2 in a row

Sometimes it is really true that bad things come together in a row. My Buttercup caught the virus and came down with chickenpox, although she took the vaccine when she was one year old. But thank God, that has come and gone. She went back to school yesterday (and I was able to come back to work). Working from home is pretty disruptive, esp with a young one at home.

Shingles

My Bubbles had been down with shingles since last week. Ordered to stay home for 14 days, coz it is contagious. When I brought her to the hospital to see the doctor that night, we were ushered into the 'empty" tent in the carpark. It had aircon but it was not switched on. The air seemed stale there, was wondering if the tent had not been used for quite a while? Anyway, after 3 days of fever (at times alarmingly high), plus days of headache, tummy pain, vommitting, blisters pain and itch, she looks more or less on the road to recovery. She is now having a cold and cough. On the very bad days, she only wanted me at the bed, rubbing her forehead and tummy all the time.

Poor little gal, to get the virus twice so soon (Shingles is caused bythe same virus as chickenpox, which she had when she was one yr old, when the virus decides to 'erupt' again). Reminds me of the time when she caught Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease twice too.

Tough to be sick. So always count our blessings! Glad she is feeling better now :)

Countryside in SG

Did you know that in the metropolitan and busy Singapore, there lies some countrysides? We finally had a chance to take a roadtrip to check it out. It was a Sunday morning, weather was cool but slightly overcast, and no classes for the gals.

Couldn't resist taking a photo from the car, at the long winding road along the 'countryside', no high rise buildings in sight (which is hard to find in the built-up SG).

There was actually a promotion organised by the Kranji Countryside going on. It was something like treasure hunt, and participants could drive to the many farms listed in the "FarmPass" to collect a stamp. After collecting a number of stamps, participants were entitled to the gift. Although the gals looked forward to the stamps at each stop, nevertheless, I thought it was a good way for us to learn more about the farms in SG.

First stop was the Hay Dairies Goat Farm. Missed the milking session, but still had a good look at the goats. Buttercup, who had just been to the farm a few weeks back with her classmates, was the unofficial tourguide giving her "introduction". She was saying that the goats came all the way from America (?). She even knew that the goats have udders. Hmm, not bad for a 4-yr old's vocabulary. I don't think I was aware of the word until very much older. Bought some goats' milk before leaving, the kids (except Bubbles) tried the chocolate-flavoured goat milk.
Next, was a vege farm. Have you seen a scarecrow before in Singapore? Everyone was amazed...
Here's Blossom posing next to the long melon (sorry, could remember the name of the melon)

At the koi fishfarm We also went to Bollywood Veggies, it was a nice place to see all the different tropical fruit and veggies. It brought the "Wild Singapore" side to us.

Another pitstop was the bullfrog farm. Looks quite easy to rear, they just need a bit of water, and the love to pile ontop of one another.

Pardon my ignorance, this is the first time I have seen a dragonfruit plant (龙株果) in my entire life. You could have imagined my excitment :P

This photo was taken at the GardenAsia, where the gals picked up their gift (2x keychains, 1 $20 voucher redeemable at the cafe, and 1 packet of roselles). Mission accomplished!

Sandwich cutter

Latest "toy"!



Couldn't resist getting this coz I thought that it would really save on the extra bread cut outs. Usually if I use the cookie cutter to get the shapes, there are bond to have extras, which eventually have to end up in this mummy's tummy. (sigh need to keep watch of my waistline as I get older).











Here's Buttercup trying her hands at it - i was smiling to myself, as she looked like she had to work very hard for her breakfast this day hehehe

How's the final product? There is an elelphant, terrier, car and a whale.

Blossoms 1st "project"

This was Blossom's 1st project, which was done when she was in P2. The teacher wanted them to do a 'project' about Malaysia. I did some of the background work, printing the pictures and advising her what to write. The kids liked the footprint idea, even her frens in school wanted to peel off the stickers. One of her friends' project was really good, a 3-D model of the Petronas Twin Towers of Kuala Lumpur! Amazing

What to do with extra whipping cream?

The earlier Father's Day cake used up only 1/4 of the whipping cream. My fren FwF said that whipping cream should be used up asap when opened, or may be stored better if placed in an air-tight container.

We were looking at some ice-cream receipes that used whipping cream and we saw one on Mango Yoghurt Ice-cream. It uses whipping cream and yoghurt (which I did not have in my fridge and I was too lazy to purposely go to the convenience store just to get a tub). No mangoes either but there were strawberries and red dragonfruit in my fridge.

So i "whipped" up some strawberry ice-cream. It tasted a bit sour even without the yoghurt, perhaps due to the strawberries. hmm, not too bad :)
There were still whipping cream left (aargh)...

So decided on a coffee sponge cake (Gina's receipe).

Flat out by the time I completed my tasks last night. But there is still whipping cream left!!! :(

Hortpark

Was looking through my drafts...didn't realise that this was not saved earlier. Hortpark outing sometime back...

More activities

These are some of the activities that the kids have been enjoying now that they are on "June holiday" from the enrichment classes.

Scooter Gals
Painful "fun" at the reflexology corner Trying their hands at tennis (or rather picking tennis balls)

The tree house - looks like the house was built before they placed the tree in :P

1-day tour - Yakult factory + Fish farm

We took leave to take our powerpuff gals out for the day. Joined a 1-day tour that took us to the Qian Hu Fish Farm, Yakult factory, Fragrance foodstuff @Woodlands Industrial estate. Not bad deal for S$5 per pax.

Lots of excitement for the gals, it rubbed off on me too. Feel so good to have quality time with the 3 of them together. With each of them having school, childcare, enrichment classes and plus us adults dealing with our work commitments, it is really precious to spend a whole day out enjoying one another's company.

Saw lots of fish at the farm. It is a nice place to spend time admiring the many many species of fish, some of which even I have not seen before. Lots of koi and luohan fish around too. Still rem the craze in Singapore some years back over the bulging head luohan fish, with the unique patterns on its body that most rears swear are 4-D (lottery) numbers? When Bubbles saw them, she said the fish so funny, why does it look like they have stickers pasted on their body? She was referring to the patterns. Some see them as magic numbers, but to most of us, we see them as patches or "stickers" :)

There are 3 pools for fish spa at the farm (where you can place your feet in the water and let the little fish nibble them). And there are koi and tortoise ponds where my gals enjoyed feeding them fishfood (bought at S$1 each small pack). They found it really fun to feed them, maybe they do not get much opportunities to do so usually.

Next stop was the Yakult factory, where we were given a tour around the premises and briefed about the unique bacteria in the product etc. I was also very excited about this tour, as never been to such a factory before. Of course there was free yakult to drink and discounted items to buy.


After the tours ended, there was still time and off we went for a movie. Actually it is the first time that we took our gals to the cinema after all these years since I had my 1stborn. As since their age gaps are pretty close, we were never ready to bring our young gals to the cinema. Anyway, they are still not able to sit still for a full-length movie.

Happy Fathers' Day

Wishing all fathers a Happy Fathers' Day!

Baked a chocolate cake, and covered it with whipped cream. Blossoms helped me with the writing on the cake. I think she did a marvelous job. My hubby wanted to bring this to my in-laws for the night, but I was very relunctant. Don't want to be embarrassed hehehe, as I knew this cake was not perfect. After the getting all the ingredients together and pouring it into the cake tin did I realised that there was flour left in the bottom of the mixing bowl not mixed properly. Wanted to kick myself! Anyway, nothing could be salvaged then so I got on with the baking. Luckily still edible but dun want to bring it out of the house. We had a small cake cutting "ceremony" at home after we came back from my in-laws' place. Anyway, my SIL bought one for my in-laws.

Commercially, there is less hype on this day as compared to Mothers' Day. But I feel daddies should also have their day, as they play an equally important role in the children's lives. This is the 2nd year that I am not able to celebrate the day with my dad. Time has passed quickly, but memories are not so easily gone. There is sadness whenever I think about him.

Buttercup told me last night that she missed Yeye too. Asked her why, she said because Yeye always blows her balloons. She was genuinely missing him, as I could see some wetness in her eyes. It made mine water too. But I told her (and also to myself) he is in a better place now and is free of all pain.

Cookies!

Two recent cookie bakes:

1) Chocoloate Chip cookies
My gals' favourite. I really love the smell when they are baking!

2) Peanut cookies
Made from ground peanuts rather than peanut butter. More crunch. I found it a tad too sweet, coz I only realised that the ground peanuts I bought already had some sugar included. But my hubby said it was alright.

Peanut Sandies

Had some time on my hands this morning at home, while waiting for the aircon repairman. This is an easy-peasy (a phrase used very often by my 2 older gals) receipe for a cookie. Not really a cookie, more a melt-in-the-mouth crumble. The texture is pretty similar to those round ones we get during Chinese New Year.

Receipe (adapted from Ovenhaven's blog)

1 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter

1 cup flour

1 cup light brown sugar

Preheat oven to 180C.
Place everything in a large bowl and mix

Using your hands, roll about a tablespoon of dough into a ball. Place on baking tray lined with parchment paper and flatten slightly with a fork (to make the infamous dent that appears on all peanut butter cookie).

Bake for about 8mins. Leave to cool for about 5 mins.

It is really crumbly in nature. Will consider making it even smaller next time so that my little gals can pop one right into their mouth without having to bite it. As said b4, I really do not like to see the crumbs on the table :P

Bento #34

Last night's dinner:

Little rounds of faces (rice), samosa, sausage, stewed chicken, omelette, spinach, marble cake. Didn't put the strawberries in as the kids were too hungry and was hurrying me to quickly take the photo.

Bento #32 and #33

Bento #32: Breakfast last Saturday - ham sandwiches, grapes, butter cookies. Love the butter cookies, it is a no-brand type which brings back fond memories when I was a kid....from those market stalls selling biscuits/cookies by weight.
Bento #33: This was a "bento" done by Bubbles, who is only 5 yrs old. I think she has some talent in this! This is actually porridge, served with a simple omelette in the shape of a heart, with peas and fishcake slices.

*sorry, don't know why the photo orientation cannot be right, tried a few times!

Bento #30 and #31

Bento in the garden: Rice with spinach leaves, dried Chinese mushrooms, with cheese butterfly and ham flowers. On the right are quails eggs and purple grapes.

Walk down the lane: Rice with chicken and carrot stew, broccoli and prawns and little "footsteps". Fruits for dessert - apples and grapes. Did you see the homemade pick? Bubbles drew and coloured the little bear face. Now we can save $ and make our own picks!

Bento #29

This is a backdated meal. Tri-coloured shell-shaped pasta served with chicken in tomato sauce, with chicken and beef sausages. 2 plain crackers and mandarin orange segments.

Usually I have to separate the sauce from the pasta, as Buttercup is really particular. She prefers her pasta free of sauce. Depends on her mood whether she will put any topping on her pasta at all.

Bento #28

Tonight's dinner for the gals. Bubbles did the deco. Looks like a clown to me.

Chicken, mushroom and peas in their fav cheesy sauce (just a simple sauce of milk plus cheese slices melted). White rice with pork floss. Added a almond jelly and apple slices to complete the meal. The marshmellow was an encouragement sweet.

Bubbles polished everything off her plate tonight. Perhaps it is the sense of pride of her work.

Ours was also a chicken-based meal. White rice, green curry with local eggplants and peas. Sliced chillies and dried parsley for garnish.

Happy Birthday Buttercup!

My "baby" turned 4 yesterday! Time flies. But to me, she will still be the baby of the lot. :P

Healthy breakfast

Hopefully a healthier breakfast: oats with mini hot dog bun plus a traditional chinese kueh (nowadays the kids don't fancy it though, ended in my tummy)

Jacob Ballas Children's Garden

We went to the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden at Bukit Timah Road this morning as it was a public holiday in Singapore. Blossom got up real early and was really excited about the trip. She woke up at 6.3oam which is an amazing feat for her!

Lovely place for children (up to ages 12). Lots of plants to check out, and with playground, water play area, sand pit, plus this huge treehouse.

This exhibit was on photosynthesis and plants as a factory.
Blossom was also amazed by a 100-year old tree that was struck by lightning and which had roots as huge as walls. They had a rocking good time at the suspension bridge too.

We found this a great place to bring the children too and admission is free. Besides having fun, they get to see plants and trees which they would not see at usuall places. We spotted a cotton plant (which they found it interesting that it would end up to be their T-shirt), peanut plant, tapioca, banana, plantain (which I also mistook as a banana plant)... it was education for them (and for me too!)

Check out their website at:
http://www.sbg.org.sg/bukittimahcore/ChildrenGarden.asp

Bento #27

Wow! Time really flies! It has been a while since my last post.

Frankly, have not been doing much baking and bentoing recently. Too many things to keep me busy. Strangely, at times there is this feeling of guilt for not updating my blog.

This is the recent dinner for my gals. Heart-shaped riceballs with stirfried cauliflower and carrots, 2 "dinosaur" chicken nuggets, minced meat omelette, stewed potatoes with meat and peas. Dessert was two-coloured grapes plus yoghurt.

The plate was bought from Daiso (went shopping again!) , a steal at S$2. :)

Marble Cake

Quick bake last night. This time the sweetness was just right. Tasted really good when fresh out of the oven.

Chocolate Sponge Cake

DH said, after seeing this product, "Another cake..." (without much of a hint of enthusiam). What to do? Leftover so much whipping cream. This time it is a chocolate sponge.

Could not see the layer of cream sandwiched in between the layers, coz I was too tired and realised that I didn't wait till the cake cooled enough before the cream was added.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy belated Valentine's Day to everyone! Yes, this day should be for everyone (not only lovebirds) as everyone could celebrate it with their loved ones.

Baked a simple vanilla sponge cake on Valentine's Day and turned it into my very first cream cake! Looks amateur and simple. My elder 2 gals helped with the deco. They loved and couldn't keep their fingers off the whipped topping as it was light and slightly sweet - they even commented that the cream taste better than the cake :( . The sponge cake was sandwiched with strawberry jam and more whipped cream. The gals had a lot of suggestions on how to deco the cake, but luckily we could come to a collective decision to have hearts and more hearts on the cake.

Cupcakes and such

Here's last night's bake: Cupcakes in various flavours (vanilla, double chocolate, chocolate chips; coffee, orange)

It is still the Chinese New Year, and there are still goodies in the kitchen. This year I also made cornflake cookies, which the children loved. Even their daddy liked it (I think) coz he finished everything in one night.

This zebra cake (more marble cake) was done long time back but didn't get the chance to post it.

Strawberry Yogurt Cake

While the pineapple tarts dough was firming up in the fridge, I also did a strawberry yogurt cake. Not quite a success, as it was pretty dense and sticks to the teeth.