HO! HO! HO!
Here’s some cute Christmas Origami crafts that I hope to make with the kids this weekend! 
1. Santa origami from a Japanese nursery teacher (Link)
2. Simpler Santa from Marcel’s Kids craft (Link
3. 8-pointed star from Origami Instructions(Link)
4. Christmas tree from Origami Make (Link)
5. Christmas stocking from Connecting It (Link)
6. Christmas hat from Art Platter (Link)
When laziness strikes, this is kind of bento I would pack for the man…
Egg and Ham sandwich with fruits.
Because the man doesn’t like his sandwich to turn too soggy at lunch, I always pack his bread separately in another box. He will assemble his own sandwich when he is ready to eat them. 
Since this morning the kids were really cooperative by finishing their breakfast early, they get to draw something on the hard boiled eggs for their daddy. The boy drew a smiley face and a heart and the girl drew a flower. Hopefully the man felt our love for him when he had his bento lunch today.
As for the girl’s bento… Since Friday is “get Pizza lunch from school” day for the girl, I just packed a simple snack box for her.
Content: Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries and a fortune cookie (to give her some luck with her friend who has been very difficult with her lately … Sigh.) and an origami heart lunch box note.
To cheer her up, this is the note I wrote for her to read at snack time…
I’m pretty sure this note will help lighten up her mood when she gets to read it later! 
The kids did many drawing lately and one of their favorite characters that they love to draw is Nezha. Yes, my kids love watching Chinese cartoons! In fact, I encourage them to watch Chinese shows because it is an excellent way to learn and improve their Chinese. 
Here’s the picture of Nezha and other characters that the Girl drew. I think she did an excellent job in drawing them! (See the original drama cover here.)
Here’s the Boy’s drawing…
Very cute right?
I love handmade things.
I always feel that when the craft people create their crafts with their own hands, they also put a part of their soul in it. That’s why handmade crafts usually have such special and unique personal touch that mass produced items can never have.
If you are looking for something unique for your precious little one this special season, look no further! Check out Amish Toy Box!
They have a great selection of beautifully handcrafted children’s furniture, Amish Crafted Wooden Doll Furniture and Toys , all made by Amish Folks in Dutch Country Pennsylvania and Ohio . These “Amish Quality” toys are made to be played with and come with many creative features that children will have so much fun playing with them. Now, hop over to the site and have fun shopping!
This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of LG DoublePlay™. All opinions are 100% mine.
I’m a very busy chauffeur mom. I spend a lot of time driving my kids around to their schools and activities. It will be a complete waste of my time if I can’t access to my emails, read news or even catch up with friends on Facebook while waiting for the kids to be done with their activity. Since lugging a laptop is not a good option (too heavy and have to find a place that offers free WIFI), smartphone is the way to go! Right now, there is a new smartphone on the block that I think you should really take a look!
LG DoublePlay™, which is exclusively available at T-Mobile, is a smartphone that has two customizable touch screens! Yes, TWO! One 3.5″ main display and a 2″ sub display that operate independently or in tandem. It also comes with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that will have you texting and tweeting, uploading and downloading, surfing and streaming, all at 4G speed! LG DoublePlay™ also allows users to perform multiple tasks at once such as updating the Facebook pages while simultaneously surfing the Web, texting or checking email. I have to admit, I spend a LOT of time surfing Web, checking email, playing online “Words with Friends” game and trolling at Facebook (don’t judge me!). So, this sounds really good phone to me!
Another cool thing that I like about the LG DoublePlay is its 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p HD video recorder. I love taking photos and videos of my children and most of the pictures I took with my current phone really sucks. If I have this phone, I will no longer need to carry another camera in my bag since all I need is just my phone!! So good, right? So, Please Santa… May I have this phone for Christmas? I promise to be good for the whole year! *smile sweetly*
So, do you text and use social networks a lot like me? Would the LG DoublePlay be a good phone for you? Let me know!
Here are two thanksgiving themed lunch and snack boxes that I made for the girl.
#28: Gobble, gobble, gobble!
I made this strawberry & ham sandwich turkey with slices of kiwi fruits snack for the girl last Friday. The sandwich design comes from “Cute Food for Kids“. This is really easy to create, using very few tools and ingredients.
#29: Count our blessings.
The turkeys are made of quail eggs and pieces of carrot and celery strips. They were all last min creation that I made this morning. I wish i had planned a head and had enough time to trim the carrot and celery to correct proportion, these turkeys look like they are malnourished with those fans! LOL.
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For the past few months, we have been talking to the kids about counting our blessings. We hope the kids (and ourselves too!) learn to be more grateful and appreciative of the people and things around us, learn to embrace a less-is-more philosophy and continue to develop empathy and gain a better appreciation of other people’s needs. This is year I especially want to focus on what is special about our lives that we often take for granted and try to count my blessings at a more regular basis.
I’m ending this post with a few quotes that I like…
“Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best.” ~ Bob Talbert
“Life holds so many simple blessings, each day bringing its own individual wonder.” ~ John McLeod
“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around. ” ~ Willie Nelson
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Angry Birds, the popular mobile game, has taken the world by storm. I must be “IN” too to make Angry Birds themed bentos, just like the other bento moms did. LOL.
Content: Babybel Cheese Angry Bird, strawberries and grapes.
The angry bird in this snack box is made using Babybel Cheese. I saw the design from Cute Food For Kids. What I like about this design is that it uses very few ingredients and takes less than 5mins to create the bird. The babybel cheese is very easy to work with and with just some imagination, u can transform the babybel cheese into anything! But too bad, the girl isn’t very fond of the taste of this cheese, so I don’t think I will be getting any more. 
Content :
Top : Cream cheese sandwich in White Angry bird design, grapes and blueberries
Bottom : Cream cheese sandwich, half hard boiled egg, grapes
For the white Angry bird, I created it using American White Cheese, nori and dried mango strips.
The bentos that I made for the girl for the past two weeks were all Halloween or Autumn themed. I remember taking photo of all of them but I could only find these two in the folder.
Anyway…
Here’s the lunch and snack box that I made for the girl yesterday.
Both lunch and snack boxes are identical. We have simple egg omelette sandwich, orange slices and apples. I’m happy with how the carved apples turned out. The carving was done with just a carving knife without any templates. Ya, I’m quite proud of myself! LOL
These supposed to be “Mummies” bento. Some friends of the girl said they looked like “ninja”!! LOL
Content of the lunch and snack box:
Cheese and strawberry jam sandwich, orange slices, grapes.
For moms who are into packing lunchnotes for your kids like me, here are some links to Halloween jokes that you can use!
Squigly’s Jokes & Riddles for Kids (LINK)
Halloween Jokes from Kaboose (LINK)
I didn’t want to waste the 3 overly ripen bananas, so I used them to bake some banana oatmeal crumble muffins last Friday.
The recipe that I’m using is originally from Allrecipe.com and I baked mine into muffins instead of a cake. I also made some slight modifications to the recipe since I don’t like my baked goods to taste too sweet and I like to have more wholesome stuff in them.
What I like about this recipe is that it is very easy to follow, the muffins are very flavorful and moist with a nice crunchy topping. If you are having it the next day and like the topping to be crunchy like me, all you need is to pop the muffin into the toast box for a few mins.
Ingredients
Cake:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup packed brown sugar (*original: 2/3C)
2 eggs
3 mashed bananas (*original: 1C)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups rolled oats
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking sodaToppings:
1 cup rolled oats (*original: 3/4C)
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
4 tablespoons chopped walnuts (*original: 2T)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
1. Stir together flour, 1 1/3 cups oats, salt, and baking soda.
2. In a large bowl, cream 1/2 cup butter with 1/3 cup brown sugar. Beat in the eggs, then the bananas and vanilla. Beat the flour mixture into the banana mixture. Turn the batter into baking cups.
3. Mix 1 cup oats, 1/3 cup brown sugar, melted butter, walnuts, and cinnamon together until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over the top of the batter.
4. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes, or until it tests done. Transfer to a rack to cool.
by Ange (Earthember)
