Den Building Party.

How time flies! Rather a cliche I know but on my childrens birthdays it really hits home. It was little ones 6th birthday this week. Obviously he's not that little anymore though! He only wanted three best friends which was a comfortable number for a campfire theme.

Den building first so we dragged branches around the garden and climbed trees to tie on ropes and hang tarps. The children created perfect little hiding places for the nerf gun battle that followed.

We used a flint to light the fire and then cooked local sausages from Primrose Pork on the new grill.  The children wrapped bread dough around sticks to make dampers and then each cooked their own.We used a potato peeler to safely shave the bark off the green sticks.

 I made chocolate fairy cakes with flame coloured icing and then the boys turned them into campfires using flakes for the branches. We finished off dessert with a marshmallow toasting session.

We sandwiched the marshmallows between 2 dark chocolate digestive biscuits for our own version of smores.

At the end of the party the children completed a nature quiz that led to a final clue in the chicken house to locate their party bags. I buried them in a bin bag in the veggie patch and they had to work as a team to dig them out. Quite a lot of flying mud!

Continuing with the smores theme I made each child a tea light coaster with their name on, added a tea light, two cocktail sticks and a bag of mini marshmallows. Take home s'more! I made hessian bags to haul the loot home home.

I think they had a good time. They went home extremely dirty!

National Sausage Week!

We love sausages in our house and eat them in all sorts of disguises. Sausage rolls in town on a Saturday morning, as 'proper' hotdogs at summer barbeques,  sausage pasta, sausage sandwiches, English breakfast and recently we have moved into the Winter phase of sausage casserole!

Did you know?

*During the second world war a lack of ingredients for sausages meant that sausage makers would often add water to  the mix. As this turned to steam it often exploded with a bang. This is where the slang term 'banger' originated.

*The first sausages were believed to have been made by the Sumerians over 5,000 years ago.

* A German sausage holds the reord for the longest sausage at 1,500 m but rumor has it that a British banger once measured 35 miles long. Apparently it was never checked by Guiness records and so not offiially recognized.

We are lucky enough to live in an area of great farm shops and farmers markets. I live near Primrose Pork, a local family run farm that really know their pigs. The animals are well cared for and happy which makes for delicious pork products. They have won loads of awards for 'best sausages'. They come in a range of shapes and flavours. I like the tomato flavoured ones best.

http://primrose.heartdesign.co/

I've had a browse and found a selection of crafty sausage items.

Toad in the hole sausages - STARSGEMINI3

Sausage on Fork - Painted Side Plate - Shebbo Design

Sausage/Pickle Letterpress Card by Slow Industries