Pretty girl....

Last week, during our usual afternoon routine, I was looking at Grace playing and rolling on the bed, when I suddenly realised what a pretty girl Grace is! It's not that I want to boast about it......sure she is pretty BUT very very mischievous and naughty too. Not to mention that she's also very demanding, for stuff that she wants and for attention too. I guess it's just the process of growing up, the terrible two's. Really hope that she will grow pass this stage soon.

Well, here's some of her very cheeky photo shots:At my Dad's church, after my Dad's Ordination

At The Golden Triangle Restaurant




Having fun at the playground

Posting for photo shot at home

My Favourite Great American Seafood

COME stand a chance to WIN a trip for two to New Orleans, United States. Prize package includes two Southwest Airline roundtrip tickets, hotel accommodations, dining experiences and many more. All you need to do is to VOTE for your favorite American Seafood Cook-Off recipe. This chance of a lifetime is in conjunction with the 5th Anniversary of The Great American Seafood Cook Off. The Great American Seafood Cook Off is presented by the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. It features top-chefs from around the nation cooking with domestic, sustainable seafood from their home state.

5 finalists had been named for the 2008 Great American Seafood Cook-Off and were given several challenges in completing their final dish in the competition. First, their recipe must contain either one of the two mystery ingredients, Southwest Airline peanuts and selected brews from Michelob Brewing Co. Next, keeping it healthy and simple. This means that their dish should include ingredients from all five food groups (grain, vegetable and fruit, milk, meat and bean, oils) and be a dish that even the most harried home chefs could prepare. Not forgetting that they should use domestic seafood. You would ask, why domestic seafood? It’s for their freshness, great taste and most importantly it’s local!

Now, the voting process is just as simple as 123. All you need to do is to (I’ve included print screen for even easier identification):

First, visit www.GreatAmericanSeafoodCookOff.com.

Secondly, click on the red box (see below) “Vote and Enter to Win a Trip to New Orleans: RECIPE CONTEST”.

Thirdly, browse through the top five recipes listed and then make a pick.

Fourthly, Click on the red box (see below) “Enter to Win”.

And finally, fill up the simple GASCO Recipe Contest form (see below) and click Submit.

It’s just a 5-step process to give you a chance in winning a trip to New Orleans.

As for me, I had just casted my vote for "Pan Roasted Glazed Rockfish with Peas and Carrots" by Chef Tafari Campbell from Maryland. By looking at this dish (though it is just a photo), it gives me a mouthwatering impression. Besides, it combines 2 types of seafood in a dish, rockfish and crab or shrimp. All these are my favorites and my daughter’s too. Delicious! A study through the recipe and I noted that the ingredients can be easily acquired and it looks simple to prepare, meeting the “healthy and simple” requirement of the competition. Although, I may want to alter a little of the recipe if I were to try out this recipe. May want to exclude or substitute the Shock Top beer with something else, because both my daughter (just 2 years old) and I (breastfeeding) could not take alcohol. What’s the substitute? Can’t think of it right now, will update further when I try out the recipe.

So, why wait and loose a chance? Take action NOW. Visit www.GreatAmericanSeafoodCookOff.com

My new found interest...

Recently I browsed through a friend's blog and saw that she's making scrapbooks to store up photos and journals on her toddler daughter. This friend of mine is a working mother! I was exclaiming, "Gosh.....she's working and taking care of her daughter and still have time to do all this!" It really brings me to re-look into my life and daily routine. Ever since I resigned from my previous position to be a full-time mother, I had not engage myself in anything of my interests except for my church children ministry. Almost all of my time were dedicated to my daughter. During her nap time, I will take my time relaxing in front of my laptop, playing games. Sigh, sigh, sigh...waste of time.

Well, I used to love crafts a lot. Though I'm not good in drawing, I'm interested in making crafts and gift wrapping. So, after giving it a real thought, I started to look into scrapbooking. Scrapbook is an album filled with pages of layouts of photo and journals. I thought that it will be a good idea to store selected masterpiece of Grace's photos in a scrapbook so as both of us could ponder on it at a later time. All this while I have been storing photos in digital form.

And so be it. I started to source for scrapbooking stuff online. I found 2 online stores and a store in Penang Island. Great! Orders are made, items delivered and there I was creating layouts after layouts when Grace is having her afternoon nap.

To date, I have created 1 album, 1 Maze Book and an Exploding Box which I learn from Glitter Adventure. The album and Maze Book are constructed on behalf of Grace. Maze Book is given the title "My Cousins" while the Album carries the title "Shanghai 2008". The Exploding Box is given a title of "My First Times" and is a gift to a friend, whom will be giving birth to her first child real soon.

I enjoy the scrapbooking sessions a lot and will be sure to make many more albums.

Here's some photos of my creation, Maze Book and Exploding Box.

The Exploding Box

The Maze Book

Long Live Bento Tools!

I really want to thank whomever that have invented the bento tools, particularly the cookies/vegetable cutter. Long live bento tool!

Grace used to hate bread. Grace's menu for breakfast for most of the days would be bread, milk (just a little) and yoghurt. Then she will take porridge for lunch while dinner she will have rice. As she hates bread, she will take only a little in the morning. I was worried that she has not had enough food.

Through tv advertisement and also from browsing friend's friend's blog, I learned about this bento tools where we as parents could use moulds to make interesting looking food for our kids. So I decided to give this a go. I search in ebay and some other sites to purchase some of this tool. It cost quite a bit but I think it was worth the price.

I bought a pair of Hello Kitty vegetable cutter (which can also be used on bread/ toast) and a few other shapes like star, tree, house, elephant and etc. I started using these tools 2 weeks ago. The result: Grace just love it. She will say “猫”(means cat) everytime she wants to eat bread.

Now every morning she will at least eat 4 two-layered hello kitty face. Which is approximately 1.5 slice of bread. I think that is a good start. She would even have the bread without jam or butter!

Imagination!

Grace, even at this age, is already very good in imagining things in most of her play. Recently, there were a few birthdays in our household and Grace has already picked up that, when there's a birthday cake or a present, there will be singing of Birthday Song and blowing candles. So, whenever she sees cakes, presents or even pictures of cakes and presents, she will clap her hand and demand that we sing the Birthday song.

Yesterday, I was playing blocks with her and was arranging the blocks on the barrel cover. Then all of a sudden Grace clapped her hands and asked me to sing the birthday song! Indeed our creation (right) looked somehow like a cake with candles. As soon as I finish the song, she will pretend that she's blowing the candles. There was once, she says “拿拿”(means take). I asked her what does she wants to take. She told me “花”(means flower). Oh my gosh.....she had somehow picked up from somewhere that the birthday person will get flower when he/she is celebrating birthday! How cute!

A little present for Grandma!

It was my mom's birthday on Monday. I bought some Clinique stuff for my mom as presents. As there are a few items, I thought of using a nice paper bag as the gift wrapper. So, I bought one pink paper bag from Gama (a supermarket in town) when we went there with hubby's grandmother and mother.

When I was making my selection, Grace was very eager to participate and wanted to carry on to the bag. I have to let her take it, while letting her know that it is for her "fofo" (Grace had started to pick up calling her grandma "婆婆" which sounds "popo" but she kind of missed the pronunciation a little).

We went back home and have the stuff nicely in the bag and Grace drew a birthday card for her "fofo" (off course with my help and instructions).

Our dinner with mom and the rest was at Golden Triangle Restaurant which is in Queensbay Mall. When we reached there and was getting down from the car, Grace again insisted on carrying on to the paper bag. So we let her and told her it is for "fofo". Grace walked happily with the paper bag and keep on reminded us that it's for "fofo'.

I've never been to the restaurant before, so was looking high and low for the restaurant. When we finally found it, mom and the rest also reached the restaurant. And there at the entrance of the restaurant, Grace did something that surprised everyone and warmed the heart of her "fofo". She walked straight up to her "fofo" and hand over the paper bag to her while calling "fofo". Ow.....it was so sweet.

Dancing and singing queen!!

I had this captured on last Wednesday, but was too busy with the preparation with Dad's ordination that I found no time to post about it. Finally, now I'm sitting in front of my computer doing this post.



No words or phrases could best describe this funny clip of Grace singing and dancing. Let the video clip says for itself. Enjoy!