Have you and your family been inspired by the Olympics? My children are too young to understand what’s going on but we’ve been busy visiting Olympic-themed exhibitions, seen the Torch Relay pass by the end of our road, been to the Olympic Park and cheered on the synchronised swimming at the Aquatics Centre, baked Olympic cupcakes and even visited a gold post box. I hope by blogging and scrapbooking these things the children will have memories that will inspire them as they grow up. A fascinating new range of multi-media textbooks for iPad from The Amazing People Club aims to…
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Today was the day we had tickets for the Synchronised Swimming at the Olympic Park. We decided to take the toddler but leave the 8 month old with nanny who was happy to shop at Westfield Stratford. We drove to Buckhurst Hill and got the tube from there to Stratford which was only a couple of stops. Initially we had the tube to ourself, although it got busier at every station nearer to the Olympic Park. Once we got off the tube we felt like we were part of a very well-oiled machine. As well as thousands of spectators there…
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I had a definite fancy for Victoria sandwich today, so- called because Queen Victoria favoured a slice with her afternoon tea. I really wanted to make miniature sponges though as they look so delicious and you get to eat a whole sponge yourself without being too greedy! For the cake I used: 200g caster sugar 200g softened butter 4 eggs , beaten 200g self-raising flour 1 tsp baking powder 2 tbsp milk The finished cake batter was generously spooned into muffin cases, baked and left to cool. When cool, each cake was sliced in half, one half spread in buttercream…
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We booked our Olympic tickets when I was pregnant knowing we would be taking a toddler and a baby to the Olympics. We heard lots of conflicting reports that babies wouldn’t be allowed, prams would be prohibited, and as we didn’t want to carry the baby in a sling we’ve now arranged for her to be looked after by nanny. Over the last few days we found out you can take a pram and there will be a pram park, and we can also take some food for the toddler. I hope there are baby changing facilities too. I really…
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I’m not planning on staying at home during the Olympics. School’s out for the summer and my toddler will want our normal adventures in London. Without a doubt our adventures will have an Olympic theme. We’ve already seen the Olympic rings at St Pancras and on Saturday we saw the Olympic clock in Trafalgar Square. We’ve also checked out Olympic decorations in other parts of town to make sure the ones in our borough are meant to look quite so lacklustre. We’ve scored some free tickets to see what the Dutch are doing as they take over Ally Pally, temporarily…
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Ever since our Olympic tickets arrived the excitement has been ramping up in our house. I’ve had to promise not to buy any more Olympic souvenirs but I couldn’t resist writing about all my purchases in one post. Here are my top Olympic souvenirs for under £20: Biscuits and tin from Marks & Spencer in the shape of the Olympic logo. So far I haven’t done very well keeping my souvenir tins pristine. The Royal Wedding tin I bought last year quickly got adopted as the crayon tin and toddler-fied. Pampers Olympic nappies to keep little bottoms in style The…
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We’ve been talking to the toddler about the Olympics and as it’s only 18 days to go I thought I would make him something Olympic themed for his lunch today. What better than Olympic torch pancakes? Make a simple pancake batter. My favourite recipe is 100g plain flour, 2 eggs, 300ml of semi-skimmed milk, a tbsp of vegetable oil and a pinch of salt. When you have cooked the pancake, just roll one end of the pancake tightly and fill the top with vanilla ice-cream. A lovely tasty and topical treat!
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Our Olympic tickets finally arrived yesterday and we found out what we’re going to see – synchronized swimming! I’m excited but the husband isn’t. He muttered something about wanting to see the BMX racing to which I muttered grumpy old man or killjoy, something along those lines. Despite having the un-sportiest husband in the world he has mentioned more than once how we need to fully enjoy the upcoming Olympic Games, specifically by getting one of these smart TVs . He’s a bit of a gadget geek and has all the latest gadgets, not that he has much time to…
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The Olympics are such a big event that I really want to make sure we experience as much as we can living in London. Yes, we have tickets for some events, if the tickets ever turn up, but there are plenty of other things we can do too. Today we ventured into London to spend some time at one of our favourite playgrounds – Coram’s Fields. It’s only a short walk from Kings Cross so it’s perfect little day trip if we want to leave Zone 3 for a couple of hours. Whilst we were out we went train spotting…