Getting Messy In The Kitchen With Vivid Toy's Real Baking Sets

Stained Glassed Biscuits!

I used to bake all the time when it was just me and Noah, but then when the twins came along I thought it was too messy and there was too many of them (children) and not enough of me.

I didn't want the mess.

When I did bake, I always usually end up buying one of the character cake mixes,

1 because I think they appeal to the kids more and

2 because I think its easier and less hassle.

When in fact, the kids don't really care about the character, they just want to have the fun of baking up something yummy with you and the pre done cake mixes really aren't  as fun, as they take next no time at all.
They also always end up tasting rather naff.

Baking should be about having fun and getting messy.
Baking from scratch really isn't that hard and it doesn't take that much effort to do.
You always have 100x more fun too.

We were recently sent the Vivid Toys new baking range

Real Baking

As Noah and the twins are now back at school I thought I'd have some one on one baking fun with Ru.
He loves getting messy so I knew he'd be game.

I picked out the Cookie Kit and searched the web for a recipe.

I came across a Mary Berry one -

What You Need:

175g Softened butter,

100g caster sugar,

225g plain flour,

20 boiled sweets.

How to make the biscuits:

Preheat the over to 160*C

Line two baking sheets with non stick paper,

Mix the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until smooth,

Add the flour and use your hands to make the dough,

Sprinkle flour on the work surface and using a rolling pin roll out the dough until its around 1cm thick.

Cut out your shapes and place on the baking trays.

Smash the boiled sweets with a rolling pin and sprinkle into the middle of the biscuits.

Place in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes.

Take out the oven and leave to cool!

The Cookie kit, came with pretty much everything we needed minus the ingredients.

We had plenty of cutters to choose from and there's even a handy dough guide, so you can roll out the dough to the perfect thickness.
The rolling pin was easy enough for Ru to use with a little guidance.

It was great fun getting messy with Rupert and our biscuits turned out great!

I love how pretty they looked when I held them up to the window!

Something we will be making again.

They'd make lovely Christmas gifts for the grandparents.

You can buy the Vivid Toy Real Baking Cookie Kit from amazon for £14.99

Coming up - Twin Bake Off

Clearing My Head

I've said before going to the beach always helps clear my head.

Yesterday whilst we had a house viewing we all headed off to the beach.

Jon has just had nose surgery so he wasn't up for doing much walking, so he sat on the wall whilst the twins and Noah ran around trying all the work out machines and I sat on the beach with Ru.

Ru threw stones and ran away from the waves and I sat and let my head clear.
I'm not going to sit around and let myself have a pity party for one, I'm just going to get on with life.
If I sit around in this black hole for much longer, it will be 10x harder to come out.

I made up a list of things that I should do, and told myself just to take one day at a time, yes there will be shit days but that's life, not everything is rosy!

The boys being at school will give me the time to sit back and relax a little and get the stuff I need to get done with out the constant battles going on with them around.

Rupert is at nursery on Tuesday's & Friday's so that will give me time if I wanted to pop out on my own for a coffee and a chill!

I'll be able to put some love back into the blog, as lately its been lacking that and I'm sure it shows.

Yesterday I finally set up my Epson eco tank printer and set about printing off some pintable's that will help me get back on track!

Daily, weekly and monthly sheets that I found from elizaellis.blogspot.co.uk, and from www.welliesandlemonade.com I found 'My life and goals planner' printable.

I've already started putting them to use, I need to get myself a new planner/journal as I packed my other ones away and Jon popped them in the loft so they would be out of the way when we had viewings!

I also printed off my lovely blog header design as I just love it so much and hopefully seeing that every day when I walk down the stairs will rekindle my love affair with my blog!

Coming up soon a monthly round up of the books we've been reading!
x

Date Night || Review

Date nights aren't something Jon and myself do enough off.

Usually our date nights include a take away and a film.

Nothing exciting or original there, so when I found out about www.getdatenight.co.uk a monthly subscription box delivering fun and creative date night boxes right to your door, I was more than willing to give it ago.

Our box was a wine tasting box!

Wine tasting is something that's always interested me and of course I LOVE wine and I'm more than happy to try out new ones!

What came in our box;

A selection of wines,

Instructions on how to taste wine,

2 Wine scoring cards,

2 secret envelopes,

A mini box of chocolate,

A wine & wishes quiz card.

Grow your own wine seed kit.

We switched the TV off and set up the coffee table.

We were planning to dress up but both decided that we were a bit too lazy for that!

Tasting the different wines was great, I'm not a red wine girl so I was dreading the Reds in the selection but to be fair one of them was really nice!

One of the white wines - La Perle d'Arche was gorgeously sweet and I'm now on the hunt to find it in our local supermarket! 

I completely failed on the quiz which meant Jon one with only a couple of correct answers, all of which was guesses but it meant he won the secret prize in envelope 2.

Wish tickets!

I'm sure he'll be cashing in some of those very soon.

We both giggled lots and it was nice to actually do something completely different, even though we were at home it didn't feel like the usual stuck at home dates we normal have.

We both learned new things and both had fun.

It was nice to focus on something other than the children or the rubbish that's on TV these days.

We had fun just being in each others company.

I think as a couple we really need to make the effort to spend one on one time enjoying each other.

We don't want to become two people who share a house and look after the monsters that we both created.

The date night box gave us that opportunity as it isn't as simple as it would be if we didn't have the kids.

We'd be able to go out and about if we wanted.

Having a date night box sent to us, gave us an exciting and fun date night that we could have in the comfort of our own home and with the kids all tucked up safe in their own beds.

No disruptions for them and no stress for us!

Would I buy a date night box myself?

I think I would!

I think its a fab idea, especially for parents like us who find it hard and stressful to leave the kids with babysitters.

A different date every month, it takes the pressure off you for trying to organise something, it give you something you'd probably never have thought about doing and it lands right on your doorstep!

You don't even need to leave the house to plan the date!

AMMMAZING!

The Date Night box is just about to launch and if you sign up on www.getdatenight.co.uk you can get 50% off your first box.

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