When we lived at our old house, we would walk to town through a churchyard as it was the quickest route which also avoided strolling past the park which when you have a child/children who would recognise the playground it is hard to walk past without pleas of "can we go to the park please mummy?".
Last year around about this time, the churchyard was full of bluebells and one sunny afternoon we stopped so Burton could get out of the buggy and go exploring and touch and take a closer look at these pretty blue springtime flowers.
Bluebells don't seem to stay around for very long and the next time we walked through that churchyard they had all gone much toBurton's disappointment. He asked me where they had gone and I did my best to explain to a two and a half year old, and each time we walked through the churchyard he would ask me again where the bluebells were and when they would return. In the end after lots of "but why mummy" replies I told him that the bluebells had gone to sleep and would be back next year after Jenson's birthday *ahem*
So fast forward a year and of course Burton has forgotten all about those bluebells and how that now that Jenson has had his birthday and it is May, they are back once again! *kids!!* However, as we no longer make that trek to the town centre now that we have moved, I have been wanting to take both boys on a bluebell hunt for the past couple of weeks. Last Sunday it finally happened and I bundled the boys in the car and headed off for a place which OH suggested but I couldn't find it from his directions! So in the end I saw a sign saying public bridlepath, drove along, parked the car and off we went on our bluebell hunting adventure!! It was like looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, as we found everything but bluebells!
and finally we found our pot of gold - some bluebells at last!!
This post was brought to you as part of Flashback Friday
Remember a flashback can be from any time whether it be yesterday, last week, last month, last year or yesteryear! It can be a flashback of your own, your children, your partner or your friends. And if you don't want to write a post, then just link up a photo with a date. If you don't have time to write a new post
I love chilli con carne and I usually make it with beef mince, but the other week I bought some pork mince for a change (something we don't eat a lot of) and was wondering what to make with it when I found a recipe for smoky pork tacos and decided to adapt this recipe with what I had in my store cupboard.
Here is my version of a smoky bbq pork chilli con carne
Serves 8 (I froze half to use again)
Ingredients
500g pork mince
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped finely
1 tin of kidney beans in chilli sauce
6 tbsp bbq ketchup
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
500ml passatta
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp smoked paprika
To serve
boiled rice
tortilla chips
grated cheese
Method
Heat your oil in a large deep saucepan over a medium heat and add your onion and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes then add your spices
Add your pork and cook until the meat is cooked through
Add the peppers and continue cooking for about 5 more minutes.
Add the kidney beans, passatta, ketchup and bbq sauce and bring to the boil and allow the sauce to reduce and thicken. I did this by placing a lid on the saucepan, reducing the heat and simmering for about 45 minutes stirring every now and then to avoid the sauce sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Depending on how long your rice takes to cook, allow enough time before the 45 minutes is up to cook it
Serve the chilli with your rice and I like to add some cheese to melt on the top and some tortilla chips for dipping!
It must have been tasty because my OH who wont eat pork, agreed it was nice and had seconds! I am not a fan of pork either, but because the smoky sauce is so nice and it made for a very tasty meal.
Its not spicy as I wanted it to be child friendly, but if you preferred it more spicy you could add some chilli powder.
It is a quick, easy and very tasty meal which is also fairly frugal as it came in at under 50p per head and it could probably be adapted to cook in the slow cooker, which I will try next time I make it.
I remember that when I was pregnant with each of my boys, although I never knew their gender until each of them were born, spending a lot of time thinking up names and compiling lists of my favourite girls and boys names. My partner and I read books and visited web sites and even downloaded an app to uncover so many different names and their meanings. I actually found it really interesting to discover how many names there are and find out about their origins and meanings: from the traditional names to the more wacky I never knew so many existed!
Choosing a name for your unborn child is such a huuuuge responsibility and for us it proved to be even harder coming up with a name we were both happy with because we didn't agree on many names!!
When I was pregnant with my first born initially we chose Jack for a boy and Isabella for a girl but half way through the pregnancy we changed our mind about Jack because although we both loved the name, we thought about how popular a name it was (it was the top name back in 2008), and how at school our child, should it be a boy, would probably be one of many Jack's in his class or year! I am so pleased we changed our minds now because both his daddy and I LOVE and much prefer the name Burton, which doesn't even feature in the UK name charts!
Here are the top 10 names for boys and girls for 2012 - does your child's name feature?
This infographic has been featured in association with Bounty. My thoughts about naming a child are my own.
Last Monday we set off on our short break to Butlin's at Minehead, as part of my ambassadors role for the company this year. I have so much to say and so many photos to share that I will be covering my stay across more than one post.
As it was our first family holiday since the boys were born, to say we were a little excited was an understatement!!
We set off in glorious sunshine and made the short journey to Minehead (via my Mum's house as we popped in for lunch en route) and arrived just in time for checking in which was 3pm for our accommodation (the gold apartments) although we could have entered the resort from 1pm had we decided to arrive earlier.
As we approached Minehead, the unmistakable outline of the skyline pavilions on the landscape stood out and we pointed them out to Burton (Jenson fell asleep for most of the journey!) and whenever we saw the white pointy roof tops around the resort afterwards, Burton would point to them and say "there's Butlin's" even though the entire campus is Butlin's!!
As I mentioned in a previous post , we were given a gold apartment to stay in which according to a welcome desk member of staff is "posh" accommodation, when we went to the wrong office to sign in! From the outside the apartments look a bit like a beach hut with blue and white painted wooden panels along the exterior, and certainly stand out in a pleasing way.
The interior is simple but contemporary and I was really pleased with the layout. A twin bedroom, a double bedroom, a shower room with a toilet, a lounge/diner/kitchen and a balcony which the boys enjoyed eating their snacks on and people watching. As part of our package we also had daily housekeeping, even if it always seemed to be when we would return to our apartment each afternoon for a cuppa and a little break from all the Butlin's excitement. I took tea bags and coffee with us but I need not have as each day we were left complimentary ones, and we were also given dishwasher tablets, washing up liquid, a tea towel and washing up cloth - things I would not expect to have given to us. It is little things like this which I think add to ensuring that their guests enjoy their stay. There is also a TV and DVD player in the lounge and a very small TV in the double bedroom. A clothes horse was also provided which was handy for drying our towels and swimming wear.
The great thing about the resort is that even though it is huge and has so many activities and buildings on site, nothing is too far to walk to and once you know your way around; everything which seemed a long way on your first night isn't by the next day when you have found a more direct route!
As part of our accommodation package, breakfast and our evening meals were included as part of the premium dining plan which was a great addition to our stay. We ate in the Yacht Club which was a self service buffet style dining hall which offered a wide variety of meals.
Breakfast - continental style, full english, freshly cooked omlettes and pancakes, cereal, toast, pastries, fruit, yogurt and fish.
Dinner - carvery roast, stir fry cooked to order, vegetarian option, salads followed by desserts, cheese and biscuits and ice cream from a machine which you could dispense yourself.
If you don't have meals included in your break there is not need to panic because there are a lot of restaurants and eateries all of which are child friendly from Burger King to Pizza Hut, from a pasty take away to a bakery which sold made to order sandwiches and pastries, to a coffee shop to a pub which had an amazing couple of outdoors adventure play areas to keep the children occupied while Mummy and Daddy enjoyed a drink and some free wifi connection
and a fish and chips restaurant and a Spa shop where you could buy groceries. Oh and did I mention an ice cream parlour???
Being Butlin's there is always something going on to keep you busy and entertained from 8.30am until the early hours and there is something for everyone. Although, if like us and you have little ones then we were kept busy from 6.30am until 8pm!! The activity programme is packed full of things to see and do for all ages from the very young to the young at heart and we didn't manage to do all the things we would like to have done, and we thought we did well at attempting to do so!
There are daily live performances throughout the day in the skyline pavilion and a chance to meet some well know children's characters too and have a photograph taken with them.
Not to mention all the rides, the soft play, the sandpits, the swimming pool, the fairground, messy art, arcade machines, bowling, playground areas, football, volleyball etc.... honestly there are so many ways to be kept entertained. Once on site your holiday price does include an awful lot of free entertainment but you do need to pay for a few things like the bungee trampolines, the go karts, the sand diggers and such like but on the whole the majority of the events are included in your stay.
From the moment we arrived at Butlin's Minehead, the staff were friendly, helpful, courteous and polite. From the security staff on the gate who explained where we needed to park, to the reception staff who held the door open for us as we struggled with our luggage, the boys and the buggy entering the building and the cleaning staff who personally walked us to our apartment when we asked for directions. The poor lifeguard who very kindly cleaned up a little code brown incident which we incurred in the swimming pool showers (soooo embarrassing!).
However, what impressed both myself and my OH the most, was that when we got home and unpacked we realised that we could not find our iPad. I called Minehead's lost property department and explained my predicament and explained that we thought it had been left in the lounge (Burton left it on the sofa while he used the toilet before we exited our apartment). Half an hour later I received a phone call back and the iPad had been found and the member of staff we spoke to offered to find out how much it would cost to have the item returned to us in the post via special delivery, which we agreed to and paid the £8.75 postal charges.
I did not expect Butlin's to offer to do this, I was assuming we would have to drive back and collect it in person. Butlin's customer care is top class and I appreciated it very much as sometimes the little things like these examples can be forgotten in many areas within the hospitality sector nowadays.
Was it all perfect?
Pretty much yes BUT there were a handful of little complaints but only really for trivial things such as:
>no chest of drawers in our apartment - wardrobes, bedside table and a dressing table yes but not really enough drawers to accommodate 4 people's clothes.
>no internet connection in our apartment - which was a little annoying as it was available across the majority of the site with access to free wifi. Seeing as though most evenings were spent in our apartment while the boys slept, our entertainment was limited!
>the food in the dining hall could have been hotter - can't be helped as it was all self service I know
>more options for toddlers in the dining hall - like kids yogurts at breakfast and dinner instead of low fat ones, - toddler friendly cutlery and plates/bowls - I am sure Annabel Karmel meals were mentioned as part of the dining plan but we didn't see any in the Yacht Club
Would we go again?
Yes please!
We all had such a wonderful holiday and as I mentioned before there were still so many things we didn't do or couldn't do due to the weather or the boys ages.
Was it good value for money?
Yes absolutely.
I appreciate that this break was free for my family and I but had we paid it would have cost us about £700 which when you consider all that is included in that price (house keeping, two meals a day each and all the entertainment and facilities) I think that is excellent value for money. We didn't actually need to take much spending money - just enough for some lunch (which I often didn't need maybe a light snack, as I had a cooked breakfast most mornings which filled me up), some rides, drinks and a couple of trips we made outside of the resort (more about that in another post).
Thank you Butlin's Minehead for such an excellent stay!!
*Here is a sneak preview of what my next post will cover*
My family and I received a free holiday as part of my role as a Butlins Ambassador. All comments made about my holiday are my own and honest.
Welcome To Butlins (125/365) Bungee Trampoline (126/365) Cheeeeeeeeeese (127/365) Spud (128/365) Car Nap (129/365) Solo Sliding (130/365)
Sunday - while I spent the day washing and drying clothes ready for packing and baking a birthday cake for a friend of ours, the boys helped Daddy fix the new front garden gates so now we are safe and secure! Later in the afternoon they found a bottle of suncream (the boys not daddy!) and decided to cover themselves with it! It was hard not to laugh when telling them off for wasting so much of the stuff and for taking it from the suitcase when they were not supposed to!
Monday - a bank holiday and what a scorcher of a day it was! A great start to our holiday week. We set off for our mini Butlins break and went via my Mum's house for lunch. Arrived at Butlins just in time to check into our apartment and then we went exploring in hot sunshine and ended up staying outside so the boys could play until gone 8pm which was wonderful.
Tuesday - still a hot and sunny day (yaaay!) and we spent a fun and full packed day on campus today. Took the boys to Splash World swimming pool after breakfast - had to queue to get in! The only problem with taking them swimming is that the rest of the day they are both completely knackered which Jenson sorted by napping in the buggy. Burton, on the other hand, just keeps going which results in a boy who plays up a bit behaviour wise so although we did lots of fun things today it was a little fraught at times!! *ahem*
Still, while Jenson napped Burton did have a go on the bungee trampoline which he LOVED and he didn't stop laughing or smiling the entire time!!
Wednesday - not sunny today a bit overcast and drizzly :( so we decided to go out and about in the car. We went for a drive along North Hill which takes you out of Minehead and up over the peninsula - the one which you can see when you stand on the sea front outside Butlins.
We also visited Dunster Castle which is only a short drive from the resort and enjoyed a lunch in the picturesque Dunster village.
The photo doesn't show anything we did but just the boys excited to be playing on one of the adventure playgrounds that the Minehead resort has to offer - I told them to say 'cheese' for the camera and I just love their happy faces.
Thursday - each day at breakfast a 'character' made an appearance which all the children loved. Today was the turn of Spud from Bob the Builder which was relevant as just before we left for breakfast we had watched the show on Cbeebies!
Today we went off campus again and rode on the steam train to Watchet and back. When we returned to the resort we headed for the skyline pavilions to watch some of the shows that are put on for the younger guests. Burton wanted to see Mike The Knight and afterwards Bob The Builder performed, so that was fun for the boys. It was wet and windy today so we took the boys swimming again this afternoon. We also made the decision after tea to pack up and drive home tonight because although we didn't have to vacate our apartment until 10am tomorrow, with the weather as it and the same being forecast for the morning, we thought we may as well set off which we did at 8pm.
Friday - home again and I was feeling a little deflated after all the fun we had enjoyed all week to come home to washing, food shopping and rain! *sighs* still we decided to take the boys to a soft play centre in another town this afternoon, so I packed a picnic tea to have there. However, 5 minutes into our journey (which is 20 in total) both boys fell asleep! So we didn't go and will take them tomorrow instead. I love how in this photo of Burton napping he is wearing a sticker on his ear - when he woke up I asked him why he was wearing it and he told me because he was a 'Stick Lady Love' (we have been reading Stick Man this week) this made me laugh a lot!!
Saturday - the boys stayed at Granma and Grampy's last night as Daddy and I went out for a meal with friends, and a few cheeky vimto's may have been consumed :) *ahem* so before we collected them I tackled the housework and finished the washing from our holiday - exciting huh!
After lunch (which both boys ate without complaining - hurrah!) we played in the garden for a bit and then we took the boys to the soft play centre that we didn't visit yesterday. For the first time Jenson insisted on going down the slides on his own -"no mummy!" he told me when I tried to sit him on my lap!
.
Last weekend while visiting the boys (paternal) grandparents, Burton discovered the tyre swing which doesn't get used very often because of its close proximity to the leat which runs along the bottom of the garden. Its not that any child is in danger of landing in the water, but with my two I am always worried they may see the water and be tempted to get in and get wet!!
Anyway, while Jenson was busy on the trampoline with his cousins, Burton and I ventured across the drive to the tyre and he jumped on and got me to push him (adding his jumper mid swinging because it was a little breezy)
Watching him enjoy himself on the old tyre reminded me of when he first had a go on it two years ago on a hot Sunday in April on what should have been Jenson's due date, except he was born 10 days early! Back in 2011, I didn't see him ride the tyre swing because I was at home with a new baby while my Dad visited, and OH had taken Burton to his parents for a BBQ lunch with his family as it was his Dads birthday ( I hope you are keeping up with this tale!!). Back then Burton wasn't quite so confident and he doesn't look to be enjoying himself quite as much - although OH swears he did!!
Comparing the two sets of photographs, its hard to imagine that he was once that little and young compared to how big he is now. Over night he seemed to grow suddenly when just 10 days earlier he went from being an only child to my eldest and compared to his new born baby brother he seemed so big! Yet seeing these photos reminds me that he really wasn't, he was just my toddler who was no longer my baby.
Inevitable I know that time must pass, but I still cant believe two years have gone by since he took his first turn on that tyre swing.
This post was brought to you as part of Flashback Friday
Remember a flashback can be from any time whether it be yesterday, last week, last month, last year or yesteryear! It can be a flashback of your own, your children, your partner or your friends. And if you don't want to write a post, then just link up a photo with a date. If you don't have time to write a new post
.jpg)
.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
