Piggy buns

I have been trying to make Chinese buns.
The first batch I made, I mixecd in some steamed pumpkin for an extra vegetable kick. To avoid mentioning the P word (Sam is not a fan of pumpkin), I called them 'Happy buns'. The buns were quite tasty, but they clapsed in the oven so they didn't have that nice "bun" shape. Sam can definitely tell it had something he didn't like in it :(
For the second batch, I filled the buns with chicken mince, vermicelli noodles, carrots and tofu pieces. To make them appeal to the kiddies more, I tried to make them look like pigs and called them "Piggy buns". Kids liked this version, but the buns didn't look like "pigs" after they came out of the steamer:(

I am keen to make some more and hope to learn to make "real" piggy buns soon!

Winter school holiday

Besides the usual school holiday programs and playdates, Lara did some other fun activities during last school holiday:

Baking:
I was trying to get Lara into this kids baking class a friend told me about, but it was booked out for the rest of the year. Luckily, the friend who told me about it invited Lara to join them for a class they booked last year! Lara made some cinnamon and raisin scrolls, a yummy pizza and a koala bear with chocolate paws. The kids were all very creative and there were rabbit, star war battle field and a Roman among the creations. While the kids were busy baking, the adults had some yummy brunch and coffee. A great afternoon!



Origami:
The origami workshop was run by the Janpanese foundation to celebrate "Tanabata, Japanese Star festival. The gallery it was held were decorated with colourful origami from previous workshops. Kids sat down to a story about Tanabata (a love fable originating from China about god/godess meeting over the milky way once a year), then divided into smaller groups to learn the art of origami. Have just recovered from a temperature, Lara only tried simple things like a lantern and a frog. Friend Sue's creative girls attempted a more intricate origami box.

Art Gallery of NSW:
I also took Lara to the Art Gallery for a Torrens Island art workshop during the holidays. I was sipping coffee at the Gallery cafe and waiting for Lara to finish her workshop in the morning when I heard over the speaker about the free guided tours. I decided to join the 'Highlight of the gallery' tour and learned so much about some of the paintings! We had a yummy lunch at the same cafe then stayed on for a free 'how to draw' workshop. All the kids got paper and pens and learned to draw faces in the right proportions. I think the how-to-draw workshop made a great impact on Lara because she now wants to be an illustrator when she grows up!

It's time to think about the next school holiday!

Practice before school

It has been a little challenging to get the violin practice in every night. I tend to leave it too late and Lara too tired by then. I'm trying again a short 15 minutes practice before school and see how we go.

Spiderman birthday

Sam is really into superheroes at the moment, Spiderman is his favorite. For his 3rd birthday in early August, Sam got another Spiderman outfit, and superhero books among other things. Naturally I got him a spiderman birthday cake. I also made "web" cupcakes so he could share them with his friends in daycare. The week before his birthday, Sam was invited to a party in Chipmunks playcentre. He started asking for a party for his birthday after that, probably jsut realised you could invite "friends" to your party! We got away with just a family meal this year.

We still read spiderman, ironman and the incredible hulk stories most nights. But we had to buy kids-friendly Spiderman dvds, the adult ones (I just realised they are 15+ when the kids started to have nightmares) are simply too scary. Just the other day Sam came home with the daycare's spare spiderman undies (he had an accident). He pulled his pants down to show everyone his undies, and refused to take it off before his bath because he simply wanted to "hold it a little longer". Looks like the superheroes will stay in our house for awhile.

Australian Reptile Park

We spent one sunny Wednesday during the school holiday at the Australian Reptile Park. The reptile park is only 30 minutes away. It's quite compact so you can get from one section to the next without a lot of walking. That was perfect for Lara, who was still recovering from the temperature she had a couple of days earlier. There are several enclosures that houseed various snakes, spiders, frogs and lizards, but there are some cuddly animals as well. There are shows on every 30 minutes or so (maybe more frquent during school holiday?) and these shows were excellent.

We watched Elvis the Alligator being fed - half a raw chicken at a time on a long stick! Saw several venomous snakes upclose and being taught what to do if you get bitten. At the reptile show, we saw a turtle, some lizards, a brown snake and a big python. These reptiles were left to wonder by themselves during the show. At one stage, the brown snake got very close to Lara's feet! When Elvis and the other lizards, turtles and crocs were resting in the sun, they look just like statues. The kids kept asking "Is it real?" "Are they real?" Then they saw the movements and shrieked "They are real!!"

It is a very hands on zoo. The kids fed kangaroos, patted lizards, a wombat as well as a dingo. I always considered dingo and wombat wild and never patted one in my life until now!

A very enjoyable family outing!

Soccer photo day

Sam started little kickers (kids soccer program) in mid April, after being on the waiting list for a couple of months. For 45 minutes on Friday mornings, Sam gets to do various ball games and I get to sit down and rest for a bit.
He seems to enjoy it.

Line up to kick


Look at my stamps!

I want to be a writer

Lara wanted to be a doctor when she was about 3, during a period when she got sick quite frequently. She liked to take temperatures, applied bandaid and gave out pretend medicines. She wanted to be a teacher after she started Kindy last year. She enjoyed conducting classes in her bedroom with her soft toys and sometimes Sam as her students. She gave out colouring and homework for Sam to do, unfogtunately, Sam didn't always like to be her student. Lara wants to be a writer now. She is forever making a book or writing a story.

Here is one story she wrote (cover):

Start of story:
The little Tree and The bee hive:
chapter One:
There was a little tree with a bee hive on the bottom branch. It was the only tree in the world. and it had lots of frinds (friends). but one day, all of the birds and bees went away. So the little tree was very lonely.
One week later, the tree got Some new frinds and new flowers. Which made the trees very happy.
(Lara is still leaning to start a sentence with a capital letter) ....


Lara is happy when she has a pen and paper. When there is no paper around, she draws on napkin! She did this when we had coffee at a cafe.

Ichimaru

I don't know what happened to the post I wrote about this little Japanese restaurant we go regularly on Saturday nights called Ichimaru. Here is a picture of one of the meals we had. The dragon rolls are very very good!

Impetigo and others

Before Sam had his first round of impetigo in Feb, we hadn't really heard of this skin infection disease (aka school sores) before. It was scary watching the little pimply dots (thought to be insect bites) on the inside of Sam's legs became blisters then open red raw sores when the blisters bursted. It started on the legs, spreaded to arms, back, and fingers and only cleared after antibiotics was taken and anti-bacteria cream applied (and off daycare for a week during a busy patch with work of course!). We were told to bath/shower in Phisohex for 2 months because it is very contagioius. Just when we thought it was all good, Lara was infected. Hers was contained in her nose so besides a little uncomfortable and off school for 2 days, it wasn't too bad. About 2 months later (in April), Simon found he had some suspecious itchy spots just before we saw the same familiar spots under Sam's arms AGAIN!! We didn't delay seeing the doctor and all of us got treated this time to make sure it is gone. (Please don't come back!)

Impetigo was bad, but life was not all bad in the last couple of months. I joined the gym and had been going a couple of times a week. The kids like to go with me on Saturday when I do my Pilate class. I had 3 fullbody massages already and a rare girls' night out (a friend's 35th). We had dinner and watched 'Les Mis' (yes I cried my eyes out!) We had some lovely time at the beach in April (who would think we could still go to the beach in April?) and have enjoyed some new playground outings. We eat out more as a family (when we are not contagious!). But yes life is busy!

January

2013 has gone so fast and we are already into the second half of February. Here is a short summary of last month. The baskets of clothes to be folded and put away can wait for a little longer.

Sam started at a new daycare on the 7th of January for two days initially. He didn't really like the daycare, maybe it's bigger than what he was used to. He cried every morning for about two weeks. Then something happened that made me decide not to go back to the family daycare. It didn't take long to get the 3rd day in the daycare that Sam still wasn't keen at that time. He stopped crying when I dropped him off in the mornings though, and started to mention some names. When I picked him up last week he didn't want to leave. I guess we have turned the corner with this one.

Lara had her 6th birthday party on the 12th of January. The mermaid girl I hired before Christmas cancelled on me a week before the party, luckily a replacement pirate was found for the day. I filled up nearly 100 water balloons two days before the party to save time but they all bursted in the heat. The ice-cream/jelly birthday cake didn't turn out very well either. On the bright side, Lara enjoyed the party very much, but Simon said we are not doing another party for 10 years!

Kids playing 'pass the treasure box' at the party.


Lara and Sam did Suzuki summer school during the weekend of 19-21 of January. Lara did the junior violin program and Sam the Early Childhood program. Lara's program was very similar to the one she did at Spring school. She had 3 classes a day. Lara enjoyed the enrichment classes where they played games on slowing down and multi-tasking. In the pictured play-in session, the kids all had fun playing violin while doing other things (like playing lying-down, turning around and around or kneeling down). Sam also enjoyed his lessons a lot. We will be doing it again next year.



Lara and I spent one special day during the school holiday just the two of us. We spent first half of the daye in the art gallery of nsw then watched 'The wind in the Willows' at Royal Botanic Gardnes.While we were at the Art Gallery, we watched a miming performace called 'Draw the lines'. It was funny and very creative using pictures from this year's Dorbell Drawing competition. Lara knew and loved the songs sung in 'the wind in the willows'. We both enjoyed the show and also plan to go back next year.

We bumped into a 'bubble artist' on the way to the Art Gallery. Lara loved the different shaped bubbles he made.


I worked a little during January but almost always had one or both kids with me. It was nice but very busy. Thanks to brother-in-law, we also had the rare chance of going out to eat at a Japanese sushi bar in Crows Nest without the kids one night early January.

School started on the 30th of January, I went back to work on the 31st of January. Life is even busier after that. And that was our January.

Garden invasion

Simon found thousands of these beetles in our back garden one day after Christmas. They were everywhere - all over the grass, on tree branches, bushes and in the air. Everywhere! I didn't witness this personally, I was too scared to go outside! A 'sample' was taken and we were going to take it to the garden shop and find out what we could do but google saved us a trip. Apparently, these are 'green soldier beetle', they can form 'mating' swarm in large numbers in a short time but tend to move on after mating. And they are harmless.

True to their words, the number f beetles in our gaden decreased in the next couple of days and they are all gone before the new year. We have our garden back!

Holiday swimming lessons

I am so proud of Sam. The 40 minute lessons were a little long for him but he didn't cry at all and seemed to enjoy himself. He didn't put his head in water yet but I'm sure he will soon learn if we continue the lessons.



Lara learned breast stroke during the holiday swimming lessons and seemed to be more comfortable diving from the deep end.


I got Lara and Sam swimming at the same time. They were in lanes next to each other. (Lara'se swimming in the left lane and Sam's on his back in the right lane in the picture). They often waved and said hello to each other mid-lesson. I'm sure Lara provided the extra comfort that Sam needed to be at the pool without me.

Christmas break

We didn't host Christams this year (only hosted a smaller family meal on boxing day) so there were minimum grocery shopping and food preparation during Christmas for me (yeah!). Chrsitmas was spent at brother-in-law's new place (he moved in 3 days before xmas) in Collaroy. It was a little different to the other x'mas we had as there were people from his girlfriend's family whom we did't know, come and go. Sam and Lara had lots of fun running around with another kid in the apartment, which already had over 20 people in it. It was raining so we couldn't spend time at the beach as planned. We did manage to go back to the beach a couple of days later and spent a nice afternoon soaking in the beautiful sunshine and breathing in the fresh sea breeze. We also spend a nice afternoon at this little picturesque beach called Bilgola and two other afternoons at swimming pools. When the days are hot, there is nothing better than spend it near water.

Ballerina

Roast dinner

Mother-in-law's pre-new year roast pork with nice crunchy potatoes.


We don't get invited to in-law's for dinner as much as before because of Sam. Sam is not a lover of roast dinners. He refused to eat it most times and looked like he would throw up if we forced him. This has caused some frustrations and unhappiness. The solution- give him vegemite sandwitch or sushi and we get on with our roast dinners. All happy!

Wiggles concert

One of the fun activities we did just before Christmas was the Wiggles concert (we watched their second last show with the original wiggles). It was surprisingly fun! The highlight of the day was that Lara and Sam high-fived Jeff (purple wiggle) when he came around to collect roses and bones for Dorothy and Wags (oh we forgot to do roses and bones!). Sam couldn't stop talking about Jeff afterwards and Lara couldn't get over how long Jeff's hair was. Keeping Sam on his seat was a little challenging, he wanted to get closer to the stage. Lara danced to most songs and talked about going back next year even before we left the concert. But the wiggles are not the same without the original members!!

Water-related picture diaries

Oct 3 - It was school holiday. Lara watched a show in Opera house with some school friends, had a yummy $5 pizza meal (with unlimited drinks) and played at Darling Quarter.I joined her just before the Darling Quarter play. What a fun day for Lara!


Oct 5 - Lara spent a fun morning at Collaroy beach with Evie and Ruby. As it turns out, we will probably be spending our Christmas Day this year at the same beach!


Oct 28 - We spent a good part of the day in the zoo. The seal show was a real winner (we were waiting for it to start with Lara's class pet Spottle in the photo). The kids spent the next few days pretending to be seals and performing tricks like the seals did.


Nov 2 - Lara started during-school and after-school swimming in term 4. Friday was a great day for lessons- it seemed to be quieter than the start of the week, Lara received more attention in the class (only 2 kids in her class).  Lara's progressing well and almost swimming, but she is still scared of diving at the deep end. She didn't swim last winter but I'm considering letting her swim through winter next year.

New violin teacher

Lara played 'minuet 3' at her end-of-term concert and played twinkles at the end with all the kids.

We changed violin teacher in the middle of the year, so technically she is not new anymore. I knew the ex-violin teacher was young and not very experienced, but it didn't bother me until she went away for 3 months with little notice and the substitute teacher didn't even play violin regularly. After ringing around looking for a new teacher,I realised finding another Suzuki teacher would not be easy as eveyone knows everyone in this small Suzuki circle. And it seemed that most experienced teachers have long waiting lists. So luck must be on our side when we found the new teacher and made the switch in such a short time.

This new teacher is musically-trained (ie has a university music degree or two) as supposed to someone who teach because they can play the violin well. I used to think it wouldn't make much difference, however, after experiencing both, the difference is enormous. The new teacher spends a lot of time teaching correct postures and proper bow hold (this is very important if you dont' want RSI!). She teaches rhythems, note reading, and uses a variety of materials in addition to the Suzuki repertoire. She plays with Lara, on the violin or the piano as an accompanist, holds student concerts every term and gives very detailed home practice guidelines. She pays for an accomplished teacher to conduct a master class for her students every term (Lara would need a few more years of practice to be able to go to these master classes). The friend who recommended her called her a "true" teacher. Simon joked that I was in love with the new teacher because I couldn't stop talking about Lara's lesson afterwards. I was simply amazed at the difference Lara played after something she said or after she adjusted a finger or pointed out an error.

Home practices are also much better and less tears. I think the reason being the new teacher breaks the songs down into little managable steps. Rather than diving into the new songs, Lara would listen or sing to the music in the first week, doing shadow bows during the second week then play the first two bars in the third week etc. Lara is a perfectionist and she doesn't like challenges. This style of teaching reduces her anxiety and makes practice happier.  I am so happy we found her!

Hunter Valley again

We have been to the Hunter Valley twice in the last 2 months. Everytime we go, we discover something new..

We stayed at the Littles winery last month. It was very interesting to actually sleep next to the tasting room inside the winery and the view from the dinning room table was beautiful and serene. The kids loved the winery manager's dog Gypsy and loved tasting the chutneys, olive oil and cheese. We also went to a nice little deli that served yummy hearty food on cushions under trees, the food I still crave when I think about it.

This was before Sam had his first haircut.


We stayed at a 4-bed house this time because we had the Grandparents with us. The house was quite basic but the setting was very relaxing and tranquil. We didn't get to visit many wineries as it was very hot while we were there (there was a heat wave). I counted us very lucky though because if I booked one week earlier, the kids would have been too sick to go. We all enjoyed the swimming, we had the whole pool to ourselves. We had barbecued steaks and sausages plus the yummy goods we collected along the way, including the smoked trout and octpotus legs from the Lovedale smoke house, a new-find this time.  We also went to the Hunter Valley barn and stocked up on sweets.



Kids were on a high singing just before a swim.


We will leave Hunter until the weather cools down but we will be back!

Cheeky monkey

Sam is quite a handful at the moment. He is quicker and cheekier than Lara was at the same age. He doesn't listen as well and changllenges 'authority' more (seond child +  boy?). He has chucked toys in the toilet, put his hands in the toilet. He got out of his pram and ran to the jumping castle (not free) and didn't want to get out in our last shopping excursion. I took him to an indoor playground once, he went straight to the 5-11 year-old section (2-5 yo section is too boring for him) and stayed there for the entire 2 hours. He thinks he's older than Lara, often shouted 'instructions' for Lara to do. He likes to open and close lids, doors, windows. He also like to chuck things into illegal' places, like back of couch, toilet, out of the window, into small holes.

This is me trying to take a video of the kids while we were picnicing at the local park.



Sam is being toilet-trained at the moment (3rd week). He's doing very well with wee, but only started to poo in the potty. I am busy washing dirty undies, shorts and shoes!