Lil Craft Session for De Lil Ones

I had always wanted to have a playgroup for kids but I can’t find a venue and also parents who are interested.  Furthermore I’m not sure if I can handle too.  I get to know the word 'playgroup' from reading one of the mummy's blog.

When lil prince was young, I wanted him to join a playgroup to have fun but then we didn’t have the time and also most of the playgroups location are quite far. Hence, this idea was set aside from my mind for quite some time.  

Last week, I had a small craft session for the kids in the playground.  But what I didn’t expect was a big crowd!  I cut some colour papers and printed out some fruits picture (simple ones) to let the kids do some pasting.  It’s more like paper mosaic (sorry, not sure what's it is called).  I was  surprised when some kids walked over and join our group.  At first I thought only a few kids will join in my craft session (kids whom I often see in the playground).  I was only estimating about five kids but it turn out to be 10 of them.  Luckily I printed extra copies of the fruit pictures.

I also brought down some old newspaper so that the kids won’t get dirty by sitting on the floor.  Among the fruits I printed was cherries, banana, leave, apple and carrot.  Some even did a few pieces.  Seems like they enjoyed this activity in the park!

As for myself, I had a great time and what I enjoyed most was to see the enthusiasm in each and everyone of the kids while they were doing the craft. The best reward for this activity was the smile them after they have completed their simple craft.  It was just priceless!

p/s :  After the session ended, the kids even help me to clean up the mess and not forgetting their manners, each of them say the magic word to me "Thank You, Aunty".  I guess you not only see the kids smiling faces, you also get to see my happy face!

I am also starting to think if I should have another round of playgroup session?

Snax Box # 062 Colourful Cupcakes

Hope everyone had a good weekend.  When I'm not working on weekends, I do have some free time to bake or to spend time in my lil kitchen.  But only at night when the kids are sleeping. That's the only time that I have my own "ME" time.  My "ME" time starts at 11.00pm and if I'm lucky, most of the time will be at 10.00am on weekdays :).

Last weekend I made these colourful cupcakes (fatt gou).  One thing I like most about making cakes is I get to add some milk or milk powder in it since my lil prince doesn't consume any milk.  Lil princess on the other hand is a great fan of milk. What an opposite!

Here's my lil prince snack box for the Monday blues...I have also packed some side dishes together in the snack box ---> cherry tomatoes, grapes, ABC biscuits and some cornflakes.

Happy Monday!

Snax Box # 061 Pooh Bear

Today I'm posting two snack box photo as both of them look similar. One of the reason that I bake on Sunday is for lil prince snack box.  Sometimes I do ran out of ideas of what to pack for him and I was afraid that he might be bored with eating the same food everyday.  Having a picky eater at home does give mummy some headache sometimes but on the other hand, I also think that having a picky eater at home also makes us more creative and put on our thinking cap every day so that we don't get rusty!

I'm glad that my baking project turn out well for the six bear shaped cake so I decided to pack them in lil prince snack box for two days.  For me, it looks like a teddy bear shape but for lil prince it's Winnie the Pooh.  So, I just name my snack box as Pooh Bear ^__^.

My Baking Project

Last weekend I tried my luck again on baking.  I have often failed in most of my baking project. *sigh*...I almost wanted to give up.  I think I'm really a dummy when it comes to baking with the oven.  That is why most of the time my oven is sitting inside my kitchen cabinet instead of on top of my kitchen top!  I guess I really need to attend some baking class ^__^.

This time, I wanted to get lil prince involvement in the kitchen for my baking project.  So, I actually used the express cake mix that I bought from Giant.  It was the Pillsbury Lemon Cake.  I only had to add oil, water and 3 eggs.  Sounds pretty easy, right?  The preparation part was easy but the baking part wasn't so easy.  I was not sure how to estimate the baking time because I didn't follow the instructions on using the correct type of baking pan.  They had different baking time for different baking pan.  So, just 'agak-agak' only :P.

The first portion, I tried is with my teddy bear silicon mould that I bought recently from the bakery shop.  I bake it for 15 minutes under 180 degrees celcius.  I kept a close watch just in case I burnt the cake!  Luckily, it turn out well except for some burn section on the ear.

As I only have one silicon mould, I poured the rest of the batter into another cake pan.  Overall, the cake didn't really turn out perfect but at least this time it is edible!

The teddy bears lemon cake does looks cute and lil prince told me that they look like Winnie the Pooh to him.  Well, I still have a  long long way to go for my baking skills....

Snax Box # 060 Veggie Day

Yeay!!!...it's Friday again.  Mummy is so happy and looking forward for the weekend to rest.  Today's menu is just vegetables.  I boiled the broccoli, baby carrots and sweet corn.  I wanted lil prince to take some green vegetables.  I find this snack box colourful as it has green, orange, yellow and red ^__^.  Not forgetting his favourite mayonnaise sause---> Kewpie!

I also invited him to participate in preparing his own snack box this time.  Firstly, I asked him to help me to wash the broccoli and baby carrots.  After boiling the vegetables, I put them in a bowl and asked lil prince to arrange them in his snack box.  He took this as an activity for him.  I can see that he loves helping me in the kitchen.  It is also good to train him with his motor skills too :).

Hope everyone will have a good weekend!

River Carnival by GAB Foundation at Zoo Negara

We were at the zoo last Saturday for the River Carnival by GAB Foundation.  I went with lil prince as hubby was away for business trip.  Surprisingly we were able to find our way to the zoo.  I haven't been there for ages and had no idea how to go there.  Thank God for smart phone and PAPAGO!.

We reached the zoo at  9.30am and make our way in.  The event organized by the GAB Foundation was held inside the zoo, around 5 minutes walk from the main entrance.  We arrived just in time for the opening ceremony by the VIPs.  After that we signed up for the Young River Scientist Programme.  In this programme, all kids were ushered to different stations explaining the importance of water and how we should save water.  There was also a station that taught the kids how to make candle.  So interesting.  Upon completing all the stations, each kid was given a bag and a water tumbler.

After participating at the Young Scientist River Programme, we went over to the station games.  There were six station and we had to collect all the 'stamps' for all six station before collecting our mystery gift.  The first station was throwing the rings into the empty bottles.  Of course lil prince never hit any, we still get one stamp.  Next station was so called 'driving range', lil prince had to 'drive' the ball from one end to the other end without dropping the ball in the holes.  Next station was the most difficult station of all!  I called it fishing station as we need to 'fish' up a bottle.  This was pretty difficult.  I had to queue up twice to get this task done.  Next was the matching game station whereby we had to match two ball into the same colour component.  Moving on was the basket ball station where we need to hit the net.  Last station was the golf station.  I help lil prince to hit the ball.  Upon completing all our six stations, we proceed to collect our mystery gift which was a set of angry birds stationaries.

It was almost 12pm when lil prince said he was hungry, so we made our way to the nearest restaurant.  We had nasi lemak and I bought a soft drink for him.  After lunch, we went round again to play the station games and got ourselves more mystery gifts.  This time with different colours :).  Then I decided to visit the zoo animals, coz it would be a waste coming to the zoo and not seeing any animals.  We only saw a hippopotamus on our way in.  But at that time, lil prince was too tired to walk, so I decided that we should take the tram.  Bought two tickets RM 3.00 for adult and RM 2.00 for child.  The tram ride was fun for lil prince as he does not need to walk and get to see some of the big animals such as giraffe, elephants and zebras.  We also saw tigers, flamingos and ostrich.  The tram ride was around 10 minutes and I think it only covers some part of the zoo.

After our tram ride, I wanted to call it a day but lil prince wanted to return to the carnival area.  We went there again, at first I was queuing up for the caricature drawing but the line was  long, then I decided that we should do some craft instead.  There was a craft area being set up for kids.  There were five crafts available for the kids to do, organized by In2Art.  Lil prince choose to do the octopus craft.  Upon completing his octopus craft, he said he wanted to do more.  I was surprise as he is not an 'art' person and he never like to do any colouring at home.  I could see that he was so interested in the craft, we stayed on and eventually ended up completing all the five crafts there!  I was so amazed that these crafts made him sat down for so long.

Next we went queuing to have lil prince caricature.  It was quite a long wait as the artist was really taking time time to draw each and everyone's expression.  He really had the patience!  By the time we completed our caricature drawing, it was almost 4.30pm!  I can't imagine we were at the zoo from 9.00am - 5pm.  Before we left, lil prince requested for another round of station games.  I guess we played the games a few round till the person in charge felt bored of entertaining us!  But for kids, that's the fun part.

Lil prince was indeed exhausted and fell asleep on our way back from the zoo.  Overall, we enjoyed ourselves so much and it was indeed a very educational event for adults and also for kids.  Here are some of the goodies that we collected from this River Carnival.

Thank you GAB Foundation for a fun filled day!  We enjoyed ourselves to the max!

Ping Pong Ball Activity

Nowadays, I find lil princess  very active.  I used to think that girls are quiet and behave well, whereby they can sit still and play their own toys.  Somehow, lil princess is different as she grows older.  She is also as active as my lil prince.  I now not only have one hyperactive child at home, in fact, now I have two!  Sometimes, I find it hard to concentrate when I am guiding lil prince in his homework.  My lil princess will be disturbing us most of the time. 

 

Yesterday, I decided to distract her by giving her some activity to focus on.  I prepared two bowls (big and small), six ping pong balls and a tong.  I asked her to transfer the ping pong balls from one bowl to another bowl.  Although it seems like an easy task, but for a 23 months old baby with small hands, she seems to struggle a bit at the beginning.  After 20 minutes, she began to get hold of it and this activity managed to make her sit at the same spot for 1 hour!  I had the other 1 hour to focus on lil prince and his school work and also we did some colouring activities.   

I believe that this activity also benefit lil princess with her hands movement.  I remember reading about this activity from one of the Montessori blog.  The purpose of this activity is to teach a child to move objects using tongs.  This help them to develop their fine motor skills, concentration, coordination and control.

I remember when lil prince was young, I read about some Montessori activities that are pretty interesting for baby.  I guess I should start searching again.

Snax Box # 059 Nemo & Friends

The first time I saw this fish (the fish with orange and white stripes), it reminds me of the cartoon Finding Nemo.  I am not a fan of cartoons but I must admit that I do enjoy watching this cartoon movie.  The fish was so cute.  Cute things really can't get away from my eyes.  That is why I name today's snack box as Nemo & Friends as today's theme is Fish!  Everything inside the box is fish shaped except the cherries :).

I also made lil prince a 'fish' egg and added some fish biscuits.  The fish next to 'nemo' is also another type of fish cake which we used for steamboat.  This is an easy to make snack box whereby I just need to boil everything.  You will be seeing a lot of 'nemos' in my snack box as I just bought a packet of 'nemo' fish ^__^.

TGIF!!

Have a nice weekend!

Snax Box # 058 - Bear Shaped Fish Ball

It's Monday again....How I wished we can have three days off for weekend :P.  There are so many things that I would like to do.  I packed this snax box for lil prince today (sorry the photo is a bit blur).  I bought the bear shaped fish ball from the market (this is the ones that they use for steamboat).  I find these fish ball very useful in packing my snax box as they are really cute!  I also bought other shapes such as fish and star shaped.

Lil prince request for his baby carrots and mayonnaise.  He said mummy have not been packing baby carrots for him for quite some time.  Yesterday we went to Tesco at Paradigm Mall and I bought a packet of baby carrots.  This time they came out with new packing, all peeled!  So convenient for me! I find it a bit difficult to peel baby carrots previously, coz they are so tiny.

Here's lil prince snax box for today :P

Happy Monday ^__^

Lil Prince Dinner Plate

I do have a few food picks (unused) in my kitchen.  I didn't dare to use these food picks to pack food for lil prince as I was afraid that he might play with the picks and will accidentally hurt his friends.  The other day his school teachers also advised parents not to use these food picks as they were afraid that the kids will get choke.

Well, I guess these food picks can only be used at home or during party (which we don't have often).  While I was preparing for his dinner last week, I took the opportunity to use these cute little food picks.  Basically, anything cute will just get my attention.  So, you can imagine I have a few of packets of these food picks!

Here's my dinner plate for lil prince.  Fried  fish with baby carrots and 'star' fish balls accompanied by some cherries and mayonnaise sauce.

Have a nice weekend!

Cravings Kitchen & Bistro

We were at the Tesco Cheras last weekend and we had dinner at this restaurant called Cravings Kitchen & Bistro.  Their menu caught out attention as on Sundays, kids get to eat FREE :).  They called it Kiddie Sundays.

This promotion is valid for one kiddie meal per kid with the condition of one parent ordering a main course and a drink.  We ordered two main course (and two drinks) and get two free kiddie meal.  Among the menu for kids are French Fried Rice, Fish & Chips, Chicken Burger and Bolognaise Spaghetti.  Each kiddie meal comes with a bottle of vitagen and also a scoop of ice-cream.

I ordered the Fried Beef Rice and hubby ordered the fish head mee hoon.  Both dishes was nice and well prepared.  The beef fried rice was very fragrant.

For the kids, we ordered  spaghetti for lil princess and fish and chips for lil prince. They had smiley face potato chips that caught our lil prince attention. 







Spaghetti Bolognaise for lil princess.

We will definately visit this place again on Sundays as the price are quite reasonable.   We only had to pay for our meals and kids get to eat FREE :P.

Thomas & Friends Train Set

 I remembered I bought this Thomas and Friends train set when lil prince was 1 year old from a warehouse sale for RM50.  Lil prince love the Thomas and Friends cartoon when he was young.  But whenever we took out this train set to play, he will remove the train from the track and let the train moves around the house.

At that time hubby wanted to give away the train set as he said that lil prince doesn't seems to know how to play the train set.  However, I disagreed and I kept the train set in the cupboard.

This train set has been sitting in the cupboard for almost 2 years ++ and last weekend, I took it out again.  I would like to give lil prince and this train set a second chance.  To my surprise, my lil boy was so excited with the train set and he was playing with it for 2 hours.  This time, he was able to keep the train on the track, no longer outside wondering around!
I realized that previously we might be too eager to let him play with this train set.  There are certain toys that we should wait till our kids mature or at least reach a certain age.

There was only one train in this set which is automatic and the other one (green colour) is a so called 'manual' train.  Lil prince put the green on in front and let the blue one pushed from behind.  Now he has two trains to play with!

As for me, I am very happy that I can finally put this train set to use!