baking, cooking with kids, food, gardening

It’s been a lovely colourful summer, people have been grumbling about the on-off weather, rainy, then sunny, then rainy again, but it’s meant we have a lot of green in the fields (and our back garden), picnics in the park (sometimes under umbrellas!) and the multi-coloured fruit in the hedgerows have been in abundance!

The joy of finding all of this free fruit has been a delight, it’s brought smiles to our faces and with the winter months approaching, and summer picnics a distant memory, we’re so glad our Ocean Spray cranberry cartons do much the same, adding colour through the refreshing taste and by delighting us throughout the year (the boys just love them in their school packed lunches now the Autumn term has started).
Meanwhile, we’ve really enjoyed foraging for the fresh (FREE) fruit and made copious crumbles, and cakes and we’ve frozen blackberries for morning smoothies in the winter (TOP TIPs: freeze loose on trays so that you can bag them as single loose frozen fruits, rather than a big frozen clump! We also add dried fruit to our smoothies, and have a jar FULL of Ocean Spray’s dried cranberries, they add a real tangy zing)BlackBerry Crumble KidsChaos

aller farm glampingWe’ve spent a lovely staycation weekend down in Devon too – we seem to have given up camping this year (although the tent WAS out earlier in the summer for a night under canvas with 10yo) As a family, we tried out a bit of glamping, and are totally converted – it’s the way forward, the kids loved picking the red apples in their orchard, chasing after the free range chickens, and feeding the black and white Friesian calves, and we loved waking up to such a fabulous view of the green fields, and the wispy white clouds and blue skies…aaahhhh.

So as we head towards the end of the summer holidays, we are still going for our evening stroll around our own neighbourhood and continue to be overwhelmed by the natural colours which will forevever amaze us – Planet Earth at her best….(can’t beat a good British Sunset can you?!)Sunset-KidsChaos

I’m working with BritMums and Ocean Spray highlighting the everyday moments of colour that give each of us a little lift, just like Ocean Spray adds colour to our day and delights us all year round. I have been compensated for my time. All editorial and opinions are my own.

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I have always loved my Mum’s old typewriter – it was amazing to us to see her tapping away at full pace, she filled us full of wonder, glancing quickly at her shorthand notes and slamming the carriage return.tribe originals

The boys and I have been over to her house to start clearing as she’s moved to a care home closer to us, and they’ve delighted in the old Imperial’s discovery and have been typing amusing sentences to each other – and I’m so glad it’s in my life, as look, what an amazing photoshoot prop for my full collection of Tribe Originals! Pictured here are my new Maverick sunglasses, Coast watch which we are giving to Daddy for his birthday next week, sssshh, and Oak Wooden Cardholder which you can **WIN** {click here}.

Responsibly sourced, Tribe Originals are also offering an exclusive 25% OFF on their Wood Wallets (one of which you can win here)
Wood Tribe Originals Sunglasses – just love all of the designs, Maverick is so ‘me’ though – retro-chic!
Wood Watches – loads to choose from – pictured here, the Coast Hybrid Watch combines a tough stainless steel casing with real wood dials, to create a new generation in watch styles. We love how each dial is totally unique and will tell its own story…..
and Hollow Balsa Wood Surfboards – for 25% OFF use the code **incredibusy** at the checkout until 29th August 2015 here http://tribehq.co.uk/

Coast-crate Maverick-sunglasses-2 Oak-Cardholder-001-312x312

Ali also blogs over on aGreenerLifeforus.com and FunCraftsKids.com and is a lover of Instagram too… pop over and say hello!

kids

Family Friendly Hotel stay UK

Well we timed that badly, last minute booking of a B&B near Romsey for a friend’s birthday party and I find that every SINGLE room is gone already…. aaagghhh…. so I asked colleagues if they could recommend somewhere – and Premier Inn was suggested as an option. Phew, they had a room! And it was perfectly located for the party – just a 10 minute taxi ride away – spot on! The room was lovely, really nice decor, welcoming efficient staff.Premier-Inn-Review-Bedroom

So we jumped in the shower and dashed out for something to eat at a pub suggested by local friends, the three tuns – fab food, can highly recommend. At the end of a LONG but fun evening with friends, we returned to the comfort of our room at the Premier Inn –  the bed super comfy, and sooo quiet – they have a designated ‘quiet zone’ which was most appreciated – such a good night’s sleep!

Premier-Inn-Review-Shower

Breakfast the next day was a relaxed affair, with veggie sausage options as well as muesli, fresh fruit, organic yoghurts, and soya milk for the coffee. Couldn’t fault the food!

Now, we went without the kids this time, however, we noticed a LOT of families were staying at the hotel too, and it transpires that this is the perfect hotel for an overnight stop on your way to Paultons Family Theme Park, the home of Peppa Pig World – who knew?!

Thank you to Premier Inn Southampton West
Romsey Road, Ower, Southampton,
Hampshire SO51 6ZJ

crafts, create

Button Crafts for Get Your Craft On Challenge

Every month we run a craft challenge on a theme – May is #ButtonCrafts.

button craftsShare your Button Crafts photos on Instagram, or over on Twitter, using the hashtag #GetYourCraftOn, add your link to the linky below, and we’ll pick the best ones to feature here on the host blog the following month. (and on our Pinterest board too)

The photos you share do not have to be of the finished article – let’s see your work in progress as well as your completed masterpieces! Anything related to the #Button crafts topic. Just tag them with #GetYourCraftOn and follow and tag us too so we know you’re taking part) Our team’s four Instagram accounts are: @incredibusy (that’s me!), @redtedart @bluebearwood & @missielizzie.

This month’s Craft Challenge is #Sheep Crafts in honour of the #ChineseNewYear #GetYourCraftOn, and add your link to the linky below and check out our Pinterest board too.

FOLLOW #GetYourCraftOn team’s Instagram accounts @incredibusy @redtedart @bluebearwood & @missielizzie

BritMumsoh, and if you have a couple of minutes, any chance you can vote for me for best social media expert in the BritMums BiBs awards HERE


charity, cooking with kids, kids

Camila Batmanghelidjh and Kids Company Plate Pledge

You may have previously read my Kids Company article for Britmums – and I have been lucky enough to meet Camila Batmanghelidjh on a couple of occasions – She is an amazing and awe-inspiring person. Plate-Pledge

Every week, thousands of children rely on Camila’s charity Kids Company for their main meal of the day. They come to be fed, to learn how to cook, and to find a safe place to be a child. Cooking together and meal-planning, has been a really important time for my children and I, and we often find time to bake the odd cake together even now with all of the homework they seem to have as they get older.
We were reading Jay Raynor’s article in last month’s Observer and the statistics still astound us – that today through Kids Company’s centres in north and south London, Liverpool and Bristol, they now support 36,000 children and provide 3,000 meals a week. Of those children, 85% rely on Kids Company for the main meal of the day. “We find children coming to us with quite severe issues of malnutrition,” says campaigns director Laurence Guinness. “We have toddlers with rickets, 10-year-olds who look like seven-year-olds. When you see adolescents looking skeletal you understand why they join a gang.” “There is no responsible adult caring for these children. There’s a gaping hole in the safety net. There is no allocation of resources to the lone child.”  

My 10 year old son has pledged £2 today to the Plate Pledge – he asked me to type:
“This is from my 10year old son – who today cooked a fish supper for our family and baked and iced a cake. He is giving £2 from his piggy bank towards a healthy tasty meal for another child tonight.”

As well as having the privilege of meeting Camila, I have also been lucky enough to work with some amazing beautifully minded brands, and I was very proud to read this little note from Camila and Kids Company last week:

“We are delighted that 1 Two Kids has decided to continue its support of Kids Company through the Sophie La Girafe Baby skincare range in the UK and Republic of Ireland. It is wonderful to have this support for our 36,000 vulnerable children, young people, adults and their families,” says Camila Batmanghelidjh CBE. 

Kids Company recently launched a challenge to pledge support for a further 580,00 meals for these children – so far, with donations from as little as £2 each, equivalent to a plate of food to help make a hungry and vulnerable child happy – they have reached an amazing 549, 833 – to reach their TARGET: 580,000 visit kidscoplatepledge.org to learn how you can help too.

Ali also blogs over on aGreenerLifeforus.com and FunCraftsKids.com and is a new lover of Instagram too… pop over and say hello!

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The Penguins of Madagascar at Chessington World of Adventures

We’ve been fans of Chessington World of Adventures for several years now, and were super-excited to have the chance to stay at the hotel and take a look at their new Penguin themed family rooms, and to check out their Year of the Penguins’ spectacular.Penguins of MADAGASCAR kidschaos

With the Penguins of Madagasar movie out 30th March 2015 on DVD and Blu-ray, Chessington has a whole host of penguin fun to celebrate at the theme park as part of their ‘Year of the Penguins’.

penguins-cheezy-dibbles-logoThey even have a ‘Penguins Live’ Show based om DreamWorks Animation’s PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR which is a singing and dancing spectacular indeed!

So Chessington’s Year of the Penguins features:

A new Penguin Bay and the arrival of six new Humboldt Penguins in April for the new Penguin Presentation (too cute!)
NEW Penguins of Madagascar themed hotel rooms at the Safari Hotel
The new Penguins of Madagascar Mission: Treetop Hopper ride experience
A celebration of the partnership with DreamWorks Penguins of Madagascar and the new show: Penguins of Madagascar Live! Operation Cheezy Dibbles!
It is running for the whole year and tickets start at £26pp for the day click here

If you have a chance to visit, or indeed stay at the hotel, your kids won’t be disappointed – the rooms really are rather special and the boys couldn’t wait to get into their bunk beds. On a grown-up note, I have never had such a comfy night’s sleep in a hotel, and to wake up to see wild safari animals roaming around outside our window was really quite special!

Disclosure: We were invited to this event courtesy of Dreamworks and Chessington World of Adventures for the purposes of this review and it was my birthday too. 🙂

Ali also blogs over on aGreenerLifeforus.com and FunCraftsKids.com and is a new lover of Instagram too… pop over and say hello!

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THE PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR – ON DVD AND BLU-RAY

Penguins of MADAGASCAR DVD kidschaos If you’re a fan of the Madagascar Movies, you’ll be familiar with the penguin characters Skipper andKowalski so in their own fun film, The Penguins of Madagascar.

The film is available on DVD and Blu-ray and opens with a young Skipper, Kowalski and Rico leaving the other penguins to rescue a runaway egg. This egg hatches (hoping this doesn’t spoil the surprise!) into cute little Private, and they set off together on their adventures as one big happy family!

There was much hilarity at the penguins addiction to Cheezy Dibbles – a rather brightly coloured orange cheesey puff snack (the kids couldn’t wait to act out the scenes!).PenguinsofMadagascar_4028x2692_4

And there is also a rather hilarious character Dr Octavius Brine (part man, part evil octopus) and his plans to take his revenge on the world voiced by John Malkovich.

The film is action packed, and as a grown up, you really have to pay attention to keep up, yet the kids LOVED it, and can’t wait to watch it all over again now they have it on DVD.

Penguins of Madagascar is out on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD on 30th March from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Ali also blogs over on aGreenerLifeforus.com and FunCraftsKids.com and is a new lover of Instagram too… pop over and say hello!

crafts, create, education, key stage 2, kids, monster

Piper – a Minecraft toolbox for anyone to create and invent with technology. Build electronics. Invent power-ups. Create the future.

So – the kids were pretty excited last week to hear from Mark at Piper all about their fabulous new toolbox for budding engineers who happen to like Minecraft!
As a family we tend to use ‘screentime’ as a reward at the end of the week, for best behaviour, and finishing homework without it being an excruciating teeth-pulling exercise. Minecraft is their favourite ‘go to’ game, and without further ado, read what our 10yo thought of Piper, and then watch the video!

In short, my son, 10yo RB says this:

“Minecraft toolbox – Build electronics with Piper. Piper is brilliant for seven and ups. I think it is really awesome because the instructions are in the game so it would make children and adults interested in making things outside of the game. Minecraft is a good way to get people that like Minecraft to play it. It will make a brilliant Christmas or birthday gift. It will entice people to play because it is easy to build so you can get started really quickly.  Raspberry Pi is what all of the software runs on. Raspberry pie is a mini computer if you’ve got all the right equipment and gadgets luckily all of that comes in a really well made wooden box. The screen comes readymade and all fits in.

There are ten action-packed levels to complete in the game. You have to make your own buttons and fit the wires in the right places. The mouse comes with the box so you can look around.

There are lots more interesting exciting things about the game but they are for you to find out.”

RB Age 10 says – “NOW watch this video!”

How it works:

– First you assemble the wooden toolbox and connect it with the Raspberry Pi 2, a 7 inch LCD display, a power bank, and an assortment of electronics.

– Once assembled, you enter a Minecraft adventure map viewable on the LCD screen.

– Your Mission: guide a robot to rescue astronauts on a foreign planet. The robot’s hardware is damaged on the way over, and you have to build it in real-life to control the robot in the game to save the day!

How this educates kids:

– Each gadget you build gives you a special power-up and progresses you through the game

– First build the controller to navigate your robot. Add switches to activate hidden bridges and doors. A row of lights to serve as a proximity sensor and more.

If you want to find out more, click here. Piper are on facebook and twitter.

Ali also blogs over on aGreenerLifeforus.com and FunCraftsKids.com and is a new lover of Instagram too… pop over and say hello!

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Every month we run a craft challenge on a theme – February is #Sheep #Crafts.

Chinese-New-Year-Printables-KidsChaos-4

Share your Sheep Crafts photos on Instagram, or over on Twitter, using the hashtag #GetYourCraftOn, add your link to the linky below, and we’ll pick the best ones to feature here on the host blog the following month. (and on our Pinterest board too)

The photos you share do not have to be of the finished article – let’s see your work in progress as well as your completed masterpieces! Anything related to the #Sheep crafts or #SeantheSheep (! if you’re Aardman animation fan) topic. Just tag them with #GetYourCraftOn and follow and tag us too so we know you’re taking part) Our team’s four Instagram accounts are: @incredibusy (that’s me!), @redtedart @bluebearwood &@missielizzie.

This month’s Craft Challenge is #Sheep #Crafts. #GetYourCraftOn, and add your link to the linky below and check out our Pinterest board too.

[inlinkz_linkup id=494807 mode=1]

chinese new year, crafts, FREE printables, key stage 2, kids, life

Hand Coloured Chinese Lanterns

Chinese New Year PrintablesMy little blonde boys are both incredibly fascinated by the Orient, and at the beginning of every year are keen to go to Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year. We are lucky enough to be close to London’s Chinatown and a couple of years ago they bought some rather lovely window clings, graphic and colourful, but really too big for their bedroom windows in our Edwardian house.

Chinese-New-Year-Printables-KidsChaos-4Chinese-New-Year-Printables-KidsChaos-3 So this year, we came up with a fun way of making their own, from a template I created here (and if you click here and here you can download and print these Chinese New Year printables yourself too).

You will need:

Printable-Chinese-New-Year-graphics-KidsChaos-2-of-21) Print off the Chinese New Year printables template here and here
2) Packet of Sharpie Pens (*which you can get here in the UK  and here in the US)
3) Pack of Clear CD wallets or any plastic stationery sleeves
4) Blu tack

Instructions:

Printable-Chinese-New-Year-graphics-KidsChaos-1-of-21) once you’ve printed off the Chinese New Year printables template, blu tack the clear plastic cd wallet into position over the graphic and start tracing around the illustration with a black sharpie pen.

2) Then simply colour in with a selection of reds, yellow, oranges. Or if you fancy a change, try a range of greens and blues – that looks great too!

3) When you’ve finished, take the CD wallet and blu tack it to the window! voila!Chinese-New-Year-Printables-KidsChaos-5

To watch a video of how we did these Chinese New Year printables, pop over to Red Ted Art’s YouTube channel here where we have made a guest appearance (again!) showing you how to do this, you’ll notice that I got bored with the colouring in bit, and Maggy had to take over… as a Chinese inspired art project however, both of my boys LOVED doing these, and it kept them busy and quiet for AGES!
10 yo specifically asked for a sheep… as it IS year of the sheep!

Ali also blogs over on aGreenerLifeforus.com and FunCraftsKids.com and is a new lover of Instagram too… pop over and say hello!

 *affiliate links for your convenience… 🙂