daily – Page 27 – trippingdifferently

May 20, 2013

Tobias is 9!

Oh my… this is cliché but time, indeed, has flown by!

My little boy is 9 today! As a good friend said, we are at the halfway mark; another 9 years and he would venture out into the world on his own. Or at least that’s what people tell me will happen… i don’t know if i will be ready by then, or ever ready for that moment at all. But that’s not what this post is about. This is about celebrations, celebrating 9 wonderful, funny, frustrating, amazing, confusing, loving, scary, heartwarming years of having him in our lives!

This year he asked for cake-pops as his birthday cake. So off i went to research and make these little lollipop-looking cakes which are oh-so-adorable but time-consuming to make. (Last year’s cake was cake-in-a-cone.)

Here’s the process and final results in picture summary:

The process goes from top right, round to bottom left, then onto bottom right & then up and into the middle with the shots of the assembled "cake". — The process goes from top right, round to bottom left, then across to bottom right & then up and into the middle with the shots of the assembled “cake”.

Basically i baked a cake (i cheated and made one with out-of-the-box mix), crumbled it, mixed in icing, rolled the mixture into equal sized-balls, refrigerate it, dipped into chocolate and decorated it. i followed this recipe and this recipe. It took time but it was quite fun to make. i will make them again if an occasion calls for them.

Then there was the birthday party with his friends. This year we had it at the Armoury Museum in Solothurn (Altes Zeughaus). i was a little anxious as to how the kids would react as not all are interested in suits of metal and swords. But it went well.

We had to move our party from the Wednesday to the Friday cos there was another party which half the kids Tobias invited (and Tobias himself) were also going to on that same Wednesday. It turns out the Friday before a long weekend isn’t a good idea either, we only had 6 out of 10 guests make it. It was ok. The smaller group worked out well.

The kids got to listen to some interesting stories and facts about armour and how they came about and what they were like at the beginning. They asked questions and voiced some of their own ideas about armour. Then they all took turns to try on an actual suit of armour. All of them complained of how heavy it was and could not imagine how knights could walk in those, let alone fight.

Right: Them listening to the lovely museum lady, Left: Examining the suit of armour (the only one they were allowed to touch). — Right: Them listening to the lovely museum lady, Left: Examining the suit of armour (*the only one they were allowed to touch*).

Of course, we saw lots of different types of armour and weapons.

These are just a couple of shots to show the amazing collection the museum has. — These couple of shots don’t do justice to the amazing collection the museum has.

Then the kids set about making their own cardboard armour. They worked really hard on it.

The kids were really serious about making their armour look the best!

They weren’t quite finished but it was time for cake and presents.

King Tobias and his Knights of the Square Table!

The wonderful museum lady read us a knight story (Tobias got to pick 1 of 3 stories) while we ate the cake the museum made (a simple chocolate sponge cake with a thick layer of chocolate cream on top).

Then they got to put finishing touches to their armour and here they are, knights battle-ready 😉

The knights were all excited to go out for battle!

All in all, it was a nice little party.

We also had our little celebration at home, just eating the cake-pops and taking our annual birthday shot:

i think that pose is going to become tradition and look at father and son going for that cake-pop! — i think that pose is definitely going to become tradition and look at father and son going for that cake-pop!

syc

May 19, 2013

Tropenhaus and Green Project 2013…

About a week ago, we went with some good friends to the Tropenhaus in Wolhusen.

What is the Tropenhaus? It is a tropical house; basically a big glasshouse where they can grow tropical plants in a temperate climate.

They had a special highlight on the chocolate/cocoa industry when we visited last week. It was an interesting look at the cocoa plant and smelling the beans (oooh so chocolatey!). The kids had fun running around, looking at the different plants which they would otherwise not be able to see growing here.

Both our families have always tried to help our children understand where their food comes from so they can better appreciate the food they get to eat. And both families also have some sort of green plants growing at home so the kids are already interested in plants. The kids did wonderfully on a little quiz board in the production house.

Right: a cute 'furry' plant which i could not identify, Left: Regular Chili Plant. — Right: a cute ‘furry’ plant which i could not identify, Left: Regular Chili Plant.

At the production house, you could also buy plants to grow at home. They had lots of different types of trees, bushes and baby plants. There were different herbs, lots of bananas, papayas and chillies. They have a special heat exchange program with the nearby hospital which was interesting but way too technical for me to understand. The production house also grows most of the fruits and veggies used by the in-house restaurant.

Right: Papayas!, Left: We found a lovely cat sleeping under a table in the production house, oblivious to all the visitors walking by.

We had wanted to eat our lunch there but i read on their website that it is best to make reservations. So i called. It was a good thing too, because they were full! Both for lunch and dinner! Apparently, it is very popular with the locals as well as visitors. We ended up eating at a nearby pizzeria which had a fabulous kids corner. We did get to eat our snack (chili-hot-chocolate and ice cream) at their restaurant. So be warned if you do make a visit there and want to eat there, make reservations!

So it was an enjoyable day with friends at a lovely location which can be visited, even on a gloomy, rainy day (which was what that day was like). We came home with a mini-chili plant which Tobias is very taken with.

We stayed there for only a couple of hours because our parking was up. We would have stayed longer if the cars were closer for us to top-up the parking meter. We had to park at the hospital and walk up to the Tropenhaus (not too far but still a walk). When you do go, remember to ask for the family ticket if you are going as a family. Also they have another Tropenhaus in Frutigen which we have been given a discount coupon for. That one it seems has a large aquaculture area. We might venture there at another time.

So that chili plant is our Green Project 2013.

Right: Our Mini-Chili Plant with its lovely white flowers, Left: Spring Onions and Weeds. — Right: Our Mini-Chili Plant with its lovely white flowers, Left: “Wild” Spring Onions and Weeds.

Confession – this year i have been very lazy about starting a green project with Tobias. i was even too lazy to clear out the “dead” spring onions from last year. Instead, nature took over and last year’s spring onions have sprung again, all on their own! So we have spring onions in one pot and weeds in the other. 😉

syc

You can read about green attemps 2010 and 2011.

May 12, 2013

To My Mother…

She is my mummy!
She cooks my favourite foods, my comfort foods and my nourishing foods.
She makes sure my room is clean, my clothes are washed and i am properly dressed.
She laughs with me, cries with me and makes it all better.
She shows me how good life is, how hard life is and that she will always be there for me.

She does all the above without a second thought for herself.
She gives till she has no more and yet she gives some more.

She makes her children her world BUT
To us, her children, she is our world!

My Mummy is my everything!
She is the BEST!

i love her with everything i’ve got and i know it is not enough.
i hope and wish i can and will always say and show her how much she means to me.

She is my mummy!

This year, my little guy gave me some really sweet gifts which he made in school.

He grew some cress and made clay hedgehogs to decorate the plate. He also crocheted a line, decorated with beads, to be used a hanging picture line. — He grew some cress and made clay hedgehogs to decorate the plate. He also crocheted a line, decorated with beads, to be used as a hanging picture line.

i hope i can follow my mother’s example and be a good mummy to my little guy (who’s really not so very little anymore).

syc