Baking Made Easy with Carr’s Flour for Kids Mixes

WHENEVER we go to playgroups, at some point my toddler will make a beeline for the pretend kitchen areas.

He loves the role play of making me a cup of tea or something to eat! So it was great to try out the Hape Pop-up Toaster Set at home.

It definitely came at the right time for us as we were stuck in the house as my son had a viral infection. #funtimes
So it was a great distraction for him as we pretended to make breakfast together. Sometimes I was lucky enough to be served breakfast on the sofa!

The classic wooden set comprises of seven pieces including a toaster that pops up two slices of bread, a plate, knife, butter and honey pot.

I absolutely adore wooden playsets, for me they’ll always have the edge over mass produced plastic toys – although don’t get me wrong, you’ll still find lots of plastic toys in my home too!
Made to last, they’re the sort of thing you pass down from child to child.

Toys like this are great for your little one’s imagination  – it makes you realise how much they actually watch you while you’re at work in the kitchen!

The Hape Kitchen and Food range also includes a Tea Set for Two and even a Coffee Machine – very millennial!

Available to purchase from Hape’s Amazon store.

How do you deal with getting your kids to eat vegetables?

An easy life or forever a struggle?

Mine is the latter, so I was intrigued when we got an invitation to the Bird’s Eye First Plates Restaurant.

Here little ones were encouraged to #eatinfullcolour with a range of veg based dishes which included pea cake (yep, and it was actually quite nice!).

It was interesting to see the dynamic as all the kids sat together happily – mostly – trying out lots of different vegetables.

Us parents were lucky enough to get tips on how to get more veg in their tummies from TV child psychologist, Dr Elizabeth Kilbey, as seen on Channel 4’s The Secret Life of 4, 5 and 6 Year Olds.

She told me: ‘Don’t be deterred by them saying ‘I don’t like that’.

‘If they like particular colours try pairing them up, association helps.’

And even, gasp, making eating veggies fun!

For example, Dr Kilbey added: ‘Can we have a snack of every single colour today? Can we build a rainbow of the food we eat today?’

Research by Bird’s Eye to mark their Eat in Full Colour campaign shows that children are actually becoming more adventurous with their food, with 4-9 year olds naming sprouts and spinach as their favourite vegetables.

Almost a third (32 per cent) of parents say their children would eat just about ANY type of vegetable served – and only 29 per cent struggle to get their kids to eat their greens. Unfortunately I’m in that 29 percent!

But I was given some hope to keep trying after the event, adding more colour to ALL of our plates and trying new vegetables.

Click to see footage from the event (my daughter even has a speaking part!).

I WOULDN’T say I’ve subscribed to the whole ‘new year, new me’ mentality, I’m just working on being even better than usual!

Jokes aside, I’ve been trying out the new Boots Good Gut range which put simply helps to create a ‘healthy gut environment’.

There’s something for everyone in the range – my nine-year-old daughter has happily been taking the Live Bacteria for Kids edition which comes in a chewable strawberry flavoured tablet. And with an added vitamin C boost it’s also good for the immune system (you know these kids pick up everything going at school).

Meanwhile I’m sold on the Live Friendly Bacteria with Skin & Hair Support which comes in a handy size tablet. I’m not great with taking tablets, but I found the size of this one reasonable and not unnecessarily huge like some supplements.

Another plus is that the range is vegan and does not have to be kept in the fridge. So basically, smiles all round #winning.

Missed having Shaun the Sheep in your life?

Well, fear not, the lovable woolly character is back with a new friend this October.

Returning to the big screen, this time around havoc is caused when a mystery visitor from another galaxy crash lands near Mossy Bottom Farm. And it’s left to Shaun and his pals to ensure the fun-loving alien Lu-La makes it back home.

Obviously their quest is not without mishaps along the way, especially with an overly keen Men In Black style agent hot on their heels.

It’s actually amazing how much fun you can have watching a feature length film with no actual proper words but I guess that’s part of its appeal to all the family.

We were lucky enough to be treated to a preview screening and my biggest fear was that my two-year-old toddler would not want to stay sitting in one place for the duration of the film.

But in the end – after a slightly rocky start when he got a tad anxious about the rather ominous music in the first five minutes – I was only forced to step out once to go and buy some popcorn!

To round up, I think when it comes to productions by Aardman Animations we as viewers expect a certain quality and type of humour – thankfully their latest offering does not disappoint.

Farmageddon hits cinemas October 18. Watch the trailer here.