Oreo cheescake.

Following Lily's first day at school, I decided she needed a treat for being so brave (unlike me). So we made this yummy Oreo cheesecake. It was quite easy to make, lots of jobs for the girls to do too. This recipe is a no bake recipe which means no hustling the girls out the kitchen to put things into the oven. Although I had to guard it while it was chilling........

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of Oreos (or I used the pretend ones from the Aldi)
• 6 digestive biscuits
• 80g butter
• 600g cream cheese
• 280ml double cream
• Vanilla extract
• 100g icing sugar

Method:

1. Take a third of the Oreos and the digestives and crumb. We did this by putting them in a freezer bag a hitting them with a rolling pin.
2. Melt the butter and mix with the crumbs. The texture should be firm when pressed, but not sticky.
3. Press into a baking tin with the back of a spoon.
4. Chill in the fridge
5. Mix cream cheese and sugar in a mixer until smooth and creamy.
6. Add vanilla and cream and mix again until creamy and smooth.
7. Crumb the rest of the Oreos leaving some pieces a bit bigger.
8. Fold into the cheesecake mixture.
9. Chill overnight before eating.
10. Decorate. We used chocolate buttons.

  

 

We really enjoyed devouring this. It has a really creamy texture, with lovely crunchy bits from the Oreos. YUMMY!

 

 

50 day countdown begins!!!

 Me and my mum (and my hubby, dad and the girls too) are in the middle of planning our Walt Disney World Vacation. Only 50 days until we go! So this is a list of the things I am looking forward to the most....

1. Seeing the castle. It is hidden from view until you walk into the park, and it really takes your breath away. I can't wait to see the girls faces as they see it for the first time.


The castle in all it's glory.

2. Watching the shows. Especially Fantasmic (my Mums favourite) Click here to watch it.

3. Spending time together. I have so many happy memories of our holidays it is going to be really special to make new memories with my own family, and share it all with my mum and dad too!!!

Me and mum having a break from all the Disney fun.

4. Meeting the characters. As a child I always got so overwhelmed meeting my favourite characters (especially Pluto), and can't wait to share this with my two children. Daisy is really wanting to meet Daisy Duck, and Lily is excited to see Elsa! (But Pluto will always be my number one!!!)



Me and Pluto 2008.

5. Downtown Disney. (Or Disney Springs now?) I love all the shops and how it's themed so beautifully! My favourite was always the Christmas shop, it just feels so magical! I also LOVE the cook ware shop and hope to get some more things to top up my Disney themed kitchen



Mum and Tor ready to do some shopping.

6. Going to Animal Kingdom. My two girls love animals and visits to the farm, the zoo, etc, so this is sure to be a winner.

I always loved the entrance to Animal Kingdom.

 Also, the Animal Kingdom safari. I love animals, and this safari just takes your breath away! I really want to try to take some better photographs of the animals this time.

Just some of the animals we saw.

7. Riding the Dumbo ride! My favourite film and ride as a child. The film has become a firm favourite with Lily too, and I can't wait to see her on it!!!

Flying elephants are so cool.

8. The Mickey Mouse Ice Cream sandwich. I can't wait to get my girls one of these, and of course enjoy one myself!

YUMMY!!!!

9. Pintrading for the first time. The girls are super excited about this too. We are going to buy some starter sets when we get there, I will be letting the girls choose which set they want, and then swap away. I think we will get some special pins from the things we enjoy most too.

Anyone want to swap???

10. Taking the girls to the water park. We all love swimming and water slides so this is going to be amazing for us!!! Lily wants to go on all the big slides, and Daisy wants to go on the lazy river with granny. Blizzard Beach will be closed when we go so we will be visiting Typhoon Lagoon (my favourite one!)

Splash!!!

Lily's first day at school.

 

Today was Lily's first day at school......

My baby looks so grown up in her new uniform.

There were a few tears (from me not Lily) but she had a great time, and can't wait to go back on Monday.

Memory Magnet!

I made this cute magnet to remember our holiday to Holland. It was really easy to make, and costs less than 50p to make too!!!

 

My original plan was to put the postcards I had brought into the frames, but they didn't fit. I am going to have to think of a new project for them.

 

 

You need: A decorative bag, I got mine buying a postcard, and a magnetic photo frame, this one came in a pack of two for 69p from Home Bargains.

 

 

How to do it: Very simply choose the part of the bag you like the best, then fold it to fit the frame, insert and put it on the fridge. I used the girls letter magnets to write Amsterdam underneath it too.

 

 

Super easy and super quick.

Holland Holiday.

As I mentioned in my Wicked Wednesday we recently went on a last minute holiday to Holland. We had an amazing time. We even really enjoyed the ferry ride over. There was some great entertainment, the girls enjoyed going to a pirate party! We were also very lucky as none of us got sea sickness!!!!!!

On our first day we went on a Beaver hunt in the national park, and then headed to Dordrecht for a stroll. We stopped for a kroket lunch. Krokets are amazing, I remember enjoying them as a child. We then had a splash in the swimming pool too, the pool had  brilliant splash area for young children which was shaped like a pirate ship, the girls really enjoyed splashing Daddy. The weather was not looking promising, but luckily it warmed up for the rest of our holiday to over 30 degrees!

Day 2 saw us go into Amsterdam for the day. We enjoyed wandering around looking at everything. We visited the Amsterdam Museum which had a nice child friendly exhibit which interacted with wristbands we wore. We went on a boat ride around the canals which was great fun. The girls enjoyed going into all the cheese shops and having lots of tasters. We all loved the flower market and bought home some tulip bulbs to plant in our garden, what a wonderful way to remember the holiday. Clog photos were necessary, and we finished the day off with frittes and fritte sauce! We also bought a lovely blue and white china clog shaped Christmas bauble to add to the collection, we buy a bauble whenever we go away.

Day 3:

We started the day off in the Jumbo buying some croissants for breakfast and some meats, cheeses, breads and pastries for a picnic lunch (which was really yummy btw), the girls loved the tiny trollies!!!!

Then we headed off to hire a boat, and sail around Biesbosch national park.  I think I was an excellent driver and navigated all the little channels well (kind of).

Then we went over to the beach which was on a lake not the sea! We all enjoyed splashing around and playing in the sand!

Great relaxing day!

 

 

 

Day 4 we went to Efteling (A theme park based on fairy tales)! We loved it, it was so much fun. The girls loved the storybook area, and we enjoyed all the interactive things to join in with. We loved watching the talking tree, which I remember from my own childhood visits to the park. Daisy was obsessed with the musical toadstools and sat on every single one for her photo to be taken, we started taking it in turns to photo bomb her, haha!

The girls went on lots of rides, they were quite adventurous and loved the bobsleigh ride, the jokie around the world ride (like its a small world), and the carousel the most.

The raven show was amazing. We all loved it so much and had great front row seats!!!

We had to have some more krokets, just because we were in Holland.

 

 

 

Last day! We went for a swim in the morning, and a play on the play park.

Then off to Delft, we enjoyed looking around the market, the pottery shops, and trying more cheese from the cheese shops (the girls are going to turn into mice). We had a really yummy lunch sat in an outside restaurant in the market square. More krokets, cheese, and also some bitterballen. Great day before heading home.

 

 

Now it's back home and getting ready to go back to work, and for my Lily to start school (sob!). At least it's only 59 days until our next holiday!

 

 

Wicked Wednesday 26/08/2015

Linking up with Brummy Mummy of 2 for another fabulous Wicked Wednesday!

 

We just got back from a last minute holiday to Holland. It was a trip full of funny, and silly things so I had a hard time choosing just one Wicked Wednesday........

 

These photos were taken in Efteling, which is a storybook based theme park. Daisy loved the toadstools that sang when you sat on them, and insisted on having her picture taken on every one. After about 15 photos, we decided to start photo bombing and doing silly things behind her. The last picture was when she realised we were doing it and told us all off (apparently Santa won't be coming to us!)

Mummy bomb!

Lily bomb!

The moment Santa decided not to come to us!!!!!

Disney Wordless Wednesday - Storytelling.

Today I am linking up with Focused on the magic. for another Wordless Wednesday. This weeks theme is Storytelling which is what Disney World is famous for.

 For storytelling the ultimate has to be Illuminations Reflections of Earth in Epcot. Such an amazing story, with beautiful music and breath-taking special effects.

My pictures of it were all slightly rubbish, so here's a video. Daisy got so excited watching this video she started clapping, laughing and stamping her little feet. I think she will be really overwhelmed seeing everything in real life!!!