Summer - 6th Year Edition

For school-aged kids, summer is probably like Christmas in April. There are no gifts, but this is where you get to be free of tight schedules and early wake up calls.

My little girl just had the taste of that "summer" this year. Being a gradeschooler, she had to contend with 7pm bedtimes and 430am wake up calls for 10 months. So when she learned there is such a thing called summer vacation, oh boy did she looked forward to it big time.

In the past 5 years, being the working mom who felt like she had to prove she is wonderwoman, I several activities lined up already before summer even started. And the little miss never retorted. But this year, she insisted to just stay at home. To appease me, she promised to do some readings and take notes of new words to increase her vocabulary. (Poor girl, right?)

Fortunately, it turned out to be something she really enjoyed. By the end of the summer, she finished 6 Thea Stilton books and still managed to squeeze in 10 sessions of basic swimming lessons.

Thank you for taking good care of these kids Teacher Veron! Till next summer! #swimclass #summernimaia #MaiaIsSix

A video posted by Faye and Maia Paras (@chroniclesofmaia) on May 13, 2015 at 5:24am PDT

This summer felt like a full transition period for us. Growth spurts, more freedom, less hovering. We are witnessing more and more independence unfold in front of us. It is almost heartbreaking. I couldn't count the times when I would hear the husband heave a deep sigh and mumble -- "hanggang 6 ka na lang muna Maia, please".

Happy Saturday! #sunkissed #summer #MaiaIsSix #PicsArt

A photo posted by Faye and Maia Paras (@chroniclesofmaia) on May 15, 2015 at 6:09pm PDT

Next week, we start our 2nd year in Grade School. Just more sighs, Daddy. I don't think we can really stop time.

Someone went to see her new classroom today. #Grade2 #Gradeschooldiaries #LittleMissMaia

A photo posted by Faye and Maia Paras (@chroniclesofmaia) on May 29, 2015 at 11:49pm PDT

Maia's Favorite: Milo Dinosaur

As most little kids (and the not-so-little even) are, my little miss is also fond of chocolate drinks. She weaned from the bottle early. By the time she turned two, we said goodbye to formula milk. Gladly, she was never really picky with all the milk we tried and tested for her. Eventually, she decided for herself and settled on chocolate flavored milk (yes that popular brand that just couldn't decide what is it exactly -- gatas na choco or choco na gatas?, the little miss is low maintenance like that). Since then, that has been her daily choice. Although for the past 2 years, she only takes about a glass of milk daily and usually before bedtime.



Last summer, her love for chocolate milk was replaced by this latest discovery - Milo Dinosaur. Why is it called Milo Dinosaur, you ask? Wikipedia doesn't have much to say but to quote: the "Dinosaur" in the beverage's name on its own means "[a] heap of Milo or Horlickspowder on the iced drink"

How is it made, exactly? Well, it's really just a glass of Milo topped with the powder. But we add a spoonful or two of condensed milk to sweeten it a bit more. (no wonder it's a hit among kids, no?).



In a 16 oz glass:

4 heaping tbsps of Milo
2 tsps of condensed milk (no particular brand for us)
about 1/4 cup of hot water
a cup of ice
a shaker/container

Cover the bottom of the shaker/cover container (I usually use a mason jar) with condensed milk add 3 tablespoons of Milo dissolved in hot water, dump in the ice and shake to your heart's content. Once mixed thoroughly, uncap the cover and top with the remaining Milo powder.

A pack of 300g Milo used to last our household two weeks or even more. But now, our consumption has doubled. Since the kid has been skipping the bedtime milk drink for a few months now, I also sometimes opt to use fresh milk instead of plain water. She doesn't mind. As long as there's still a good portion of Milo on top of the glass.

What about your little kids? Are they fond of chocolate drinks too?

I Wanna Go Home, Mommy!

Day 3 of your weeklong vacation and you finally caved in!

Not that I'm happy but it makes me feel good to know, you still need me after all!

You were messaging me at least once every hour either with "I miss you, Mommy!" or "Mommy call again, please"

The clincher was actually when you messaged me with "I want to go home, mommy!" Right that minute, I wanted to leave the office and ride that bus to bring you home.

I ached to hug you, baby girl. But we have to endure for now and be thankful that there is such an invention called Skype. At least we get to see you before you text us "goodnight!"

Be good, out there Maia! Be considerate. Be nice. Be a listener and stay obedient.

Play, play, play!!! Have fun! Enjoy your day!

We will see you soonest, our pretty little miss!

Maximizing Summer Vacation With Family Without Breaking The Bank

How have you been spending your hot summer days of late?

My health has suffered the wrath of this uber hot weather. Extremely hot, humid weather outside and winter like temp in the office is a recipe for disaster, healthwise. Yesterday I finally went to see a doctor. Now, I have to take plenty of medicines to hasten my recovery.

Anyways, as much as I wanted to make this summer a fruitful, learning filled experience for the little miss, coming home exhausted from trying days at work just makes me look forward to lazy, home-confined weekends divided into bonding times with the husband and the little miss and an hour or two of me-time. Me-time mostly spent window shopping.

I've been looking to update my office wardrobe and that of the little miss’s as well as she seemed to have undergone a growth spurt lately and I found just the perfect online shop to search for fashionable women’s (and little girls’ too) clothes at Zalora. This online shop is just the perfect place to burn my free time on since it caters not only to women but to the entire family as well (I couldn't resist looking at the men's section as well and making mental lists of several things that I can score for the husband). While I build up my shopping funds, I content myself with ogling and listing pretty things that I come across online.

my baby girl, all grown up

 Apart from online window shopping, I'm equally ecstatic to get my cooking mojo back so I also spend some of my weekend time at the kitchen experimenting on some recipes. I tried baking blueberry muffins today and made some cookie dough in advance for the little miss's afternoon snacks this week. She's about to start her summer classes (got her free passes to an 8-session ballet class) as well and she's bringing some homemade cookies to share with her classmates.

can you spot her from this crowd of pink?

We've had chances to raid the village facilities too lately - the pool and the playground - particularly and this is one activity that I've sort of missed doing too. When the kid was still a toddler, we used to spend plenty of time strolling and playing at the playground. Now, we're making the excuse to visit the playground so we can limit her TV and computer time.

We still have a couple of activities lined up this summer. But I will have to reserve them for the later part of this month and maybe early May. I hope to recover completely this week so I can finally spend more time outdoors with my loves (if only to kill time at the playground and the pool). I'm also thinking of coming up with a summer income generating project (inspired by what my friend Maqui and her adorable little Aki's summer project) for the little miss since there's an ongoing basketball tournament in our village. I'm thinking of letting her sell ice pops and homemade cookies to the tournament participants.

Plenty of ideas, eh? I hope before summer ends, I get to actually do half of them.

The Farm Life According To Maia and Gogol

I was archiving my camera photos and came across these. These were shots from a day we spent in Bantud (a farm where my dad spent most of his childhood in). He's planning to raise goats here and we might just join him in this venture (crossing our fingers). For now, this place houses coconuts, an eggplant lot, and some fruit trees.

Maia and Gogol had fun climbing up and down the carrosa (a popular carriage/farm transport in my hometown, usually pulled by either a cow or carabao).

They also went crazy over the makahiya plants that were all over the place. They dismissed our plead to take cover despite being subjected to the scorching summer heat. They wouldn't hear of it. The makahiya plants are just to irresistible, it appears.

I was testing new settings on the camera app so I apologize for the inconsistent filters and messy resolutions. But the sentimental in me just had to document these photos because I could still hear the kids' unadulterated laughter and giggles while looking at them.

Leaving you with a shot of Maia just resting after a game of tag with his manong Gogol.

I WISH WE COULD JUST DECIDE TO MOVE HERE IN A HEARTBEAT. MAIA REALLY LOVES BEING HERE. SIGH.

More Ice Candy Projects - Milo and Buco-Sago Flavors

I had a holiday off at work today and yesterday when I announced it to the little girl she immediately drafted a to-do plan for us. She declared that we shall be making this a day of ice candy projects. She planned to make buco ice candy, milo ice candy, another batch of mango ice candy (she just finished the last of the batch we made last week a few days ago) and even kamote (sweet potato) ice candy (I don't know where she got the idea that she can make ice candies out of these but I didn't remind her anymore about it when we were in the market this morning).

I don't think I will have the energy to make all of the flavors she suggested but I figured the buco and the Milo ice candy flavors would be interesting flavors for her to try so we set out to buy the ingredients this morning. First stop was the buco stand and she enjoyed watching the buco meat being scrapped off. Funny, I just realized it was her first time to see and feel a buco fruit (and we've been to Antique where coconuts abound many times already. Sheesh). Then we headed to the grocery to buy the other ingredients (milk, Milo) and lastly, the wet market for our 2-day supply of fish and meat. 

I really love bringing Maia to trips like this because I've been looking forward to it since she was a baby. I love to cook so naturally I imagined spending a lot of time doing market errands and grocery shopping with her. And days like this - turning a simple recipe into something edible - with her are days which I really relish. (Insert picture of my dream kitchen and with us busy in it. Sigh.)

So we first set out to make the buco flavored ice candy since I thought it would be best to make it while the buco meat is at its freshest. Mid-way through however she was already demanding we switch to making the Milo-flavored one. But I was able to coax her to finish the buco first and when it was already time for the Milo flavor, she just totally took control and pushed me out of the way. 

I posted the recipe for the buco-sago sticks here. The Milo-flavored ones are really the easiest to make. Mixing the chocolate milk powder with water, pouring them unto plastic wrappers and freezer would have been okay already but I wanted to make the mixture creamier and sweeter so I just added a cup of evap + condensed milk mixture to achieve my desired sweetness and creaminess.

To make about 12-15 sticks, I used:

1 cup of Milo (chocolate milk powder)

1 cup of warm water

1 cup of evap + condensed milk mixture

We just mixed it thoroughly and you'll see that the mixture is really more chocolate-y than the drink. I think kids will really feel like they're eating the frozen version of the ready-to-drink Milo (the ones sold in tetra packs) when they bite unto these.

we don't have a funnel so i improvised.
see how creative mommies can get?

We also made popsicle versions of the flavors we did today and we're just waiting for them to freeze so we can finally enjoy them. 

waiting, waiting, waiting

Time For Ice Candy!

Summer has landed. It's a good thing we've been out most weekends because our electric bill would probably have skyrocketed by now had we been at home during the past weekends. Our airconditioner usually starts its day during siesta time in the afternoons once summer makes its presence felt.

Yesterday we purposely took a break from all the 'gala' and resolved to stay indoors to rest. I wasn't feeling well Saturday night so I was very agreeable to the invitation of rest. I didn't plan for any activities for Maia and me as well because I thought I'd just go with the flow for a change. So Sunday, while I slept in for an extra hour, Tibs took the liberty of preparing our breakfast (he only cooked eggs but well, at least he stepped up). He fixed Maia a sandwich and called me when breakfast was ready.

While we were eating, Maia (in her usual chatty self) retold how her past week went and was sort of briefing us of how the stay-out helper was doing (and yes, the little girl did confirm that Ate has been sleeping while she plays with her toys. sigh. kids don't lie, di ba?). She mentioned too that one time her Tito JR (my baby cousin who is her current bestfriend) ate ice candy one time and Ate did not let her take her share because she was coughing (okay, i give you 1 pogi point for this ate). Poor little girl. I took pity and asked her if she still wants ice candy. I decided I might as well introduce her to ice candy making. I asked her if she's interested to make some and of course, the answer was a loud YES! Her face always lights up every time she gets excited and that is really refreshing to see.

So off we went to the nearby market to buy some fresh mangoes, milk and ice candy wrapper. Even if she hates how the wet market smells and abhors the sound of fish/meat being butchered into pieces (i really think she has the potential to become a vegetarian), she still enjoys going to the market with me because she loves riding jeepneys.

When we got back, we immediately went to work. After an hour, we were able to make 21 pieces of 4-inch long ice candy sticks and 2 popsicle sticks. Plus about 2 glasses (I guess ) of the mixture which went straight to the little miss's tummy (ang sarap, Mommy! ang sarap ng mango milk!).

Let me just share with you our very simple ice candy recipe.

You will need:

a pack of 1x10 ice candy plastic wrapper
1 small can of condensed milk
1 big can of evaporated milk
2 cups water
2 pieces ripe mangoes, flesh scrapped and diced into small pieces to fit into the ice candy wrapper(we bought the big kind. 1 kilo = 3 pcs)

you will also need a small funnel.

How we did it:

Basically, we just dumped and mixed everything into a bowl and funneled it to the plastic wrappers. I just made sure that the milk was mixed well so that the sweetness is distributed evenly. The little girl had so much fun stirring the mixture so I let her stir to her heart's content before we started packing the ice candy individually.

After we were done packing, I let her count how many pieces we made. She still couldn't count correctly after 12 (she'd usually skip to 14, 17 then 11, 20) but I helped her count till we were able to count 21 pieces. "21! Yey, 21 sila!"

she would scoop into the mix and taste it every 10 mins or so.
masarap talaga ang mango milk, mommy!

"Daddy, papatigas muna natin to sa ref ha? Mamaya mo na tikman. Masarap talaga sya daddy. Masarap ang project namin ni Mommy!"

We set aside about a cup of the mixture because I also wanted to make some popsicles. I let her help me put the sticks into the freezer as well. After we've placed everything into the freezer, we cleaned up (surprisingly it wasn't as messy as I'd expected it to be) and before we knew it was already the little girl's nap time. The morning seemed to have zipped by in a flash.

Maia would jump out of bed every 10 mins to check if her ice candy was already frozen and ready but she eventually stopped when I told her the sticks won't freeze if she keeps on checking on them. She finally yielded to sleep but I think she still dreamed about her ice candy because I caught her smiling in her sleep a couple of times.