Bento fun at Hina-matsuri Festival

Last weekend, EV and I attended a bento making workshop which part of the Hina-matsuri Festival at Liang Court.

Hina-matsuri (Japanese Dolls Festival) is celebrated every year on 3 March to celebrate and wish good health and happiness for daughters. Families celebrate by setting up Hina-ningyo (ornamental dolls) on a beautiful display called Hina-kazari. The dolls are dressed in costumes of the imperial court with the Emperor and Empress being at the topmost tier. This custom of displaying dolls originated during the Heian period (AD794 – 1185). According to traditional Japanese culture, it is believed that leaving the Hina-kazari displayed after 4 March might result in a late marriage for the daughter.

EV was very grumpy that day, and was in a 'I don't want to take photos' mood. But she worked with mummy on the bento, mixing, rolling and patting the rice to make into onigiri (rice balls) for the face and body of the emperor and empress.

Grumpy EV!

The instructor Shirley Wong (in blue) with her assistant.

Mixing in the decorative toppings.

One of her most enjoyable moment was cutting the sushi! She was all smiles, and of course, she couldn't resist from stealing bites.

Mummy, I cut, I cut!

Want some seaweed?

Here is our final bento.

By this time, EV was so famished, she wolfed down one of the onigiri and ham flower. This energized her to play with snow from Hokkaido, specially brought in by the Tampopo group. 

See, mummy... snow!!

The bento making session was great for us to spend some time together, but I think for EV, the highlight of the day was the snow. Lucky girl, seeing real snow at the young age of three. Mummy only saw real snow when she was in her 20s.

What I personally liked about the festival was the activity book that is given free at the Customer Service Counter at level 2. There are activities like connect the dots and word search, but the real fun is collecting the stamps of the onigiri family dressed in royal costumes. The stamps of each of the six characters are located at different parts of the mall. We did hunt them down, but EV preferred to put their stickers (included in the book) in the allocated space in the book. Oh well.. she's in a 'I love stickers' stage at the moment. 

Besides these, there was also a set of ornamental dolls called Hina-ningyo that represents the Emperor, Empress, attendants and musicians in court costumes from the Heian period (794 - 1185) on display.

Before we left, we had a quick look around at the fairs selling Japanese snacks and goodies. There are two - one at the main atrium near the lifts, and the second is on basement one, at the entrance to Meidi-ya. Lots of stuff there that aren't usually available in Singapore, including some Hello Kitty goodies.

The Hina-matsuri Festival continues this weekend. On 2 March, Saturday, there will be an attempt to set “the first and biggest Chirashi Zushi*” record in Singapore, with about 100 shoppers working together to prepare the dish. Chirashi Zushi is a traditional dish prepared during the Hina-matsuri festival to celebrate both good health and happiness. 

On 3 March, Sunday, there will be a Girl's Party to celebrate the actual day of Hina-matsuri. There will be samplings of traditional Hina-matsuri food and snacks. Go dressed in a yukata and join in the festivities!

* Disclosure: We were invited by Liang Court for the Hina-matsuri Festival. No monetary compensation was received for this event coverage, and all opinions are my own.

Wordless Wednesday: Month of celebrations

February is a special month for us. It's the month hubby and I got married. EV and AA were born in the same month too. And to add to the already joyous mood, Chinese New Year usually falls around the same period, so it is even more bustling for us.

And so.. here are a few photos, which are not only of our celebrations, but also leave me speechless. These are the very special people in my life, and no words can describe just how much I love them.

We started our adventure of a lifetime in 2009

EV's birthday

AA's birthday

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CNY Play Dough Play

Today is the last day of Chinese New Year, and we did something special to mark this special end to a special festive period. 

We made play dough pineapple tarts!

They are super easy to make. You just need some homemade orange-coloured and gingerbread play dough. Here's how I made mine, using a recipe that I've tried-and-tested numerous times to get the play dough to just the consistency that I like. 

Ingredients: 

Half cup flour

Quarter cup salt

1 tsp cream of tartar 

Half cup water

Half tbsp oil

For the orange dough, use 1 tsp of orange colouring

For the gingerbread dough, mix in either cinnamon powder, nutmeg powder or both.

To make the dough, I put the all the ingredients together in a pot and cooked it over medium heat, stirring it continuously until the dough thickened into a thick blob. Here's a picture of EV helping me during one of our previous play dough making sessions.

Then I put the dough on to a clean surface and kneaded it till smooth. For the orange dough, I put in the colouring into the pot before cooking, while for the gingerbread dough, I put cinnamon powder while I was smoothing the dough.

Now, to make the pineapple tarts, that was the fun and easy part that EV liked. 

The gingerbread dough was used for the tart base, while the orange dough was used for the pineapple.

And hey presto... yummy pineapple tarts to 'eat'!

EV was in quite a 'happy birthday' mood too, as we had celebrated a couple of birthdays this month. So she made a blue 'birthday cake', using straws as candles.

Great and creative play dough fun on a sunny afternoon.

Mummy's in school too!

I am rediscovering school. 15 years after I left school, I now call myself a student once again, for educator training.

Let me coin a new term for my new role - student mummy. And while I'm at it, let me add wife, daughter, daughter-in-law... phew! We women are a tough lot!

So now, I've taken the bold step to add 'student' to my already demanding roles. What are my thoughts? Wah! Siong! (Singapore's lingo for 'it's downright stressful and demanding). In the first week alone, I've had two presentations, a 300-word assignment and a 200-word online session to prepare, all due within the week! This explains my exhausted brains. I have at least two early days that start at 830am, which means I'm up at 530am, out by 630am as it takes me two hours to get to the wild wild west where the birds don't lay eggs. And then there are days when I'm not back till 8pm. 

Since school started about a month ago, I've been spending less time with EV and AA, as compared to past year when I had my maternity leave and took extra time off work. I miss them terribly every moment I'm in school. My heart melts each time I return home to see AA reaching out for me, or hear EV say 'mummy play with me.' 

I don't deny that being a student is hard. Being a mummy with two young kids is even harder. But what I have learnt from the past crazy month is not only do I have to treasure every single moment with dear EV and AA, but how crucial it is for me to have good time management so that I can maximise time with the family, and yet be able to juggle long school days as well as heaps and heaps of readings and assignments.

It is not easy being a student. And I hope that my kids will not have to face the huge amount of stress that I am facing now. I guess they won't, unless they become a student mummy, or daddy, like me.

In a way, I think the term 'student mummy' does fit even if I'm not in school. After all, I study the art of parenting every day. That makes me a student of the school of parenthood.

So what have you learnt today in your school of parenthood?

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