FREE Printable Scavenger Hunt

It's half term. In my quest for fun, cheap things to do I came across this lovely blog. I've done scavenger hunts with the girls before (I really rate this one too) and they're a great way to get more out of a walk. They do enjoy it so I thought they would enjoy a listening walk but I decided to create them something visual they could tick off as we went. You can enjoy it with your children too as it's available to download at the end of this post. 

I shrunk the charts to A5 and stuck them on some thick card (pieces of cardboard boxes) together with little pencils on string. I should really buy some little clipboards, lol! We went on our usual walk down past school, via the playground and along the river to feed the ducks. Before we had even left the garden the girls were ticking things off. During the day there was some debate about whether we had really heard a bee or not but we managed to tick everything else off, even the sirens. We talked about the sounds, about how we heard them: we heard water because, "Mummy duck splashed it," said Big Girl! We talked about other things we could hear, you could maybe extend this activity for older children by getting them to write down the other sounds they hear, or even draw pictures to illustrate them?

Do let me know how you getting on on your Listening Scavenger Hunts.

 

You can download the Listening Scavenger Hunt here:

What have I been up to?

I'm not a very good blogger. At least, I am not a very regular blogger! Just wanted to show you what I have been doing with my time. In addition to my lovely children's clothing keepsakes I have also been making some new keepsakes.

Firstly I started making bag tags, personalised charms for children's belongings. They have proved really popular and I've had a lot of fun sourcing different charms.

Then for Valentines I started making these little pouches with Love Hearts in them. 

And they were really, really popular so popular that I made them again for Mother's Day and Easter and I've been commissioned to make them as party favours. 

 

And now I am making special Mini Spa Pouches, Father's Day Pouches and Teacher's Thank you Pouches!

 

It's great having lots of products for sale. It brings such variety to my days! The tags are priced from £2.25 and the pouches from £2.00. Please visit my facebook page if you are interested in purchasing: www.facebook.com/memoriesgro

Delicious Moroccan Mince

I've been lucky enough to become a member of Tesco Orchard, which allows us to try lots of great products for free or less. Recently I was asked to take part in the Midweek Meal offer which was great because we got £10 of fresh meat for free! Thanks Tesco. We got some pork mince (great because you get 850g in a pack), pork steaks and beef strips.

The first thing I cooked was a Moroccan Mince, which I've done before. It's based on the BBC quorn recipe, here. Four out of five of us love this recipe so I am still working on Big Girl! It's perfect for us as we can leave it cooking while we bath and put the children to bed and then it reheats beautifully for their tea the following day. Oh and I usually get another three child size portions out of it to freeze. Super!

Ingredients
1tbsp oil
2 or 3 onions
2 tbsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 tsp ground turmeric
800/1000ml chicken or vegetable stock
850g Tesco Pork Mince
Chopped vegetables: suggest carrots, broccoli, frozen sweetcorn, celery

To serve: couscous or rice

Method:

1. Heat the oil and gently fry the onions for a few minutes. Stir in the spices and fry for a further few minutes.

2. Add the mince to the pan and fry until brown.

3. Stir in your vegetables and stock (see below).

4. Bring to the boil and then simmer gently for anywhere between 30 - 75 minutes depending on how long you have, how soft you like the mince and vegetables. The longer you cook it for the more stock you will need.

I haven't made it with other types of mince but I bet it would be really tasty!

Gorgeous Boy Lion!

Here is the latest animal I have made! The lady who ordered him was keen that I include the Mickey Mouse motif from the little man's hoody so I gave him pride of place on the tummy. I also included a couple of buttons from the shirt on his ears. It's the little touches that make my creations!

To find out more have a look at my Facebook page
or Etsy Shop!

 

Easy Peasy Teacher Thank You Card and Gift

Big Girl has been at pre-school a whole year, I can't believe it! She's learnt so much from her time there and the ladies who taught her were lovely. I'm not a big fan of jumping on American bandwagons, I think that's what "teacher appreciation" is?! I wanted our gift and card to be genuinely made by Big Girl. So it had to be easy if I was going to get her to do it three times!

I just wrote out "thank you" on a piece of paper and got her to stick the letters I had cut out from magazines the day before on to the cards in the right order. She has really got into writing recently and she did very well picking the right letters and glueing them on, she really enjoyed it. She did decorate them a bit more after this picture was taken, with sticky gems and tin foil, the current favourite!

We also made gifts. We decorated large mayonaise jars by sticking tissue paper shapes to them. I used watered down PVA glue. I also painted over the jar with another a layer once Big Girl had finished.

 I bought some epsom salts from Ebay and we made our own bath salts using this tutorial from Simply Designing. We used lavender essential oil as that's what I have. On reflection I would have added some lavender flowers as well as the rose petals but it did still look really pretty. It was a lovely thing to do together and simple enough for Big Girl. We popped a church candle in the bottom of the jar so that when the salts are gone the teachers can use them as candle holders. The lids were a rather garish blue so I spray painted them white and finished them off with a personalise lable and some satin ribbon. The ladies did seem pleased! 

Baby Boy Joules Rabbit Dolly

Not very long ago I sold one of my New Baby Gift Vouchers to a good friend and a couple of weeks ago she bought me her friend's child's garments.

They included a stunning Joules top which I just had to showcase on the little boy's trousers, using the iconic little Joules rabbit alongside his personalisation! I'm sure you'll agree that the result is a very cute little keepsake?!

Find out more about all my keepsakes at

My Facebook Page

or 

My Etsy Shop

Bake Bread 2gether! Only 2 ingredients!

 I couldn't believe my eyes when I came across a link to this lovely website via Pinterest. Bread, from two ingredients?!? Never! But yes, it is that easy and we had a great time. The ingredients are  

1 cup of self-raising flour

2/3 cup of Greek yogurt

So easy, right? I also gave my girls silicone cup cake cases full of seeds to decorate their bread with. I was learning on the hoof with this one and quickly realised that my girls (2.5yrs x2 and 4yrs) were not going to be able to form their own shapes from the bread easily so I gave them more of the cup cake cases and they filled these, which made nice little buns.

I was careful to bake the bread knowing whose was whose so that they could eat their own. I have to say that I thought it was quite doughy and rather sour but the girls were still keen to try their bakes. 

We made quite a lot of bread so I did freeze some of it. We've had more out since and this time I slathered it with cream cheese and this time it was eaten more enthusiastically. I would definately like to try this activity again.