Angelolli

Lauren's first book.

2012-01-09T09:06:00.000+08:00

This is Lauren's first story and book, and I am so proud. I started the writing thing late with her, as opposed to Angelica, so I am super happy that we got the ball rolling. It's pretty random, her story, like how Angelica's were in the beginning. See my previous posts under the tag "writing". Enjoy the randomness!

As dictated to me by Lauren:

This is a story about a castle, some woods and a splish splash wave (which makes no appearance in the story whatsoever, so I'm expecting a sequel).

There was a big evil in the forest. He came out on a horse with a long tail.

There was a princess with really long hair called Rapunzel.

Then the horsey with the long tail came from the forest.

And she is the princess with the long hair. Her name is Rapunzel.

The end.

Hope that makes you smile. I was smiling the whole night!
Happy new year!

Christmas Carols by Angelica Ling

2011-12-02T12:15:00.000+08:00

This week, we're working on story maps. It's like a mind map for writers that I read about online. You map out your storyline as you make it up. I tried it with Angelica, as it's been a while since we did writing activities.

As she tells the story of the witch and the princess, I got her to place the characters on paper, along with their actions in the story.

Christmas Carols by Angelica Ling

"There was a witch and a princess. The witch decided to steal the princess' singing voice, and have her a potion that tastes like barley. When the princess drank it, the witch took her voice. So the princess made a potion that tastes like strawberry. But it's not to take her voice back from the witch. It's just so that she has a new voice. Now she can sing Christmas carols! The end."

Below is her illustration of the story.

We'll try to do more of these story maps, because it helps her to visualise the story in its entirety before she illustrates it. The way we used to do it was more random - she's make the story up as she went along, which is good as well. This is just another way of approaching it.

Go slow

2011-11-18T16:58:00.000+08:00

I try to get my kids to help out in the kitchen when I cook. Angelica has also recently expressed an interest in slow food, ever since she found out what fast food meant. "Does this mean we eat the food slowly, or what?" she asked one day, at McDonald's. I told her slow food meant we cook it from scratch, from natural whole foods, instead of eating processed foods such as commercial patties, nuggets and fries.

Burger patties, chicken nuggets and fries can be slow foods too, if we make it from scratch.

So now, she insists on helping me make slow food. They help me with pastas and salads, when we have them on the weekends. Lauren is my official "leafer". I just give her two heads of butter head lettuce, and off she goes. They still won't eat the salad, which they consider yucky, but makers eventually turn into eaters, right? And salads are a great way for them to help in the kitchen, as it doesn't involve flames, and there's no way to do it wrongly. If anything falls on the floor, we'll just wash it and it's good again.

Part of the slow food movement is also about growing our own. I've started a little herb garden in the backyard, but we have yet to plant vegetables.

When I saw the sprouter at the local organic shop, I decided to try it. I got a sprouter and alfalfa seeds, and the kids have been having a blast with it. In fact, I think it's the perfect way to introduce kids to planting our food. All we do is sprinkle a tablespoon of seeds in the sprouter and keep it watered for the next two or three days. The seeds sprouts fast and the kids love checking in on it every morning. Now they're asking to "grow more stuff". I'll introduce them to planting in soil next. We have some vegetable seeds waiting to be planted.

More planting adventures to come!

Where there's a will...

2011-11-06T16:50:00.000+08:00

Lately, I've been thinking about eating less meat. I don't think I have the stomach to go completely vegetarian/vegan, but perhaps going meatless for some meals is possible. So I've been experimenting with salads. Salad are such blank palettes on which to layer flavors, and need never be bland and boring. On a family barbecue over the weekend, while everyone was busy marinating pork ribs and dipping chicken wings in honey, I thought I would make a kick-ass salad that rivaled any barbecued meat in taste.

I cut up half a medium-sized pumpkin and roasted them in the oven. I sprinkled the slices liberally with olive oil and sparingly with salt, and put it to roast at 250 degrees centigrade for 10 minutes. After I took the pumpkins out, I put in mushrooms, with the same treatment. Next time, I must remember to put both in together; the mushrooms were a last minute decision.

Halfway through, I was interrupted by the kids, who wanted to make sushi. Here, my little sushi maker was busy at work. I mixed cooked sushi rice with organic black sesame seeds and organic seaweed flakes. The kids have a new Hello Kitty sushi mold, and they will eat any cute food, so sushi it was.

Back to the salad...Here's my little set-up for the picture. After roasting the pumpkin and mushrooms, the rest was just assembly work. I used butter head lettuce, rocket, zucchini, tomatoes and a store-bought sesame dressing. We made some pineapple pops for the barbecue. It was just a matter of slicing the pineapple into discs, sticking a skewer through it and throwing it on the grill for five minutes. The cooked pineapple is sweet and juicy, and the kids love them.

I had just a couple of ribs (I'm only human!), but loaded up my plate with the salad, Hello Kitty sushi and pineapple. Baby steps, ok? Baby steps.

Planting and painting

2011-10-19T14:24:00.000+08:00

We have a new project! Planting a little vegetable patch. Recently, I found in my wedding gifts four bags of seeds. It was part of my dowry. Lest you think it's some archaic Chinese tradition, it's more a representation of the traditional Chinese dowry. My mother gave me a couple of enamel basins, an enamel potty, a set of teapot and teacups, yards of fabric, soap holders and four bags of vegetable seeds. In the olden days, a new bride is expected to bring her own wash basins and fabric to make her own clothes. The seeds are to plant so that she can contribute to the kitchen table. But I digress.

I found out the seeds are actually sawi (mustard greens), bitter gourd, lady fingers and long beans. So my girls and I decided to plant them.

The girls are quite excited about our little garden project. Being city kids, and having a fastidious grandma, they hardly get to play in the dirt. This is like Christmas come early for them! And they're quite good little gardeners. Lauren lovse shovelling dirt into tiny flowerpots and Angelica is having a blast arranging the pots.

We'll show you mroe of the seedlings once they have sprouted.
And when we're not planting, the girls are rediscovering their first love - finger painting. Angelica did a lot of that when she was younger, and Lauren is now getting her first taste of all that gooey goodness.

In the beginning, everyone insisted on not getting their hands dirty, so I handed them some brushes.

But of course painting is that much more fun when you CAN get dirty.

I recently set up a little painting area for the girls outside, and installed a ceiling fan, which has been a godsend. Now the girls can muck around with their paints and chalks without worrying about making a mess. And they spend less time in front of the TV.

Happy time and a talking pony named Pinky

2011-08-24T17:32:00.001+08:00

Hello there,

My last post was 20 days ago! Tsk Tsk! My apologies.

I got up early to write today, and cleared my work area. There's still a lot of things, but at least I have space for my laptop and a doodle pad. While I was clearing, I found a story written by Angelica, which I had put aside to photograph and got lost in all the clutter. You will see it later in the post.

Right beside me is my new project, a visualisation diary. Children think in pictures, and have such active imaginations, I thought it was worth tapping into. They are the best at visualisation, which is what top athletes and successful businesspeople do to achive that final goal.

Two days ago, at the playground, we were the only ones there. The weather was cool and windy from the rain, and the only sound was an Indian song blaring from the radio at the guardhouse. Angelica and Lauren were swinging crazily, "almost touching the leaves on the tree branch up there, Mommy!" If I were up on that swing, I would be seriously scared. But the girls were exhilarated, wide grins plastered on their faces as the momentum took them back and forth on the swing.

It was the perfect time.

"When you close your eyes and swing like that, does it feel like you're flying?" I said.

"Yes, Mommy! Like I am a bird," said Angelica.

"Like a bird," echoed Lauren.

I asked them what they heard when their eyes were closed.

Angelica: I can hear Indian music!

Lauren: Dancing music!

Me: Can you hear the birds?

Lauren: Yeah! And a duckie. The duckie is talking to the birds.

I asked them to smell the air as the rain had just washed the grass. And feel the wind in their hair.

That took about 10 minutes, discussing what they heard, felt, smelt and saw when they opened their eyes.

I told them this could be their "happy time".

Later that night, I was playing hide and seek with Lauren, and she fell on one side of her body. She bawled! Usually when she cried, there was no getting through to her, until she stopped. And she always took a long time to stop. I picked her up and asked her if she was ok. Her head shook from side to side and she sobbed "I'm not ok!"

I then asked her if she remembered her happy time earlier today.

"NO!"

I asked if she remembered hearing the dancing music.

"NO!"

I asked if she remembered the duckie talking to the birds.

Amidst sobbing, she said "Ya!"

Did she remember swinging?

"Ya!"

What were the birds saying?

"They want to mum mum (eat) fruits."

By this time, she had stopped bawling. That exchange took five minutes. It was the fastest she had ever calmed down! After that, when I asked if her arm was still painful, she said no.

Try this with your kids. Find their happy time, and use it the next time they have a boo boo, need a jab or are feeling down. Do share with me if it works for you!

And here's Angelica's story.

Surrealism and a little accidental Picasso

2011-08-04T17:33:00.000+08:00

Freeing your mind from rational thought, allowing creativity to flow uncensored - those were the ideas behind surrealism, an art and literary movement that started after World War 1 in Paris. After the devastation of war, writers and artists rebelled against regimentation, seeking release in expressing their creativity literally without thinking, thus allowing images and ideas to flow uninterrupted, unhindered by rational thinking. In 1924, French poet Andre Breton started the first Surrealist group in Paris, comprised of writers, poets, and later artists. Major Surrealist artists are Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Frida Kahlo and Rene Magritte.

Now doesn't surrealism sound like how children approach art? Uninhibited, unrestricted and anything goes. So I pulled up some Dali paintings online, and showed them to Angelica. We talked about dreams and fantasies. We also talked about cartoons and how anything is possible in them. Cats and mice can talk (Tom & Jerry), mice can do ballet (Angelina Ballerina) and so forth.

This is her first surrealist project. Though she is only 5, this painting is pretty grounded. Everything is where it should be. You'll be surprised how much of "real life" we impose on kids, through school, unimaginative play and conventional rules, making them lose "fantasy-like thinking" early on.

Below is her second attempt. Things are still pretty much where they're supposed to be - sun in the sky, girl on the ground, etc. But I gave her magazine pages that she can cut the shapes out of. So she has a little girl wearing grown-up high heels, a flowery sun and patterned clouds. The girl has a mushroom for a hat, and the butterflies are as big as birds.

We'll do more projects on surrealism in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, when I came back from work yesterday, I was presented with this accidental Picasso. Accidental because it started out as Angelica drawing a girl with a rectangular face.. Hers is the black and pink markers. Then Lauren (with the blue marker) drew in the face, added one eye to the original closed eye with lashes and voila!

Lauren's art

2011-08-02T21:46:00.000+08:00

Lauren's drawing has evolved from random scribbling, often furiously concentrated on one spot on the paper, to vertical and horizontal lines, like above. It's still punctuated with spots (we think she's trying to draw eyes). Often, when you ask her what she's drawing, she'll say bananas. Everything is bananas. The above is supposed to be a bunch of bananas.

It's the same with her painting. It used to be she would diligently cover the entire paper in black, brown or purple. She would paint in one spot until the paper tore or I took it away.

Last weekend, I gave her four colors on her palette - red, yellow, purple and white. She came up with these three paintings. The first started out yellow, until she discovered red was more fun. Then white came into the picture and she realized she could make pink with red and white and duly painted her own hands. She then started stamping her own hands on the paper (top left).

In the drawing below, she abandoned red and yellow and went for the purple. After painting her blob, she started rolling the whole length of her brush up and down her blob, discovering another way to get paint on paper.

Armed with her new knowledge, she did this below. Notice the roll marks/smudges from her brush? She then started to dab her brush along the top of the blob. Yep, you guessed it, bananas.

This is exactly how I want my kids to discover art - to play with color and texture and to be quite random in the beginning. The technical part can come later, when they grasp the concepts. And I do believe that as they experiment, they themselves will discover the technicalities of art, and I'll let that run its natural course.

Angelica's Magazine Issue 2 - The Poem Issue

2011-07-25T22:14:00.000+08:00

This is the second issue of Angelica's magazine.

You can find the Issue No.1 here.

Saturday morning breakfast

2011-07-24T23:00:00.000+08:00

This is a three-step breakfast that takes 30 minutes to make for four people.

You will need:

2 medium size potatoes

2 medium size sweet potatoes

1 onion

4 eggs

Sausages

Greens for salad

Dressing of your choice

The first thing you do is wedge two potatoes and two sweet potatoes, toss them in corn flour to lightly coat the wedges, spread them out on an oven tray, drizzle with olive oil, and roast in the oven for 20 minutes on 200 degrees centigrade.

While that is cooking, the second step is to prepare your eggs for poaching. This is a trick I learnt from Masterchef Australia. Line a bowl with industrial strength cling wrap (the ones you get from the supermarket is too flimsy and will break in boiling water. You can get industrial ones from professional baking supplies shops), break an egg into it, gather the sides and tie up the egg in a knot. It'll resemble a little moneybag, like below.

Put them aside. Slice one onion and toss in corn flour like the potatoes, till lightly coated. Now drop the egg parcels in a pot of water and bring to boil. Four to five minutes will do. If you leave it for too long, it'll be overdone. While the egg parcels are in the pot, fry up the onions in olive oil. Remove and set aside. Now pan fry the sausages. While your sausages are frying, remove the egg parcels from the pot. Set aside to cool a little before you remove them from the wrap. Right about now, the sausages should be cooked. Remove and drain on a paper towel.

The final step is to prepare the salad bed. I used rocket and snowpea sprouts. You can use anything you like. Arrange rocket followed by the sprouts. Drizzle one spoonful of dressing over the greens. The potatoes should be done now. Remove from oven. Layer a few pieces on top of the greens. Next put the onions on. Lastly, snip off the top of the egg parcel, remove the wrapping carefully, and place the egg on top. Place the sausage next to it.

Serve with mustard and ketchup.

Now who said a fancy breakfast could only be had in a restaurant?

Is that 5-minute work you gave me?

2011-07-20T09:23:00.000+08:00

Angelica and I have been working on poems. She'd read a poem and draw a picture to go with it. Sometimes she would make up her own. Today, she was supposed to illustrate two poems of her own choosing.

She chose these:
Why Do I Have To Clean My Room by Jack Prelutsky

Why do I have to clean my room
when I would rather play?
The crayons scattered on the floor
are hardly in the way.
I almost never trip upon
my basketball or drums,
and I don't pay attention
to the cake and cookie crumbs.

Why do I have to clean my room?
I think my room looks nice.
There's pizza in the corner,
but it's only half a slice.
I'm not at all concerned about
the gravy on the chair,
my piles of model planes and trains,
my stack of underwear.

I will admit some bits of clay
are sticking to the wall.
I scarcely even notice them
and do not mind at all.
Beneath my bed there's just a wedge
of last week's apple pie,
and yet I have to clean my room...
I simply don't know why.

This is the illustration she gave me for the above.

Her second poem is:
I'm Building a Bridge of Bananas by Jack Prelutsky

I'm building a bridge of bananas,
it's pretty, but not very strong.
Bananas are not very sturdy,
bananas don't last very long.
Initially green, then yellow,
increasingly speckled with brown,
inevitably, as they ripen,
it's clear that my bridge will fall down.

My bridge is developing fissures
and even some sizable gaps.
It's senseless to try and repair it,
I might as well let it collapse.
I waggles and sags in the middle,
it wobbles and droops at the ends,
and so I've alerted my neighbors,
as well as my family and friends.

They're trucking in freezers of ice cream
of every last flavor that's made,
plus whipped cream and chocolate syrup,
both of a premium grade.
They're bringing me barrels of walnuts,
and cherries without any pits -
we'll shortly be sharing delicious
gigantic banana bridge splits.

This is her illustration:

Uh-uh, I told her, I do not accept 5-minute work. So I made her sit down and read the poems again. And I asked her what she understood from each. Then I told her to draw me new pictures for them.

These are her revised versions.

Why Do I Have to Clean My Room?

I'm Building A Bridge of Bananas.

There's more thought and detail this time. It's not about correcting her work, it's about asking her to produce the best version possible.

Nuts about nuts

2011-07-19T16:58:00.000+08:00

Who doesn't love nutella? If I let my daughters have their way, they'd have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Now that won't do, will it? I contemplated making my own, with organic hazelnuts, but have yet to get round to it. So today, while trawling the aisles of Justlife, my go-to organic grocery shop, I found jars of hazelnut spread made with carob instead of cocoa (which means no caffeine). It's called Avellanas Algarroba. I also picked up some organic wholemeal bread, so that's the girls' afternoon snack taken care of. The spread doesn't taste like nutella, more like melted milk chocolate. No complaints from the girls.

Since Angelica is on school holidays, I need to stock up on snacks because when both girls are together, they seem to hoover through my pantry at an amazing speed. Maybe they're in competition with each other to see who can eat the most, I don't know.

These are organic sunflower seeds, which I roast in the oven for about 10 minutes, let cool and store in an airtight jar. The kids eat this as is, or I sprinkle it in their oatmeal/cornflakes.

These are their favorites, almonds and cashew nuts. All organic. These are roasted in the oven for 20 minutes, cooled and stored in glass jars.

There you go, an easy no-cook snack that is nutritious and filling. A handful of these and the girls are happy for a few hours. Sometimes I'll add dried cranberries or raisins for taste and texture variety.

What are your kids snacking on today?

The Princess and the Pea

2011-07-16T17:29:00.000+08:00

Angelica: Mommy, let's play Princess and the Pea. I'm the Princess, you're the queen.

Me: OK. Princess, you better go sleep on the pea!

Angelica: Mommy! You're not supposed to tell me that!

Me: OK, OK. Go to bed. Don't let the pea bother you.

Angelica: Mommy!

Me: OK. Go to bed.

Angelica: It's morning! Now you ask me how my sleep was.

Me: Morning, Princess. What was it like sleeping on the pea?

Angelica: Mommy! You're not supposed to say that!

Me: Princess, how was your sleep? I'm sorry about the pea under your mattress.

Angelica: Mommy! Can you just say 'How was your sleep?'

Me: How was your sleep?

Angelica: It was a little uncomfortable. I think there was a pea under my mattress.

Me: I could have told you that!

Angelica: I don't want to play anymore!

Lauren: I can draw peas, Mommy!

Peas by Lauren

Have a Lolly Pop!

2011-07-13T22:17:00.000+08:00

Angelica has been learning about poems in school and I bought her a few books on poetry. She gets a real kick out of the funny rhymes that we've been reading together. This is her Lolly Pops poem, which she wrote and illustrated.

Doesn't it make you feel like having a lollipop?

Art and writing

2011-06-30T22:46:00.000+08:00

Two things that I try to do consistently with the girls is art and writing. I started them out on finger paints and sidewalk chalk, moved on to crayons and poster paints. It's a great way for even young kids to hone their motor skills, and colour stimulates them. When Angelica was ready to print alphabets, I incorporated that slowly into our art and writing sessions, but I was happy to have her continue drawing and painting. With words, she would get distracted from the storyline. I wanted her to learn the process of telling a story, and not be bogged down by trying to get words right.

If you look at her first books, you'll see that her stories are all told by drawings only. See this post here, here and here. Then she started wanting to include words here.

As she gains even better mastery of handwriting, the line between drawing and writing has blurred, because there will be words on all her drawings. But it's ok. As long as she's telling stories, she can use whatever medium she wants.

Sometimes she'll paint her entire story, which will be mainly washes of colour. Like when I got her tempera paints (in only purple and yellow) and she wanted to tell a story about purple and yellow.

Her sister Lauren, who's about 2 and a half, is starting her own exploration with colour and painting as well. Not so much the telling stories bit yet, but we'll get there.

Angelica's Purple and Yellow.

Lauren's Purple and Yellow.

Yellow splashes by Lauren, glitter-glue swirls by Angelica.

Angelica's Yellow.

She's also started making labels for her things, which to me is also a way of communicating, telling a story. Here's the box that houses her precious stickers.

And it was exciting indeed when she discovered Sharpie pens! The colours, the thin lines, the possibilities. For three whole days, she did nothing but draw with those Sharpies. If you ask her now what her favourite thing is to draw with, it'll be her Sharpies.

The Princess.

Alien nation.

On top: popsicle designs for her restaurant. Bottom: dress designs.

I document every single pieces of the girls' artwork, even the scribbles. I take photographs of them and share some of them on this blog. In the future, I want to get a scanner to scan everything and keep them in soft copy, so I can discard some of the physical work. Right now, everything is in a few plastic hard case files. It's cool when you take them out and look at how their skills and creativity have evolved.

Angelica's Magazine Issue 1 - The Princess Issue

2011-06-28T09:45:00.000+08:00

This is Angelica's first magazine. She had to choose a topic and write anything related to it. She chose princesses, so here are five short stories, complete with illustration. Enjoy!

Seeing as the editor/writer of this magazine is five years old, it may not be too regular. But we welcome subscribers!

Bread, bread, bread!

2011-06-27T23:59:00.000+08:00

I made all these! With my friend Indra at baking class! Making bread from scratch is really cool. Kneading the dough needs some serious elbow grease, best for venting frustrations or generally calling people that you don't like bad names. So the course was quite timely, on a Saturday after a hard week at work.

The two of us brought our cameras, and took turns taking pictures of each other. So you probably see my fingers in the pictures on Indra's blog, and vice versa. There were 12 of us in the class, and we made five variations of bread with a soft bread dough - coffee bun, char siew bun, sausage bun, lotus paste bun, braided loaf.

Lotus paste bun.

Char siew bun.

Coffee buns straight out of the oven.

Indra hard at work.

Lotus paste bun - done! Sprinkled with poppy seeds.

The fruits of our labour.

Now that I know how easy it is to make bread, I'll make it for the kids. It beats the preservative-laden loaves on supermarket shelves. And I can make it any variation I want - with wholemeal flour, raisins, oatmeal, oatbran and more - and make it organic!

Check out Indra's post on the class is here, complete with recipes and step-by-step instructions.

What my kids teach me about art

2011-06-09T23:33:00.000+08:00

I always encourage my girls to experiment with art. They're given crayons, color pencils, paint, sidewalk chalk, sidewalk paint, pencils, glitter glue and recently Sharpie pens to do as they please. Not all at once, mind you. I try to limit it to one medium at a time, at most two. Some of their work you have seen on this blog.

Angelica, 5, is able to manipulate several mediums at the same time - pencil, crayon and paint, for example. I've given Lauren, 2, paint and glitter glue at the same time, but I do need to guide her. I don't limit or control her, it's more like helping her squeeze glue out but she decides where the glue goes. Or if she's painting, showing her that she cannot repeatedly paint on one spot, which she has a tendency to do, if not the paper will tear.

For both of them, I never dictate what they draw or the colors they use, or where they choose to start their work. Sometimes they start in the middle of the page, or right on the corners. One time, they discovered painting with the full length of the crayon instead of just the tip, and you get these beautiful renditions of the sunset.

Angelica then made a book about sunsets and sunrise (below).

Another time, Angelica decided to paint and then coat her painting with glitter glue, which I thought was pretty genius.

Glitter glue art by Angelica.

Glitter glue art by Lauren.

This is done by Angelica. It started out with her making handprints, which is a favorite with the girls. I asked her how she can add other colors to the picture, and she answered by painting yellow hearts, some of which turned into round blobs because they were too wet. Then she dipped her brush into red and made generous strokes randomly. I think it is really beautiful, something that won't look out of place framed up on the wall.

More art entries coming up when I get a chance to photograph them. Stay tuned!

Warning: This post is really PINK!

2011-06-09T13:06:00.000+08:00

I tried to resist, I really did. When I had my daughters, I told myself I would give them non-gender-specific toys to play with. And in the first year of motherhood, I did quite well. I bought Angelica Quattro Lego blocks, wooden jigsaw puzzles, spinning tops, wooden toy chickens and panda softies. I admit I threw in a pink trolley, but that was the only girly thing she had.

When she turned three, the Barbie floodgates opened, and I blame my husband. He went overseas and came back with a Barbie doll for Angelica. That was it! Seeing that she finally had her first doll, the rest of the family followed suit, giving her Barbies for her birthday, for being in town (my parents) and for no reason at all. Lauren also started getting Barbies. Now they have about a dozen between them, including a Rapunzel Barbie with impossibly long polyester hair that I have to untangle every now and then!

At this point, I would like to disclose that growing up, I had ONE Barbie doll, a Dream Date Barbie with a fuschia dress that you could style three different ways. My sister had a Barbie that had on a white sparkly dress. And that was it. TWO Barbie dolls our entire lives. ONE each.

Last weekend, out at the mall, we ended up in the Barbie aisle of the toy store. The variety of dolls boggles the mind. And the accessories - houses, bedrooms, bathrooms, poolside cabanas, convertibles, salons, boutiques, kitchens, pets, baby Barbies, clothes for every season! My Barbie had to wear her one and only dress three different ways!

There were even career Barbies. You could own a Pet Vet Barbie, a Doctor Barbie, a Race Car Driver Barbie and Ballet Teacher Barbie. How do you expect a five-year-old to resist? I couldn't even resist. I contemplated buying a doll house and furnishing it with the works. After all, the dozen Barbies we had at home needed a place to stay.

But fear not, we left the toy store without any dolls or accessories. Because some time in the last 35 years, I have grown up. Besides, my birthday is not for another three months.

Saturday morning breakfast

2011-06-07T22:19:00.000+08:00

This was a ham and cheese pasta I made several weekends ago, which received such rave reviews from the girls that I decided to recreate it for our family barbeque last Sunday. The version below is for adult consumption also, so I added bacon and onions.

I'll give you the recipe for the kid's ham and cheese pasta, and tell you how to modify it for adults at the end.

Kids' ham and cheese pasta

This portion serves 2.

You'll need:

1 clove garlic, chopped finely

100g (a couple of slices) smoked ham

100g (two handfuls) pasta of your choice

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Liquid amino to taste

Sesame seeds and parsley to garnish

1 tbsp olive oil

Cook pasta as per packet instructions, drain and set aside. In a separate pan, heat olive oil and add garlic. Saute until fragrant and add ham. Stir fry for a minute or two, and add pasta. Fold in shredded cheese and mix well. Add liquid amino to taste and garnish with sesame seeds and parsley. Serve hot.

For the adult version, in addition to the above ingredients, you will need 1 medium sized onion, sliced and 100g of bacon. Again, the recipe serves 2, so multiply the ingredients by the number of people you want to serve.

Cook pasta as per packet instructions, drain and set aside. In a separate pan, heat olive oil and add garlic and onions. Saute until fragrant and set aside. Fry up the bacon until crispy and when that is cooked, add ham. Stir fry for a minute or two, and add pasta. Fold in shredded cheese and mix well. Add liquid amino to taste and garnish with the onions, sesame seeds and parsley. Serve hot. The bacon and onion add a nice crunch to the dish.

Now on to the barbeque. I want to show you my new discovery. Is it a toy? Is it a game?

It's foldable and reuseable plastic plates, bowls, cups and spoons! It's a really cool brand called Fozzils that I found at Justlife. Not only is it great for picnics and barbeques, it is also BPA-free. Even the spoon works, though it might be a little dodgy for adults. When you're done with it, just scrap the food off, unbotton everything and wash it off. Then you can stack it up flat and keep it for the next outing.

These are some of the other yummy food on Sunday - hard boiled eggs with sambal, my mother's signature dish.

Steak and salad with Japanese soy dressing. Yum!

It was a weekend filled with good food, fun, laughter and family.

Artsy-fartsy weekend long long ago

2011-06-01T22:03:00.000+08:00

The pictures in this post were taken in January; I actually forgot I had them! As I was backing up my files, I stumbled across them and here they are. I call it the Chinese painting series by Lauren.

I remember it was a couple of weeks before Chinese New Year and the girls were painting as usual. Lauren has always had a thing for dark colors and black was her favorite. She's happiest when I let her loose with white paper and paint.

When she produced this, I gave her another piece of paper.

And another.

And I had a series of Chinese paintings! The original intention was to frame them up for Chinese New Year, but I got sidetracked. Next year, these will be up on my wall!

Dolly has a cool sister now

2011-05-26T22:50:00.000+08:00

Do you remember Dolly? I made her just over two years ago for Angelica. She was my first crafty project for the blog, and the first doll I ever made. Now, Dolly has a sister! Meet Dolly No. 2. She's long overdue for Lauren. I made her two nights ago, and this morning, we had a little photo session. Aren't they cool?

I only have three coins left, Mommy!

2011-05-24T14:32:00.000+08:00

Angelica has two coin pouches where she keeps her savings. I use the word savings loosely, because she spends those coins unreservedly on putu mayam. She buys putu mayam for the whole family with those coins. Usually her father will empty the loose change in his pocket and put it in her pouches at the end of the day. And when my parents come to visit, her doting grandfather even gives her bills. Lately however, her coins have dwindled, and we know this because now when I open the overstuffed drawer to take out her hair ties, and the pouch drops on my toes, I don't scream in pain and check to see if a toe is dead.

So when she came to me all forlorn that she is down to the last three coins, I asked her how she wanted to earn some money. She thought about it for a while, and suddenly got very busy at the table. I let her be and went to do my own stuff. When I came back to the living room, she showed me these.

Her father - RM7

Angelica and Lauren - RM10

Me smiling - RM6

Me - Sad with a hat RM3

Me with short hair - RM11

She doesn't quite grasp the concept of money yet, as in how much and how little, so I filled up her pouches with enough coins to kill toes, and she's a happy girl again. I told her I'll use the balance to open up a bank account for her, which I've been meaning to anyway, but never quite got round to it.

A little French chic

2011-05-17T20:51:00.000+08:00

What are those? Dare I say it? Ma-ca-rons? That sweet French bauble that is every home baker's Everest and current hot favourite? Angelica and I made these together, but they're not what you think they are...

We made them with flour, salt, cream of tartar and food colouring, aka playdough!

Here's a really simple recipe, which you can easily google, but since you're here, you might as well have it.

How to make playdough:

You need

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1 cup water

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Food coloring

Mix all ingredients except the food colouring together. Cook it over medium heat at the stove. I used a wok, but anything will do, a frying pan or a shallow saucepan. Move it around until it forms a ball in the centre. This should take less than a minute. Remove from pan and move onto a surface to knead and roll until smooth. Divide into three balls (like below) and make a dent in the middle with your thumb.

Drop a few drops of food coloring into the dent. Add as much or as little to achieve the color you want. I made mine blue, red and green. Knead the balls until the color is mixed through and even.

Three playdough balls coming right up! Once the kids are done playing, just pop them into a ziplock bag and keep. From what I read online, it should last about 2 weeks.

I also want to show you the throws/bedspreads I made for the girls. I had a beautiful batik-like print that I've been wanting to make into something. Actually, I would have been perfectly happy to leave the fabric as is, for me to take out, admire, fold and refold. And the print made it too hard to cut. In the end, I decided it wasn't meant to be cut up, so I measured two pieces of 60' by 80', chose an equally stunning peony print fabric, and sewed them together. Now I have two reversible bedspreads, with the batik print on one side and the peony print on the other! Each of the prints is bold, yet complements the other perfectly. Try this with the fabric in your stash that you feel is too beautiful to cut up into pieces.

Well done, me!

2011-05-04T22:19:00.000+08:00

This is an easy little experiment you could do with your kid. All you need is two clear containers, two tablespoons of baking soda, water, a piece of string long enough to be dipped end to end into the two containers and a handmade sign (optional).

Fill each container with water as per the picture. Add one tablespoon of baking soda into each. Put one end of the string into one container and the other end into the other container. That's it. Then you let the whole setup sit for two days without moving the content, hence the sign.

We're still on day 1. At the end of day two, you'll see spikes on the string. The water is attracted to the string because it is dry. It'll bring the baking soda with it as it soaks higher up the string. The baking soda collects in clumps or spikes. Cool, right?

While we're on the subject of scientific theory, Angelica came up with one today at the playground. This is how it went down.

Angelica: Mommy, you know you're not supposed to talk and cry at the same time?

Me in my thoughts: Wow! This is cool! She is one mature little girl.

Angelica: You shouldn't talk first. Just cry.

Me in my thoughts: She must mean to let out the emotion first and then to vocalise it. I'm so proud.

Angelica: Because if you cry first, then you get your way. No need to talk.

...

Well done, me! Well done! Now excuse me while I go and slap myself silly.