Second Time Mummy

Tuesday, 30 October 2012

Halloween Pumpkin Carving: Ben 10 and Hello Kitty

This year we decided to buy 2 large pumpkins for ther Halloween festivities. I was all set to make them as scary and ghoulish as possible until the children got involved. They decided they wanted their own special pumpkins based on their favourite things... Hello Kitty for Little E and Ben 10 for Mister A.

Great... there goes my relaxing evening... so last night I carefully carved (as requested) 2 of the greatest pumpkins that I possibly could....

I am so so proud of them! They were easier than they look too. I did use some print off's to help me. I popped the paper up against the pumpkin and used a knife to score where I needed to cut...

And after a couple of hours the pumpkins were ready to light...

The children love them too! Mucho brownie points for me!

Tuesday, 23 October 2012

WIN! Duracell Halloween Competition

Recently the lovely people over at Duracell got in touch with us. They wanted to talk to us and you about batteries (funnily enough!)

Did you know that a staggering one third of alkaline batteries thrown away may still have up to 67 per cent of usable power left inside? Duracell together with Energy Saving Trust are helping families like us to maximise battery power, tap into unused resource and reduce wastage by giving their batteries a second life.

To demonstrate that batteries that have been assumed ‘dead’ can be given a second life Duracell want you to try them in your low drain household devices such as remote controls, clocks and torches. To promote the campaign Duracell have created a film featuring the Duracell Bunny - he transforms into an impressive light sculpture, showcasing how batteries which people have presumed ‘dead’ could still have useful power inside and can be given a second life. You can watch it here...

And as we approach that spooky time of year, Duracell have provided us with a fabulous Halloween party pack prize for one lucky winner to enjoy with thier children. The prize pack includes all the ingredients for a Halloween party with your little monsters - including decorations, masks and party games to play in the dark made even spookier by using a torch, run by part-powered batteries that have been rescued from the recycling stream!

To enter just answer the question on the Rafflecopter form below. Good luck!! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, 5 October 2012

#WWBack2Best Challenge Week 1

So today's the day. My first weigh in. It's been a bit of a mixed week - my fridge freezer broke losing me over £200 of fresh and frozen food that I had bought to prepare all of our meals from scratch. We lost everything - all of the meat, veg, and my skimmed milk. The whole thing just packed in over night and proceeded to cook everything on the inside. By the time we realised even the meat that we had frozen had started to cook. Nightmare. Mum has kindly leant us her small fridge from her garage but it really is tiny - only big enough to store milk and butter so every single night I have to go to Tesco - this in itself has meant week 1 of WW has been rather difficult.

So here goes... after my first week I have....

LOST 5lb

I am amazed! Although I am determined to loose as much as possible for my trip. Ive been sticking to the plan 100% - just snacking on 0 point fruit and veg and I guess all that running back and forth to the shops has helped!

So despite my best intentions of wanting to cook fresh meals every night - so far I have only managed a few. This is my favourite meal yet - from theWeight Watchers cookery book...

Tiger Prawn Tagliatelle

It was so delicious and really, really simple to prepare and cook. With food like that to eat, you never go hungry!

Monday, 1 October 2012

Weight Watchers Challenge #WWBack2Best

Life is a bit of a whirlwind at the moment and everything seems to be going at about 100 mph. Work is sooooo busy, weekends fly by and the Summer has already been replaced by rainy days and freezing cold weather. I feel like I haven't written a blog about 'me' for ages but that's all about to change.... because thanks to BritMums I am now fully pledged up to take the WeightWatchers "Back 2 Best" Challenge.

I've always been a bit of a yo-yo dieter. My weight has been up and down since I was about 22. I ballooned back then after having the contraceptive injection and eventually used WeightWatchers online to take me back down to a slender size 10. Then after having Mister A in 2007 my weight took me up to a size 14 and WW helped me again. Gradually I piled the pounds back on but managed to lose almost 2 stone during my month long holiday to Singapore (yes - I know - on a holiday!!) That was in 2009 and that was probably the last time I was actually happy with my weight. I felt confident with my body and it showed. It was a few months later that I fell pregnant with Little E and the rest they say... is history!

I did go to my local WeightWatchers class after having my daughter. I was focused and my leader Deb was amazing but when she moved on, class wasn't the same and I found myself missing classes and not counting points.

This time I'm motivated by the trip of a lifetime that's booked for April. Me and the man are off to Thailand on a 5* adventure that I won (that's another story!) - so basically I have 7 months to lose 2 and a half stone and keep it off. I'm determined to get close by the time we hit Christmas.

Friday was my first time on the scales in quite sometime. Eeek... here's my starting weight....

12stone 4lbs

There, it's out there now. So everyone can see. And that means I have no choice to lose weight because I dont want to be that heavy ever again.

The best thing for me about this challenge is that I can do it all via an app, which means there's no excuses. My phone is with me at all times so therfore I always know where I'm up to with my points and I can always check points on thinks BEFORE I eat them rather than panicing afterwards!

Every Friday I will weigh in and post aboutt my progress - there's no escape! And if you're inspired to get slim or Christmas then why don't you join me? You too can sign up - and guess what - it's just £1 and you can trial the app for free (subject to T&C's) just head over to www.weightwatchers.co.uk/britmums

Go on join me! And wish me luck!!

Disclaimer: I have been provided with 6 months weightwatchers membership free of charge along with a hamper of WW goodies to allow me to begin my journey.

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