Book Review : Beautiful Magical, Amazing Ballet By Mary Lee

                                                        Photo taken from Amazon

I had always love ballet and I remembered I did a ballet performance once during my primary school without any ballet lessons (amazing, right?).  I never had a chance to learn ballet but I was hoping to introduce ballet to my lil princess when the time is right.  When I saw that Jenny a (I'm a Full Time Mummy) posted about a book review, I thought it would be nice to share this story with my lil ones at home.

Here are some information about the author and the book from Amazon.

About the Author – Mary Lee

I am a writer, illustrator, graphic designer and a mom. I've lived in various places across the country but currently my heart is in the Bay Area. I have two sweet children, two dogs and a mini-cactus named spike. In my free time (ha ha ha), I like to read books, jog slowly, cook badly and sleep rarely.

Product Details

• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (September 6, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1479271713
• ISBN-13: 978-1479271719
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 ounces

Book Description (Publication Date: September 6, 2012)

·     Mia is a sweet little girl with a big imagination. Today is her first day of ballet class and she is very excited. This energetic story shows what it means to be part of a team and that some things can still be wonderful even when they are not yet perfected.

My Thoughts :

I loved the colours used in the illustration of this book.  It caught the attention of my two year old princess because she likes pink a lot.  At first I thought this book was all about ballerinas but it surprised me with some of the moral values in the story.  I took this opportunity to explain to my kids (of course only my boy will understand as my lil princess is still too young) some of the lesson that we can learned from this book.  Anyway, no harm explaining to both of them together.

Lessons We Learn......

a.  Do not be afraid when things goes wrong 

I told my lil ones that we should not be afraid when things wrong.  I explain to them that when they do something wrong, do not be afraid to admit our mistake as we learned from mistakes.

b.  Team work 

I find this is a very useful word.  We need teamwork in whatever we do.  It always takes both hands to clap.  I told my son that both of them (he and his lil sister) needs to work together as a team.  I always hope that both of them will have a strong relationship together when they grow up.  I also told my son when they are in school, he needs to work together with his classmates in whatever assignments that the teacher gave them and he also needs to cooperate with his other classmates.

c.  Do not be afraid to try  
Although Mia was nervous to do the pirouette,  nevertheless she got it on her first try.  There are times when we encounter things that we have not done before but we should not be afraid to try.  Once we have taken the first step, we are on our way to success! 

Lastly, three words to describe ballerinas....Beautiful, Magical and Amazing!   

                                                           Have a nice weekend!

p/s:  All the above are solely based on my personal thoughts and I received no monetary compensation review.  I was provided with a PDF copy of the book to facilitate my review.

Activities for kids - Mix Vege

My lil prince have been pestering me daily to do activities with him.  He saw me giving some motor skills activities (scooping) to lil princess, he too wanted to have some fun on his own.

Yesterday, we made some simple salad.  I used the Watties Mixe Vegetables and my Kewpie mayonnaise sauce.   For a start, I boiled the mix vegetables and allowed it to cool before giving it to my lil prince.

First, he  poured all the mixed vege into a big bowl.  Next, squeeze the mayonnaise in the bowl and mixed them together.  Here's our homemade vege salad.  Simple and Sedap!

What I like best about this activity was to see both my kids eating vegetables!!  Both of them sharing a bowl of mix vegetables prepared by kor-kor.  I realized that in order to get my lil ones to eat more vegetables, they need to be involve in the process of making / cooking them too.  Perhaps, for them, it's all their hard work and that's why they appreciate the food more?

 I love this photo so much.  Both of them sharing a chair together and also a bowl of mix vegetables.  So sweet ^__^

Pasta Again

Last weekend was pasta day again.  This is really my favourite dish.  I still have some left overs animals pasta and thought of cooking it for the kids and also mummy (daddy was not around).  I also added some macaroni.  I love to cook pasta as it's simple, fast and most important is the kids love it.  Less headache during meal times when the kids ate pasta.

This time I use ham, bacon, sausages for my pasta.  I simply loved the taste of the bacon in my pasta..  I also bought a pack of thickened cream (wah....so fattening :P).  For a quick and easy way, I opt for the Prego Mushroom Carbonara.  It was really a quick lunch as I only had to boil the pasta, chop some garlics and onions, fry the ham, bacon followed by the pasta sauce.
 

Ta-Da!  Here comes our simple lunch on a Sunday afternoon. Hope all of you had a great weekend!

Year End Party Preparation (Part III) : Decorations

Delayed Post....

I was away for the past one week.  Sorry for not being able to visit your blogs.  Will catch up this week!  I'm sure I have missed lots of wonderful updates from you guys!
 
Here goes my Part III of the kids party.....
This year I wanted to have something special for lil prince class teacher as this was her last year teaching in this kindy.  I would like to let her know that we really appreciate all her guidance and also her hardwork in teaching all the kids in her class.  I felt that being a kindergarden teacher, is not easy to handle so many different types of kids.

After getting permission from her, I made some simple decorations for the class.  It started out with only some DIY banners which I printed on colour papers and tied it to a ribbon.

Next I took some nice photos from google and printed them out.  I was planning to paste it on her white board that she used for teaching.

Luckily I managed to take a photo on the day of the party.  Here's my simple decoration at the school.

I really adored these balloon flowers.  I always admired the colours and each time when we see a clown at the mall, we will not hesitate to line up to get one of these twisted balloons.  I was always curious to find out how these are made and hence I have decided to make my own.

I actually learned how to make these balloons flowers from youtube!  That's the benefit of internet nowadays.  Whenever we need to learn anything new, just google.  Well, it was not really easy (I'm a slow learner) but after a few trials, I'm glad that my balloon flower does look like a flower (although the shapes are a bit out ^__^)

 I made a so called bouquet of flowers for the teachers which comprises of three flowers.

 Then, I added some single flower balloons for the class decorations.

Happy Holidays!

Year End Party Preparation (Part II) : Chocolate Marshmallows

The next item to prepare was my chocolate marshmallows.  This year, I didn't have time to make extra food due to time constraint.  Hence, I was only able to make the chocolate marshmallows. This year, during Teacher's Day celebration, I also make marshmallow pops.  I felt that this is the easiest thing to prepare ^__^ (hahaha...I'm such a lazy mummy).

However, this time I didn't use the lollipop sticks but I changed it to the cupcake liners instead.  I bought the golden colour cupcake liner from the bakery shop.

I used both white and dark chocolate this time as I wanted to try out the effects of using white chocolates.  I don't have a microwave at home, hence I just use double boiled method to melt the chocolates.  

Once the chocolate melted, dipped the marshmallows into the chocolate and let it stand on the plate.  Next, is to decorate the marshmallows :).  I put different type of sprinkles on it.   After that let it set in the fridge.

I had extra dark chocolates left overs and I thought it would be nice to try my writing skills on the marshmallows :P.  I put the melted chocolate inside my piping bag and wrote 'Thank You'.  My hands were shaking as this was the first time that  I am using my piping bag :). *sigh*....the alphabet doesn't really look nice.  Anyway, first time trying...hehehehe...need more practice.

There you go.....my chocolate marshmallows for the kids year end party.  Hope they like it.

p/s: Sorry, can't show the teacher's name cos the writing was really terrible. *so shy*....hence, only can show the nicer ones ^__^.

Part III coming up.....:P

Year End Party Preparation (Part I) : Mini Party Packs

We are getting ready for lil prince year end party at school.  I have planned to make some chocolates marshmallows and thought it would be nice to prepare some party packs for the kids too.

I bought some raisins, jelly, cocopie and the crispy was from lil prince which he got from the chocolate fair at midvalley last month.  I choose three types of cocopie (chocolate, strawberry and dark chocolate flavours).  Lil prince said the pink cocopie is for girls and the blue and brown ones are for boys :P.

We started packing yesterday as I was afraid that I won't have time to pack them if we do it last minute.  Furthermore, I prefer to pack earlier just in case, if the items are not enough, at least I still have time to add on.  

We put all the items in a small pack which I bought from the bakery shop and I printed "Happy Holidays"and asked lil prince to paste it on the pack.

There you go, our mini simple party pack just for the kids.  Wishing them Happy Holidays!   Next item lining up tonight is to make my chocolate marshmallows ^__^.

Snax Box # 081 Wholemeal Bread Teddies

 This week is the last week before the kids go for school holidays.  I really look forward to have almost two months break.  Yipee....looking forward for more rest at night and also no more morning rush. 

I just packed a simple snack box for my lil prince today.  I gave him two teddy bears whole meal bread with ham.  The teddy bears look was not so visible, I guess due to the brownish wholemeal bread.  I added some stars for the expression :)

I was also experimenting some marshmallows with chocolate and put one for him with his name written on it. 
 
On the other hand, these few nights I have been busy putting on my thinking cap on what to prepare for lil prince year end class party too.  I am planning to make marshmallows again.  It's something easy and simple to do (lazy mummy)....hehehehe...I hope I'll have time to pack some simple goodies bag and also most importantly not forgetting some simple gift for the teachers too.

Snax Box # 080 Sweet Potato & Mix Vegetables

These two weeks I was busy doing revision with lil prince for his kindy assessment and didn't have time to make nice snack box for him:(.  I guess we as the parents are more 'kan cheong' than the child.  Maybe he's still too young to realize that he is having assessment.  On the other hand, it is also good for him as there will be no stress but the stress is on Mummy!

Here's a simple snack box that I asked lil prince to help me yesterday.  I boiled the sweet potato and asked him to cut them into shape butterflies and flowers using the cookie cutters.  I did once before the flower shape sweet potato and this is the second time.  I like to engage my lil prince to pack his food box together with me as he shows interest in his food and most of the time, he will also finished them.  Probably because he also plays a part in packing the food box and does not want his effort wasted ^__^.

Here's the snack box menu for today

Pink bus food cup - Sweet potato

Blue car food cup - Mix vegetables

Green house food cup - ABC's biscuits

Pink butterfly food cup - Chicken Floss

Yellow heart shape food cup - Fruits ( grapes & jambu air)