Ella's Kitchen Weeney Restaurant

Today Nate and I were lucky enough to go to Ella's Kitchen's weeney restaurant. Nate was one of the oldest children there but it didn't stop him enjoying himself. This was a little adventure for us as we had to travel up on to London on the train and I managed to lose a memory card (found now) on the journey. 

The first thing I noticed when I walked into the restaurant were the decorations, sorry rubbish phone pics coming up as I didn't have my camera at this point. There were lovely child friendly decorations with lovely low fence to keep the babies in the play area, it didn't keep Nate in as he easily climbed over it. In the play area there was music playing, the music was about veg and fruit and then soft food toys, shakers, a tunnel and the best bit for me were the plants. There were plants for sniffing so lovely smelly herbs like sage, rosemary and citrus fruits like lemons. 

 

Here is Nate empty all of the fruit and veg from their baskets

 

 

Nate having a look at the smelly section, he took a particular interest in the lemon and lime.

 

The choppy fruit and veg which could happily have kept Nate entertained for hours

Nate was also introduced to a whole aubergine, we often cook with lots of different vegetables but I have never thought about showing Nate the whole vegetable or letting him explore it before it was cooked. Nate has not stopped talking about aubergines since leaving, I'll have to get him to help me cook next time we are making something with aubergines

After we'd spent a little time in the play area we were encouraged to move to the restaurant area. On the tables there were numbered red boxes, under the lid there were tablets for the babies/toddlers to order their own dinner. I really loved this idea.

You had to choose the age that was most appropriate for your child.

 

 Then pick your main course by choosing  a picture that appealed to you. After you had picked your main course you chose your dessert by the same process. The pictures were really engaging and illustrated exactly what they were going to receive. I would quite like an adult experience at this restaurant. 

There were also nibbles from the new snack range which went down a treat with Nate, his favourite were the tomato and fennel seed crackers and he quite enjoyed the apple and cinnamon nibbles.

Fish bowl activity

This is an activity Nate came back from nursery with as he'd say down to do it as I arrived. Nursery happily put enough fish, water and seaweed in a bag for us to take home. As soon as we got home we unpacked it and got to work. 

We don't have glue sticks like nursery has, not to self invest in pva glue and some glue sticks. 

Nate happily applied the glue everywhere on the plate, on the paper, on me and himself. 

Nate's finished work. 

 

Materials needed:

Glue (lots of it)

Paper plate

Yellow paper cut into the shape of a fish. (Any colour will do)

Blue tissue paper torn for the water

Green plastic, green paper will do. 

Toilet habits

I've been away for a long time, I promise to be better in a month's time at least. At the minute there are hundreds of deadlines and people to please. On to the topic of this post:

Nate has been half potty trained for a while, he goes to poo on the toilet. We've had one or two accidents in the last year but mostly he goes on the toilet. However, he will only go once a week. At roughly the same time every week we have this performance where he will be in tears over going to toilet. He is refusing to go to wee on the toilet and I think it is linked to going to poo and the 'pain' he associates with it.

Tonight we have just had all the tears, the begging to make it stop and it made me think. There must be someone else going through the same, or gone through the same. What are you doing to make it more bearable? We've tried prescribed laxatives (days of stomach pain and no sleep), prune juice (how do you get a 2 year old to drink enough of it?) massaging (used to work). If it wasn't for the tears, I wouldn't be too concerned about the weekly nature of the poo, especially as the doctors aren't at all concerned.

Oh and any suggestions on how to get a little boy fully potty trained would be happily welcomed as well.

Peace of Cake London

Recently we decided on an impromptu trip to Selfridges when we arrived it was Nate's normal snack time but we had nothing for him to snack on. Off we set to find something suitable for him to nibble on, as we were out with his godmother it had to be something nice. Nate's godmother found these lovely biscuits by Peace of Cake they are not only dairy free but also gluten free. 

 

They were so lovely that even the non dairy-free/gluten-free among us loved them and didn't notice a difference. It was also great to find something that Nate can eat without me having to carry a bag full of safe goodies with me. 

RAF Museum

One of Nate's Christmas presents was a LeapPad he loves the camera functionality so much we have to go places to take pictures. This week as he cousin was on half term we decided to go to the RAF Museum and take some pictures.

 

There are lots of interesting aircraft to take pictures of an even play in. Nate wandered around happily taking pictures of everything, although he did have his favourites. There is a lovely play area in the RAF Museum as well, which Nate happily put down his LeapPad to have a play on. It's great watching him wander around deciding what he wants to take a picture of and then playing with the images on the photo editing software on the leap pad. There is a lovely picture of him which he has mirrored himself and put a little crown on his head.

Waterlogged runs.

Some of my runs have been very interesting with all of the rain we have been having. I quite enjoy running around our local Nature Reserve as it gives me the opportunity to look at what our local river is doing. Last week on one of my runs I was confronted with this:

 

 The path was underwater, I didn't run through it. I'm not sure my shoes would have coped with it and running with soaking wet feet in the cold isn't something I would have found enjoyable.

Down there is normally a path, our dog used to love running up these steps. At the minute it is back to being a path, not a path I'd use at the minute due to being waterlogged but not under a foot of water either.

Frank bars

I've been a little quiet here for a while as real life got in the way a bit. I'm back now though. We were recently sent some Frank Bars, they are gluten, nut and dairy free. Perfect for Nate, so as soon as they arrived we had to try one. Nate chose the Chocolate and Oat to try and we happily shared this, the other flavours I haven't been so lucky with. These are perfect snacks for a little person and a great post run snack.

 

Frank Bars come in five flavours: Chocolate and Oat, Double Chocolate, Chocolate and Orange, Chocolate and Strawberry and Chocolate and Blueberry. Of the little nibble I have been allowed of the other bars, my favourites are Double Chocolate and Chocolate and Orange. These bars are yummy treats for anyone not just those with allergies.

 

All of the bars have a lovely coconutty flavour from the coconut cream used, we love coconut especially as it is our most used milk alternative. All of the bars except the Oat and Chocolate contain EnergySmart and 4g of Protein, perfect for a pre-run snack.

At the minute Frank bars are on special offer on Ocado, buy 4 get the 5th free. Look on their website to see their other stockists: http://www.thefrankfoodcompany.com/

Disclaimer: We were sent the bars free to try but all opinions are my own.