GotPassion?

Little O and B, also on the weekend away and O, as you can see was very obliging for photos. B not so much, although he did like seeing his face on the camera!

One of the benefits I think of being single with no kids of my own is a great appreciation for my friends and family's kids. It is so lovely to see them growing up and what lovely people they are becoming! And none more so than O and B who might as well be extended family, O and B are both complete delights, so very friendly, chatty and of course beautiful for the camera, thanks kids!

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

Nats and Baby D.

Well I have managed to boost my photo supplies quite a lot recently and not sure where to start so thought I would show you someone new!

I have known Nats for years now, I think maybe 9 (really, that long??) and she is now married with lovely Baby D. who is completely cute and charming and I am sure he knows it! We were able to use the weekend away to get a few photos, hope you like them Nats, copies are on their way to you soon!

 

 

 

 

        

 
 
 
 
 
 

New Blog: Entertaining Children

With running a Brownie Pack and working as a Nanny, I have lots of ideas which I want to share from that such as the delicious Ice Cream in a Bag Recipe and so have decided to set up a separate blog to accommodate that.

It is called 'Entertaining Children' and can be found at http://eviewinter.typepad.com/entertainingchildren/
or just follow the links and save to your bookmarks, or even better subscribe to the page and be kept uptodate on the latest articles.

I hope to be able to share child friendly (and adult friendly for us non-nigella lawson types) recipes, ideas for games and activities, and other information that might be interesting to parents and people looking after kids. 

So check it out...

Entertaining Children

Birthday Fun

Yesterday for LissaLou's birthday we got to enjoy a lovely afternoon with a party at their house. Complete with three cakes, pancakes, fun and games.

 

  

 

   

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Happy 6th Birthday LissaLou

 
 

 

  

  
 
 

 
  
 

Babies A.W and L.V

You have seen them before, Baby L.V Newborn Shoot and Baby A.W Newborn Shoot

This week I got to meet up with some friends in South London, the lovely Naomi and Cath and their cute cute babies A.W and L.V. Sadly A.W was a little under the weather but still looked lovely for photos.

L.V's expression is just awesome. It is interesting how aware of each other they were, at another point when L.V was crying, A.W put her hand out to him, so cute (see below).

 

 

 

 

 

For anyone who needs a hair dresser to go to in South London, Cath is the girl to go to - did a lovely job on my hair, and I am the fussiest person about hair cuts ever. Thanks Cath!
 

 
 
 

The House Where Alexander Lived...

  

I know my nephew Alexander once lived in Nunhead (I go through this station to see my friend) but I don't think I realised you could see the house from the station, the one with the red roof, (forget which one in particular though). Or did I? I honestly don't remember.

But as I waiting at Nunhead Station yesterday and took photos, I realised that block was where Alexander was - it made me feel a little sad. 

He may not even live there any more. It is certainly where he spent his younger years until we last saw him around 4 years old. He would now be 13 or 14.

I pray for his happiness now, that wherever he is and whatever he is doing that he is happy and that he feels loved by his family. He doesn't know it but he is loved by us as well, I hope he can feel that love.

Accelerate...

Typepad is annoying the heck out of me. I thought I'd do last night's written post as something different. But typepad just kept messing with the format, so if somehow you saw the various drafts as I corrected it - I do apologise.

I think for now I shall take the easy route and post a few photos from accelerate weekend.

Accelerate was at Heigh Leigh in Herts, 2 weeks ago. About 70 people from my church went - and it was an amazing opportunity to hear more about the church's vision and also really good way to get to know people I didn't know so well and to meet people I have never talked to before. And of course take photos. I knew I was in luck when I came down with my camera and discovered someone who I previously didn't know, with his Nikon camera. Company for photos!

  

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

  

Day in the Life...

The Day went like this... 6am, wake up. Have decided to go to the prayer meeting at church today. (Have always managed to avoid it due to work starting at 8am, now no excuses and so thought it would be a good way to start the day). 

And so it was. we prayed for Haiti. May I add - I hate the way it is called 'Hay-tee', which just makes me think of the word Hate. It is actually pronounced by the natives something like 'ah-ee-TEE'. We also prayed for the work of the church and the various projects that our church is involved in as well as the local community. I was surprised by all the people that were there (so early in the morning), surprised I actually enjoyed it (so early in the morning) and of course delighted to be served pain au chocolat for breakfast.

Next was swimming, en route snow materialised out of nowhere. In actual fact I thought it was little bit of paper at first, yes I usually can tell the difference between snow and paper, but well - you would have been mistaken to if you saw what I saw. Anyway did 10 lengths of swimming, and discovered that if I am prepared to put up with the noisy school kids in the other lane, my lane is actually really quiet - less chance of crashing into people.

After doing some shopping, boring but as I have avoided it for a week it was a necessity. Especially since I wanted to a new washing  cream for the washing machine. You know the kind where you put the cream in the lid and then the lid in the machine? Yes, well my Dad threw my lid away - ever since I have been using anything plastic I have handy at the time, like medicine containers. All I can say is we have lots of clean plastic containers in the kitchen now. 

This afternoon was work, I really hadn't registered how cold it was. How bitterly cold it was. As usual I was early and froze my fingers of waiting for my girl in the playground. I can't tell you how lovely it was to get back to the warmth of her house, and we had lots of fun playing in her room, lots of fun. It started of with Sylvanian Families but just descended in to chaos really. As I said - lots of fun. 

And as we had dinner (rice, peas and tuna), we saw the blizzard outside. So surreal, its like nothing we see normally. Can't remember when I last saw snow like that in the day time. Kind of brought 'The Day After Tomorrow' to mind. 

Well the day ended with Brownies, 17 of them and my two normal helpers were both off today. Instead I had 1 (very brave) parent helper and 2 (even braver) D of E students (that would be Duke of Edinburgh Award). And we had a blast, we actually did this activity where they write nice things about someone. Afterwards the girls were saying how they never knew that the others thought such nice things about them - it made my day - definitely made the whole stress worthwhile!

And now its time to sit back and relax to Doctor Who, series 3. Yay!

Ps, my brother is wid [sp], he pours the water in to the bowl and then into the saucepan and then the oats when he measures out for his porridge. Even though normal people would just put the oats first (so it doesn't stick to the side). This paragraph is added for the sole intention of seeing if my brother reads this blog (parent's - please don't tell him) and well, annoying him if he does!

(Wid = weird)

Recipe: Ice Cream in a Bag

You need:

Small Ziplock Bags 2
Medium / Large Ziplock Bags 2

(You can techincally use other bags but they are more likely to break, harder to seal and generally more annoying, ziplock bags are also clear allowing you to see your progress. The idea of two ziplock bags each is to prevent leaking).

100 ml of cream (double or single work fine, we think double is better though)
100 ml of whole milk
3 tablespoons of sugar (white and brown work fine, but we found brown gave a delicious caramel like taste to the ice cream)

Salt (lots) Apparently rock salt is better but table salt isn't the end of the world. 
Ice (enough to surround mixture).

1) Put the milk, sugar and cream in the smaller bag
2) Put the smaller bag in the larger bag
3) Put the ice and salt in larger bag
4) Shake. Lots. Maybe 10 / 15 minutes. Even better get other people to shake a bit for you.
5) When mixture is reasonably solid, take out of packet, being careful not to get any salt on the ice cream
6) Eat and enjoy!

Suspected reasons for failure (a non solid mixture after 15 minutes of shaking)
1 - You didn't shake hard enough
2 - Not enough salt. Salt lowers the freezing point of the ice, which is the reaction that causes the mixture to freeze, the more salt the merrier.
3 - Not enough ice. See no 2.
4. The mixture tastes salty. There was either or a hole in bag or you were not very careful taking the ice cream out.

I have made it three times now, the first time with the guides we think we didn't use enough salt, there were holes in the bag, and the mixture tasted salty. It was not a success.
The second time with the brownies, it was perfect. One pair of girls used only milk and their's never really did go solid, everyone else's was pretty good. The girls who shook longest had the best.
The third time with the nieces, it was perfect and I think the brown sugar made it taste even better than the brownie's mixture.