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Playdough has been a big hit at our house lately.  We've all been nursing various cold and flu viruses this week, and I've been looking for quiet games to play while other people in the house are napping. Playdough is one of the few things that will keep both girls relatively quiet and entertained for extended amounts of time.  I also recommend bringing the stuff on long plane rides - it's quiet, doesn't stain or tend to roll off tray tables too often.

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Someone's been chewing on the crayons again...

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DIY Decoupage Coffee Can

Odds and ends seem to collect on every surface of our home - coins, small toys, keys, broken crayons, receipts, paperclips...  I started collecting them in old coffee cans so they'd at least be out of the way until I could sort them.  To tell you the truth, I rarely get around to sorting them.  Since the old cans are going to be sitting around anyway, they might as well look nice.

DIY Potato Print Artwork

I really needed to fill some empty wall space, so I tried the Potato Print Artwork DIY by Oh Happy Day - click on the link for the entire tutorial.  As advertised, it was quick and easy and I was pretty happy with the results!  See how it turned out, after the jump.

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It was one of those mornings that could have been a disaster.  We were completely out of food on Friday - pantry empty, fridge empty, and nothing to scrape together for breakfast or to fill a school lunchbox.  Uh oh.  I hurried to get everyone dressed and ready, I expected my girls to become hungry-angry monsters along the way.  Luckily, there's a bakery nearby.  And luckily, they serve breakfast!  So off to Simply Bread we went as the sun was coming up.   We shared some toast and scrambled eggs, I bought a sandwich for Lily's lunch, I got my latte and the girls shared an apple juice.  Smiles all around.

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To the lovely lady who brought me into this world.  

Happy Birthday, Mom! 

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Okay, so Turf City isn't really the post-apocalyptic wasteland I made it out to be in my previous post.  The uncut grasses and weathered exterior even look somewhat cheery standing in the old winner's circle under sunny, blue skies.  The place is really growing on me, as I now spend most of my weekdays shuttling my kids to various playgrounds and after-school classes here.  I do weekly shopping at the Giant Hypermarket, and have favorite food stalls at the hawker centre.  Word on the street, is that the Singapore government has renewed the lease on the Turf City land for another six months.  After that, it's up for demolition and redevelopment.

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The girls found exercise equipment to use as their new playground.

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Playing around in the garden.  Can you spot the frog?  Every few weeks, we get a new plague of micro frogs that explode out of the koi ponds nearby.  Last week, one of them sneaked into our apartment and into the living room.

075/365 - Singapore Art Museum

We went to the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) with my mom on gloomy, wet Friday.  We were actually looking for any museum, which would be a nice quiet place to walk around while Ruby had her afternoon nap.  What a lovely surprise to find the children's exhibits to play with after she woke up!  The Art Garden is currently featuring interactive installations like life-sized dolls to dress up and an elephant sculpture that children are welcome to decorate with stickers.

  

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What a cheeky monkey.  Ruby doesn't actually care much for glasses.  I was actually fiddling around with my camera and her hovering wasn't getting my attention.  So she runs into the next room, chubby feet slapping the floor, and grabs the first forbidden object she sees - Dadu's glasses.

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Grandpa took us out to lunch at the Rail Mall along Upper Bukit Timah.  I saw an entrance on to the old railroad and had to take some pictures!  Ruby came along to kick around some rocks.

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Another steamy afternoon exploring the plant life at Jacob Ballas Children's Garden.

Homemade Black Bean Burgers

It's not easy to find a good veggie burger out there.  I find that too many of them (the pre-packaged tofu burgers, mostly) try to mimic the texture of real meat, which seems silly to me.  This recipe from Whole Foods Market was delicious, and we had fun building our own burgers at the dinner table.  However, the texture of the mashed bean patty was a little soft - a bit like a potato curry puff or a Japanese potato croquette.  I'm going to try adding brown rice or chopped mushrooms to the mix, and maybe leaving a few beans whole, next time to see if that helps.  Otherwise, delicious.  

Serves 6

These easy-to-assemble burgers can be shaped ahead of time and cooked off when you’re ready to eat.

Ingredients

1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added black beans, rinsed and drained
1 egg
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or granules
Salt and pepper to taste
Hot sauce to taste
1 to 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive or canola oil
6 whole wheat hamburger buns
6 green leaf lettuce leaves
2 tomatoes, sliced
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced

Method

Put beans in a large bowl and mash well with a fork. Add egg, yellow onion, bread crumbs, oregano, basil, garlic powder, salt, pepper and hot sauce. Mix well to combine then shape into 6 patties.


Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Arrange patties in a single layer (working in batches, if needed) and cook, flipping once, until golden brown on both sides and cooked through, about 10 minutes total. Transfer to buns, top with lettuce, tomatoes and red onions and serve.

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I think that the girls enjoy playgrounds much more lately - especially since Lily recently got over her irrational fear of going down slides.  She dared to walk up and down them (clearly a much riskier activity), but for some strange reason, she would balk at the suggestion that she should sit on her butt at the top of the slide and go down.  I have no idea how this fear developed - perhaps the brief lack of control one feels when sliding down was frightening to her - but it came to a point where she would sit and sulk if anyone suggested she try the slide.  Anyway (years and much parental confusion and concern later), I finally told her that we were not leaving until she held my hand and went down the double slide next to me five times.

One...  Rivers of tears.
Two...  Still tears.
Three...  Wet-faced silence.
Four...  Hey, this isn't so bad.
Five...  She lets go of my hand...wee!

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Steven and I went to Sentosa for our Saturday date night and came across this wall - I think it was just a crazily-lit wheelchair accessible ramp.  On a side note, we tried the Luge which is super fun!  Unfortunately it was too dark to take any photos of ourselves on the ski-lift, and photos were not permitted on the Luge.

The Green Corridor

On July 1st 2011, the Malayan Railway Land in Singapore became available to the Singapore government for development.  The old Tanjong Pagar Railway Station Passenger Terminal and the old Bukit Timah Railway Station are to be conserved as historical sites and hundreds of people have been seen walking the old rails, from Kranji to Tanjong Pagar, now that the trains have stopped running.  However, the government has not yet announced how they plan on developing this land.  


Nature Society Singapore (NSS) has submitted a proposal to keep the railway land as a Green Corridor after the train operations cease.  It has the potential to become a clean, green cycling and pedestrian path, connecting nature reserves and other green spaces.  Imagine being able to see a cross-section of Singapore - the wetlands, hills, cityscape, residential neighborhoods, rainforests, and small fruit and vegetable farms - all on the same route!  NSS also hopes to preserve the railroad as a historical landmark to remember the relationship between Malaysia and Singapore, as well as fading memories of old Singapore.  

Help me support The Green Corridor.  I would love to see this railway become a place for everyone to enjoy.  

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My girls have a propensity to pick up long sticks and carry them around.  Not sure where this fondness for sticks came from, but there are a few trees near our apartment that drop particularly long and straight ones that they like.  I've actually been meaning to pick up a few and make a mobile, or some other hanging decoration.

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Raspberries are delicious, and one of the luxury items that we usually splurge on at the supermarket here at S$6 or more for a small box.  They grew along the side of the road in our old neighborhood in New York, and people would stop their cars and fill small buckets with the sweet red fruits.  

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