Icing Room's DIY Cake

DIY Cake: An out-of-the-box idea.
Okay, let's get this cake out of the box, now!

Ashrie love making arts and crafts, so we decided to buy a DIY cake on her second birthday. It came in a hot pink colored box, all ready to be decorated and jazzed up with accompanying piping tubes in various colors. My brother who collected the cake from the store requested for a butterfly stencil (made from chocolate) to be placed on top. It’s available in small, medium and large sizes but we only bought the smallest. The cake, that is.

And it came not as a surprise for us that she will enjoy decorating it, placing the candles, blowing them, and eating the sweet frosting.

Here are the shots!

The butterfly stencil

Oh, a little more blue won't hurt.

Want some?

All done!

Yummy!

♫♪ Happy Birthday Ashrie! ♫♪

Radio Flyer Classic Red Tricycle

We got this Radio Flyer Classic Red Tricycle (with push handle) as a present for our daughter’s second birthday. It was delivered unassembled but well wrapped in its brightly colored box.  Assembled, it looks great!  More so when the push handle is not attached. Reviews from Amazon.com are mostly thumbs down. They say the front steering wheel and the handlebars need to be adjusted several times (I have to agree with that), and that the thing should be heavier to avoid tipping over.

Oh well, we just need to buy a nice helmet and she’s ready to zoom, of course with our supervision. Here is Ashrie enjoying her new trike!

Hop on!

Ashrie's Second Year

A look-back at Ashrie's second year via her "13th-24th months" collage!

Special thanks to our families and friends who always pray for her, appreciate her in photos, albums and blog posts. And most of all, we thank God for this lovely blessing and for the day-by-day grace He gives.

We’re looking forward to another year of busy (sometimes difficult) but rewarding parenting, and joy and happiness as a family, as we fully surrender our lives to Him who loves us dearly.

RIO Toys for Free!

You can grab a RIO toy with every purchase of McDonald's Happy Meal.

We already got Jewel (voice of Anne Hathaway) and Mauro the monkey. And while writing this, I got the idea of getting another one for our birthday girl later tonight. Hmmm, I hope Nico is on the rack.

Ciao!

Happy 2nd Birthday Ashrie!

It's Ashrie's second birthday today! We're so thrilled and excited to celebrate her day today and on her birthday bash this coming Saturday. Do watch out for more updates coming your way very soon.

In the meantime, let me wish Ashrie a very Happy Birthday! Mom and Dad love you so much!

JULIA’s Great GrandCHILD

Remember Julia Child? (I knew her from the movie Julie and Julia) And I got the idea of my blog post title from her. But in reality, this title is also literal and true.

You see, my paternal grandmother’s name was Julia too! And most of her working life was spent cooking and selling food in her small food stall.  I have a lot of fond memories about her, too many to mention in this post.

On a lighter note, here’s the great granddaughter whipping up a pancake batter. I wouldn’t mind if she will take Culinary Arts in College. And I wouldn’t be surprised either. After all, good cooking runs in the family.

Creamy Chicken with Vegetables

Jane did it yet again with her new food creation, creamy chicken with vegetables. There's no special occasion whatsoever but it turned out to be a very special dinner with the family. Thanks to you wifey!

DIY Crafts: Plastic Shakers

Here's a fun craft that you can do with your little one. It is very simple and as easy as 1-2-3.

You will need:
4 plastic/paper cups
tape
green beans (you can also use beads or buttons)
craft paints/brush

Here's how:

1. Place a spoonful of green beans
 into 2 of the plastic cups.

2. Cover it with the other pair
and secure with a tape.

3. Paint or decorate the shakers
with whatever you like.
(You can use colored paper
and stickers for variety.)

Ashrie’s very own plastic shakers!







Enjoy!



Ashrie @ KKH

Ashrie’s back from her medical checkup at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. And sad to say, she had to go through blood testing again. The first one was also in KKH when she had a three-day fever and the A&E staff suspected it was dengue fever (although we have told them that she’s active and most of the time up and about). She was finger- pricked that time, the nurse filled a small vial with her precious AB type blood only to be informed that it was fever due to a viral infection: a fever that usually subsides after a week.

This time, we had an appointment at the Paediatrics Department due to Ashrie’s constipation problem. The nurse (different from the first one) filled four small vial this time and did a different technique as you can see in the photo. We are still waiting for favourable results from the lab tests.

We’re praying that this checkup and her next appointment with the doctor will turn out perfectly fine.

YouTube Favorites

Just recently, Ashrie discovered YouTube.

It’s not actually a bad thing because she can learn a lot of things from educational clips, and be entertained by numerous animated videos. But we are making sure that we have screened the videos first before showing it to her. And of course, watch the same together with her.

Her favorite includes the following:

In the Night Garden
From left : Makka Pakka, Igglepiggle,The Three Tombliboos, and Upsy Daisy

Not shown here are the Pontipines and Wottingers, the teeny-weeny peg-doll families, the Haahoos which are the very large inflatable pillow-like creatures, the Tittifers are CGI-enhanced tropical birds with their own unique songs. And not to forget Ninky Nonk (train) and the Pinky Ponk (airship). What we love: Need I say more? The out-of-this-world names and the cute songs never fail to amuse.

Chuggington
Brewster, Wilson, and Koko are the trainees in Chuggington. With the help of experienced chuggers, (one is called Papa Pete) they learn the value of loyal friendship, honesty, listening carefully, persisting under adversity, completing tasks, resolving conflict without violence, and many similar important life values.What we love: Aside from the values to be learned, we love how the locomotives are very much animated unlike their "more serious" counterpart, Thomas and Friends (please don't get me wrong, Ashrie loves Thomas too and has 4 books on him) and we adore the characters' accent as well! Traintastic!

Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck
The BFF (stands for best friends forever) need no further introduction.What we love: It's funny how these girls experience rivalry, they have arguments and misunderstandings, and they fight as well! But in the end they will always be BFF.

Pocoyo (even most of the clips are in Spanish)

An inquisitive young boy clad in blue, together with the rest of the gang: Elly the ballet-dancing pink elephant, always carrying a blue backpack; Pato the yellow duck with the green hat, he can rotate his beak 360 degrees, and Loula the dog with purple patches.What we love: The 3D animation, no backdrops, but all are simply set in white.

Tom and Jerry (Brace yourselves for a lot of PG!) Despite being very energetic and determined, Tom is no match for Jerry's brains and wits. So what lesson can we learn from this popular cat-chase-mouse plot? Ah, violence, lots of it. And "little creature" empowerment! Oh well.

Silly Symphony

These are very old animated series dating back to the 1920s but I simply could not remember watching any of the 75 episodes of Silly Symphony. We love the musicale-like theme of these cartoons, the vintage appeal, and the moral lessons from the stories. I can't wait to share one of our well-loved stories, The Wise Little Hen. Here it is.

By the way, that was Donald Duck's first appearance ever! Hope you enjoyed it as much as we do.

Ashrie Ballerina

Forgive me for generalizing but I think it’s every woman’s childhood frustration – to be a ballerina. I don’t know what’s with ballet; it might be the graceful, flowing movements, the fancy costume, or the classical music that capture their attention. Perhaps it’s their fond memories of that lady statuette dancing in an open music box.  Whatever the reasons might be, to be a ballerina will always be a girl’s dream. And I guess the same is true with our little girl…