her first suitor

Snow is 11 now. This afternoon, a boy stopped by with some nutty bars. As I took this picture, I told them they kinda look alike. One of them replied, "Yeah, except we are not brother and sister, we are boyfriend and girlfriend."

Snowcones, merengue and waltz :) What ever happened to playdates spending countless hours setting up playmobil and legos???

They laid in the hammock out in the backyard. Maku was nosy enough to follow them around. Marc and I were nosy enough to spy from the back window while chewing on yummy nutty bars.

here is Snow...all smiles hours after the boy left

And here I am...bemused.

I took a snapshot hoping to capture the strangest mix of emotions I was experiencing. This is what I got. Me. Feeling (and looking) 11 years older. *sigh*

she wants her soup

There hasn't been much going on around here lately; but I said I'll be here more, so here goes...



This is pretty much what we do around here. Eat. :)
And this is pretty much the whole house. To the left is the rest of the kitchen. The door on the left leads to the laundryroom which leads to the backyard. Right across the stove is our bathroom. I took the pictures sitting on our couch. Behind it are two rooms, one is our bedroom and the other our everything room. Our front door is somewhere to the right.
There is no space unused. No dim hallways. No dark corners. Just windows. Lots and lots of windows. :D

frogs and blogs

...and what have the girls been up to?

Snow's hair is now very short - and she loves it! After three years of contemplating she finally did it!

She was a tree frog in her school's Earth Day show.

Jin is once again updating her blog with all the neat things she's been making. She talks about laundry and her dollhouse (she even made a tiny roll of toilet paper!)

Snow is now the proud owner of my old digital camera and is asking to have her own blog. Hmm... I don't know.

snow's birthday

canoeing at 10
lose flip flops at 11
find surprise picnic
unwrap presents - the little cash bag with the spriggy thingy (bottom right) was a favorite
get attacked by bugs
run home
celebrate some more

bits of joy

one of the only two recipients of the Einstein award

having a container handy to house an inchworm

green socks for St. Patrick's Day

fairy tale feasts

A surprise package from my friend in California arrived a few weeks ago. Amongst the many cute things in the box was a cookbook for Snow: Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary Cookbook for Young Readers and Eaters. It's a collection of fairy tales, with coordinating kid-friendly recipes. Snow was never into reading or cooking but this book somehow caught her attention. Ripping out a sheet of my monkey stationery (monkey paper cuteness also from our surprise package) she started compiling her grocery list. A trip to the market later, and my baby was making dinner.

Seaweed Stuffed Shells from the Little Mermaid

Mix all ingredients with an orange spatula and a spoon, then mash and squeeze the mixture with your hands until you hear it squishing through your fingers.

Stuff shells until the excitement wears off, then ask mom to finish the job.

Put in oven and play with your toys while mommy cleans up the mess in the kitchen.

The next day Snow made deviled eggs (minus the mayo) with cousin Jin. We don't have paprika so they sprinkled nanami togarashi (Japanese mixed chili pepper with black sesame seeds, ginger and seaweed) all over the top. Snow tried to eat some but the smell of the yolks made her gag.Deviled Eggs from Little Red Riding Hood's picnic basket (I thought she packed some tea biscuits, scones, berries and pie).

Tomorrow we are having Stone Soup for dinner.

Maybe next time, Totoro

Snow just finished writing a story, "The Banana Peel People". She asked me to sew a doll to go along with her book. She is a big fan of Hayao Miyazaki. Her plan was to send him a copy of her book along with this doll, May.

She quickly became attached to May. She'll be staying with us in the mean time.