Easter Eve 4-3-2010

The family and I had a fun family day today. =) We started off by checking out the new toys in the playroom. They got a cool new ball pit and some big kids set up a slide leading down to it. Mikayla and Declan had a ball (you know I had to do it) sliding into the pit over and over.

I had to get a few things to finish up the Easter baskets so I dragged everyone to the mall after we played. We were surprised to see a wedding fair taking place in front of the mall. Mikayla was so excited to see the "princesses" walking the catwalk in their beautiful dresses.



We got to enjoy some yummy Starbucks while shopping.

Mikayla and Daddy got to check out the fresh seafood while we were there. The prawns in the pile they are looking at were still moving and flopping all over the place. Talk about fresh!

Our friends, Ken and Jen, invited us over to color eggs. We all had so much fun! Mikayla and Declan love to do all sorts of arts and crafts so they were so excited.







Declan had to taste the paint as usual before getting to work. Mikayla is a serious artist and was the last kid coloring eggs! She stayed put until almost all the eggs were done.

We stayed and had some yummy pizza for dinner before having to come home so we could set out our eggs for the Easter Bunny to come and hide.


Mikayla wanted to put them on her stool by the door so the bunny would have no trouble finding them. She can't wait to find all of his great hiding spots!


After the munchkins were finally asleep mommy worked on their Easter Hats. I had no luck finding any baskets so I improvised and bought each kid a new hat and filled them with goodies. Daddy also haggled with a few people at the mall and managed to get some great Stitch and Mickey stuffed animals to finish off the hats. Lilo and Stitch is the current favorite movie in our house so I know the kids will flip over the dolls when they see them!Even daddy is getting an Easter Bowl (forgot to get him a hat!!) full of yummy treats. Some friends of ours just got home from one of their US trips and were so sweet to bring us a few Easter treats. Now that we have Peeps and Cadbury eggs our baskets are complete!!

Tomorrow we are going to an Easter Brunch and an Easter Egg hunt. If we are lucky we might also make it home in time to do the Egg hunt here at The Shama. What lucky kids we have!!

A day filled with learning.

I had a nice full day today. =-) The temporary apartment I live in is in a great building. It is a service apartment so not only does that include my much loved housekeeping 6 days a week but it also includes the "4th floor". The 4th floor rocks! They have a hot buffet breakfast there every morning which is soo yummy, an awesome playroom for the kids, they loan out books and movies, have a swimming pool, pool table, and gym, and even host events there.

Today they were having the first International Cooking Class there. As you all know I am the world's worst cook so anytime someone is having a class I need to be there! Declan and I made our way down to the 4th floor and he spent half his time in the playroom and half his time scoping out the food that was being cooked. He is one smart cookie and knew that eventually someone would feed him so he didn't want to wander far from the kitchen! Three different women demonstrated different dishes.

Yuri showed us how to make California rolls. Instead of just putting in Avocado, Crab and Cucumber she added different things to different rolls. Some of the things she used as fillings were: Tuna, Scrambled egg, teriyaki chicken, crab, cucumber and a few other things I can't remember right now. She also showed us how to roll the rolls with both the seaweed inside and outside the rice. She made it look so easy that I think even I can attempt to do it! I hope to find the ingredients over the next week and then give it a try. =-) Since there is not really anywhere to buy teriyaki sauce here she also gave us the recipe to make our own. I really look forward to giving that a try!

Sumi had several Indian dishes she was going to show us. We watched her make Rice Pulao, Chicken Curry, Pakodas, and a Sauce/Dip for the Pakodas that I did not catch the name for. Everything she made was so delicious! The rice had so much flavor in it but was still plain enough to eat with the curry. I usually do not like many currys because they tend to be too spicy for me. This one was just right and was oh so tasty! Declan ate about three small plates of the rice and even seemed to like the curry. The pakodas were interesting. She made a runny dough and then deep fried it and served it with the sauce/dip that she made. The cook thing about the pakodas is that although she made hers with cabbage as one of her main ingredients you could substitute just about anything for the cabbage and it still comes out great. Instead you could use potato, shrimp, fish, cauliflower, and much more! The possibilities seemed pretty endless. Yummy!

Anabelle finished us off with Filipino Leche Flan. I have had flan here and there but never remember being overly impressed with it. My mind was changed about flan today! The flan she made was so tasty and rich that I fantasized about grabbing the dish, putting my face in it and eating the whole thing up. =P Dream big ya'll! I will definitely be adding this to my favorite dessert lists!

I think they are going to try and do the cooking class once a month. I look forward to seeing what they do next! I think my hatred for cooking is mostly because I feel so lost in the kitchen. Watching people cook these dishes with confidence and seeing how easy they make it look makes me really want to try it out! Who knows...maybe they will make a cook out of me yet!

With our tummies full Declan and I came home and took a nap. I had to rest up for my next learning adventure...I was scheduled to take my first Yoga class later. Shama has arranged to do Yoga classes on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. I have heard such fantastic things about yoga so was eager to give it a shot. Whoooo Weeee....let me tell you! I knew it would not be easy but I was not expecting to feel so out of shape either! I was lucky that this was the very 1st class so not many people were able to make it today. There were only three of us. Thankfully I did not have a huge audience for my yoga debut! I managed to follow along and try to put my body into the poses the teacher (Theresa) did. She made it look so easy and effortless and I would love if one day I could make it look the same. I made it through the whole class without embarrassing myself too bad (almost tipped over onto my face or butt a few times) so I was pretty happy about how it went. I will see how my body reacts tomorrow...as long as I can get out of bed and still move around I will be happy.

Oh yeah...only one other thing of note happened today...We found out that our move in date to Haifu has been postponed. Huge bummer but we are not too upset because it is only postponed a few days. Cross your fingers for us that we still get to move in sometime next week!!!!