We've had such a fun filled weekend!
Last week was my brother in law's 40th birthday so his lovely wife arranged for us all to have a big family weekend away so we could celebrate together. She booked a lovely house in Ramsgate, which isn't too far of a drive from where we live, but still far enough to feel like like we were away from home.
We left Friday evening. Normally Dylan would catch the bus home after school, but we went to pick him up instead and drove straight there. The kids were quite excited and so were we. It's always nice to get away isn't it! We were second to arrive and the kids immediately went to check out the rooms. I must say, the house was beautiful, spacious and lend itself exactly to what we needed it for...a big family get together / birthday bash.
Once everyone had arrived and settled in we decided to have pizza for dinner, we all knew the next day would be hectic, with more family and friends popping down, so we just wanted a fairly stress free evening. It was the birthday boy's choice and he couldn't have made a better one!
Afterwards we all headed up to the cosy lounge and chatted until late while the kids were playing.
Saturday started out in style and as all good Saturdays should...
with an amazing cooked breakfast!
We had sausages, mushrooms, poached eggs, scrambled eggs, tomatoes, bacon, toast, fruits, and croissants...and it was GOOD!
More family arrived in the course of the morning and we all sat around the huge dining table, chatting, drinking cups of tea or coffee and generally enjoying family time together.
I think the big kitchen / dining room is what I loved most about the house. Wish we had that amount of space in our house!
When our bellies were full we all went out for a beach walk.
We wrapped up really warm, it is after all January, but the weather treated us well. It was quite chilly but we had blue skies,sunshine and smiles on our faces.
The little marina we walked past was very quaint and charming, with little restaurants, art galleries and tiny shops. Dylan and Emily were looking at all the boats and pointing out which one they would want. I might have even seen one I wouldn't mind sailing away on.
The funniest bit though was watching the kids when we reached the sandy beach...it's like they were let loose for the first time in their life! Dylan ran straight towards the water line, Emily stopped half way to start building a sandcastle.
little cousin Lily soon joined in
And then they found a jelly fish
I would like to say Dylan didn't get wet feet, but I'd be lying!
Even the dogs were enjoying time on the beach
More friends joined us and a after catch up we headed back.
After a lazy afternoon just lounging around it was time to start prepping for dinner.
Stuart used to be a chef so knows his way around the kitchen and even though it was his birthday he still wanted to cook for everyone. Dinner was once again amazing!
We had steak (cooked to perfection), with peppercorn sauce, chips, onion rings, fried onions, mushrooms, homemade garlic bread, salads and coleslaw.
There were fifteen of us all gathered around the dining table, I told you it was a huge table!
My sister in law had a few surprises up her sleeve for her husband, one of them was a really cool / emotional / funny "this is your life" presentation. Even family and friends who live all the way in South Africa and America had contributed to this with pre-recorded messages and video's.
We also had cake and an array of other desserts
It was such a fun evening and some of the conversations around the dinner table were absolutely hilarious! I think the tequila that was had might have contributed to that just a bit too.
But the nicest thing of all was to be able to spend time together with our family. After all that's whats most important.
I think Stuart had a brilliant birthday and my sister in law did an amazing job organising this all.
It's now Sunday. We're back home. Work tomorrow and I'm not ready to let go of the weekend just yet.
When can we do this again?!
I cannot believe it's already Monday.
This weekend has just flown by. I'm sure I just left work on Friday, blinked, and now I'm writing this!
Anyway...
Saturday started out with croissants. We love croissants in our family, especially Emily, it's her favorite breakfast. I had mine with butter and jam...and boy was it good.
We had our breakfast while watching cartoons, which seems to be the norm around here on the weekend. I could have sat there all morning but unfortunately I had quite a few chores to do and errands to run. We all got ready quite quickly and even Simon commented when we were in the car at how early we were all out for a Saturday. I really wanted to go the the Range to buy a new diary, I can't believe we're nearly half way through January and I still haven't got one. I didn't quite find what I was looking for but we did pick up a few other bits and pieces and Dylan and Emily had one of those pick and mix sweets cups which they love. We also found Minion Tic Tacs!
We also hit the supermarket and as we were in the neighborhood we decided to pop around Simon's sister house and have lunch together. It was lovely to have a catch up and Emily loves playing with their dog Rocky. She kept putting a blanket on him and pretended he was wearing a cape, it was really funny the watch. They also had a little tug of war with one of his toys.
Their living room was so cosy with that little log burner, It made ours feel quite cool when we got back home.
We gave Milo a little toy we'd picked up earlier in the day and he became quite obsessed with it, it must be all the catnip inside of it. He's such a crazy cat.
The rest of the day was spend pottering around the house, you know, polishing, hoovering, folding clothes away, preparing dinner and we are all happy just doing our little things. Simon was trying to fix something on the computer, Dylan was playing on the Wii U and Emily had made a whole set up in her room and was playing an adventure with her Littlest Pet Shop animals.
The evening came quick and the kids asked for movie night so we watched Inside Out. While we were watching it Emily got out her crayons and drew all the characters but as cats, she "catified" them as she calls it! Her drawing is really brilliant.
Sunday morning was a lazy one and no of us was in the mood to move or do anything for a long time.
We had chocolate bread for breakfast and it was just divine. That kind of breakfast is right up my street! Must be the Belgian in me.
This is a shop bought one (Aldi in case you were wondering), but I have a recipe ready that I might just try out one of these following weekends.
We did eventually get up from the sofa and Simon took Emily swimming while Dylan and I went to into town. I had a gift voucher to spend and I knew just what to get with it.
I have been a Soap & Glory fan for quite some time now and only just used up all my bit and pieces from last years box. Bath time will be amazing once again.
We still had some time left before swimming was over so we went into Starbucks and it was just so lovely to have Dylan all to myself. He told me all about a game he'd been playing and all the rules and he was so passionate about it. He really is growing up before my eyes. He's such a sweet boy as well and when we went to his parents evening a few months ago his teachers were full of praise and it made my heart swell with pride.
Our afternoon was very quiet.
Nothing beats a lazy Sunday afternoon really.
We watched a movie, the kids played and Simon fell asleep and had quite a long nap.
The most eventful thing that happened was roast dinner. It was a good one too.
Even if I did burn the Yorkshire puddings ever so slightly!
Oh hi there, remember me...the one who's neglected this blog for over a year? Seems I found my way back. I'll mainly be documenting our weekends for now. I did after all start this blog, so many years ago, as a way of holding on to family moments and memories and I can just image laughing and reminiscing with the kids in years to come when we look back at moments long forgotten, and although these weekend posts might not mean much to you, they mean the world to me.
Saturday started of slow. I really do like when the kids are on school holidays because the mornings are so uncomplicated. No rushed breakfasts, no looking for misplaced homework, no nagging because they are getting dressed too slowly, no nothing. This Saturday we all seemed to take even more advantage of that, knowing the madness would start again on Monday.
I was awake quite early, I say early but I really do consider 7.30 a lie in. I made myself a cup of coffee and enjoyed the quiet for a bit. Slowly but surely my little gang came down. Emily first and she immediately claimed the warm snuggly blanket and Dylan came down shortly after. The morning consisted of Spongebob cartoons and snuggles.
At around 9 Simon came down. He'd just received a message from his dad inviting us all out for an early birthday breakfast/brunch for his brother.
We were all quite excited and looking forward to a good breakfast instead of toast to be honest!
We ended up going to Frankie and Benny's and the food was delicious. Dylan had ordered a breakfast pizza and it was the best thing ever! It was nice for the family to be together again, Simons dad and younger brother travel a lot for their work, and with everybody being so busy over the festive period it was nice to all sit together and catch up on things.
Afterwards we took a quick trip to the shopping center to buy Dylan some new school shoes. It was so busy! I would have loved a walk around but it was way too crowded so off home we went.
As the afternoon went on it just got darker and darker until eventually the heavens opened and it rained for the rest of the weekend!
When we got home I decided to do a bit of a clear out in Emily's room. She's a real bookworm and we are forever buying her new books. She recently got into this book series called Warrior Cats and she's hooked! Good thing Santa brought her a few more. She read her first Warrior cat book back in September and she's now on the third series. Not bad if you consider that each series has SIX books!
Anyway, all these new books meant she was running out of space on her bookshelf. She still had so many of her baby and early reader books, and I was taken back in time for a moment, remembering first flicking through them and hearing her read her first words when she was tiny. Sentimental as they might be they had to be packed away....second hand books anyone?!
We kept some of her favorites though but her little shelf looks so much better now, and it even has space for my Harry Potter books, which since going to the Harry Potter studio's two weeks ago, she's also crazy about! Bookworm, I told you.
After all that sorting it was time for a bit of Trivial Pursuit. Is it just in my family the dad cheats?
It was good fun but Dylan did find the questions quite hard.
Sunday was a quiet one!
I did a bit of tidying, sorting out and just pottered about getting things ready for Monday morning.
I think Emily was a bit jealous because Dylan has an extra day off school, yay, which means I'm home too on this rainy Monday, double yay!
In the afternoon I cleaned out the hamster cage and it's so funny watching her afterwards as she's all confused and trying the figure out where to hide her food this time around. It probably took her 20 minutes, with cheeks stuffed full of food, to decide where to store it all.
We also quickly popped around Simon's brother for a cup of tea, some cake and a chat and then home for dinner which was a delicious macaroni ham and cheese.
The evening came fast and before we knew it it was time for bed.
New work/school week...we are ready for you!
Oh and the cat...all he did this weekend was sleep.
Lazy boy!
I have finally decided to try out this 30 day shred I've heard so much about.
I was browsing through our holiday photo's and so many of them made me cringe,
all the ones I am in to be more precise!
You see I'm fat. Oh and I'm short. And I've got big breasts.
None of which work in my favour for looking slim.
but basically, I'm fat.
I could go on...and you could tell me I look fine...and we might just leave it at that.
But the truth is I don't feel fine.
I don't feel fine about the fact my jeans feel tight, or about the fact that lately I have to unbutton them when I sit down.
I also don't feel fine about being out of breath when I have to walk up the stairs quite fast...or speed walk after my kids when they cycle to school.
My wobbly arms and jelly belly...don't feel fine about them either.
And I definitely don't feel fine about that number on the weighing scale.
So yes. I'm doing the 30 day shred.
So far I've (only) done 3 days and it's HARD!!!
It's only 20 minutes a day. Not long at all.
But oh boy does Jillian make you work, sweat and feel pain!
There are three different levels to this workout and the idea is that you do ten days of each level.
Each level is circuit based with a mixture of cardio, strength and abs.
I'm finding it hard at the moment, the cardio especially is getting to me, even though it's only (ONLY) two minutes at a time. I'm hoping it will get better as the days go by and I'm hoping I will be able to do it without having to stop to catch my breath.
I woke up on day 2 feeling quite sore everywhere! Lifting my coffee cup in the morning was hard, today wasn't much better.
A sign of a good workout I guess.
Soon I'll feel stronger, healthier and hopefully slimmer for it!
Here's what I looked like after day 1 of the shred.
A hot sweaty mess.
Have you done the 30 day shred, thinking of doing it or have got any tips? I'd love to hear from you.
Support is more than welcome.
We have a new family favourite in our house!
The Lotus Biscoff spread.
Having grown up in Belgium I have always been very familiar with the little red biscuits.
For as long as I can remember we've always had them in the house, they usually came out at breakfast time (my dad loved to have them in between his sandwiches), at snack time (what child doesn't love these biscuits) and when we had family over they always made an appearance on the table.
Coffee and a Lotus biscuit are a must!
You can only imagine how excited I was when I found out Lotus had created a spread!
The spread is available in both smooth and crunchy varieties and we tried out the crunchy variety.
Holey Moley it is amazing!
It's like a biscuit in a jar.
I have caught myself a couple of times just eating it with a spoon from the jar, and the kids and husband were more than happy to do this as well.
This spread is so versatile and can be used in so many different ways. The smooth version can even be incorporated into dips, frostings and cakes!
Here are some ideas on how we used our crunchy spread.
On toast
I have been loving my breakfast these days. Cup of coffee, warm toast with Biscoff spread...yummy!
Milkshake
These are SO good! We blended together some vanilla ice cream, milk, a banana and two spoons of Biscoff spread. The result was a delicious milkshake that the kids loved and have been asking for again and again.
Lunchbox sandwiches
With school starting again and having one fussy eater my lunchbox dilemma's are now sorted.
Emily will happily munch her crunchy spread sandwiches and I no longer have to pull out my hair trying to figure out what to put on her sandwiches.
Spread on a cracker for a delicious mid morning snack
The kids love this snack and we found out it goes really well with chocolate spread, so most of the time they ended up sandwiching both crackers together. I loved adding some apple to my Biscoff cracker for even more crunch, yummy.
Lotus Biscoff caramelised spread is the perfect alternative to peanut butter and chocolate spread. It has NO added flavours, colours or hydrogenated fats and it is suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
We were kindly send our Biscoff spread for reviewing purposes and all thoughts and opinions are our own.
We just had the most amazing, magical weekend ever.
We went to Disneyland Paris.
We had spend the week before in Belgium visiting family and friends and wanted to take advantage of already being on the mainland. So after a week of being really excited we finally left destination Paris. The drive itself was quite straight forward and including two stops took us just under 4 hours.
We arrived before 10 and immediately booked into our hotel which was Hotel Cheyenne.
I loved this western style hotel and the staff were all so friendly.
We couldn't actually check into our room until 3 pm so after booking our lunch and dinner at the hotel reception we headed straight for the parks.
The kids were so excited on the short bus ride over to the park.
Their faces were literally alight with excitement.
Once through the gates we walked toward the pretty castle where we visited the dragon cave.
Emily couldn't get enough of the dragon! He actually became a daily must to visit!
I'd forgotten to grab a map at the park entrance but did remember a great ride from a previous visit many years ago, Thunder Mountain.
The queue was about 40 minutes but actually went quite fast, there were just so many interesting things to see. We were lucky and got to sit at the very front of the runaway train, which was probably a good thing as the front moves a bit slower than the back, but oh boy did we move! As we climbed out of the ride Emily said she must have had a heart attack and dramatically announced she did not like fast rides.
As we continued walking we found ourselves near the Haunted Mansion.
Both kids did not like the look of the house or the "creepy music" but decided to go on anyway. The ride itself was great and the effects amazing but the kids weren't too convinced. Maybe a bit too scary for them.
Since we'd done two scary rides we thought it would be nice to do a few quieter things so we visited the Swiss Family Robinson's tree which was so cool and we also went on the Dumbo ride and It's a small world.
Afterwards Dylan and Simon went on Space Mountain, Emily was still too small so we explored Discovery land and then met them at the exit. Dylan's reaction to the ride was hilarious and he couldn't stop talking about it!
Time goes fast in Disneyland and before we knew it we had to head back to our hotel where we had booked our dinner. While we were there we also picked up our hotel key cards.
We had a bit of a problem with our first room (REALLY bad musky smell) but after informing the staff we got moved to a lovely new room. The kids were really excited about the bunk beds and all the Far West style decorations, yay!
As soon as dinner was finished, which was a lovely buffet with plenty of choice, we headed back to the parks. We decided to spend our evening at the Walt Disney Studios. The kids really wanted to go on the Ratatouille ride but the queue was 130 minutes!!! Fast passes weren't available anymore so we decided to leave that one for the next day.
We loved walking around the Disney Studios and so did the kids. Most of their favourite characters were there and the rides were pretty amazing too. Dylan loved the parachute drop and Emily the Slinky ride.
By the time we headed back to the hotel it was dark and the Studios Park was closing. We wanted to stay for the fireworks but we were all just way too tired.
After a nice rest we got up early to have breakfast which was at Mickey's cafe in The Village.
We surprised the kids with having breakfast with the characters, something we had kept a secret from them!
Dylan's face when we walked in and he noticed Mickey Mouse and the other characters was priceless.
Emily on the other hand was a bit starstruck and shy. She didn't dare go up to Mickey to have her photo taken. We also met Pluto and Tac the chipmunk. It was such a great experience and seeing the kids excited faces was the best!
After breakfast we headed back to the park where Simon walked around Fantasy land with the kids while I went to queue up to get a ticket to meet a princess. It was a bit of a wait but well worth it as we got to meet Snow White. Emily had already changed into her princess Anna's dress (her early birthday present) and Snow White was really pleased to meet a fellow princess.
It was quite funny actually because a lot of the staff members all over the park greeted Emily with "oh hello princess". We told Emily to curtsy every time someone greeted her and it was so cute.
After meeting Snow White we went back to the Disney Studios to pick up our Ratatouille fast passes and we ended up meeting Buzz Lightyear!
We were also just in time to see the Stars n Cars parade where the kids got to meet a few more characters. Pinocchio was the funniest and full of energy, he even gave Dylan a head rub!
We did a few more rides and the most amazing one was Crush's Coaster. What a ride!
Definitely a family favourite.
Something we definitely didn't want to miss was the Disney parade so we headed back to Main Street to get a good space and it was just so magical. Emily (or little Anna) even got a wave and wink from the real Anna, it made her day even more magical!
We had dinner at the Plaza Gardens in Main Street and I couldn't recommend it enough! It was buffet style and we were spoilt for choice. The staff were friendly and the kids loved it because it was a bit of a "fancy" restaurant, it made them feel very important.
After dinner it was finally time to go on our long awaited Ratatouille ride.
It is the parks newest ride and definitely worth the wait. It's all in 3D so you get to wear some funky glasses. The kids loved this ride, and so did we!
We left again as the park was closing and day 2 had been a very successful day.
We started day 3 by meeting Donald just outside our hotel! The kids said he gave the best cuddles as he was so soft.
We entered the park really early and we headed straight for Discovery land. I love those 2 extra hours hotel guests get as it's far less crowded and there are hardly any queues. In those 2 hours we went on Buzz's laser blast which was so much fun, the Orbitron, Autopia and Star Tours.
We then went back to Fantasy land to go on the Peter Pan ride, Pinocchio ride and Snow White's Forest ride.
In the afternoon we were lucky enough to meet some more characters, Captain Hook, Mr Smee, Peter Pan and Wendy. They were all so much fun to meet.
We then queue for the pirates of the Caribbean but just before we were about to get on the ride broke down, oh no! Not sure what had happened but everyone queueing up had to leave and the ride closed. Hmm, I wouldn't have liked to be the ones stuck at the top of the hill!
Later in the afternoon we also met Minnie and Rapunzel. Both meet and greets were happening at the same time in different locations so Simon and I split up . The queue for Minnie was shortest so I told the kids to stay with me to meet her first and we would then walk back to daddy to join him queueing for Rapunzel but Emily wasn't convinced and even after assuring her she wouldn't miss Rapunzel she still didn't want to chance it.
Dylan meeting Minnie was the cutest though and he even got a kiss from her!
We then rejoined Simon and Emily and met pretty Rapunzel who told us her hair took forever to brush.
I love how all the characters we met were so amazing! They all interacted with the kids so well, they all had their special little poses and mannerisms and they were all just perfect and really sweet.
It was nearing Parade time again so we decided to watch it one last time before heading back home.
I think we were all a bit sad to leave.
Our weekend was truly magical and we made some amazing memories.
We can't wait to go back again!
I love a good oven bake. Partly because they are so easy to make, I mean you just throw everything into ONE dish (less dishes to wash people!), and partly because they always end up tasting scrummy.
Yesterday I walked into the kitchen, recipe in mind, and when I went to get the potatoes there were only two teenie tiny ones left. Just like that I had to reinvent what I was going to make for dinner.
Sweet potato to the rescue!.
I don't know what it's like in your house but we love sweet potatoes, so this dish came together very effortlessly and was eaten very gratefully.
My ingredients were:
1 large sweet potato
3 carrots
1 green pepper and 1 yellow pepper
1 red onion
Olive oil (enough to coat all the veggies)
1 tbsp garlic salt
1tsp Herbs de Provence
Method:
Preheat oven to 180 Celsius
Cut all the vegetables in large chunks and add to oven dish
Coat with olive oil
sprinkle on garlic salt and herbs
stir together
bake in oven for about 30 minutes
I served our sweet potato bake with sweet chili chicken skewers and it was delicious!
Definitely making this again.
