Quick pasta

I have seen lots of cooking posts on Fb. Earlier in the year somebody shared cooking spaghetti and sausages.

Today I tried it because Noel did not want to have 粽子 for lunch.

Night at the museum

Last school holiday we brought the boys and R our friend's son to Night at the museum. The kids were given a sheet and there were special booths set up relevant to the theme under the water and they get clues from the booth.

Here they saw the marine biologist. She showed them shark teeth and various other things. They also get to keep a souvenir of sea shells.

Then they met a fish scientist. They talk about fish bones with him and did you know a fish scientist is called an ichthyologist.

They also met this ladies who showed them fish hooks made from bones.

Disco night at BOS

There was disco night at school last Thursday. The year 0 to 2 got to groove from 5 30pm to 6 45pm.

There was a deejay and the hall was dark and flashing with disco lights and what not. There was glowsticks and flashing ring for sale and chips and chocolate.

Mum and I accompanied him and we hung around in the dark together with many other parents. Meanwhile he and his bestie Cj did their moves. N won a spot prize towards the end.

At 姑姑's shop

The boys made mask out of nori sheet. Seaweed man (superhero) in the making.

Tools: a piece of nori sheet

Noel folded and start eating and made eyes for the mask. Pretty cool?

Abel just managed to made some nose pad thingie

Amazing Grace

This is a pic of the recent Easter Cantata at church. Group photograph of the Sopranos and the Altos.

Chicken curry for Friends Day

I haven't cooked chicken curry in a long time. I followed my MIl's method and tried to reproduce her version.

I used 3 chickens.
Lots of potato
Ginger
Garlic
Onion
Chilli
Babas curry powder
Coconut cream
Salt

This is not the recipe for those watching the waistline.

First I coat the chicken pieces with curry powder.

Next I saute the onion, ginger,Chilli and garlic. When all the ingredients turned pasty add the chicken pieces and more curry powder. Then I added some water and start to simmer the chicken.
After about 10 minutes, I add the coconut cream. Lastly I add the potato and simmer until the potato is cooked.

Cereal gun

I am not one who is pro-guns but the boys would create guns with all sorts of things like using pegs, or using paper and fold into one etc. and these inventions never fail to appear everywhere around the house.

Today despite being sick, Noel made this gun out of cereal box.

I don't know to praise him for his creativity or for his effort in recycling.

Abel Wee MD

Finally Abel got to open this present I got him for Christmas.

Soon the two brothers started taking turns to be doctor and patient.

After about 5 minutes, I became the resident patient. They both take turns to examine me. First, It was taking my temperature , then listening to my heart on the stethoscope and finally trying to inject me on my bum.

Fun factor for the boys: 10/10

Word find

While waiting for Abel at Swimsation, Noel did the word find puzzle.
He is still getting used to the concept of the words going diagonally down or spelt backwards.

Block puzzles

On my way back from Vienna last Oct, I had a 17 hours stop over in Taipei city.  I joined the city tour (courtesy of the Tourism board)  and I asked the kind tour guide where I can buy books and stationeries.

We were at our last stop at Taipei 101.  He told me to go to Eslite ( 誠品書店). He gave me directions and off I went instead of going back to the airport with them.  At that point, I had no more luggage limit but hehe I had a big hobo hand bag that I manage to fill in with books and puzzle blocks. (I could really spend all day in that bookshop)

This is one of the puzzle I bought from Eslite in Taipei.  It retails for NT$150.00 The boys like Doraemon so I bought these 9 block puzzles.

Noel immediately played  no problems. Abel however, was taking time to process. Only recently he could do the puzzles without any help :)

 

I am a tower too

Abel likes to arrange his stacking toys.
On this occasion he also wants to be a tower.

From left, Dantoy stackers from the papakura education shop, middle one is from countdown supermarket and right one was gift from the Vandermarks.

Char Kway Teow

I have always liked char Kway Teow . I finally had the courage to try cooking it after all these years.

Ingredients:
Flat rice noodles
Bean sprouts
Onions sliced
Spam the tinned meat
Egg
Spring onions
Soy sauce
Sugar
Salt
Pepper

I sauté the spam then put aside. Next I add oil and sauté the onion and the bean sprout. After a minute or so, I cracked an egg and then I stir it with the onion and sprouts. Now is the time I add the pepper and sugar and salt and I add the noodle last and quickly add soy sauce and fry it. In the last 30 secs, I chucked in some spring onions to give the dish a burst of colours.


Verdict:
The hub gave me a passing mark. He doesn't mind me cooking it again. In fact I cooked 3-4 more plates after this one .

P/s: I will replace the spam with prawns or sliced meat next time. The spam is too salty for my liking.

P is for pencils

Uncle Allan gave Noel these for his 5th birthday. The boys' eyes practically lit up when I brought it out. 

I would too if I am their age. I remembered my favourite spot in the shop used to be the 'stationery' corner. I still like the corner. Now my excuse is to buy stationeries for the kids. hehe.

Lines ...

Abel is now 3yrs and 4 months. He's still learning to grip his pencil.

When he sees his brother doing homework, he asks for his too. It usually consists of matching picture. Tonight I gave him a new pencil and a new book to draw lines.

Puppet monster by noel

On the first term break (mid April) Noel had heaps of free time. I didn't enrol him in holiday swimming class due to some logistic reason.

He just stayed at home with Abel and did free play which sometimes or 90% of time translates into mega mess for me.

Anyhow here's him making a puppet monster. He was wanting to make it so that it would function as a shadow puppet.

The only help I gave was giving him the Popsicle stick.

Art time

We haven't done any art work for ages.


Noel first wanted to make thumbprint ppl. See the first pic. Guess we needed ink pad for that not water colour. That didn't stop them making hand prints.

They then explored printing with feathers.

All in all a very fun activity.

Games from yesteryear

Finaly we were brought into a school hall, and here the children sat in a circle. In front of them were toys children played in the olden days.

After playing for a minute or two, the children switched toys with their neighbours.

This is a giant marbel run made of wood.

My little group posed for pictures for me.

Back in the classroom after the day trip.

Washing Day

Picasa went bonkers on me and the post I wrote just now just did not respond! Grr..
okay this is 2nd last instalment of the Howick Historical Village.

The highlight for Noel was to do the washing. All the children had a turn washing, and mangling and drying the clothes. washing 200 years ago has not changed that much from when my grandma was doing it except my grandma did it more often than the Victorians did.

The Victorians had to wake up at 5am to do  get the water and boil the water for them to wash.
It's a lot of hard work and hence the mother would cook a Sunday Roast (big hearty meal so the children will have lots of energy to do the work the next day)

Here, Noel used the wash board and applied soaps and then started to scrub the cloth.

Given that they don't change their clothes very often back then, clothes would be pretty dirty, and they use this washing dolly to further wash the clothes. I think that's how the agitator of our washing machine is based on.

After washing, the object is rinsed in another basin with clean water, and then brought to the mangler to be wrung . it also act to press the clothes as well as wring out the water . Finally the clothes are hung on the clothes line to dry.

Another shot of the Washing Dolly.

Howick Historical Village Pt 3

Here's the  room of a well-to-do person in those ages. 

Here's the place a servant iron the clothes.  People need at least 6-8 irons before we have thte convenience of electric iron.

The little stove behind to heat up the iron.

I can't remember what area of the house it is.

This is a random shot i took of a Victorian Rabbit Hutch.  The Brits brought the rabbit over not for pet but more for source of food.  They soon multipled and became a pest.

Howick Historical Village Pt 2

After finding out what people wear 200 years ago, we now wander around the village, and first stop was checking out this well.  Ppl use to wake up at 5am to draw the water.
 

It's hard work....

Then we checked out different places that people lived in, they ranged from tents, wooden cottage and hut looking thing...

My group posing for photos.

This is the grass hut some people lived in.

This was a hit for the kids, everyone wanted a turn ..