 weeks old!

This year, I am proud to have taken part, we marched around the park and completed the 5 miles at 12:00. It is my first charity walk in which I have used my Ergo, which was kindly donated from the Ergo folk in Germany. We plan to do more fundraising events throughout the year.

I am pleased to say that I carried Louie (weighing approx 22lbs) extremely comfortably, and as you can see, he was comfortable enough to have dozed off!

I adorned my crazy statue of liberty hat which I have had for about 15 years, which my Mom bought for me to grow into which is still too big :P Unfortunately I didn't have a silly hat for Louie, but I have one in the pipeline for the future so I will keep you posted! We managed to hit the £100 mark this year too!

Anyway, here are the pictures and proof I did it! 

Marching on ahead!

To prove my 5 miles!

Louie and I with Glennis, the founder of Crazy Hats

With my medal and certificate!

Louie wearing a silly hat with Nana!

You can find out more about the charity here at Crazy Hats Breast Cancer Appeal