FOR AISHA- let’s cook!

When weaning came around with Indiana I struggled to find baby food I could give him because they all cleverly smuggled in dairy which wasn’t suitable for poor little Indi because of his allergies. I came across For Aisha baby food one day in Asda and thought I would give it a try because all the ingredients looked healthy, organic plus dairy free! Victories don’t happen often when you have a baby with allergies, reflux and couldn’t sleep because their belly was never fall. I did my research and found that their products were not only dairy free but Halal and all ingredients were sourced ethically.

When making baby food you always need to prepare, prepare, prepare! Do your sleepless minds a favour and bulk cook and portion them to heat them up after a busy day. I took a recipe from the For Aisha cook book soon to be released! I made the Chicken and Sweet potato meal, it went down a treat.

You will need:

• 100grams of chopped onions

• 1 tsp of garlic puree

• 1 tsp of ground ginger

• 1 tsp of ground coriander

• 1 tsp of black pepper

• 4 tbsp of chopped fresh coriander

• 50grams of chopped chicken breast

• 200grams of lentils

• 100grams of boiled and chopped butternut squash

• 300grams of peeled, boiled and chopped sweet potatoes

To make:

1. Make sure you clean your hands!

2. In a non-stick large casserole dish, place all the ingredients together over medium heat, except the sweet potatoes and squash.

3. Pour 100ml of water over the ingredients.

4. Cover with a lid and leave to simmer gently for 30 minutes (to ensure lentils are fully cooked).

5. Stir occasionally to ensure the ingredients don’t stick to the pan.

6. Once cooked put all ingredients (and the potatoes and squash) into a food processor and dived up into jars to freeze or refrigerate. I got about five portions out of it. When processing the food get it to the right consistency depending on the age of the baby. Indi prefers it lumpier but smaller babies beginning weaning are going to need it really smooth. Add warm water for this.

7. Let baby enjoy!

For Aisha is available from Boots, Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and even Whole Food!

This was a sponsored post by For Aisha, I would like express that I have always used their baby food and wouldn’t promote something that the children or I didn’t completely love.

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#savvysleepover @ Fair Oak Farm

It started last week when I had a bad day, a bad day that would rival all bad days. I was ordered to go and get in the bath by Pat whilst he cleaned up the pig sty that was Thursday. I soaked in the bubbles and promised myself better things were coming. So imagine my surprise when Hanna (@the_savvy_mummy) messaged me invite to the #savvysleepover! It was exactly what I needed.

Emma (@mumofmadlads) and I set off out into the middle of nowhere and after a breezy drive down country lanes we spotted pheasants and tractors so we knew we had made it!

The land was simply beautiful with a huge farm house, 2 treehouses, a huge barn with a bar, coach houses, huts and barns to sleep in! With a cinema barn, outdoor play area, zip line, huge trampoline, teddy bear cottage, alpacas and peacocks to admire so the kids were perfectly entertained.

Hanna (@the_savvy_mummy) organised plenty for us to do from wine in the hot tub, afternoon tea, blow dries + hair braiding (thehairstylist_vc), pizza making (@notherndough) and even a lovely Easter egg hunt for the children!

The cinema barn was loaded with popcorn (@propercorn) for us to chill out too.

Indiana my wild child was set free to roam about and walk where he pleased which was lovely to see him enjoy the freedom of running and playing sticks. Delilah had her pick of the girl gang to play with too.

It was so nice to get out of town and breathing fresh country air and spending quality time with them. It was also nice to meet up with the mamas who you see on their tiny squares but not in real life!

Well done Hanna it was a hit! Can’t wait for the next ❤️

This was a gifted experience and the following companies sponsored the event including:

• Fair Oak Farm- http://www.fairoakfarm.co.uk
• Best day ever party shop
• Nuby UK
• Vita coco UK
• Dorset Cereals
• Little light PR
• My little piccolo
• SNS cocktail
• Fearne Mccann for Poundland
• Peanut
• Nothern Dough
• Propercorn
• Allwrappedup UK
• My Freda

My children have colds AGAIN

**** sake

Why are we in for more snow?! Why are we still wearing a million layers and why oh why are my children’s noses still running!!!

It’s the end of March and spring needs to hurry up. Fun fact: Delilahs middle name is Spring because she was born on the first day of Spring. With her birthday on Wednesday I feel as if we should of called her Winter or Snow.

If your children go to nursery/school/baby groups/after school clubs they are bound to get the horrid ‘sniffles’ too. Here’s what I do;

• Calpol. Dose them up! It has sugar in also so will boost them up a bit.
• Snufflebabe rub on their chest and on their feet (with socks on) it helps tremendously)
• Snuggle up in warm fluffy clothes with hot milk and movies (Paddington 2 for us) the milk soothes their throat. If you’re trying to ditch the dummies/comforters then save it for when they’re better.
• Cuddles! Lots of mama/daddy love to nurture them.
• Sterimar breath easy- I had never hurt of it until my Paddys mum bought it round (along with everything to make an entire roast, beer, treats) and it’s amazing! It’s sea water and it helps clear out all their boogers to help them breath easier which is a god sent. Delilah can blow her nose lucky but Indi puts up a fight.
• For night time I use a Calpol vapour. The pods last around 8 hours to help them breathing allllll night long. They also glow so double up as a night light!
• Fresh air- even for 20 minutes round to the park for a quick swing. It won’t help being bunged up all day with the heating on and it certainly helps you mentally!
• Olbas oil- drop a little into their bedtime bath to help steam out that bug.
• Clean- dettol spray everything. I turn into a bit of a freak when the kids get ill, I sterilise everything too to refresh it all!
• Wine- (that’s for you) a poorly child is de stressing for both parent and child so stay calm and chill. They’ll be back to drawing on your walls in no time!

What happened on our Valentine’s Day

If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know that I’m in a long term serious relationship with this guy

If you haven’t then this is Patrick (Pat/Paddy/Patchy/Bae/Baby Daddy) and we are getting married next year.

Today we celebrate our 5th Valentines together. I know, I know it’s not a major achievement but I’m a bloody nightmare/bridezilla at times.

So I thought I’d write a list on what we done for them:

1st- we had been together two weeks and I had already long before that promised to take my then 11 year old sister to see the Lego movie (which was shit) but I did go over to his house after to give him the cakes I baked for him. We got pizza.

2nd- we went with the friends to Bluewater for shopping and food. I was 8 months heavily pregnant and waddled about. We got tons of treats and spoilt each other. The four of us went to eat at TGI fridays and the waitress dropped dirty plates in my friends shopping bags (ruining a brand new Zara coat), we then had to move tables where a man on the next table broke up (and ended his engagement) to his girlfriend. All of food came out wrong and I don’t even think we paid for it. That night Pat and I got a Chinese and watched movies.

3rd- we went to the zoo! I was pregnant with Indiana and Delilah was only teeny! We had pizza in the evening.

4th- Pat treated me to a spa day and an afternoon tea. It was bloody heaven. Need I say more. I cooked a romantic dinner in the evening.

5th- this year we got a subway. We LOVE subway. Don’t sympathise for me because I was more than happy with it. I even cleaned the whole house, disinfected everything, deep the cleaned the oven etc. BORING I know. But we put the kids to bed, had a nice dinner and we watched a movie.

So none of these things are especially extravagant. I know. But that’s not who we are. We do however love each other verrrrrry much and making a conscious effort to make a little extra effort is nice. Just to treat each other, cuddle up and spend time together is really good to remember how much we do love and care about each other. Just to sit down and eat properly together is lovely!

I hope you all had a fab day however it was spend!

And to my babe. I love ya forever x

New year, same old me #2

Guess who’s back? Back again! Sophie’s back.. tell a friend.

I’ve been slacking a bit on the whole blogging front and I apologise I’ve just been so busy with festive stuff and everyone has been bloody ill!!

However, I’ve taken the time to reflect the year and write out my New Years resolutions before this Christmas kicks off with a bang and I get too pissed.

1. To be me! Keeping it real this year and not caring so much what other think. Time is so precious and I have 3 people who love me for me. I love Instagram and social media I mean it’s a bit part of my life much but you can get sucked into it.

2. To plan a kick ass wedding! I need to get my arse into gear and get organised.

3. Work on my brand and make to time work on professional goals.

4. Become organised. Keep on top of cleaning stuff, pack lunches and Mum admin.

5. Stop wearing frumpy clothes. I hate the way I’ve become. I used to loves clothes! I feel so hopeless about clothing at the moment and want to get myself to be me.

6. For the love of all that is holy I need to lose my extra five chins I’ve acquired recently.

7. #goodvibesonly *cringes* but it’s the truth. For example I used to get wound up with one particular Dad who treated his children like absolute shite and spoke to them almost abusively trying to be funny probably but got away with it more compared to what a poorer father would of done, it drove me crazy. One day I thought I’m just to do something here…. I unfollowed him and all the accounts that bothered me. I forgot about them and was far happier for it.

8. Get Delilah to nursery on time. I’ve been a little tardy recently and I’m annoyed with my tardiness recently!!! It’s so hard to get two toddlers out on time.

9. To get the kids potty trained if it’s the last thing I do!

Hope everyone has a fabulous Christmas.

Lots of love,

Sophie, Paddy, Delilah + Indiana

Xxxxx

Mummy Deer Makes- episode 1

Surviving Christmas on a budget

This year we saved the date and finally booked our wedding (yay!) however it has left us a bit penniless and led us to trying to be thrifty this festive season, especially when we have 2 toddlers!

1- Write a strict list for who you are going to buy for and stick to it. We’ve said that we are only buying for children because as adults if we want something we get it! I spent £500 on Christmas presents for siblings, in laws etc and it was really silly.

2- Buy the cheap wrapping paper. I made the mistake of buying gloss high quality (high price) wrap last year only to find my daughter struggled to rip it open. It all ends up in the recycling anyway so be thrifty. Primark and Poundland are fabulous for affordable paper and have some amazing prints.

3- Decide your budget for each child! I saved £10 a month after Christmas last year until October and that gave me £50 for each child.

4- Search for toys in charity shops because I got lots of brand new things for my two. I also recommend comparing shop prices for discount codes to get items at the best price.

5- Go to family for Christmas dinner! This cuts a LOT of budget out. We’ve spend £0 on food for this Christmas because we are going to stay with family!

6- Ebay/facebay/boot fair all the old toys to make way for the new ones. This puts some pennies in the fund.

7- Make homemade gifts for adults so you’ve still got them token gifts. I made salt dough decorations with my 2 year old. We had so much fun and the grandparents will love them! (So have a go!).

8- Ignore the Facebook mums who guilt you because you’ve not done elf on the shelf or Christmas evening boxes. You can create family memories without spending tons of money on silly stuff. The greatest family memories are going for a walk in the evenings to look at Christmas lights with my parents.