Spring Flower Parcel

TGIF! One more day to go before I get to recharge my almost empty "battery". I'm settling for store-bought "Fast Food" today, to save a little energy to last me through Friday.

What a mistake! Even though I left the oven-baked fish fillets to cool for quite some time before packing, they were very soggy when I tried them at the end of the day! Yes, there was some leftover in Darling son KW's lunchbox. Darling son YW, however, finished every single fish fillet that was in his box. So I am really not sure if the fillets are that soggy at 11am and 11.30am, the times at which the boys have their lunch respectively. I even put the rice parcel in a cupcake liner, just so the steam and heat from the rice will not soften the fillets.

Sorry boys! Next week's lunches will be better, after Mom gets her "batteries" recharged this weekend!

Butterfly

When I think of flowers, I think of bees and butterflies. And since I have yet to recover from my insanely exhaustion, the cute little butterfly cutter sitting in my box of cutters is "THE ONE" for the job!

Just a simple meal ... florets of blanched broccoli, rice and pan-fried miso marinated chicken thigh fillets. Is the weekend approaching yet?

Spring - Tulips

The boys' favorite ... Hanbagu. It is easy to prepare, and the boys always bring home an empty lunch box whenever these little meat patties are packed for lunch. And it makes me happy to see an empty lunchbox. Therefore, it doesn't really matter if it looks like one of their bento from last week =) To be frank, I am so insanely exhausted, I have no energy to do my "lunch homework" last night.

Spring has arrived and the weather has warmed up. It is nice to be in just jeans, tshirt and running shoes, without the burden of a winter coat.

The flowering trees have started to bloom, with pretty red, pink, white and yellow flowers all around the neighborhood. And leaves have started to sprout from the branches of the big oak tree in front of our house, and they look very much like pretty little reddish brown flowers!

Weeds have sprung at every possible corner of the yard. We think that the yellow dandelion flowers are very pretty when they are everywhere, covering the lawn and the yard. And we get tens of dandelions ballooning after a couple of days. My little boy will pull out a dandelion, and say to me, "Make a wish!". But however pretty these dandelion flowers are, they are weeds, and so the mowers come every Wednesday to remove them. Hence, we were very surprised when we saw these plants growing amongst the dandelions. They look like tomato plants to me. The previous owner must have sowed the seeds last spring! I will have to wait another month or so in order to find out what these plants actually are.

Spring is short, and the flowers start to fall from the trees a week or two after they bloom. Sadly. Since the weather has been good, I'm going to enjoy the walk to school, and admire the flowers while they are still on the trees =)

Vroom, Vroom!

Monday blues! This syndrome does not affect working moms. It affects stay-home-moms too! The best way to beat the blues? Use the oven to do the cooking, especially when cooking in the early hours of the morning!

In the bento, we have blanched florets of broccoli, oven-baked chicken thigh fillets, marinated in soy sauce and a little honey, and oven-baked baby corn. Add the baby corn towards the end of baking the chicken thigh fillets, and you get a meal that requires minimum washing up =)

I just love these little cutters! Comes in handy on days when I have no time to prepare my "lunch homework". Just cut and arrange! Love it!

Weekend Activity - Making Bookmarks

Darling son YW has been bringing home chapter books to read as homework. He is in Grade 1, the equivalent of Primary 1 in Singapore. He is currently reading the book on Stuart Little. He brings the book for two days, and will be asked to finish three chapters or so during these two days. Sometimes, in between chapters, he will be given a sheet that says "Draw and retell the story from Chapters 1 - 3". It is very much like summarizing the chapters, with your own illustrations. Sometimes, he will have to do a story flag, or complete some comprehension questions after finishing the book.

Very often, he will come to me and say "I don't remember where I stop reading" when I ask him to do his reading homework. Since their swimming and chinese lessons have ended, they now have more free time to do their own things. I asked him if he would like a bookmark, since he kept forgetting where he stopped for his reading. He readily agreed, and I asked him to help me with it. Under my supervision, he was allowed to punch out the various parts of the owl, and put them together. He was happy putting together the bookmark, and used it for his reading homework thereafter. No protest about having to read. Phew!

And I made a bookmark for myself too, from the scraps I have =)

I love the glitter on the blue dots, and I love the bling on the circle!

The above owl card was made when I first received my owl punch from Stampin' Up. Darling son YW liked it so much, I gave it to him and called it an "Owl Badge". Now the little owl bookmark and his owl badge sits side by side on his table, awaiting their next assignment =)

Happy Mother's Day!

TGIF! Some flowers in the boys' bento to remind them that it's Mother's Day this Sunday =) With boys and men, you need to tell them directly what you want, and what day it is, or they will not know. Hints are useless =p

In the bento, there's chicken karaage, florets of broccoli and rice topped with many cheese flowers. As I had expected, Darling son KW was not too keen to eat the karaage. He used to ask for more when he returned home. But with the braces on, he had difficulty chewing, and he ate three-quarters of what I gave him. Darling son YW, on the other hand, brought home an empty lunch box. Growth spurt for sure, as he had been eating more than usual these couple of days.

It's going to be an exciting weekend, with Singaporeans going to the polls! I will be in front of my laptop, following the election news back home ... Facebook, Twitter, news websites, etc!

Happy Mother's Day to all moms and moms-to-be!

Domo-Kun

Domo-kun has a pretty flower in his hand, and he wishes all mothers ..... Happy Mother's Day!

This guy is fairly easy to prepare. I mixed some low-sodium soy sauce with the warm rice, and shaped the body and hands using a piece of cling wrap. By the time I assembled the lunch box, the rice has already cooled! The red part of the mouth was done using the red part of a crab stick, and the teeth from a slice of cheese.

Although it's day 4 of school, I was still a little unprepared. The assembling of the lunchbox took a while. I had absolutely no idea how I wanted to place Domokun, the vegetables and the meat. It seemed strange to have the hands lying flat on the box. I finally managed to pack everything in. Packing the second box was a breeze then.

I think I had better sit down and think about what and how to pack tomorrow's lunch, before the boys return from school. I don't want them to be late for school tomorrow.