Slimming World Journey!

So i started slimming world a few weeks ago now ( 9 weeks ) and in total so far i've lost 13lbs!!

That was with a weeks holiday in there too so that's pretty good going for me!

I am aiming for that stone award this week though! It will be mine.

I have read and heard so many inspiring stories about peoples journey's and to do it and actually get results and feel good about your self is amazing. The guy that runs our group though is probably one of the reasons we keep going back and how we stay so focused. He really is amazing and when ever people ask me about slimming world now i cannot help but tell them all about how good he is and how he make every week enjoyable and you feel like your doing the right thing and if you have a bad week he knows how and what to say to get you back on track and lift you back up again. Honestly don't think i would have stayed if it wasn't for him. So if you read this Thank You!

Any way i saw on the groups facebook page a while ago about these Nutella and oat biscuits and thought ooh they look so good.

So today the girl's and i made these Nutella (i realise its not branded nutella) and Oat biscuits they are Slimming world friendly and super easy ( i cannot cook or bake to save my life)

Recipe:
1tbsp Nutella (4syns)
35g Oats ( Healthy B choice)
1 egg
2tbsp sweetner
1tsp vanilla extract

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.
Spray a baking tray with fry light.
Spoon the mixture on to the tray. It doesn't look a lot but does make 10 good size biscuits.
Cook for 10 mins on Gas mark 6 turning after 7/8 mins ( i forgot to turn them )

They were really nice considering when  i normally bake or cook everything tastes burnt. Or as Alexa says "The black bits add flavouring don't they mummy"

So as i sit down to do my weekly meal plan i am struggling on meal ideas for this week, I maintained this week and i am so close to that stone award i can smell it. So i really need to focus this week and stick to plan but i am struggling.

So any hints or tips for this week so i can get that 1lb and geet my stone award would be hugely appreciated!

Lauren

Head Lice!!

Urghhh every parents worst fear! Head Lice/ Nits Yes they are disgusting yes they are annoying and YES there are actual products that work and that are reasonably priced too. This does not mean your child is dirty or is attracted to them it just means that they are a child.

Do you not remember nits when you where growing up?! 

They are normal and most kids (not all) will at some point get them.  They are small and some times hard to see.

There are a lot of myths around Nits for example: 

• Head lice jump from head to head
• Head lice in dirty hair
• Short hair will keep lice away
• Only children get head lice
• Head lice can be drowned in the water 
• Itching is a the first sign of nits
• Nits hatch after being pulled from the hair.

These are all of course not true! Ignoring them will also not make the problem go away they don't just get bored and disappear. You need to be checking your child's hair every time you brush if not at least thoroughly comb through it once or twice a week. 

The main areas that they like to hide is behind the ears, at the crown of the head (on the top), at the bottom of the hair line near the neck and under the fringe. All of these are nice warm hidden places where they can live and breed.

The best way to check the hair is after it has been washed and conditioned. Whilst it is still wet brush it all through to make sure there are no knots if necessary separate the hair into sections, and comb through the hair. I would highly recommend using the Nitty Gritty comb, i will post a link to the website at the end of this post. This is the best and most effective comb around!! 

The little plastic ones are useless throw it away right now!

Comb all the hair thoroughly in all different directions. when doing this i would recommend wearing black as then you will be able to see them clearer. once you have put the comb through once check the comb for any visitors if there is any thing in the teeth of the comb wipe it if there are any live lice then pinch it in between your nails (back to back) until you hear a click noise (sounds awful i know) this will indicate that it is dead. (horrible at first but highly satisfying) You MUST wipe the comb every time you put it through the hair just to make sure you don't want to be putting them back thorough the hair again.

The only thing that will prevent these little nasties is regular combing!! i know it is time consuming and annoying but it will help and it will be effective!!

So we have tried lots of different things to help combat head lice. But i have found my super hero of all of the tools/remedies and its called Nitty Gritty, it is the best thing in the world! 

The comb for start is metal, it has long teeth on it. i hate these old style plastic ones with the tiny teeth that don't do anything. The teeth on the nitty gritty have ridges on to help catch the little nasties even better and they have less of a chance of escaping then too. 

This is the whole set this is what we have and i cannot recommend it enough!! This is THE best thing since sliced bread and beyond because it truly does work!! 

Go now and get your set! It honestly is so worth it thinking of your children do the right thing by them and go now and get this set to help combat this nasty problem! 

Being adventurous

Today was all about going on an adventure.

Mummy packed the car up loaded full with a big packed lunch for mummy Alexa and Ellie and then we picked up Nanny and Maisie (my littlest sister) and off we went. we didn't know where we was going and we didn't care either we were just going.

we ended up at a little secret beauty spot. It really is beautiful!

The girls had their lunches which they thought was great (mum win!)
Then we went and explored!
we caught fish and paddled in the water got wet and muddy made new friends and had fun and that to me is what being a child is all about.

So i recommend that you go out and find any little beauty spots in your area you never know what you might find!


OOooh then we ended up at the golden arches ( Mc Donalds) and the girls had chocolate milkshakes! this how ever isn't going to help with weigh in tomorrow morning tho :(

ooh just to add i did take a bin bag to collect all of our rubbish please please remeber to take all your rubbish home with you other wise places like this wont be nice any more and people wont be able to enjoy them.

 

So this is my littlest sister Maisie 

trying to catch some fish

such a lovely day!

 Go on go find an adventure!

Harvesting my rewards

If you follow my blog and put up with my rambling nonsense i mentioned a little while ago about i started gardening and growing potatoes. Well they were looking so good and were growing very well until all this bad weather the past week and with in a couple of days the plants look dead almost. I thought that was it i have lost my potatoes.

But wait....

keep waiting....

POTATOES!!

I have grown these beautiful spuds all on my own. I am so very proud of them. Ok so they are a wee bit small but never the less they are potatoes that are edible and i grew them! i am going to try and keep the rest growing by topping up the soil and seeing how that goes if it works then winner if not then i have these beauties for a salad one day!!

I was so excited about them and i said i would update if it amounted to anything and here they are.

Very proud of my self.
Mr bloom would love these spuds!!

Lauren x

Pay Day Bargains!

Woo!! its Payday again!! the best thing about going to work is the actual getting paid part!! and of course sometimes the people you work with too.

So this pay day i have bought things ready for our stay-cation at Butlins Minehead, super excited as we have never been down that way before that and its time away with my beautiful family. Butlins is the place to be with little kids too, everything they could possibly want or need is on site their breakfast and dinner is included all i have to do is chaperone *thumbs up emoji*

Back to my payday bargains.

We have been here and there really we don't always go to the same shops i know some people stick to the same shops all the time, me i just tend to go to where ever is cheap or has a sale on!! who doesn't love a good bargain tho am i right?!

So we went to pep & co in Corby (that is our nearest store) we ended up here as i had seen a few bits in one of my favorite mum vlog videos on www.brummymummyof2.co.uk (love her!) so we don't always travel just to go to these places but it was a nice drive and nice to be some where different. we found this shop very cheap and the clothes are gorgeous i think we will be going back at some point as its too good not to. So from here we got quite a bit for my bigger girl most if not all in the sale too (winner!) Everything in here was very bright and colourful we loved it as especially with this summer rain it was so nice to see bright colours.

Ellie got some MORE flip flops at £1 a pretty ditsy floral top in 3-4 years £4 this wasn't in the sale but was still a bargain price and so stinking cute! 

Mummy got a watermelon t-shirt £3 and some filp flops too these were £1 also.

Alexa got: a pair of hareem trousers with a funky print on these were £6 down to £4 i got these in 7-8 years they look a bit long but i thought it would be good as they are elasticated bottoms and a loose fit, A blue an white dress which should have been £8 down to £5.50 again in 7-8 years i always get dresses bigger as they will look ok weather its a bit long or a bit short, A denim Dress should have been £6 down to £4 this could be worn during the day or evening she could pair it with leggings or just wear it on its own so i really liked this (and daddy picked it!) The we found this pretty floaty flower skirt which should have been £5 down to £3.50 this was her pick and i had to agree as it's very pretty and she loves a floaty skirt oh and she also got a pair of flip flops £1


All in we spent £27 which for what we got was a real bargain i love this store and we will be back. Thank you Pep&Co and also Emma at www.brummymummyof2.co.uk for the heads up.




We have been collecting little bits and bobs to go in a bag for each of them for their holiday we plan on giving them to the girls when we leave so first thing in the morning. The bags are from home bargains (again in Corby) they were £3.29 for Ellie's its slightly smaller and £4.99 for Alexa's which is huge! so at the moment we have lots of little bits and pieces that i am hoping will keep them entertained for a little while at least, (that or they will just argue over who's is who's even tho they have exactly the same) They have pencils 75p from asda, colouring books £1.75 from asda, a beach ball £1 poundland, some water bomb/ball things £1 poundland, a little build your plane these were 2 for £1 in poundland, disney lego mini figures these are £2.50 in asda and some other bits and pieces. any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated as these two fight like cat and dog and it's a good 3 hour car journey!!
* i would take a photo but i cant with the girls around as they are a surprise *



So in Corby there is a Argos clearance warehouse. It is like a treasure trove you can go in there one day and find some really good deals and then other days you can go in there with something in mind and come out with nothing. But today was one of those good days!! This mumma has made a dent on christmas!! yes i said that C word (no not the naughty one!) So today i got 2 Disney princess make up bags one for each of the girls these were £3.99 each, i got Ellie a sofia the first mermaid play set for £7.99 and Alexa a Lite brix set for £7.19 (this one was prices up wrong but they still honored it) All of these should have been alot more but they also had an extra 20% so i am overly pleased with these bargains we also picked up a few other bits but i can't post them as they are for family and they may read this and that will spoil the suprise so i can tell you that in here we spent £35.13 in total all but one thing to put away for the big man in red. Ohh also for Christmas i got the girls some new tsum tsum bowls and plates from asda at £1 each they love tsum tsums and a snack pot each for £1 from asda too (they may get these sooner i'm not sure yet)

So these are my pay day bargains i got a few other bits and pieces for my self from Asda as the girls already have full suit cases just of their clothes so i decided enough was enough for them i guess i might need some thing to wear. I won't bore you with posting about the bits for me as that's boring and well i cannot be bothered to go and find them!*face palm*

We also visited our new B&M store but the staff were extremely rude and quite frankly they are selling the same tat that most stores sell for a similar price too. The staff didn't even greet you when you went in or when you were at the till the lady at the till didn't even look up at us, there was one guy on the shop floor actually swore in front of us!! I would not recommend any one step foot in here until they train their staff how to give good customer service. 

We also have a new Smyths toy store opening but that opens today so i plan on visiting this soon and i will let you know how we found this store.

So that's it for payday (well a few days) we didn't go mad as we are saving and we also have a holiday coming up too.

Have you found any bargains this pay day?! show me what you found. 

I do love a good bargain!

Lauren x

Weekend Off!

Wahoo a weekend off is the most amazing thing ever as it never happens in my job.

So this weekend has been jam packed full of lovely stuff.

•  An evening out with our lovely harmony majorettes at activity world and having a really late night  but enjoyed every second with them all.
• Saturday the girls went out with one of their sets of grandparents ( i say one as they have LOADS) they went shopping and to the seaside and then had a sleepover 
• Saturday evening we went out for a grown ups dinner at a beautiful Indian (grown ups!!) the loveliest indian we have ever had. highly recommend it if you live in Peterborough or near by.
• Sunday Today we have been at Grandma Creeks house celebrating a special (won't say which one in case she doesn't appreciate it) the rain stayed away so we were in the garden most of the afternoon just chilling and enjoying each others company which is awesome.
  

The lovely family i will one day be apart of. (married into)

and then tomorrow evening it is the Harmony majorettes presentation evening. now last year i won a trophy i won't bore you and go into it too much but it made me cry like a baby so i'm hoping i don't do that again this year! so i will probably upload some more photos of that tomorrow. (not going to lie excited about not having to cook tea tomorrow either!)

Ohh and also Happy fathers day to all the dads, grandads and of course mummys who do it all too.

Also if you have any fathers day photos please upload them into the comments if possible so i can
have nose and so we can all awe over fathers day awesomeness.

This is the only photo i have of my dad and i and even then i stole it from his facebook.

And of course my better half who my girls call daddy and look up to in every way the man of my dreams watching him love them both only makes me love him more. ( bleugh i know sorry)















Much love to all hope you have all had a fabby weekend too!

Harmony Majorettes

 
So these are my other loves Harmony Majorettes i talk about them A LOT and i would say i'm sorry but really i'm not as i am so so proud of them all!! i made them this little video from their parade on Saturday it was so very hot on Saturday here and they all did so incredibly well considering!! please take a look and show my girlies that people are very impressed by their talent :) * thumbs up *