Care Bear/Rainbow Cupcakes

Here we have lovely rainbow cupcakes that I whipped up as an after thought on the morning of THE party!

Yeah right!

I saw them and thought 'I wish I could make these but I sense a disaster waiting to happen'. I cant even manage the cupcakes you make from a box.

Luckily for me I have a Lil' Sis' in the house! I was showing her what I was going to make and what I wished I could make and she volunteered to make these babies! Yes she has her uses my Lil' Sis'!!

She used a yummy lemon loaf recipe she learned while cooking for the old folks at her work! Then decorated them as shown. Not difficult really I suppose but anything past just icing and my brain doesn't compute how to tackle it!

Clever Aunty Katy.

Except you may notice the icing is not quite the right color ... Perhaps better for a Smurf theme!! Not so clever Katy thought the food colouring would have a dropper but it's actually a pourer so she got a whole lot more colour than she bargained for!

The rainbow belts were a wee bit droopy too but I'm not sure how to fix that. As a wee added extra we popped a gummy bear on top to fit the Care Bear theme, I didn't get a very good picture of that though, we did that last minute and as soon as they were served they were woofed down.

They were so tasty, blue icing and lemon cake make an awesome combination! With my sisters permission I will blog about the cake recipe at a later date!

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Meal Planning Monday 27th August 2012

Some weeks meal planning is really simple but I stupidly asked for input form Lovely Hubby and Lil' Sis. I wish I hadn't! Lil' Sis just wanted the same things as last week! And everything I mentioned Lovely Hubby stuck his nose up. So I went in a strop and rather childishly proclaimed 'f@&k you both you can do the fecking meal planning'. Needless to say they didn't so I did it myself and didn't ask for their input. They'll eat what they are given!

Maaaaan I sound like my mother ha ha ha!



I am increasing my work load as of this week so I have tried to keep things as simple as possible! Things might get a bit repetitive but needs must!




Sunday - We spent the day in Wellington so we treated ourselves and The Cherubs to dinner out. We went to a cute little pizza place called One Red Dog. It was great. We don't go out much so I was nervous about asking them to heat Archie's milk and purée but they were so cool about it. I just remember when I asked in the U.K for people to do the same for Maisie some people were so awkward about it. As well as great service the food was great.  I had mussels to start and calzone for main. Yum yum!



Monday - Thai Green Prawn Curry with rice and broccoli. First day working in a new place and working till 6pm so need it to be simple.



Tuesday - Grilled chicken, roast potatoes and curried mushrooms. I know we had that last week but it is so good and easy. And we all love it.



Wednesday - Sweet Potato Curry. A veggie curry my chum from Mummysknee blogged about as a guest blog for At Home With Mrs M? It looks like just my cup of tea or perhaps I should say just my bowl of curry! I do however think I will need to add some kind of meat to keep Lovely Hubby happy.



Thursday - Good old meal planning regular ... pasta with creamy garlic and pesto sauce, bacon and some kind of veg.



Friday - Not sure about today, will rustle something up with what we have.



Saturday - Cherry Tomato Pasta, a Gino D'Acampo recipe I believe. It's been a while since we have had it but I'll give it a whirl.



Whats on the menu with you guys?



Check out some more meal plans over at At Home with Mrs M.

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#Silent Sunday 26th August 2012

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This Week in N.Z

My week in instagram pictures ...

Miss Maisie in her Sunday best offering out cups of tea.

A rare picture of the boys. Looking rather smart. This picture probably looks normal to everyone else but it looks odd to me. For some reason the instagram app made it into a mirror image! So the room behind them on the left is actuall on the right ... Weird!

And a rare picture of the girls, all be it with awful squished up wee faces but its not easy taking pictures of yourselves with an iPhone. Some folk seem to have a knack for it, I've seen lots of lovely profile pictures people have obviously taken themselves but everything time I try I look hellish !

Usually if Maisie is playing she does it in the living room, a shame really seeing as she has a lovely bedroom with lots of lovely toys. So on Monday I made a house for her favourite teddy Doug (she has three) using her princess tent and dolly furniture and accessories. We had one Doug in the cot, one Doug in the highchair and one Doug in the bath. I popped Archie in to see what he thought and he loved it. I left them to it but after 5 minutes Maisie came and told me she was scared, on further questioning in order to stop her being scared I had to take Archie out the tent??? Not sure I understand but hey ho!

I used this picture as my #SatCap picture click here to check it out.

Beach time after kindy on Wednesday. Her face isn't dirty it's the remnants of face paints! For a little girl who hated the beach when we first came here 20 months ago she sure does love it now!

Me and the hound enjoyed a cherub free Friday morning stroll on the beach. It was glorious day, sunny enough for jandels/flip flops /thongs and sunglasses but chilly enough for my quilted jacket. Read about this particular trip to the beach here, a lesson in nosiness for me.

You can tell the days I was working by the lack of picture from that day ... I've got a busy work week next week so maybe I'll take some pictures at work!

I'm linking this up to a great Linky over at Life Rearranged, click on the pic to see more ...

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Saturday is Caption Day 25th August 2012

Caption this pair of cheeky chops please and thankyou x

Happy Saturday xxx

This week we are linking up to Annie's SatCap at a different venue ...



Myfirstphotoblog

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Sheltered? Moi?

I'm beginning to think I have led a sheltered upbringing!

I would have thought coming to live on the sleepy area of the Kapiti Coast in New Zealand would have meant that I would be the big city girl! You know! The streetwise chic! Nothing should make me raise and eyebrow (something I can do one at a time by the way, a McLelland trait, The McLelland Eyebrow if you will). I've seen it all and then some! If I've not seen it I've heard it!

Well imagine the scene this morning me and my lovely Hound, Rocko Boy, enjoying a sunny stroll along the beach.

It may be eight days till spring but I wasn't overly surprised to see someone come down onto the beach in their toggs. Bit chilly for me in the water but these Kiwis are crazy, they love a swim in the sea, a bit like the like the British need to strip off at the slightest hint of sun, the Kiwis need to get in the water at the first glimpse of sun!

'Aaah look Rocko someone off for a swim', yes I am crazy too, I have a grand old chat with the dog when we're out.

Granted the swimmer looked a 

bit sheepish, glancing around as he trotted down to the water, I assumed he was a bit shy given his skin tight speedo style shorts and skinny body. But no, he was in fact waiting till the rest of the beach were looking the other way so that he could whip his shorts off and wash his bits in the sea!!!!!

I had a peek back to see if he was half way to Kapiti Island or like I would have been dancing around at the edge but to my prudish horror I was met with a bare bum and some bits getting washed, then he scurried back up to his house!

Like I said, I thought I had seen it all! But know I have seen a considerable lot more since living in N.Z. Seeing this made me think that I must write it down. Consider this post to be an intoduction to My A-Z of Aotearoa, an A-Z of all things Kiwi ...

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Meal Planning Monday 20th August 2012

Sunday - Busy afternoon planned so easy peasy pasta with garlic and pesto sauce, mushrooms and bacon.

Monday - My Mummmys Chicken Curry, check out my blog post for the recipe.

Tuesday - I'm working and Lovely Hubby is Cherubsitting. Seeing as I'll just have myself to get ready I'm going to do a beef stroganoff in the crockpot. I'll put it all together before work and it'll be ready when I get home. Means I can think up another job or ten for Lovely Hubby to tackle instead of dinner!

Wednesday - Lentil Dahl.

Thursday - Grilled chicken, roast potatoes (in our magic potato roasting machine) and curried mushrooms. the curried mushrooms are Lovely Hubbies speciality so seeing as I'm working today he can do dinner!

Friday - Pasta, probably be the same mix as Sunday

Saturday - We're really enjoying our grilled pesto chicken so I'll make this tonight and serve with potatoes and veg.



I'm linking this up At Home With Mrs M, the host of the Meal Planning Monday Link up xx

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This Weeks Workout #1

This week I'm going to try and do this each day.

Just the beginner section. At the moment anyway!

Instead of jump rope I will run on the spot or do step ups on the back step!

So unmotivated fitness wise at the moment. Feel like we have a newborn in the house again with the hideous broken sleep I'm getting. It's a vicious circle though, because I'm tired I can't be bothered exercising but I know that if I get my finger out I'll get more energy and sleep better ... Raaar!

I also get bored really easy, I'll have a fitness plan set out then get bored with the same thing!

I got this circuit from Pinterest, there are loads like it so my plan is to pick a different one each week to use each week. Variety is the spice of life and all that!

Right here goes I'm gonna go and do my first circuit and order some new protein powder!

Watch this space.....

I got this from Pinterest.com and the picture is originally from Fit Fab Cities Blog.

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Oreo Pops

I saw these ... 

 

on the MamasStyle Facebook page and thought 'ooooh these look like a cute, EASY, addition to the menu for Darling Daughters Rainbow Care Bear party'.

Silly me!

Ok I just went by the pictures, I didn't look up any instructions. But come on how hard could it be just get some Oreos, lolly sticks, sprinkles and melted chocolate and put it all together.

No, no, no.

The first step of putting the lolly sticks into the middle of the biscuit sandwiches resulted in not only splitting the sandwich apart but breaking the biscuits too.

I wasn't amused to say the least but I managed to salvage the situation.

I rescued the Oreos that had just split in half and still had in fact biscuits. I laid them on some grease proof paper and used the melted chocolate as glue and poured it over them sticking the sandwich back together with the lolly stick inbetween! I poured over the sprinkles, let it dry, turned them over and did the same to the other side.

I ended up with six cookies stuck together with chocolate and six lolly sticks sticking out. It didn't look great but I just used a sharp knife to cut them apart!

 

The method wasn't quite what I imagined but they looked pretty cool. Lovely Hubby was very excited by them and insisted I save one for him!!! The kids quite liked them too but I don't think anybody (except LovelyHubby) managed a whole one!

I just poped them in a pint glass weigheddown with left over pebbles and M&Ms...ta da ... My effort ...

 

 

 

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Silent Sunday 19th August 2012

Saturday is Caption Day 18th August 2012

Here we have my effort for the week. The Hound is looking quite proud to be sat next to his little brother but Archie's look could be taken two ways...

'excuse me what exactly do you think your doing Rocko'

Or

'you are awesome Rocko!'

What do you they are both thinking?

I'm linking this up to the mother of 'Saturday is Caption Day' over at Mammasaurus. 

 I'm also linking up for the first time to the lovely lady over at Life Rearranged for Insta Friday. 

Meal Planning Monday 13th August 2012

The plan this week is a wee bit like last week. I hate planning and writing the shopping list so I made Lovely Hubby do it this week ...

Sunday - Last night we had some yummy spicy prawns, stir fry veg, curried mushrooms and rice. Odd mix but yummy.

Monday - Pasta with mushrooms, bacon and creamy garlic and pesto sauce.

Tuesday - Grilled chicken with pesto, roast potatoes and some kind of veg. We had this last week and it was pretty tasty.

Wednesday - I made this chilli recipe last week. It's from the Food in a Minute Website. It was really tasy. I've got mince in the freezer so we'll have this again. I'll do it in the slow cooker and serve with baked tatties. Usually the chilli I make has peppers/capsicums in it to bulk it out but this recipe doesn't have them in it. Just as well really because in the winter here the price rockets ...

Thursday - I'm working today so we'll have pasta for tea tonight. Nice and easy!

Friday - Beans on toast!

Saturday - Grilled chicken with chickpea curry. It's meant to be a vegetarian dish of just the chickpea curry but Lovely Hubby gets a bit nervous if there is no meat on the plate! The chickpea curry is so simple, the recipe is on the Countdown website.

What's everyone else having. Pop on over to At Home With Mrs M by clicking here to join in with this great Linky x

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Last Weeks Meal Plan In Pictures

Here we have it. Last weeks Meal Planning Monday 7th August 2012 in pictures ...

I seem to have developed a bloggers obsession with taking pictures of everything just in case I want to blog about it! I thought I best put these food ones to good use. We had what can only be described as a 'Fancy' food week so I couldn't help myself but picture what I made.

You may note there are only 5 meals and yep siree bob there are 7 days in the week. If you noted this then you are what my Motber Dear would call a 'nit picker'!

You may also note if you are a die hard Notsosuperscottishmummy fan (yeah ok I'm pushing it with that idea but you never know) that the meals may not be exactly what I said they would be BUT again if that's the case then you are a 'nit picking menace'.

Tasy and easy meals. Jeezo if I can make them anyone can. If you want to see the full meal plan click here x

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#Silent Sunday 12th August 2012

Sssssshhhhh ...

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Spiderman

This is my favorite picture of my babies just now.  

I wonder if wee Archie knows its his sister underneath the mask!?!

I'm linking this up with Joshua's Photo Party over at ourfootprintsontheworld, click on the little picture below to vote for my picture and see some other cuties ...

AND Saturday is Caption Day over at Mammasaurus, pop on over for some #Satcap Action.

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Decorated Marshmallows Dipped in Chocolate.

Now these were my own idea for the Care Bear Rainbow party them.

Genius I know ... ok not at all genius.

BUT ... I was able to fit them to the theme, they were the least stressful thing to make (except maybe the fairy bread), they looked cool set out pretty on the nice white plates (thank you Superfitmummy) AND they were tasty.

What more could you want.

I admit I have never actually made these before and I stupidly assumed it would be easy. Compared to some of the other things we made for the party this was one off the easiest and with the sprinkles and pebbles (smarties) on top ...

Here you have it some, oh so easy to match to a theme, marshmallows dipped in chocolate ...

With pebbles on top ...

I DO HOPE YOU NOTICED THE RAINBOW ACCURACY OF THE PEBBLE MARSHMALLOWS.

After googling and checking with Mother Dearest I was chanting ...

RICHARD OF YORK GREAT/GAINED BATTLE IN VAIN

Granted I had to improvise a bit with the colors but I got the gist of it right.

And with rainbow hundreds and thousands on top ...

Simple but effective!

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