DD's Birthday Cake 2010

I'm devoting an entire post to talk about DD's birthday cake because DS helped to design it! The wonderful and ever-patient Chef Lim at The Line, Shangri-La helped bring the design to fruition. Below is DS's drawing of the side view of the cake. The top of the cake will have a picture of Spongebob, which DD chose. DS had originally wanted purple icing lining the bottom part of the side of the cake but Chef Lim says the icing will slide down the cake over time. DS also wanted cookies in the shape of stars placed along the side of the cake but due to the weight of the cookies, this wasn't ideal as the cookies will move downwards too. Instead, Chef Lim lined the side of the cake with star-shaped chocolate, which was thin and light enough to stay put at the side without migrating south. Chef Lim was kind enough to promise that he will incorporate as much of DS's design onto the top of DD's birthday cake.


Ta-dah! The end product. Notice the grey stripe with colorful crosses just below the words "Happy Birthday"? It looks exactly like how DS drew it in his design above. And the row of "stars" above Spongebob's head? There are 7 "stars" in exactly the same shape as how DS drew it. And the colors of the "stars" are in the same order of colors as what DS had in his drawing too! Finally, notice the thick stripe of reddish icing behind Spongebob. It was probably difficult to get the same tone of purple like what DS had in his drawing, but look at the blue lines! DS had them in his drawing too. Needless to say, DS was thrilled to have his design included in DD's birthday cake. We can't thank Chef Lim enough! And the chocolate mousse cake tasted so delicious!!!


Lastly, the side view of the cake showing the chocolate stars! :)

Sibling Cooperation

Now that DD is almost 3 years old and knows all about snatching and rushing for the same toys that her brother is playing with, or simply being quite good at standing her ground when her brother is trying to prise a toy away from her, I find that my job description as a mum has expanded yet again. I am now also a referee, and I find myself having to be a referee at least a few times a day. I've been reading up about how to set ground rules, how to prevent sibling rivalry and promote bonding and love between my 2 children. Of course, it is inevitable that there will be disagreements and "fights", but I hope that at the end of the day, the kids will love and take care of each other. I came across this article on API (Attachment Parenting International) and found it quite useful. I hope that I can remember to use some of the tips in this article, especially when the kids are a bit older.

Sibling Cooperation

Recipe Alert: BBQ Crockpot Chicken

The person whom I got this recipe from called it "Fussy Baby Chicken", meaning, if you've got a fussy baby due to teething or whatever, use this recipe!

Preparation Time: Less than 10 minutes.

Ingredients:
- Whole chicken or your favorite chicken parts (I usually use drumsticks, thighs or wings)
- Whole bottle/jar of BBQ sauce (or less depending on how much chicken you use, but the BBQ sauce should cover all the chicken well)

Cook on low all day. That's it!!! It's so easy, it's unbelievable!!! :)

Baby Product Alert: Petit Terraillon All In One

I thought the "All In One" part sounds too good to be true, and this product has an interesting name, but the full name of this item is: Petit Terraillon All In One: blender/ food warmer/ food steamer/ bottle warmer/ bottle sterilizer. I came across it on a parenting forum in a thread that discusses about how to provide a baby with food when travelling. The reviews seem to be pretty good and the product is compact enough to bring along when travelling. I guess this will be useful if one has a baby who is drinking from a bottle and/or still eating blended food. You can see it here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Petit-Terraillon-All-one-steriliser/dp/B000HHKKLK

Checking In Quickly

If any of you are wondering, yes, I'm still committed to finish blogging about our now not-too-recent holiday in New Zealand. It is taking quite a while and I'm only on Day 6, but yes, I want to finish blogging about it...eventually! Haha!

June passed by rather quickly, probably partly due to DS being home half the time instead of at school. Hand, foot and mouth disease is currently above epidemic levels in Singapore (whatever that means!) and unfortunately, three children in DS' preschool came down with it. We therefore kept DS away from school until there was no evidence of further transmission within PMI (DS' preschool).

I've also spent a bit of time changing the layout of my blog. On the right, there is now a section whereby blog posts are organized according to labels. This makes it easier for readers of my blog to read the posts that they are interested in. I've also re-written the "about me" section to, well, talk about me rather than the reason for starting this blog. Readers who wish to follow my blog can now also subscribed via email at the bottom of the page. This means that whenever I publish a new blog post, readers who have subscribed will have this new post delivered to their email account.

OK, that's all from me for now. I'll be writing again very soon!

21 Creative Projects with Kids

I came across this great post! Wonderful ideas for things to do with kids at home, especially with the rainy weather that we've had recently!

21 Creative Projects with Kids

NZ Vacation Day 6 (Part I) - Queenstown

We spent the morning at Skyline, taking the gondola all the way to the top of the mountain called Bob's Peak and having lunch at the cafe there. Queenstown's Skyline gondola is supposed to the steepest lift in the Southern Hemisphere (not that there are many countries in the Southern Hemisphere anyway, haha!). At the top, there are also observation decks for visitors to get breathtaking views of the lakes and mountain ranges.


This picture was taken from the cabin of the lift on our way up. See how steep it is!


We were almost at the top of the gondola ride when we spotted a protruding ramp for brave souls to do bungee jumping! The ramp is 400m above ground level and according to the Skyline website, jumpers can even choose to jump off the ramp on a skateboard, bike, snowboard or in-line skates. Unfortunately, we didn't see anybody doing a bungee jump when we were there.


Finally, at the top! The view was simply breathtaking! I think besides Milford Sound (look out for my blog post on Milford Sound later on!), the next nicest scenery was at Queenstown. Unfortunately, we couldn't take more pictures of the beautiful scenery from another angle because the sun was shining right at us.


Grandpa brought a pair of binoculars along but didn't get his turn at using it! The kids were hogging it and taking turns to "admire" the scenery with it. I do wonder what they were looking at through the binoculars.