Sunday, March 31, 2013

I put the eat in Easter this weekend

My sweet tooth loved Easter weekend. It started out with a trip to my parents where all of our kids got their chocolate bunnies. My sister and I had to help them eat the bunnies, all that sugar would have been bad for their health.

The following day we celebrated my cousin's birthday with ice cream cake. I had a nice sized slice of cake. It would have been rude not to eat some.

The following morning my son had a birthday party to attend

He didn't eat his slice of cake and I am very much against wasting food so what do you know - I had to eat cake again.
That night, my husband's family came over for a post dinner visit. My daughter and I made some brownies for their visit.

Well I had to try a small piece, to make sure I didn't put too much sugar or vanilla because I make them from scratch. They were actually very tasty, so phew. Wouldn't want the in laws to think I suck at baking!
The next afternoon we were invited over to my husband's uncle's house to celebrate TWO birthdays. Two of his cousin's were celebrating this weekend. My sister in law was there and she made some amazing food - casserole and chicken roast. It would have been bad manners if I didn't try some after all the effort she put into making the meal.

After the meal there was the traditional family cake cutting ceremony.

In my husband's family each person has to hand feed the birthday celebrant a piece of cake.


There was so many of us that there was hardly any cake left after all that feeding. My kids got their share of cake, but when I was offer a piece of delicious chocolate mousse cake, I smiled, I tried to say yes but I had to say no. I wish I could tell you it was sheer willpower.......I just can't look at another piece of cake right now.



Thursday, March 28, 2013

Townhall

This is a picture of me, as nervous as can be, shaking from anticipation. What has me so anxious? Well I was about to present at our company town hall and the first thing my husband said when he saw me in the morning was that he thought my braids were juvenile = ). I had to keep the braids as I didn't have time to change my hairstyle as we rushed out the house.

This is me and my co presenter moments before we went up.

He has been a pleasure to work with and we did just fine! Thank god it's over...for now =)

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Recovery

I'm usually cooking like crazy on a Sunday , but not this Sunday! Today I spent the day ensconced in my favorite corner of the couch, surrounded by the ones that I love. We watched Disney movies until the sunset and it was time for my little monkeys to go to bed. This day of recuperation was made possible by my lovely parents who drove two hours to come and see me when they heard I was sick. They brought enough food to feed a small army hence the quietness in the kitchen was possible. My husband played a great role in my recovery too. He let me sleep for hours whilst he looked after everything. Now that's my definition of love.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

My little convalescent

I long for the warmth of the sun, the sounds of children's laughter and the smell of freshly cut grass. I am so sick of the snow.

I believe in the old wives tale that people get sick because of the cold. On Sunday my son had a fever and chills and when we took him into the walk in clinic the doctor suspected pneumonia. She sent him for an xray and when the results came back, she confirmed her suspicions. It's been a tough 24 hours with his fever spiking very high. My normally energetic boy was lethargic and tired.

In the last few hours though he's improved greatly. I don't know if it was daddy's tlc (my husband took the night shift with him last night), the antibiotic kicking in, mummy's constant monitoring, or maybe all of the above, but his fever is finally down and he's full of vim. He drew a little flying car that he has been running around with! He's going to stay home tomorrow too, but I feel like the worst is over! Thank god!

Monday, March 18, 2013

My monkey has a monkey

My little girl is in love with a little pink monkey my sister gave her in her goody bag at the twins last birthday. She thinks it's her baby.

She wraps it up in a blanket and takes good care of it.

For instance her baby often needs to be walked

On such walks her baby needs to meet friends

Here she is explaining to a friend that her baby monkey is sick and needs fresh air to feel better.

What a good little mommy monkey my little girl is turning out to be!

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Kids in the kitchen

I usually cook for the whole week on Sunday. It is a grueling four hours each week that I dread. This week though I had two very enthusiastic helpers with me.


This is what we made:
spicy beef curry

chili chicken with gravy

oven roasted chicken for mummy and daddy's lunch

Pepperoni Pizza for my son's school lunch

We were done in three hours. Time flies when you're having fun!

Fun with friends

My son had a playdate this morning. He had three of his friends from school over and two of their little siblings. We had a total of seven children running around! Although at times it was very noisy and there was lots of energetic little bodies jumping around, it never felt chaotic. There was hardly any conflict or crying so the moms got to sit around and chat. It was so relaxing to connect with these lovely women. Whilst we talked we munched on playdate snacks.

There were salmon (pink) and herb and garlic (white) flavored pita pinwheels.

There was a store bought quiche which was not as yummy as it looked

The hands down favourite were these simple fruit kebabs assembled by myself and my husband. My son who is a picky eater, had seven of them on his own!


Friday, March 15, 2013

Benguyanadian

Conversation overheard in the glue household

My son: Can you count?
My daughter: yes, one, two, tree, four
My son: it's not tree it's three
My daughter: yes tree
My son: Say three
My daughter: tree
My son: Your not saying it right, say three
My daughter: tree
My son: Never mind!

Poor thing can't say three! It's the Guyanese part of her Benguyanadian heritage. I'm Bengali, my husband's Guyanese and the kids were born in Canada = Benguyanadian It amazing how many Bengali and Guyanese traits they have!

Monday, March 11, 2013

Chili chicks strike again

We took a long hiatus from Chili Chicks. We were all busy over the holidays and then the first two months of this year flew by. Luckily we were able to schedule a session for this past Saturday. The lovely Fast Leraner hosted the party in her gorgeous will equipt kitchen.The theme of this meeting was kids' school lunches and we made mini chicken pot pies,

and cheese wontons

Did you know wontons take a lot of time to make? I didn't but Kitchen Queen, who used to make wontons with her mom when she was growing up, was very experienced.

She taught us how to fry the wontons quickly using chopsticks. She's so talented.

For the mini chicken pot pies we needed finely chopped carrots and cabbage. Chef Extraordinaire was a whiz at the cutting board, easily chopping up countless carrots and cabbages.

Superfly cook who is due any moment was a really good sport. Although she was ready to pop at any moment, she was chopping and prepping along with the rest of us.

I did my part at the stove, sauteing and browning the meat for the mini chicken pot pies

Besides looking pretty, Fast Learner worked on every aspect of the two meals we prepared. She impressed us with all the neat kitchen gadgets she owns.

























It was a long and arduous day, but at the end of it we went home with delicious school lunches for our kids!

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Valentine Birthdays

One of my cousins is born on Valentine's Day. When he was eleven his sister was delivered a few days early on his birthday. What a blissful coincidence. My aunt and uncle finally celebrated their birthdays last night.

The party started out tame enough.

When the cake came out the energy levels changed. Some kiddies waited patiently for the cake.

Others made bold attempts to swipe frosting.

When the sugar hit them, there were seven little monkeys jumping around.