Graduation day

Today's huilee's graduation from the Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver. We went to the graduation ceremony around 11:15am. We bought a bouquet of sunflowers for Huilee. Ava gave her the flowers (she was so proud). Colin and Ava was kinda making some noises so Simon took them outside while the graduation ceremony was going on.

After the ceremony, it was time to eat. I didn't take pictures of the food, but we ate quite a variety of foods. There were the rice salad, quiche, okra risotto, duck something, chicken crepes, and kebabs. Then the desserts which were cookies, chocolate cakes, rum balls, etc.

We ate and left. :)

Siblings Rivalry starts early

Ava and Colin sure knows how to push each other's buttons. Colin always likes to grab Ava's color pencils while Ava screams "NO" at him. He's quick too. He'll grab a bunch and after Ava took them back from him, he already started to grab the other ones. Sometimes I saw Ava pushes Colin when he tries to play with her toys, and you'd think an 8-month-old won't be able to defend himself, oh, how wrong is that!!! Colin screams back at Ava whenever she pushes him. He'll go "AAKKKKKHHH" like he's angry. If this doesn't work, he'll start his fake crying until someone goes over and holds him. Yeap, he's GOOD!!

But sometimes I saw Ava plays harmoniously with Colin. She will talk to him and laugh while Colin will listen as if he understands and laughs back. They look so cute when they play this way. I notice that Colin's mood is pretty in tune with Ava's. If Ava laughs, he laughs. If Ava cries, he cries.

Ava has this new toy I got from Discovery toys. It's called the fun tunes tractor, where you have a farmer with 3 animals that can "sit" on the tractor. Whenever they are put in the correct spots, the tractor will sing "Old Macdonald" song. So, Ava loves it, and Colin wants to play with it too. I gave him a new toy also called the Klackeroo which is more his age, but he didn't want to play with that at all. He's more interested in his sister's toy. He always tries to get one of the animals or the farmer and put in his mouth. When Ava saw that, she'll scream.. "NO.. mama, drools!!!" (in chinese, of course.. hahahahaha).

They are just the cutest devils.. hahahahahaha They both love "Hi5" and also "4 Squares". Every time these shows are on, they will be hypnotized and their eyes glued to the screen.

Oh, update on the duct-taped diaper. Ava had found the way to take off the duct tape. So, now, I had to duct tape her diaper even more, not only in the front, I had to tape around to the back so she can't open the back.

Grayhairs anyone???

Stayed up till 1am last night and finally got into 6 classes for both Ava and Colin. 2 swimming classes for both, then a music class and also a soccer class for Ava. Yoohoo..

The night went by smoothly without any incident. The duct tape was intact when I went to change Ava in the morning. hehehehe

After shower tonight, I was standing in front of the mirror and I realized that I am old now. I saw gray hairs (I don't know why they called it gray hairs b/c they looked white to me). I plucked around 8 of them just the ones that i managed to see using the corners of my eyes. So sad....

Duct Tape

So, today miss Ava was playing with her poops again. No matter how many times I explained to her about NOT playing with her poops, she just seemed to NOT listen to me..
So.. tonight, when we put her to bed, we duct-taped her diaper. So, this way, in the morning, she won't be able to take off her diaper. We'll see if it works.

I won't be able to sleep until midnight tonight because I'm registering Colin into swimming classes and the online registration opens at midnight. Time to burn my midnight oil... hm..

BBQ

Went to Costco this morning and got some beef. Simon was really "fired up" on this whole grilling thing. But I kept laughing at him because he has the ingredients (or food), he has the utensils, but he has NO GRILL.

Oh, I forgot to say, Simon got a speeding ticket yesterday when we were thinking of going to Costco after dinner. That cop basically killed our mood to go to Costco afterwards so we went home. Cop said Simon was going 80 on a 50 street. We tested it today, and it was NOT TRUE. At most, he was going 60, but no way he was going 80. Especially we passed that cop already and there's no way Simon would speed after seeing that cop, and there's no way that I didn't nag him if he sped up after seeing that cop.. So Simon will probably dispute that ticket.

Anyhoo, we got the kids to nap and Simon left again for his "BBQ GRILL" searching expedition. He already asked me to call Sharon and family and told them to come for BBQ. I told Sharon we didn't have the grill so don't expect too much. hahahahaha

While he was gone, I tried to take a nap and I kept hearing Ava's singing voices. Then when I almost fell asleep, Colin cried. So, I HAD to go and get him, and on my way to his room, I caught a whiff of shitty smell. :) yeap, she pooped and placed the poop on her pooh chair. She must have thought it looked decorative that way. I almost blew up, but I calmed down. She is afterall only 2 1/2 years old. So, I went and got Colin changed and then went to her room. She was sleeping on the floor with her naked butt sticking up. When I went in, she woke up. I told her AGAIN for the n-th time that it's not nice to play with poops. Poops are not for smearing on the door or walls. Poops are stinky, and princesses don't play with poops. etc etc etc...

Got both down and gave them milk. Simon then, came home with his new toy. A Centro BBQ GRILL. Tracey has a Centro and it has been good so far. Knowing Simon who doesn't read manual while assembling, I went and helped him. I basically assembled the whole thing. He only helped in holding things up and screwing... (not that kind..) hahahahahaha
Finally, the grill was up and ready to be fired up. My neighbour was there to help watch Ava and Colin while we're screwing (hahahahaha I'm loving this "word game").. hahahaha

So, Simon already marinated the beef before he went out, and then he chopped the watermelon, washed the strawberries, chopped the corns and got the sausages out. Sharon came with some drinks and a huge organic zuccini (Stephen's mom planted it). Chopped the zuccini and prepared the fish balls and pork balls, and FIRED UP the GRILL... YOOOHOO.. :)

All and all, it was a great day. Colin was crying quite a lot though because I put him to bed.
Ava was going crazy and was getting very high at the end. But the steak was sooooooo good. They were so juicy and tender and melted in your mouth. Yummy!!!

Now I'm updating my blog and knowing that Tracey's waiting for it.. it's so funny because I updated one blog and I received a comment right away. hahahahahaha
You crack me up Tracey!!!!

Jang Mo-Jip

Breakfast at Honolulu, then went to Canadian Tire to check out some BBQ Grills. Simon wanted to buy a BBQ Grill. I told him that as long as I'm not the one grilling and cleaning, he can buy it. :)

After nap time, we went and delivered my discovery toys order to Sue, after that we went to the Canadian Tire in Ironwood. Simon was really adamant about getting the grill that he bought the utensils BEFORE he even bought the grill. hahahaha
I bought a rechargeable sweeper that was on sale, hopefully that will take care of my "crumbs problem". Stopped by at Kin's farm to pick up some fruits. After that we headed to a Korean restaurant at Alexandra Rd called "Jang Mo-Jip". We met up with Sharon there because she wanted to eat Korean (she told Simon). We ordered beef, squid, seafood pancake and fried vermicelli noodle. It was good. I went to this restaurant once when they had just opened but they didn't have a lot of choices then. I'm glad we went again. Simon ordered a bottle of sake for us and it was very "warming". :)

"Change of Heart" Book club

I scared colin today while he was napping. I saw he was sleeping with his butt pointing up and he looked soooo cute so I wanted to take a picture. I sneaked into his room with my camera but when I wanted to snap him, b/c my camera makes this "beep beep" noise everytime I take pictures, it woke him up, so i didn't actually get the picture I wanted.. :p

Tonight was my book club and I was the hostess. I made Chocolate Budina (recipe courtesy of chef iron Cat Cora). It was so good (I asked Simon to try it first.. hehehe). Then, I also made a shrimp waldorf skewers and sweet potato fries in paper cones. I swiftered my living room and simon helped me vacuumed it. I forgot to take pictures of my hardwork though.. hahahaha

Tracey came at the same time with Kelly (new mom that I've never met), then Herjit came and after awhile, Susan came. We only had 5 people, but it was great. The book we're discussing was Jodi Picoult's Change of Heart. We chatted until 11pm. Simon later told me that the kids didn't sleep until 10:30pm ish.

Blueberry Pancake and Fat Colin

I made blueberry pancake this morning with recipe courtesy of Ellie Krieger. I find her recipes pretty easy to follow. I tried putting kiwi in my last pancake and my advice is: DON'T. hehehe It was sour and didn't taste very good, and the texture was mushy.

As you know that Colin has been having some weight issue since 6 months old. His doctor said that he's a little bit underweight. Anyway, I was trying to change his shirt today because he puked a little bit on it, and when I took off his shirt, voila, I saw a "beer" belly sticking out. :)
He definitely didn't look like he's underweight. I believe he's somewhere over 18 lbs now. I think it should be fine because he's a pretty active baby. He crawls A LOT and always tries to stand up and then jumps on spot. :)

Terra Nova Playground

Lunch was fried rice and oven baked purple potato fries (for me). Simon loves the fried rice. :P

I was busy running around getting my discovery toy orders in and also getting my first recruit done. It was pretty fun, I suddenly experienced the rush of "working" hahahaha.

Simon commented that we haven't taken the kids out to the playground for awhile, so he wanted to take them out. We went to our Terra Nova playground in style. Ava was riding in her tricycle and Colin's in his cool orange ride. yeay!! Of course, mom and dad were the ones "pushing" the rides. :)

We all played on the slides and the swings. Ava LOVES the swings, and so does Colin. You can hear it from his chuckles everytime I pushed the swings. Then on our way home, Colin was just lounging in his buggy. It was so funny. He started to lift one of his legs up and then just HANGIN'
What a dude!!! :)

Sweet Potato Fries and Shrimp Waldorf Salad

I made some fish congee yesterday and still had some leftovers for lunch. I went to Superstore with Ava in the morning, I bought 4 pairs of shoes for her. Yes, mommy spent a lot, but they were 70% off. I also bought a bunch of onesies for Colin (12-18 months). They were only $1.94 each. So cheap. I bought some BBQ Duck and Roast Pork home and Simon cooked some rice.

My fish congee was so good. We ate a lot of them yesterday. I put trout, a dried scallop, some mushrooms, and some tomatoes. It was GOOD!!.. :)

For dinner, I finally made sweet potato fries. I've been wanting to make it for quite awhile, and since I don't know which potatoes to use. I used 3 different kinds. I used a sweet potato, a yam and a purple potato. For the seasoning, I put in some grated romano cheese (since I have this cheese lying around), some salt and pepper, coat with olive oil, some garlic powder, and sprinkled on some dried parsley. After that, bake in 450F oven for 25 min. I cut the potatoes too skinny I think, should cut it bigger so it won't get burned.

Then, I made this Shrimp Waldorf Salad from the recipe I saw from this magazine (forgot the name). If anyone wants the recipe, let me know. Am lazy to type them down now.. hahahahha

Chinese Rhymes hahahahaha

I taught Ava to say this chinese rhyme. There's supposed to be 2 more sentences but she's having problem with them.. so I just asked her to say the first 2 sentences. :p

How cute is that????

Simon took this picture this morning. I just thought it was sooo cute!!! They were both watching Hi 5 and couldn't take their eyes off of the TV. hahahahaha

Colin's first swim

Sharon invited us to her club house for a swim at 9:30am. We're so excited because it's been awhile since we went into a pool. Sheila (and Jeremy and Patrick), Stacey (Jaxson and Dan) were there also. Ava was so excited and Colin was so terrified it was funny to watch (yeap, I was on the sidelines because of my first monthly visit after more than a year). I took pictures and watched how Colin started to warm up to the idea of being in the water with daddy and Ava. He was so funny, he liked certain position and was enjoying himself after awhile (no more screaming bloody murder!!). We (they) swam for awhile and afterwards I brought Colin up to change. And being a bad mommy that I am, I forgot to bring his clothes because I put on his swimming attire and forgot to bring him another set of clothes. Therefore, I had to "dress" him in Ava's pink shirt. Poor guy, he was definitely not happy (you can see it in his pictures). His expression was kinda saying "I'm a macho man, don't dress me in pink, you bad momma!!!". hahahaha but I can't help it.. I had to laugh while dressing him and had to take some evidence pictures. These pictures will be used against him when he was being naughty or when he introduces his girlfriend or to be wife to me.. muahahahahahaa (*evil laugh*). Sharon & Sheila called him "Colina" when they saw him. He'll always be my "Coleen"... MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA

After swimming, we went to Kingspark for lunch with Sharon & family and Stacey & family.
Nap time for the kids after lunch. They slept really well, maybe because of the swimming. Simon did the yard, trimmed the trees and a lot of other things. We also cleaned our family room (finally!!), and also vacuumed the stairs and upstairs. WOOHOO!!!!

Sharon's virgin toes

Took sharon to pedicure today. It was her first time. I forgot the name of the color I got, but i think it's hot pink with shimmer on top. Went to get some breads and buns, then some magazines from chapters before we went home.

Simon and I got video on demand and watched "Mad Money".

Lil Strawberry lover

Colin loves his strawberry. He can't have enough of them (1 only.. it took a long time for him to finish it). I cooked again for lunch today. Nothing fancy this time, just some pork balls and fish tofu and some kind of chinese melon. :)

Simon went to golf today from 1 to 9 pm. I was alone in the house with 2 kids. SCARY!!!! I'm too spoiled already that I don't like (don't want) to be alone with 2 kids..

Chocolate Pancake Breakfast, Fried Noodle Lunch and "Salmon" Tartare Dinner

Started off the morning by making some chocolate milk pancake. I basically just substituted the regular milk to chocolate milk. I made some bear-shaped pancakes for Ava. She bit the head off of one and didn't finish it. I thought it was pretty good. I ate 3. :p

For lunch, I stir-fried some noodle because I didn't get any chance to cook rice or do anything else. So I fried the noodle with egg, tomatoes, chinese squash, and then sprinkled with some nori and toasted sesame seeds. Yummy. Ava ate 2 bowls. yeay!!! I was so happy..

Went out for a walk while doing groceries. Got some pork bones for my soup. Then I went and got some salmon sashimi. I've been wanting to make this "tuna tartare", but since I don't like tuna, I got Salmon instead. So I bought some salmon sashimi at izumi-ya, then I also got some sushi rice and some brown rice, some green tea leaves and toasted green tea leaves. Went to Richmond Center afterwards, I guessed I just want to walk walk and walk. No reason why, I just want to keep going.

Got home and Colin was awake but Simon hasn't changed his diaper yet. Poor baby. And he also hasn't had his milk. Double poor Colin. I got everything for him, then started on making dinner.

I prepared some red potatoes and mushroom to bake in the oven. Then, started my salmon tartare.

Here's the ingredients:
Tokyo Tuna Tartare (I substituted tuna with salmon)
Ingredients:
- 3/4 lbs #1 grade Tuna, cleaned and diced finely ( i used about 4-5 thick salmon sashimi)
- 10 scallions, finely minced. (I used 3)
- 1 cup peeled, diced european cucumber ( I used the hot english cucumber, 1/2 diced, 1/2 sliced)
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 TBS soy sauce
- 3 TBS rice wine vinegar
- 1 TBS finely grated ginger
- 1 cloves very fresh garlic, minced
- 3 TBS ginger oil (mashed ginger and heat oil 3-5 min over medium heat)
- 1 package nori (seaweed)
- 1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds

Keeping salmon cool, tossed lightly with scallions, cucumber, a bit of sea salt and pepper. In another bowl, whisk the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, grated ginger and minced garlic, and also the ginger oil until well blended. Add to fish mixture and toss to blend.
I added the nori in and also the sesame seeds.

Put on top of sliced cucumber and voila.. delicious and healthy dinner (or appetizer)

Kerrisdale Play Palace

Herjit had organized a playdate at Kerrisdale Play Palace with a bunch of moms. We went early and got there at 9:30am. Angela and Mattias were there also, so we waited together. After awhile, Nancy and Cole came. We were the first to arrive. Ava was so excited and couldn't wait to go in. She had a blast there. Colin also crawled around a bit. He was fascinated by Stella. He kept looking at her because she's a fellow crawler. I caught them looking at each other a few times. So cute.. :)
It was so nice to see so many people there. Tracey was there with Owen and Jeff, Kathy and Stella, Elisa and Viola and Elina, Sharon and Annabelle, Herjit came with Ronan and Evan. We're there for awhile. I quite like the play palace. Fed Colin at the snack and eating area, then Christy arrived with Quinn and Jett, also Becky came with Griffin and Bella. I finally got the "Edible Vancouver" magazine from Becky. Can't wait to read it.

For lunch, we went with Elisa and Sharon to this place called BBT cafe. It's a taiwanese restaurant. The food was not that great. I think Richmond has better taiwanese restaurant. The place was packed though, I think probably there weren't many choices there.

Ava and Colin both slept on our way home, but when we moved them to their room. They were awake and didn't want to go back to sleep. I was so tired by then. I went and stayed at Colin's room hoping that he'll fall asleep if i kept him company. He didn't. When I went back out and checked on Ava. I saw that she had taken her diaper off and I could see traces of poops but couldn't find them.. When I searched and saw that she dumped her poops into her laundry bag and put her laundry bag on her bed.. I wanted to scream.........
Dumped the shit into where it belongs and flushed. Then, I changed her and washed her. Then, 3 of us went downstairs. After awhile, they started to get cranky because of the lack of sleep.
Put them in bed at 7pm. Finally they slept. So damn tired taking care of 2 kids.

Harvey's and Iri Iri Pan Pan

Simon and Huilee had been RAVING about Harvey's at the Home Depot, so we decided to go there for lunch today. It was pretty good. The burger was of course better than McD. However, I think the fries was ok. Not bad, but didn't really go beyond McD.

Went out alone for my grocery therapy. I needed to go out by myself to get my head cleared sometimes. Got a bunch of grocery at Empire Supermarket and went home.
I planned to cook from the recipe I read from "Japanese Women Don't Get Fat or Old". There's this recipe that the author's mom made called the Super Scrambled Eggs and Ground Beef a.k.a Iri Iri Pan Pan.

Here's the ingredients:
Super Scrambled Eggs
1 TBS canola oil or rice bran oil (I just used regular vegetables oil)
6 large eggs
2 TBS granulated sugar
Pinch of salt

Super Scrambled Ground Beef ( substituted by ground pork)
1 TBS canola oil or rice bran oil (again, used veg oil)
1 lb finely ground extra lean ground pork ( i used 2 lbs)
2 TBS sake ( i used 4 TBS)
1 TBS sugar ( i used 2 TBS)
1 TBS soy sauce ( i used 2 TBS)
Pinch of salt

Heat oil in saucepan. Add the eggs and sugar to saucepan, bring heat to medium, and scramble the eggs with wooden fork or whisk for 2 min. When eggs started to harden, add salt. Continue to scramble until the eggs are just cooked and in very small pieces. Add cilantro or parsley or green onions (whichever you like because I added this myself, it's not in the recipe). Remove eggs from pan and set aside.

I marinated the pork first with the sake, sugar and soy sauce. I thought the recipe was kind bland, so I added the following: I added lemon zests into the marinate.
Heat oil in saucepan. Add the marinated pork and kept stirring using a fork or spoon in constant motion so that it never clumps until cooked through. I added chopped parsley/cilantro and tomatoes for colors. Remove from pan and set aside.

I also cooked "Daikons and Carrots Soup". Served Iri Iri Pan Pan with rice and accompany with green tea.

Yesterday, Colin fell and smacked his face onto the hardwood floor. We can finally see the bruise today. I took some pictures and it's on his left cheek. Poor baby. It seemed like he always banged his head everywhere he went. He kinda banged his head to Ava's closet also today and then I caught him licking the floor tiles near the breakfast nook. Yuck!!!!!
I think Colin needs a HELMET!!!