Food Critic

At the dinner table today ...

哥哥: Hmmm .... 妈妈, I like today's soup but it's a bit too spicy. Why? You put too much pepper? Hmm ... I'm giving you 60 points for it. This (fried) rice is very nice. I'm giving 90 points. I like the fish balls a lot. This one is 100 points.

妈妈: Huh? Hmm ... Oh! Okay. I will take note. Thank you. *???*

哥哥: Hmmm ... good. *and he carried on to finish his dinner with the help of water. - The soup is indeed too spicy :P*


Conclusion: Don't cook. Buy fish balls. That gets you full marks. :P

Hay, Qian Hu!

Last Friday was 妹妹's school field trip to Hay Dairies and Qian Hu. Family members must accompany the child for the trip. Hence, I asked my father to help pick up 哥哥 from school otherwise 妹妹 will have to skip this trip.

哥哥 was very excited. Not because he will be going too but it was the first time 公公 is picking him up. He couldn't stop talking about it for the whole week. This little guy took advantage that 公公 will give it to his every requests. Naughty boy. Must tell my father not to give in to him the next time.

Back to 妹妹's field trip. I could sense her excitement when she saw the adults entering her class. When she saw me, she asked me to sit down and she kept telling me stuff and pointing out her friends to me. Now I know who her best friends are! *laughs*

She enjoyed herself especially at Hay Dairies. I doubt she understood any part of John Hay's talk about his goats and the milk process. She was waiting to meet the goats up close and to feed them. This bold girl feed the goat from her palm! She was bitten twice by the goats and once a goat even chewed her shirt! That scene was hilarious. Both her teacher and me regretted that we were not able to take any pictures! LOL But that didn't frighten her and she continued to let the goats lick her palm (as she didn't have any hay left). *faint*

When we were on our way to Qian Hu, she couldn't stop saying "goat bite 妹妹's shirt" and mimic it by biting mine!

* Come! Eat! *

* Nice? *

* Where's your goatie? *

Qian Hu wasn't new to her as we went there not too long ago. The first thing she did was to see the little terrapins. As mentioned before, she was a bold girl, she easily picked up the poor little chaps to play. No problems putting them on her palms too. She even wanted to kiss them. *faint* Her little friends gathered around and looked interest to pick up one but I guess were a little hesitant. So she pick up one and kept asking them to take. But of course, her friends back off (a distance) *laughs*

I had to ask her to move on to see the fishes to save the terrapins from the torture. :P But it was my mistake to let her feed the Koi because after that she wanted to fish those long kang fish! She threw a tantrum and Faustina's daddy bought another bag of fish food for her to pacify her. Sigh! I had to moved her away from the pond quickly as not to remind her about the long kang fishing. My apologies to Faustina and her daddy for leaving that area so abruptly. I didn't had chance to thank them again as we alighted from the bus before it reached the school.



Other then the little tantrum which I'm quite used too, I'm happy to be able attend the trip with 妹妹. Thanks 爸! I know I can always count on you!

Looking forward to the next trip!

Career Change

Okay, now she wants to be a Baker! LOL

Cough and cough and cough and still no money

I just gave 哥哥 a birthday 'party' in school with a cake and goody bags for his classmates PLUS lunch at Ajisen all using my money earned from Google Adsense, I received early March. That was my birthday present for him; as per his request. :P

Luckily, my ad earnings was not too bad (for a SAHM) *wink wink*. I still have money from my Nuffnang earnings, which I received in March too. I'm planning to use that to get a gift for 妹妹 for her birthday which is end of April. *smile*

2 cheques received, 1 left. I remembered Mr Lim said ...

Our terms of payment are 30-45 days from the end of the month where you cashed out. So your payment is not delayed, it is not due yet and should arrive to you before the middle of March. So it will be in time to buy your kids birthday presents :) But please don't click on your own ads in future yeah.

Okay, let's do mental calculations here ... I requested for payment on 4 Jan, so 28 days in February plus 31 days in March minus 13 day of Sundays and holidays in both months (I very fair one) equals ... 'status - processing' in my cash out page.

Oh dear! It must be because of the last statement Mr Lim wrote. Darn! My mistake! Now they need thorough checking. Hmmm ... since I don't need the money now for birthdays, wondering now if it will be in time for the kid's June school holiday programme?


Ps. I won't be coughing again. Later cough until got blood. whaha ...

2 is better than 1

Sometimes it's good to have two children. When one of them makes you so mad that you want question yourself if you made the right decision to have kids, the other tells you, yes, your decision was the right one (hopefully) .

Sigh! I didn't wish to go further as to what had happened. It sadden me to think the years I spend at home to care for the family, results to this.

As a consolation, I found 妹妹 in her room reading the storybooks she enjoys as a baby. I have to cajole her before she would let me video her reading.

These were the only 5 storybooks she would want me to read before The Weather came. They are 'read and play' books with pull tabs and pop-ups and with big colourful pictures. I didn't expect her to be reading these books. More playing and to build her interest in reading. I thought there were too many words in a page for her but she could with some help and even says a little things on the picture for that page.

This turned the frown I had on my face to a smile.

Papier-mache Easter Egg

I meant to post this during the Easter week but alas, I'm too busy. You can always use the same concept to make other stuff. We are planning to make our pumpkin container for Halloween!

My son used this to store the chocolate Easter eggs for his friends in school. Yeah, he brought that big Easter Egg we made to school. *show-off :P*

For this craft, we used 3 days to complete. The longest time taking craft we ever made and everyone was involved in the making. Everyone (hubby and little sis included) helped with the pasting of paper because we wanted to make it as sturdy as we can. I helped with some of the painting.

It was fun to see how the Easter Egg turn out.


Material needed:

• 1 Balloon
• Assorted Paints
• Lots of newspaper
• Lots of glue #see far bottom for instructions to make your own glue

Addition items needed:

• 1 bucket to sit the balloon in
• 2 Pipe Cleaners to secure the cover to the base if turning it to a container

How to do it:

1. Tear newspaper into pieces and set aside.
2. Blow balloon to desired size.
3. Sit balloon on a bucket so it will not roll about.
4. Spread glue thinly on paper and paste it on the balloon.
5. Leave out the 'tail' of the balloon.
6. Paste paper around the 'tail'. You need to use that to remove the balloon from the completed Papier-mache Egg.
7. Repeatedly paste paper in layers till you desired thickness. You can set aside to let it dry first before deciding if you wish to add more layers.
8. Hold the tail of the balloon, poke the balloon and let the air out.
9. Slowly pull the airless balloon out of the Papier-mache.
10. Paste some more papers to cover the hole and let it dry.
11. Once, it is completed dried, you can start painting the Papier-mache. We painted a base coat first.
12. Again, let it dry and you will have your Papier-mache Easter Egg but it would be easy to hide it.

Note:

1. If you want to turn it to a container, get an adult to use a cutter to cut the top off.
2. If you like, paint the inside and let it dry completely.
3. Punch holes on the top and bottom and use pipe cleaners to secure it.

How to make you own glue:
You will need a lot for glue for this craft. So to save money on glue you can make your own. It is easy.

All you need is plain or all purpose flour and water. Just mix them both till there are no lumps. It should not be watery or thick. (Sorry I forgotten to measure the amount required).

To test, just dip your finger in the glue mixture. Your finger should get coated easily and when you remove your finger from the mixture, it's not dripping too much.

If mixture is too runny or watery, the paper will tear easily and will be difficult to handle. And when it's too thick, it difficult to spread on the paper.

* the making of an Easter Egg *

* Papier-mache Easter Egg *