Happy New Year ! A Look back at 2014

I can't believe another year has passed us by ! I'm just getting ready to look ahead to my New Year's resolutions and challenges for 2015, but I thought it would be nice to look back at the highlights of 2014 first.

January - As always, January was the month of New Year's resolutions and healthy recipes, such as the gorgeous (but admittedly not very appetising-looking !) Spicy Kale, Bean and Bacon Soup and Aubergine, Chickpea & Tomato Stew.

February - In February we had fun at the winter funfair and school Mardi Gras carnival, a culinary disaster making homemade Jaffa Cakes and a springwatch nature walk.

March - In March, I was delighted to see my recipe for Spicy Prawns with Chorizo & Feta picked as the winning recipe to be published alongside a whole host of celeb recipes in Tilda's Mum Helping Mums Cookbook. I discovered the cuisine of Peru in my Kitchen Trotter box and the remains of the World War 2 bunkers on Dunkirk beach.

April - My globe-cooking adventures took us to South Africa, we had a picnic at the beach in a Hello Kitty tent (eating kebabs !) and discovered the joys of geocaching.

May - May was full of geocaching adventures, where we learnt that even if you don't find the caches, there are always other exciting things to discover and Madhouse Daddy beat the Microsoft phone scammers !

June - In June, I cooked my way around the world for the World Cup recipe challenge, which invited bloggers to cook a dish on each match day from one of the countries playing. We also had fun at a farm show ... at the beach !

 July - In July, we made Elmers to celebrate the patchwork elephant's 25th anniversary and discovered S'mores. I was delighted to win a Merlin annual family pass with my Kelly's of Cornwall Creative Kids recipe for ice cream hamburgers.

August - We went to Brittany and Hastings (where we visited the nearby Bodiam Castle) then had a fabulous fortnight in Kusadasi in Turkey - in fact, we loved it so much that for the first time ever, we are heading back to exactly the same hotel this summer . Roll on August !

September -  I came up with my Bucket List and am determined to try and cross at least a few off.

October - I discovered Poland on a work trip - we were based in Gdynia but we also visited Gdansk.

November - In November we went on a fab family weekend to London where we discovered the Natural History Museum, the London Eye, the Poppies at the Tower and Madame Tussaud's where the girls were majorly excited to see One Direction in the flesh, er wax !

December - December was the time for festive crafting, visiting the Christmas market, the festive decorations in town and then watching Santa abseiling down the clock tower !

It's amazing how much we packed in when you look at it all condensed like that. Who knows what 2015 has in store ?!