A Fruitful weekend that has been long lost ......

Our weekend was usually filled with outings (merely means away from home even if it's only a trip to the shopping mall). Maybe both huby & I are not the type who enjoy staying at home. We also felt that we are obligated to spend sometime with the boys at either public playground or paid play centre or a reading session at the bookstore!! With that, it means i hardly have a peaceful time managing household affairs given that there are so many other things that eats up my time, BENTO.....BLOGGING......BAKING (not enough???)

This past weekend, i felt i'd achieved so much !!! So many tasks accomplished !!! First of all, the boys' mountain of TOYS at home had been seriously in an UGLY sight! Over the years & months, the toys only got to accumulate and had never been downsized !!! Just about anywhere i could find space to hide their toys, there they would be buried.....esp. in time when there will be guests visiting & we were running short of time to tidy up.

The worst victim of all was the TV cabinet. Other than the middle portion of the TV top was occupied to place the TV, the rest of the compartments were ALL FILLED UP with toys!

... THE MAIN TOY CABINET has already been over crowded ...


... THE LEFT SIDE OF TV ...

... THE LEFT CUBICLE ...

... THE RIGHT CUBICLE ...

... THE MIDDLE DRAWER ...

... EVEN ANY BASKET AROUND WAS NOT SPARED ...

I had long wanted to do a housekeeping of those toys that they have out grown !!
So i'd finally picked up the spirit to sort out those toys that are still in good condition & those that can be thrown. In the end, i had a big pack of toys that can be recycled. I will be donating them to the orphanage house!

Despite being busy on that day, i still cooked them a simple lunch as i was not in the mood to go out until my mission of settling down with the TOYS was completed !!

Site track a bit...I realised that even for meal time at home, these bento boxes are excellent use for the kids!! Not only that they increase the kids' appetite, they hold food better for kids since they have a deeper space, hence would eliminate the chance of the food spilling off as compared to using a plate instead !!
Furthermore, isn't it wise that i utilise them more since i'd invested so much in these boxes.....heh ??!!

Anyway, the job of sorting, arranging & storing of all the long jumbled up toys were really killing me. It nearly took my whole saturday off, with several breaks in between for cooking, lunch, baking snacks for tea, entertaining "the fights" at home & etc....until i was all sweaty & soaky!!

I can even baked a simple cherry muffins with mixed nuts (i was trying to finish of the left over cherries from the earlier baking session of the Black Forest Cake)

I finally gave it a FULL STOP at 4pm as i had completed nearly 80% of the job and wouldn't care less for the remaining.....!! I took a good shower & decided to rest & nap for awhile with the boys. But the boys just wouldn't cooperate. They continued to talk & talk on the bed & refuse to sleep. Suddenly Sean said he had a 'stomachache' of which i asked if it's a poo that he needs, but only to realise his stomach pain means 'hungry'...hahaha !! It was already close to 6pm. So, i thought i better start cooking dinner. As i was busy trying to speed up my cooking, suddenly it was all quiet out there.

And this was the sight i discovered !!!

Aduh....yeah such tired they were !!!

I retired my Saturday after watching the final 2 episodes of the Last One Standing series shown at Astro On Demand.

SUNDAY

Next Sunday morning, as expected i was forced to wake up early again. I didn't cooked them any breakfast but just snacking some left over muffins. Then i started changing the table runner, cushion covers, table & cabinet cloths.....basically all the "tidying-up-the-house" tasks....once again a long overdue one!! Then, i proceeded to pack my luggage for an upcoming trip next week...probably a post on this next !! By the time i was done, it was nearly 10am and thought i should be planning for brunch already. I was kind of tired & boring then so i thought it would be a win-win situation if i could send the boys of to a play centre (which has been much needed anyway) while i relief myself with a nail job & some retail therapy!! So off we went to Mid Valley & had our brunch at Oh Sushi. Then i got the boys registered at Megakids & left 'potato' minding them while i quickly headed to the salun, just a floor down. I dare not think about indulging into a full menicure spa or the like as i would never know when my mobile would ring just in case the boys need me to attend!! So it was just a quick "cut+shape+buffing" session which lasted less than 30mins. I was all prepared to forgo the nail job if the queue is long but thank god, i was immediately served once i walked in. After i had my nails polished nice & shine, i even had enough time to shop for a much needed pair of legging !!!
I had a quiet peaceful moment all by myself for nearly 1 hour & no interruption at all until i became worried. So i went back to check on them. And I had my query answered, the boys met their school mate and they had a good time playing together. The boys were even reluctant to leave. On our way to the car park, the boys were still not contended & wanted to eat ice-cream. SO they had a scoop each in the car. By the time we reached home, it was about 3pm & we all hadn't eaten anything after our sushi brunch!! So i made a quick snack for tea.

The boys called it :

... Mummy's McDonald meal ...
just because i had some french fries there, hehehe !!!


I just threw in the marinated chicken & the baby potatoes into the oven & bring them to cook while toasted few slices of bread with cheese in the toaster. Frying those little fries on the non-stick pan was rather quick & hassle-free too.


Place the chicken strips on the toast & squeeze some tomato sauce!
That's mumy's version of BURGER, hahaha......


Scot love it so much that he specifically requested the same 'burger' for Monday's Bento. Since i had balance of the chicken chop, i fulfilled his request. Will try to post that up soon.

To end this long 'rojak' post, i'll present you the master piece of this week !!

... Tadda ...

These were done on Friday night, this time with my youngest sister who place "an order" with me for cupcakes & konyaku jellies. She had a pot luck session with her colleague mates on Sat & offered herself to bring desserts!! She must have had a super real big guts for trusting her "setengah masak"/"half-boiled" skilled sister, hahaha !! And this super good sister gave away the orders absolute free of charge.....it was just to satisfy her baking & decorating bugs, hehe....

Anyway, to reduce the chances of failure, i asked her to buy 'pre-mix' flour & i only added blueberries & carrots into the cakes to create 2 flavours!! This time around, i found a tentative solution to my icing problem. I tried using the alternative to whipping cream i.e. meringue powder to made my icing topping and i have to say that this is so much easier to handle as compared to the whipping cream!! And those cute little carrots were bought candy, not made by me, ok!! Oooh, i just HEART the super white icing carrot cupcake (anyway looks nice doesn't necessarily guarantee good taste, ok)!!

Hope you had a good time enjoying our weekend's happenings !!

Have another great week ahead !!