British Jam Tarts

I know I should be down but I decided this morning to sit in the kitchen and supervise he kiddies making Jam Tarts. I never had these growing up as a child being from the States. In fact I have now lived in the UK for 8 years and had never experienced a Jam Tart until a woman from my ward brought some around last week. The kids LOVED them and my (Amazing) Hubby siad they reminded him of his childhood. So this morning while he was having a nap (he got up at 5 with our 3 yr old while I slept) I decided to take a chair into the kitchen and let my 6 1/2 yr old and my 3 yr old make Jam Tarts. It was a huge mess which my hubby will be only to please to clean up :) but it was also a Huge Success!! The kids loved making it by themselves without help from me. Here is the Recipe which I used. It is a Jamie Oliver one:

175g / 1 1/2 cups plain Flour
80g / 2/3 cup butter
2TBSP Icing (Powder Sugar)
1/2 tsp Salt
water
Jam any flavor
More icing sugar to dust

1. Mix together flour,salt, sugar and butter (cut into small pieces). Rub the mixture between your fingers till the mixture resembles large breadcrumbs.

2. Add the water (bit by bit) and knead the pastry gently, forming into a ball. Pop it in the fridge for about 1 hour.

3. Grease a 12 hole shallow tart tin. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface (about 3-4 mm thick).

4. Using a large cup or pastry cutter, cut out circles and place into the tart tins.

5. Fill each tart with about 2 heaped tsps of jam.

6. Bake in a pre-heated over at 200C (about 400F) for about 15-20 mins.

7. Allow to cool then sprinkle with a little icing sugar.

Snowmen Handprint Ornament

found the idea here... i painted nathans hand white and pressed against the side of an ornament. painted each finger to look like a snowman and attached the following poem...

these aren't just five snowman, as anyone can see.

they're made from my handprint, which is a part of me.

now each year when you trim the tree, you'll look back and recall

christmas of 2009, when my hand was just this small.

Car Cozie

introducing the car cozie. it's a perfect solution for storing your little mans cars on the go. it has 6 pockets on one side, and a road on the other side.

when it's not in use, you fold it up, roll it up, and tie it up. thanks sharla w/ my little gems for the idea and especially for sharing how to make it here.

Santa's Website

Justis came home and told me about a website he'd heard about in school. We checked it out and have had lots of fun with it. It has games to play, pages to color, the kids can write santa a letter and even be in a story with santa. Its really cute.
www.northpole.com

Coloring Pages

I just saw this link on another website and thought I'd pass it on...

http://www.coloring-book.info/ is a website where you can print coloring pages from your kids favorite movies, i.e.. Wall-E, 101 Dalmations, Anastasia etc., so you don't need to spend money on coloring books and you can print off whatever they're in the mood for.

Another one that I have used before is: http://www.coloring.ws/coloring.html, they have a wide variety of coloring pages too on many subjects.

Check them out.