Happy 6th Birthday E!

So  this blog is going to be a little interruption in my frozen party.  But I wanted to show you a picture of the finished product.  I will continue to blog about each part of it later this week. 

 

This is a blog I have to post today.  Why?  My first born is turning 6.  6 years ago we were clueless and unaware of how our lives would change forever.   I still remember exactly what I was doing on Feb 2 2008 (I don't think I'd ever forget).  Her original due date was Feb 13 2008, so she was a nice little early surprise (for those of you who are or was pregnant you know the last few weeks aren't the most comfortable, so 10 days is a total gift).  It's kinda crazy how fast time flies (yes, to the new mothers out there, days can be long, but the weeks seem to fly by).   I can't believe this was 6 years ago.  After 15 hours of labour we received our precious little gift.  She was the sweetest thing ever.  Everyone always ask me what type of baby she was, and if she was hard.  I would say, because she was the first, it made it a little hard, but overall she was a pretty good baby.   I was one of the first of my friend and family to have kids, so I had no one to ask questions too.  Being a new mother, everything was new. 

 

Here are a few pictures of her on her birthday.

 

Few hours old in the hospital

 

First birthday

 

 

Second birthday

 

 

Third Birthday

 

 

 Fourth Birthday

 

 

Fifth Birthday



6 years ago today, my life changed for the better.  I can not imagine life without you in it

Happy 6th birthday! Mommy loves you! Thank you for being a great and fun-loving girl.  Thank you for being the great older sister to M and C.  I know they already look up to you so much. 

 

 

Frozen party part 2: decorations

When my daughter asked me for a Frozen birthday party I went straight to google.  Surprisingly there was a few ideas out there. I figured anything snowman or snowflake would work.

I went out shopping to find precut snowflakes, but I was a few weeks too late.  Most stores have already packed them away and put out all their valentines stuff.  Good thing I have a sister who loves crafts. She had a bucket of foam snowflakes she let me use.   I sewed them together and hung them up.

While at the mall, my other sister had a great idea of making tissue paper balls to hang up. We ended up buying 3 different colors.

To top it off, I found how to make snowflakes out of regular paper from http://allstudentscanshine.blogspot.nl/2012/12/snowflake-craft-tutorial.html

 

 

Frozen party: part 1 - Oreo pops

For one of the snack I thought anything on a stick is fun. So I decided to make chocolate dipped Oreos.

1.  Separate the Oreo

2. Melt some chocolate wafers

3.  Dip the sticks in the chocolate and place in Center.

4. Put the other side onto the Oreo.

5. Melt more chocolate wafers and dip the Oreo into the chocolate.

6. Place on a sheet of wax paper

7. Add sprinkles, sugar...or anything you want to decorate the Oreo with.

Happy Chinese New Year

Happy New Year.  Both my daughters class are celebrating Chinese new year today (Chinese new year is actually tomorrow, but M only has school on Tues.Thurs, and E's school has Olympic day tomorrow)

The girls wanted to do something special for their class.  So I got Josh to get some red envelops from work and pick up chocolate loonies to put inside.   When I dropped M off at school she was so excited to hand out these red envelops to her friend, and show off her Chinese dress. 

The girls are all dressed and ready for school.

Disney Frozen- my daughters new obession

 E is my little tom boy.  She is in love with the avengers or any superhero, so loves to dress up like them.  

2011

2012



2012

2013

She would never willingly wear a princess dress, or any dress (unless I make her)....well until the movie Frozen came into theatres.  

 

Now when she come home from school, she quickly changes out of her school clothes and into any blue dress.  She then finds a cap, some dress-up high heals and walks around the house singing "Let it go". 

 

She has also requested a "Frozen" birthday party.   

 

M has always been my girly girl.  So of course she would love the movie.  My mom bought her the princess Anna dress as a early birthday gift (super early, her birthday isn't until the end of march).  She wears it everyday.  The other day she wanted to wear it to preschool, and I said no, she cried until we got to school (maybe next time I'll let her wear it) 

Puppet theatre

During Christmas I bought a few Melissa and Doug puppets from shop.ca.  I actually stumbled upon them when my girl friend told us about this crazy deal.
1. Go to ebates.com.   http://www.ebates.ca/referrer?referrerid=xFomw3A4yPo%3D
2. Then select Shop.ca  http://www.shop.ca?plcktb=ZwdzXG4CYQ2
3. now shop. 

So when you follow these 3 steps you get money back from ebates, plus you get money ($25) from signing up to shop.ca.  So at that time they had a promotion that everything you buy from shop.ca you get 20% back.  The puppets were already on sale for around $12-15 each (at the stores here they retail for $35).  I ended up buying all the ones they had on sale. 

So now I have all these puppets I need a theatre.  I started looking around. WOW, they're expensive.  I started to plan on making one out of wood, but then decided not to because it was too much work.  So my next plan was to buy PVC pipes and construct one out of that.  Then one day as I was flipping through the walmart flyer, I saw this garment rack for $15.  It was perfect.   (BTW, you can shop at walmart.ca through ebates.ca and get up to 4% back on your purchases)  I ordered it online (oh course, just to get an extra dollar back). 

My sister told me that Ikea as is section has great curtain panels that are cheap.  So I went there and found the perfect piece for my project.  This piece was $16.  It was already sewn at the top, so I only made 2 cuts, one in the length to shorten it and one cut down the middle for the opening. 

Taro wrapped Duck

I bought some organic duck breast from a organic farmer, because J loves to eat BBQ duck.  I decided to try to make this dish I tried years ago in a Chinese restaurant.  It was fried taro stuffed with duck inside.  My in-laws were over watching the girls, so I thought it would be the perfect time to try it.  It turned out delicious.  We ate it all up, even the girls enjoyed it.   

INGREDIENTS :

1 Taro 2 duck breast 4 cup of chicken stock 2 cups of corn starch oil for deep frying  SEASONINGS: (1) 1/2 cup of cornstarch, 2 tablespoon of oil, 1 teaspoon salt (2) 1Tablespoon rice wine, 1/2 Tablespoon soy sauce

PREPARATION :

1. Peel, rinse, and slice taro; Pour 1 cup of stock and add sliced taro to a pot; Bring to the boil; Simmer over a low heat until soft; Remove, add seasoning (1) and mash (almost like a play doe consistency) 2. Apply seasoning (2) on the duck evenly; Marinate for 30 minutes. 3. Bake duck breast in oven for about 40 minutes 4. Sprinkle some corn starch over the sliced duck; Cover with smashed taro; Roll in corn starch evenly.  5. (a) place into deep fryer and deep fry until brown.        (b) if you don't have a deep fryer you can use a wok; 6.  Take out and let it cool.  Slice and serve

Made little taro balls with no duck inside because I had so much mashed taro left.