Pancake ideas for flipping good fun!

The theatre of the big pancake flip on Shrove Tuesday (Feb 21) is enough to catch the imagination of most pre-schoolers. Heap on top of this excitement, an array of toppings as far as your imagination can stretch and it’s no surprise why pancake day is much anticipated for little ones across the country!
Thankfully, it doesn’t take the skills of Heston Blumenthal to whip up a delicious pancake batter. Just follow any tried and tested recipe and then go to town on your topping.

There are savoury options but frankly, they don’t float our kids’ boats so we’ll just mention a few (!) of our favourite toppings…sugar and lemon, sugar and lemon with melted butter, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry – in fact any berry! – nutella, chopped banana, raisins, syrup, peanut butter, chocolate chips, chopped nuts…we’re making ourselves too hungry to carry on but you get the idea!

If mixing and flipping at home isn’t enough for you, and your little ones have done all they can do in the way of pancake day activities then there’s a pancake day race in Ilkley along The Grove on Tuesday. Frying pans at the ready! x

Kelly's Little Treasures!

We love supporting local businesses and when it’s a business inspired by the arrival of a little one, it’s even more exciting! Kelly Oldfield set up Kelly’s Little Treasures in April last year after her second baby was born.

The business focuses on handmade wooden items great for nurseries and gifts. From wall letters to wooden bunting, memory boxes to door signs and lots in between, Kelly’s Little Treasures keeps the focus on personalised gifts made in Skipton with creativity and care.

She says: “I love being a full time mummy and want to be there to see everything my children do, so decided the best way to be able to do this would be to set up my own business and work from home. I love every minute of my work I find it extremely relaxing and the best part I can wait till my children go to bed to do it. Our most popular items are the scripted wall letters and our wooden name buntings.”

Kelly has offered to make one MooBaaKids user a scripted wall letter sign to the name of their choice for our latest competition. 
To win simply tell us what your favourite local places are to take the kids – can be as near or far as you consider ‘local’ to be and anything from a park, a walk, a cinema, eatery, play centre, class, group, tourist attraction or any of the hundred other possibilities! 

Scripted wall letter sign

Let us know by 10pm on Friday 17th February 2012 and we’ll select a winner at random. You can enter via our facebook wall or you can email your answer to us at moobaakids@hotmail.co.uk Oh, and the more times you enter the more chances you have of winning. Good Luck!


To find out more about Kelly's business check out her website: www.kellyslittletreasures.co.uk 

LOVE is in the air…

Why should loved-up grown-ups have all the fun on Valentine’s Day? For toddlers, there’s plenty in life that they LOVE and the 14th February is a great excuse to celebrate it! If you fancy heading out, there’s the Valentine’s Trail at beautiful Bolton Abbey where you meander along the pram-friendly paths searching for love – or symbols of it at least!


To look for love closer to home, why not play Hide the Hearts – a simple fun game for pre-schoolers. Cut out hearts from red or pink paper. Hide the hearts all around the house and start the clocks to give them five minutes to find as many as they can! The child who collects, the most hearts wins a prize. If you feel like cuddling up and staying in, then there’s always homemade popcorn and a love-themed film – we’re loving Tangled at the moment!

Painted hearts on stones

And if you’re little one is looking for a creative outlet and a chance to let someone know how special they are – there are a million ways to say I love you. Why not paint hearts on stones and then put them outside for people to find: click here for inspiration. 

Potato print heart cards

For a more traditional approach there are lots of ways your little one can make a gorgeous card. They’ll love creating something special for a loved one, and then heading to the post box to seal it with a kiss! Either these hand print cards or potato print heart cards would be perfect!

Love Heart toast (love!)

And as far as treats to eat, there’s plenty in the way of things to make…if you have a small heart-shaped cutter or are creative enough to go free-hand then a sweetheart fruit salad (great for finger food) could fit the bill nicely. Not quite as good for you but as nice as it is naughty, these love heart toasts look fantastic! 

Sweetheart fruit salad

Happy Valentine’s day all! xo

New clothes from old as a local mum gets creative with her innovative business!

At the start of any new year, many of us are throwing out the old and looking towards the new. But one innovative local children’s clothing business is cleverly using the old to create something new!



Qualified dress maker and mum of two girls Rowan set up her business eco-dinky a couple of years ago, when trying to find fun clothes for her children to play in. She now makes fantastic creations for girls aged 6 months to 8 years old using old fabrics, buttons and threads and also offers a custom-made service.

Rowan explains: “I dusted off my sewing machines and got busy. I started to make fun, playful, clothes for my own children. Neighbours and friends then started to ask me to make things for their children, then their friends would want some too and it just grew from there.


“The environmental side of my business just sort of happened really. I just naturally gravitated to making clothing from things that were already in existence; old clothes, table cloths, chair covers, fabric which was damaged and roll ends. I bought threads which had already been used then thrown away to make way for the next season’s colours, bags of mismatched buttons. started unpicking zips from clothes with holes in, chopping the good parts of fabric away from the worn out bits etc. It just was how I wanted to make things. There is far too much waste in the fashion industry and I really didn’t want to add to it. “My customers also really appreciate this ethos – they often have an item of clothing their child has grown out of which they loved and can't bear to get rid of. They send outgrown baby grows or clothing from their children, or baby slings they no longer use, or even items of their own they can no longer wear, and I incorporate the fabric into a new item for their child.”



Rowan has been a qualified dressmaker for over 15 years and, before having her daughters Bunny and Frankie, worked mostly in women’s wear, makings all sorts from bridal to club wear, also costumes, corsets and dance wear. She now works from home in East Morton in West Yorkshire to suit the needs of her family. She adds: “Working from home also means Bunny and Frankie get to see what it means to work and to see the process of something being made from start to finish, which is actually a rare thing these days. For her 5th birthday Frankie drew me a picture of a beautiful dress she wanted me to make (the sleeves came out of her head in the drawing but we worked around that!), she told me the colours she liked and instructions on how much the skirt should twirl and where I should sew on jewels. She then saw the drawing become a pattern, the pattern become pieces of cut out fabric, and finally the fabric being sewn into the dress she had designed.”




 This is a service Rowan now offer to people for their children – they love designing their own and get very detailed and involved. She continues: “My most popular dress design though, is the wing dress. This is a very versatile dress as the basic design can be made in any colour, and any designs can be sewn on as decoration. For example, I once had an order for a pair of wing dresses for identical twins. One liked spaceships and the other liked fairies. I did a silver spaceship dress for one and a gold fairy dress for the other.” 

The age range for pre-made clothing tends to be 6 months to 8 years, with the ages split up into 6-12 months, 1-2 years, 3-4 years, 5-6 years and 7-8 years. Dresses range in price from £20 to around £35 depending on the design. Custom made clothing can be made in any size. Rowan explains: “I’ve had everything on the spectrum! 5 year olds as tall as a 7 year old but as thin as a 4 year old, short, wide 3 year olds, giant 6 year olds. If a child is local I will tend to measure them but I am happy to take measurements from relatives over the phone or just give me an idea of what size clothing they normally wear eg. A size 3-4, or like the above example where they are 7 year old height but 4 year old width. I can work with that.”


Prices for custom made clothing range, as above, from around £20 - £35 to make up the garment with the additional cost for pattern cutting which is usually about £15 - £30. A custom made item can take anything from a couple of hours or up to a couple of days but Rowan discusses time frames with all her customers – especially if they have a specific occasion in mind for the outifit.


For more information visit Rowan’s website at www.eco-dinky.com