Category: Blog
Mummy and Me Magazine: Nov 2013
Alternative Advent Calendar
Christmas is almost upon us and I’m already thinking of some wonderful ideas to fill my daughter’s homemade advent calendar. This year I’ll be making a personalised advent calendar with a little treat for each day. And there won’t be any chocolate in sight.
I’ve bought some small striped paper candy bags that will be numbered 1 to 24. These will be strung up on some red wool in the style of bunting and inside each bag will be a little surprise to count down the days to Christmas.
Some ideas to include in an alternative advent calendar are recycled mini cards (cut outs of old cards we have) with a special message inside tied to some string so they can be hung on the Christmas tree as decorations and printed colouring pictures (there are plenty for free on the internet that you can print out).
Other little treats could include a bouncy ball, crayons, a mini tub of PlayDoh, hairclips, a cookie cutter, marbles, a Christmas decoration for the tree and a selection of dried fruit (which is sweet but without the refined sugar).
If you want to include some delicious natural, sweet and chewy treats in some of the days of the advent calendar my Healthy Flapjacks are simple to make. They can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 days so you can add a piece each morning before your child opens their advent calendar.
Healthy Flapjacks
Makes 15
Ingredients
- 1 large Apple
- 60 ml 100% Orange Juice
- 1 cup Whole Rolled Oats
- 1/3 cup Raisins and finely chopped Dried Apricots
- 3 teaspoons Sesame Seeds
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
Method
1. Heat the oven to 180 C. Line a 22cm cake tin with baking paper.
2. Wash and core the apple. Cut into thin slices and place in a pan. Add the Orange Juice and bring to the boil.
3. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, uncovered and stirring occasionally until the apple is soft.
4. Puree the Apple and Orange juice with a hand-held mixer or in a food processor.
5. Stir in the Cinnamon, Oats, Sesame Seeds, Raisins and Dried Apricots into the Apple puree and mix well.
6. Tip the mixture into the tin and spread out evenly.
7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until firm and golden brown.
8. Let it cool before cutting into wedges.
Lydia Oliver, Nutritional Advisor
This article was published in the November 2013 edition of Mummy and Me Magazine.
I offer one to one nutrition programmes for breastfeeding, post pregnancy weight loss, weaning advice, weight management and health. Contact me.
Autumn Walk in the Park
Imogen loves walking to our local park with Charley Bear in the little buggy. There were plenty of autumn leaves to run through, so many you could barely see the ground.
Imogen had great fun playing in the leaves, jumping and crunching them under her feet.
Sharing our outdoor adventures and linking up with Country Kids at Coombe Mill.
Up and Down at the Ga Ga Theatre
We were invited by the new children’s theatre company Ga Ga Theatre to see the stage performance of Up and Down. Up and Down is a heart-warming story about friendship, love and reaching for your dreams by multi-award winning author and illustrator Oliver Jeffers.
We had visited Toddler Time at the Greenwich Picturehouse cinema the week before so it was nice to be in a familiar environment for Imogen’s first theatre experience.
Up and Down is the debut production by the Ga Ga Theatre.
It’s an adaptation of the much loved book Up and Down by Oliver Jeffers and is showing at six London Picturehouse venues (Notting Hill, Clapham, Brixton, Greenwich, Hackney, Stratford East) until 3 November.
The Boy and the Penguin were larger than life characters who danced and shared their fun adventure to music.
The production was reasonably interactive and this worked well with the audience. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience of theatre and look forward to future performances by the Ga Ga Theatre.
Created by Rachael Richards and Katie Russell, the Ga Ga Theatre aims to make going to the theatre as stress free as possible, offering high quality productions available on a local basis.
Up and Down is suitable for babies and children up to the age of seven years old. The performance lasted for 45 minutes.
Disclosure: I was offered tickets to Up and Down by the Ga Ga Theatre for the purposes of writing this review.
