This morning I have been busy in the kitchen preparing for Easter Sunday tomorrow. I love to potter in my kitchen and in here I feel my most relaxed, creative and happy. Apart from the functional use of the room, the kitchen is so important as Its where we eat as a family and share our day’s news. We use the table here for all our craft projects, playing board games and doing homework. Its where I sit in the mornings when the sun streams through the window and I read the paper or work on my computer. Its the room where I do my sewing and listen to the radio, or in the mornings entertain the children with my Mummy dancing as I make breakfast. It is my favourite room, the heart of our home.
Today I have been in the kitchen baking for tomorrow. I love baking and a morning in the kitchen is my idea of bliss. The recipes this morning were little chick cake pops and a few cup cakes topped with Easter decorations I made using a new mould. The mould was a recent purchase from Lakeland, one of my favourite shops full of inspirational ideas for the kitchen. This is the second time trying cake pops and I still quite haven’t mastered the art of the smooth chocolate around the cake, however I adapted my original idea and used a pastry brush to give a rougher texture to make them look fluffy! If I try these again I might look for an alternative to icing pens for the facial features, possibly small sweets etc. The moulds were excellent and if I make a Simnel cake next year may use these for some simple Easter marzipan decorations or make some fruit crème sweets for neighbours. Chocolate would work but there is so much chocolate everywhere its nice for a different sweet treat.
Sadly we don’t have a permanent ice rink in our neighbouring towns and cities, but one of the newer Christmas traditions has seen a rise in temporary rinks to allow ice skating over the festive season. Whilst most of these are outside and located near Christmas markets, the one local to us is inside at a large conference centre and rather than closing at the New Year, remains open until the end of the February half term holiday. This gave us an ideal opportunity today to introduce the children to ice skating in a quieter session. I love ice skating, from my childhood memories of Torvill and Dean dancing the Bolero to the best student job I ever had as a receptionist at our now demolished ice rink, ice skating has always seemed a special activity. Today’s visit to the ice rink only emphasised my delight for the sport. The hall with the rink has been decorated beautifully, blue lights sparkle against the snow white ice and a great play list only enhances the experience. The little ones took their first tentative steps in the mini rink and supported ably by the penguins (such cool names including Barry and Mark) they were soon whizzing around the ice, I think Daddy could have done with a penguin too as he clung to the side, adults don’t have the fearlessness that young children possess. Once our confidence and skills grew we progressed to the main rink, which was lovely to skate around. Our session was for an hour and I was so impressed by the children’s enthusiasm and interest in ice skating, nobody noticed the time and we were all a little sad to come off, full of ideas of what we would try next time.
Seaside Sparkles 
