On the way home from trampoling class yesterday, SB in the back of the car:
‘So if I had 2 pounds and I spent 50p then I’d have spent a quarter and have 3 quarters left.’
Not sure if I thought she knew this already, there have been various bits about fractions on and off. But I was impressed anyway 
double choc chip cookies - I usually double this recipe though
2 tbsp cocoa powder [roughly!], 3/4 cup flour [see the waitrose american measurements link], 1/2 cup brown sugar [light], 50g pure dairy free margarine, 2 tbsp soya milk or alternative, 1/2 packet plain choc chips.
mix dry ingredients, rub in marg, add milk to make a dough. grab approx 6 lumps and wodge onto non-stick tray. sprinkle with chips
gas mark 3 for 15-ish mins. they should still be quite squidgy, as they get more rigid when cool down.
choc raisin brownies [as at hunstanton] a ‘double’ mixture as eaten so quickly!
3 eggs, 185g pure dairy free margarine, 400g sugar, 75g self raising flour, 40g plain flour, 3 tbsp cocoa powder, 150g raisins.
whizz marg and sugar with electric beater or in food processor, add eggs and whizz, add flour and whizz, pop in raisins. tip into pre-lined and greased oblong tin [lining essential!!]
approx 45 mins at gasmark 4. V difficult to time so get right consistency as crust forms early. you still want middle to be quite sludgy when you stop cooking - but obviously not runny!
chocolate and raisin cake
175g plain flour [1 1/2 cups] 3 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp bicarb of soda, 150g caster sugar [2/3 cup] 1 tbsp black treacle/molasses/golden syrup, 2 eggs, 150 ml veg oil, 150ml soya milk or alternative. add raisins and quick whizz.
mix dry ingredients in food processor, add liquids and whizz. pour into lined tin [8″] bake for 45-60 mins [nearer 60] skewer should come out dry when cake done.
should be soon. Merry and co just left, our girls in the bath.
SB LOVED the trampolining, so money well spent, they are in 2 groups of 4, with an instructor each. She said they did different shapes and it was fun. She goes every day this week.
When she returned, Merry and co were here. BB and I had baked a dairy free choc and raising cake, and got pasta and sauce ready, so instant lunch for starving masses. Tye chocolate cake was quickly demolished as well.
The older 4 ran about playing complicated games, mostly successfully, and the better weather certainly was a blessing as they could let off steam outside. Merry, Josie, BB and I played Hisss. A snake game where you colour match. BB loved it, and since my landlock order for SB was in the box, I had a soft moment, ignored the state of my overdraft and purchased it! We have played it since merry left, and BB still very happy wiht ‘her’ game.
merry and I played a lot of a castle game [I’m sure she will pop it somewhere for me to link to!] and she trounced me roundly! Another great game, but for a bit older I think. And then PDQ, which is my kind of game - thinking words!
Whilst we did this, the younger 2 did lots of magic painting with us, and then got a bit grouchy, so I made some popcorn for then and some choc choc chip cookies for tea [vegan]. Jacket pots were done and kids called in for that. SB didn’t notice she missed swimming. the popcorn and cookies all eaten!
Has been a delay in finishing this blogpost! SB has played a few rounds of landlock happily. and both girls in bed. full day at work for me tomorrow, so must have an early night. no violin - oops
a half term thing at local leisure centr. she is sooo excited.
Merry coming over, so BB and I made a dairy free chocolate cake, and some pasta sauce
as it is sooooo cold! and i have got soft with a few days in my parents’ lovely warm house. we had a lovely time. lousy weather though! at least sat not so bad. we went to the chiltern sculpture park. having been to the yorkshire one, it is a bit low on sculpture scoring, but a really great walk in the wood. my sis and her 2 were there too. all the kids had a wonderful time running around, climbing trees, interacting with what sculptures we found. photos to follow
i had told Sb about how much fun i had cycling in the block and cul-de sacs where i grew up, so we took her bike, and she took what opportunities she could between torrential downpours to bike about. Also lots of reading, drwing and games. 2 violin practices. mum thought she held the violin well [phew] but was uncertain about the playing frere jaques in time. we will continue to practice! it will be slow!
BB and cousin E were having great fun together playing games . BB surprised us all by counting down the stairs to 14 - how did she learn that? Also trying out te alphat - poisson rouge! no idea of colours though.
t-bird - my mum has never heard of cutting down violin strings in all her years as a violin teacher.
back home, and beans squashed flat by winds, but sure they will pick up. chris’s parents have been past and done a bit of a tidy for us - thankyou v much to both sets of parents this weekend!
Dear Sir/Madam Thank you for taking the time to contact us in connection with the change of ingredients in our chocolate confectionery and ice cream range. Please note that after recently changing the source of some of the whey that is used in some of our chocolate products we have received lots of feedback that this decision has made it difficult for some of you, especially those of you who are vegetarians, to continue to enjoy our products. We realise that we made a mistake and we apologise. We have committed that we at Mars UK will ensure that a selection of favourite brands including Mars bars, Snickers bars, Galaxy and Maltesers will be suitable for vegetarians in the near future. Meanwhile we are currently experiencing unusually high volumes of contacts from our consumers and therefore we hope that you understand that, rather than answer your question individually, we are attaching a list of questions and answers we believe would be useful and help answer your enquiry. Alternatively you can visit our web site (www.masterfoodsconsumercare.co.uk) for this, and other useful information. Once again thank you for taking the time to contact us. Please do get back in touch, at the dedicated email address below, if your specific query has not been answered and we will do our best to get a speedy response to you. Yours faithfully On Behalf of Fiona Dawson Mars UK fionadawson@masterfoods.co.uk Q1.What are you announcing? A1.We have recently changed the source of some of the whey which is used in our chocolate products made in the UK from a vegetarian friendly variety to one which contains traces of traditional rennet from animal sources. We have received lots of feedback from consumers and reversed this decision. Q2.Are you reverting to vegetarian recipes for all of those products that were subject to the ingredient change? A2.Yes, this announcement means that favourite products - Mars bars, Snickers bars, Galaxy, and Maltesers will once again be suitable for vegetarians. Q3.You make lots of other brands - what about the suitability of them? A3.Other products will also be suitable for vegetarians including Minstrels, Revels, and Ripple. However, Twix, Bounty and Celebrations will continue not to be suitable for vegetarians. Q4.I’m a vegetarian - which products can I eat / should I avoid? A4.Currently we cannot guarantee that our products contain vegetarian rennet. However, we are starting to change our manufacturing process with immediate effect. We want to get our vegetarian products on the shelves as soon as possible. During this process of changing the recipes we will provide updates on this consumer care website, on a regular basis. If you are not sure about the suitability of our products please call us on 0845 0450042. Q5.Why did you decide to change the ingredients in the first place? A5.We made the change to broaden our supply base in order to ensure we could continue to provide our consumers with products of consistent quality in the future. Q6.Will you now consult with consumers on any future changes to products? A6.Yes. This change was a mistake and we are sorry that we may have prevented consumers from enjoying the products they’ve always enjoyed
| You Are From Saturn |
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apart from dentistry, we went to a party in ipswich, and very enjoyable it was too. SB loved the slide, though it was a bit scary! She very carefully took BB round a couple of times too - what a sweetheart. lovely company and lovely day, thanks Em. will flickr.
girls screamed all the way home - sigh. neither asleep yet either
though actually she wasn’t worst in task.
bb still awake 
how is it that you go in with your teeth feeling fine, they poke about abit and suddenly something hurts so you have to go back for a filling?
its still hurting!
i wondered how to get to my aunt’s house - rofl!! not quite sure why we go through france either??
chris has been playing with the template. think this looks quite good.
bur SB has had a good home ed day with Chris - maths, reading, playing, colouring. She made me a present too - bless.
We did violin together - how fast does Joe play frere jaques then? we are at dirge speed with various tuning issues!! At least she is getting used to the bigger violin size now. And it is recognisable!
BB and I had lots of cuddles. SB did lots of ball catching practice. I had promised SB a maths experiment yesterday to show why I knew she was cheating at uno, so we did some probability with coins. We grasped the half heads half tails chance = 50:50, and then threw 3 coins at a time. I got SB to work out how many different patterns there were. We considered how likely we were to choose certain coins out of the pile. At the end of this we looked at the idea of how many uno cards there were, and how many 2+ and 4+, and although we didn’t do the maths [ernest can!] it was quite clear that the chance of a hand of all 2+ and 4+ very unlikely! So there we go, a good start a probability.
The coins were grubby, so we have set up the salt and vinegar to clean them, as SB remembered how good this was at cleaning last time.
Girls now using stencils and colouring in.
I am being grumpy on ‘puter
but I think ros did it too.
we did a bit of reading - see below! lots of messing about, jigsaws etc.
Also a lot of playing about outside. I did some stuff on the veg plot. The girls ran about, bouncing, swinging, trapezing, pond dipping etc. helping me on occassion.
We came in and watched bic cat programme, tea, played games [SB cheated at UNO!!!!!] and the girls now safely tucked up.
I am still in blah mode though, so chris cooking me a curry.
Whilst upstairs…..
Masterfoods have said that Mars and the other chocolate bars will be going back to being veggie again.
Whether or not the calves who are still going to end up dead anyway as a by product of the milk production required think this is any better is not reported 
hmm, i spent most of last night awake or having parent type nightmares, so not full of any joys today, and have found it hard to engage. this on its own annoys me, as i have so little time with the family that i should use it to the full.
Girls did painting and playdough, handstand practice. SB can do that climbing up doors thing that Pea did with the portico walls a couple of years back. SHe read a DK book called time travellers, we did the roman and viking bit, then went to the exploration of america book about the vikings, and the eric the red and leif the lucky sonlight book. [i read those]. girls did lots of self directed play whilst i mooched.
piled out into the garden. chris mowed the lawn, i planted out some runner beans, and the girls helped/hindered each of us in turn. I mostly snuggled bb as she didn’t like the unaccustomed noise of the lawnmower!
thats about it. i made up a bit at bathtime and bedtime though. Sb and I are having a break from britannia and reading roald dahl
forgot, Sb has been goign on a bit about improbabilty of tooth fairies. and she noticed that father christmas seemed to have got some things from yellow moon. So she begged me to tell her the truth about tooth fairies. i temporised, but now after several days, with a direct tell me the honest truth, i have. so much desolation.
Me and Stringbean have been trying to play with Scratch, but Butterbean has been trying to ‘help’, so we’ve abandoned it for now, we will try it again by ourselves.
If you haven’t come across it yet, It’s basically a drag and drop programming language for doing creating interactive stories, animations, games etc. Looks fun.
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