Wish List.... Simple. Lovely.

1. Arc Bangle - £43 Another Feather / 2.Aoki Jeans - £178 J Brand / 3. Finlay Fox Slippers-  £24.95 Sonia Spencer / 4. Cashmere Ring Scarf - £65 Hush / 5. Blah Blah throw - £195 Donna Wilson

Boxes of fun

Our postman and I are very well acquainted….. get outta here - not like that (he is 65, moustacheod and called Colin!). Daily I am faced with that wry smile and same joke about how my husband must be bankrupt, or how I am single handedly keeping Amazon on the FTSE 100 as he hands over armfuls of parcels. I know this sounds very materialistic and more than a little gross but it is not as bad as all that. We live in the middle of nowhere - well, not quite but there are only a sprinkling of local shops and to be honest very few of those you are likely to frequent so the internet is my shopping life line - from clothes to baby formula, toys to coffee it all gets delivered care of Colin. If this sounds familiar I am sure you too have a pile of boxes waiting for that Sunday trip to the tip that invariably gets put off in favour of the pub so it just keeps growing. Lenny is thrilled. This week we have made trains, cars, Humpty's wall, towers… the options are limitless. It was really fun but would have been even better with a few more boxes so watch out Colin you're not done just yet…..

Meatloaf.

This is quite a curious choice of recipe to post as meatloaf is rather out of fashion and it's very ugly to photograph. However, I cooked it last week and want to speak up for this humble meal as it really is a corker. My sister Ellie passed it to us and it has become a household favourite - very simple to make, cheap, kiddy friendly and a good winter warmer..... park those thoughts of grey school dinners that meatloaf conjures up and give it a try - high time he had a come back.

Ellie's Meatloaf

4 slices bread, crusts removed 

100ml milk 

500g minced beef 

250g good sausage mince 

1 leek or onion, finely chopped 

Red pepper, finely chopped 

2tbsp finely chopped or dried parsley 

Sea salt and pepper 

½tsp cayenne pepper 

¼tsp ground nutmeg 

2tbsp tomato ketchup 

2tsp Worcestershire sauce or Dijon mustard 

1 egg, beaten 

400g tin chopped tomatoes (although I use 2 as like lots of sauce)

Dried oregano

METHOD 

Heat the oven to 200C/Gas 6. Soak bread in milk for a minute or two, then lightly squeeze dry. Combine bread with beef, sausage mince, onion/ leek, red pepper, salt, pepper, parsley, cayenne, nutmeg, ketchup and Worcestershire sauce in a large bowl and knead until well-mixed. Add beaten egg and squish well until a little gluey. Shape the mixture into a loaf shape and place in a lightly oiled roasting tray. 

Strew chopped tomatoes along the top of the meatloaf and scatter with salt, pepper and oregano. Bake for 45 mins to one hour until meatloaf is crusty brown on the sides and cooked through. Slice thickly and serve with green beans or watercress.

Snapshots - a Sunday roundup.....

Its been a week of ups and downs. On the one hand lovely sluggy home days spent playing, a seaside adventure, Lenny's Godfather visiting and the other horrid colds, temper tantrums and a weekend of NO sleep from the boys and by proxy, us. Still, I have just awoken from a 2 hour nap and feel right back on top - thank you so much Ru this present was better than any chocolates, flowers and well frankly I don't think diamonds are as precious..... Here are the weeks snapshots.....

Croyde

Maurice looking learned

love these two.

Bro's

Boots for sale

Mint.

best thing about nursery? His bag - wears it all the time!

yet more ice cream

high maintenance much?!

High 5 bro!

These guys.....

Hitching a lift

Beach yoga - perfecting his downward dog

diggin'

sandy

This boy can spend literally hours at this table playing with cars and animals

Pete D

Nursery 1st day - there were tears from all.....

Straight from the lexus advertising shoot to one with our Lenny!

Look of Love

kisses

Jungle shot

Master at work - check out his shots here

Waxing godpops board

Beautiful tree jigsaw I couldnt resist even though it will be years until either of my boys will be able to do this! Too pretty to miss though - its from an awesome website that sells beautiful montessori games here

bathtime tickles

Sunday pub cheese bored - now we're talking!

flying

A charity shop find plonked down while I find a spot for it - hasn't taken Lenny long to perfect his bored school boy look!

Cough Cough......

We all have stinking colds. We were going to hit the zoo this morning but alas the volume of green gunk coming from the boys noses forced us to stay in our pj's climb under a blanket on the sofa and settle into some books..... (am I secretly pleased? What do you think?!)...... here are a few of our favourite page turners that help you smile away the snotty spluttering.....