Making pizzas

We recently bought a bread maker and the smell of freshly baking bread is divine, but the other advantage is that it's super easy to make pizzas. At this time of year I have an abundance of yummy home grown veg so my style is to give the children a whole heap of bowls full of different ingredients to chose from and they make their own. The rule is that as well as the tomato / pasata base they must have 3 other veggie toppings, I think we had garlic, onion, potato, sweetcorn, chard, peppers and courgette to pick from. 

We eat a lot of face- pizzas but this heart one turned out particularly well I think. Yummy!

Making pizza

Winning veg!

Here are my winning selection of cooked vegetables for the annual Allotment competition and bbq! It was such a fun day taking the time to look around everyone's plots and see what was being grown. As cooking and inventing with my produce is one of my passions I was delighted to get the chance to show off and although there were only a few entries I was still really pleased to be given gold. 

Shoes shoes shoes!

I love shoes!

When I became a mum and childminder I hadn't anticipated however the volume of pairs of shoes which would take over my house! I find it impossible to throw any crocs or sandals or boots or flip-flops away as they will always have a happy user when we go out into the garden or visit the allotments! I think I must own a pair for every sized child and the sight of them all piled up actually makes me very happy because they represent all the sweet little feet that I look after.

Butterflies hatching

One of the best projects we've done this year.

You send off for the caterpillers and when they arrive they are so tiny. Within a few days they had tripled in size and by the time they began to form into chrysalids they were huge big black hairy beasts!!! We then had to watch and wait and finally out came beautiful butterflies. Everyone who comes to the house was involved in watching progress until finally we released them into the garden on a lovely sunny day and watched them flutter away. Pure magic!

Peppermint mice

As a rule I wouldn't do too many sugary things, especially for really young children, however I also think treats allowed- especially at Christmas time! I was really pleased by how much each child enjoyed making their mice and deciding where eyes and ears would go.....

And of course it's always fun tasting sugary treats that we've made ourselves!

In the background of this picture you can just make out our special home-made alphabet picture chart that the children all made together!

Fruit Faces!

 The children always have a healthy snack of fruit after school and they came up with a way to make it fun- my photo album on my phone is now full of funny fruity faces- very creative and edible!

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planting seeds!

This year we've had great success growing herbs in pots, especially basil, we finally learning not to over water it! It's so satisfying for the children to get the pots ready, sprinkle on the teeny tiny seeds and then write the label, water and wait.... when the first seedling show it's really exciting for them to see the results, not to mention taste the lovely leaves when they're big enough to harvest. I CAN claim responsibility for converting a number of children who claimed not to like tomatoes, salads, peppers or herbs, but once tasted- minds changed for ever, especially if they've had a hand in planting and nurturing the plants from seed. Fabulous!