Peanut Butter Cookies Baked With Pic's Really Good Peanut Butter

 

The Winter school holidays can be a tricky time to keep kids entertained. Unless you've organised several events to attend and play dates (indoors of course), you'll mostly find yourself caught in the house with your children and that can be less than ideal!

 

Cooking really comes to the rescue in Winter.

 

I recently whipped up a batch of these peanut butter cookies which make a fantastic bake for the kids to attempt and a great snack in their own right. I was sent a jar of Pic's Really Good Peanut Butter for my consideration and I naturally thought baking was the way to go with it. (More on Pic's a little later in this post.) 

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Storksak Elizabeth Review - Baby Bags of Distinction #SLHFeaturedThursdays

No doubt if you've ever shopped for a baby bag, you will have encountered the luxury label Storksak along the way.

Storksak, (founded in 2003), produce baby bags of true distinction. They are premium quality (frequently leather) bags designed with style and sophistication at their core as well as overall practicality in mind, to keep the fashion-forward mama and baby duo content.

The Storksak Elizabeth nappy bag embodies everything the Storksak label represents and I was elated to receive this beautiful bag to review here. I have always wanted one and I am suitably in love with its designer looks and sleek function. The Elizabeth is just luscious!

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Sydney for Families in a Weekend - Our Family Minibreak at the Cambridge Hotel...

*This post is brought to you in collaboration with Cambridge Hotel.

Very recently my family we were invited by our favourite interstate pad, the family-friendly Cambridge Hotel in Sydney's Surry Hills, to come and experience all the fun and excitement that its CBD location has to offer.

Naturally, we were thrilled to oblige! After all, who doesn't appreciate a weekend away in another city? Especially one as fabulous as Sydney.

It wasn't our first stay with the Cambridge Hotel mind you. We were lucky enough to visit beautiful Sydney just under a year ago and you can read all about our weekend in Sydney previously.

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Why Life Insurance Can Be a Good Idea For Families...

*This post is brought to you in collaboration with Life Insurance Comparison.

There have been countless times when we have considered life insurance and income protection insurance for our family. It is something seriously worth looking into when you have young children to care for and a hefty mortgage and education costs to contend with.

I am so pleased to welcome Sally with this guest post on behalf of Life Insurance Comparison, which spells out the benefits of these types of insurance options for families, without the difficult jargon so often associated with insurance.

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Hippo Blue Height Chart Review #SLHFeaturedThursdays

If you've been following along here for a while now, you may remember a little way back I introduced Hippo Blue here?

Hippo Blue are suppliers of personalised kids' goods and as parents we know we all need those!

Just this morning I was rifling through the lost property at my son's school trying to hunt down his new jacket - emphasis on new too. He owned it for all of 12 hours before he lost my $50 purchase. It's been missing for 5 weeks now but I still hold a glimmer of hope it will return...Pfff -  time to forget about it methinks!

Anyway, Hippo Blue gave me another shout out just a short while ago to let me know they've a brand-spanking new range of beautiful kiddy height wall charts on offer on their site and would we kindly review one?

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Crayola Color Wonder Review - Mess Free Colouring For All Ages!

 

*This Product Talk post is brought to you by Nuffnang and Crayola.

 

How I love to see my kids engage in traditional childhood enjoyments like colouring in. There's something so quaint about watching your children focus on the simple joy of making art.

 

Colouring is great for building your kids' concentration, fine motor skills, promoting an appreciation of quiet time and the blessing of getting along (where there's more than one involved).

 

While kids can look so sweet and adorable when they're transfixed with the task colouring, I've got to confess that I don't like the toddler tinkering with the craft too much. It's not because I don't love to watch her create - I really do, it's more due of the mess factor.

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Arborvitae Health and Wellbeing Supplement

*This post is brought to you in collaboration with Arborvitae and Digital Parents.

Being a Mum means physically, so much energy expenditure! The demands of the role make it near-impossible to scrape back some of the enormous drain on your body too. It's easy to fall into some bad habits on this journey through time-poor choices - like snacking un-wisely, not exercising or the worst of them - forgetting to care for yourself just plain overall.

I am so very guilty of being this person these days.

I wasn't always so careless with my health however. It is something that has crept up on me in all the busyness of my growing family. With seven pregnancies under my belt resulting in six children, (one was an ectopic), I have relied heavily on a healthy lifestyle, exercise and supplementation over the years to see me through the high stress times of pre-conception, pregnancy, breastfeeding and the decades-long marathon that results - motherhood.

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Prettify Your Presentation with Pack Queen, A Sweet Little Truffle Recipe and A Giveaway #SLHFeaturedThursdays

*This post is brought to you in collaboration with Pack Queen.

This role of Mothering is so often about making and baking and that's a truth whether you're a stay at home Mum or a working one. You will be regularly roped into the whole 'kitchen creations' thing either willingly or kicking and screaming against your will. (And I have met plenty of Mums from both sides of the kitchen bench so to speak.)

Kids can cost an absolute fortune if you spend regularly on lunchbox treats so I tend to avoid doing that as much as I can by being a bit of a baking queen at home. It's hit and miss for sure where the kids are concerned but luckily for me personally, it's usually fun too, so I persist...

Bah! What choice do I have really?!

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Apple, Date and Walnut Cake

You know those moments when you are desperate to get something together for school lunches at the last minute? You flick through your recipe books hoping that you can match your pantry contents against some basic recipe to whip-up while you deal with making dinner and other Mum related things...

Well, I was in one of those situations late last week - nothing exciting for the kids' lunches at school and no time to go to the shops. Something had to be made quickly to fill those containers or there would be major complaints from my kiddos the next day.

Necessity is the mother of all invention isn't it? Looking back on this creation, I am so glad I was placed in that position, because this original recipe was born and it is delicious.

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Oz Comic-Con Melbourne, June School Holiday Fun and a Flash Family Pass Giveaway!

Oz Comic-Con opens in Melbourne on the first weekend of these coming June school holidays and what better way to entertain the kids than with all their favourite comic and action heroes from gaming to television and beyond in the one exciting convention!

 

Held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre from June 27th to 28th, this fun-filled family event gives fans the chance to meet celebrities, involve themselves in exclusive Q and A panels and collect some exclusive memorabilia.

 

Get dressed up and have some fun!

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Motherhood and The Importance of Finding Your Village...Hello Mamas

 

*This post is brought to you in collaboration with Hello Mamas.

 

Remember how easy and carefree life before Motherhood was? Sure, it had its challenging moments and ups and downs but generally, as an independent grown-up flitting about in a grown-up world, it was kind of easy in hindsight to maintain your hard-won confidence, poise and mind through it all.

Enter your first baby though and whoa! - What an extraordinary wake-up call that one is! Gone are the thrills of the career highs, the late nights spent with friends, the freedoms and joys of dining out and movies, even the luxury of midnight TV.

Baby has arrived; screaming, unsettled and instruction-less and steals away all of your focus and energy along with it while you try to figure out this plethora of uncharted newness.

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Barbie Memories, Moments and Play Ideas Plus a Special Barbie Giveaway to Get You Started! #SLHFeaturedThursdays

*This post is brought to you in collaboration with Mattel Barbie and Digital Parents.

If you're a Mum to a young girl, you'll already know that one of the greatest joys you will share from early on in this special relationship, is the pleasure of play together.

Playing 'girly stuff' with your young child is enormous fun for both of you and made especially so for yourself, through the opportunity to relive some of those exciting moments and memories from your own girlhood.

Remember the thrill of dancing? Tree climbing? Dress ups and tea parties? It all comes flooding back with so much clarity and happiness, when you experience these moments over again alongside your own daughter.

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