Winter Weekends

I just bought some ingredients for a carrot cake recipe that I found online. I also got a wooden tea cup set, some balloons, candles, and a set of clothes for my daughter. She'll be two tomorrow. Forecast for tomorrow: Cloudy periods, odd light shower. Southerly breezes. I was really hoping that it would be sunny so we can go out for a picnic just like what we did last Sunday. But will see.

At Auckland Domain

A light shower doesn't seem to bother folks here. It took a while for us to get used to it. And whenever the sun's up, everyone seems to be outside, at the playground or at the park. We do the same anyway since it's good to finally let the kids go run around and burn their endless energy under the sun after being kept indoors for a while. We just dress them warm as it's still cold anyway.

Whenever we go to the park, we bring fruits, crackers, sandwiches and nibbles. It's not practical to bring rice and other saucy dishes as it will get cold easily, and they can be a bit messy. I guess the menu could be be different if there were just adults and no toddlers are involved. The kids forget about being hungry but if you ask them to sit for a picnic, they'd welcome the idea and probably realize that they're hungry too. I love weekends!

My Troubles with Playgrounds

Whenever we'd go out, I'm always in charge of looking after our older kid, who's a very active, easily distracted and a very playful toddler. He's almost quite the opposite from our daughter who pretty much just keeps to herself and stays put.

So we try to bring them to the playground as much as we can, and if the weather permits it.The thing with playgrounds is that it's a public place and kids are of varying ages. It's good exposure for them as they learn how to take turns, how not to push and stretch the possibilities of play with the handles, slides and bars and everything else that's in the playground. But it comes with a lot of risks as well so I do my best to keep a watchful eye and be at a safe distance.

Max saw a girl about a year older than him who went sliding head/ arms first. He followed suit soon after. Then he saw some bigger kids who were climbing the walls of the main play pen. I wasn't pleased and has advised strongly against it. Recently i did catch my son making attempts to do the same. During our first few visits in the playground, he ran straight through the swings where two kids were swinging very high. They saw him but couldn't do anything about it as they were flying up in the air. They apologized and i said it's alright as no harm was done. When he gets bored, he'd start chasing the birds that are flocking in the area. Then he'd run outside the half-full gate towards the exercise machines. He especially likes the cycling machine even if he was just half the size for it.

At the Rocket Park, the rocket itself is a big steel structure surrounded by a steel platform. He enjoys running around the platform even if it's wet and slippery. There can be a lot of kids near his age but sometimes, bigger kids would flock the place making it difficult for him to get a chance on the bars or on those swivels. Fortunately most of the parents who're there are quite tolerant with my son. But it can still be quite stressful to see him running aimlessly around or through small kids. Hay!

Going to the Beach

It's Sunday and hubby asked what I wanted to do. I told him I just want to go to the beach. After 2 weeks of rain, this weekend has been clear and sunny and everyone seems to be itching to go out in the sun. Plus, the kids were excited to wear their new gum boots. After breakfast, we headed to Coyle Park at Point Chevallier. Hubby discovered this Park that has a big playground with the beach just across. It was just a short bus ride barely 10 minutes and maybe another 10 minutes of walking. There was a group of teens in their wet suits and they seems to be in training as they've done a couple of runs/ dash across the beach and into the water and back. There were young families like us who just enjoyed the sun and sand. My kids literally enjoyed splashing in the water. We stayed there for about 3 hours, long enough to make memories as my son kept talking about how much fun he had that morning at the "river"!

I told my hubby the other day that our kids are so lucky since we moved here in Auckland. The place is like one big playground as all things and events are family friendly. On our way to the mall yesterday, as we walked along the creek, we stopped to watch some ducks swim across the water. It was such a treat for the kids to see these birds. My daughter would keep saying"quack quack". And whenever we'd come across a dog, she'd say "ruff ruff" as if calling the dog. And mind you, these are big dogs and I've seen one that even looks like a wolf! My son would say, "dun, let's go up the mountain" as some of the parks/ roads here are quite hilly. Just like the foot path from the beach.

I was pretty pleased with what we have achieved this morning despite not having a car yet.

Food for Thought

Swiss Soya and Linseed loaves from Freya are actually good. My son loves it and he eats it by itself. I actually never imagined ourselves having sandwhiches for a meal with ham/ sausages, scrambled egg, a cut of lettuce leaves from our small patch and tomato slices.

Hubby brought several packets of sinigang mix with him so we have the convenience of making sinigang whenever we feel like it. And by experimentation we discovered that salmon and shrimps with some tomatoes and spinach is a great twist. It tasted like something from Via Mare. Yum!

What we noticed about the meat here, whether it's beef or pork is that it's clean and not rubbery. Malambot ang karne nila and kapag pinakuluan mo, kakaunti yung secretion ng blood. So kapag nilaga, hindi kailangan umabot ng 1 hour para lang lumambot ang karne. Yun nga lang, bihira ang liempo. Mostly are lean meat. Di pa kami nakasubok ng lamb but that seems to be common. Pwede rin kaya iyun alernative ng beef or pork?

For snack, happy na ang kids sa crackers or fruit like yung matabang na saging (Dole) na parang hybrid na wala talagang lasa! I grew up na parating may saging sa bahay. May tanim din na mga saging sa probinsya namin. Paborito ko ang lakatan but meron din kaming latundan, senyorita at saba.

During summer, hubby brought home some ice cream delights on  a stick. Just like the popular Magnum, NZ got it's own designer flavors - Kapiti. One flavor that I tried has white chocolate coating with raspberry swirls in creamy vanilla. For me, lasang pang matanda iyun not the usual chocolate flavored ice cream. Sarap! We've also tried Whittaker Creamy Milk Chocolate. It has a tv commercial wherein it was being endorsed by Nigella kaya napabili tuloy kami. Masarap!

I think there are so many flavors and options that we have yet to discover. Right now, doon pa rin kami sa familiar na taste, Asian flair. But I'm sure later on, we'd get to know and appreciate more flavors that are common to here. Auckland's mix of migrants gives you that diversity on food and flavors.

Feels Like Home Again

@ Rocket Park, Mount Albert

@ the harbor downtown

Since the arrival of my husband and kids last January, things took a 360 degree turn as I'm now back to my old self again. I've got the kids to keep me busy and since they arrived, we've been into parks, fairs and then eventually, got my son into Kindie. Like what Alan said, it's all coming together. There were so many unknowns for us since last year but now things are all falling into place.