She Decided

A few months back, Allie asked me when I got my ears pierced.  I told her I was nine.  After considering my answer for a little while, she asked when she could get her ears pierced.  I told her it's kind of a big responsibility so she had to be old enough to be able to take care of her ears and not let them get infected.  We talked a little about the process and the ear care that followed.  She asked if she could do it when she turned nine.  I said sure.

Fast forward another month or two and she asked if she could do it when she turned eight.  I said sure.

Fast forward again and she asked if she could maybe it do it at seven.  I asked if she really felt ready for it and if she could be responsible enough to remember to take care of them.  She decided to think about it for a while.

After a couple days of careful consideration, she said she felt ready.  But asked if I would help her put the "medicine" on them.  I said I would help her but she would have to be really good about remembering to remind me.  And that I'd talk it over with her daddy first.  She seemed happy with this answer.

After talking about it and seeing that she didn't change her mind, we decided to let her do it.  But we had to wait for a good opportunity to arise.  She asked if her favorite auntie Jami (and uncle James!) could come, too.

So, the perfect time to do it came right after our dinosaur hunt at the Natural History Museum.  Because guess who came over to spend some time with us and agreed to come with us on this special little outing?

Marching in like a girl on a mission.

Looking over the earring choices.

This was serious business.

This is my hubs, y'all.  This would be the opposite of serious business.

Getting nervous but quietly determined.

She watched the earring lady's every move.

We went with the two piercers at once option.

One...

Two...

Three!

And done!  (Aw, check out her daddy behind her.)

And a lollipop for being so brave.  She immediately asked if she could have one for her sister, too.

Then she ran out to show her daddy.

Love this one.

Love this one, too.  (Thanks Jami, for taking the pic!)

She was all smiles all the way home, too.  (Thanks for taking this one too, Jami!)


And I'm very happy to report that she was super awesome about remembering to remind me to clean her ears.  She'd come to me three times a day with solution bottle and q-tip in hand along with a happy grin.  She did great.  Just like I knew she would.

Dinosaurs Backstage Pass

I haven't bought any deals from sites like Groupon or Living Social in a long time.  Mostly because I got tired of buying the deal only to completely forget all about it until it was long expired.  Actually, I think it was Phil who got tired of my doing that.

But this past summer, a deal came to our attention that was right up our alley.  A yearlong family membership to the LA Natural History Museum for two adults and get this, up to four kids!  A deal that includes all of us at a place we'd been meaning to visit anyway?  Well, sure!

And happily, mostly because Phil made sure we redeemed the deal before the expiration, we actually managed to visit a couple times already.  One of the perks is something called a "Safari Scavenger Hunt" which happens once a month and allows members a behind-the-scenes peek at things going on in the museum.

The July scavenger hunt was all about dinosaurs and the Tsai crew was all over it.

We started off behind the glass windows where the archeologists work carefully digging out fossils.

A dinosaur tooth?  Claw?  Toe bone?  I forget now.  Heh heh, it would seem that I wasn't paying very close attention...

This archeologist showed us what he'd spent the last eight months painstakingly unearthing.  I kept thinking the whole time that this is one job I simply could not and would not want to ever do.  Eight months?!  However, I did think the taped up black glasses were an adorable feature on him.

And then they led us into the bowels (basement) of the museum.  There was only one other guy with us in our group.  He was... interesting.

There, the kids got to touch whale baleen.

And elephant teeth!

Okay, some of us were interested in all of this.  Others of us were just plain bored.  You can guess who.

Then it was back into the main part of the museum to do the scavenger hunt!

And to do a little learning about dinosaurs along the way.

The kids had a great time and didn't even realize there was any learning going on at the same time.

Of course, their very favorite part was getting to pick out a mini dinosaur toy at the end.

Ah, kids.  Whaddaya gonna do?

WWE: Snickerdoodle Surprises

So one on one time has resulted in a lot of baking for Jonah and I.  Turns out he loves it.  That's no big surprise.  The shocker is so do I.  We're having a lot of fun in the midst of a little extra messiness, a few extra spills, and a little longer to get it done.  I'd say it's worth it, most of the time. 

But, all those yummy treats cannot, must not, be consumed by Just the Six of Us.  Cuz uh, that would not be such a good thing in the end.  So we happily shared- with the kids' school teachers, some of their friends, and their swim teachers.  Not being eaten by just us and also getting to brighten up someone else's day?  Win-win.

I knew these snickerdoodles were in my future the minute I saw them.  Soft and chewy, slightly crisp on the outside, with a surprise chocolatey center.  What's not to love?  Also surprisingly easy to make, which makes it all the better in my book.  The original recipe called for a little more cinnamon than I wanted to use and also only used Rolo chocolates.  I happened to not have quite enough, but did have some extra mini Reese's peanut butter cups and a few pieces of almond toffee chocolate laying around (what can I say except that chocolate fuels me most days. :P) so I made a few experimental cookies.  I also only used barely a few grains of salt on the tops of each unbaked cookie as I like just a hint of saltiness in the sweet rather than a salt blast.  A little goes a long way here.  All in all, I loved the Reese's ones the best.  Mmmm.

So here's the original recipe.

And here's the slightly adapted one:


Snickerdoodle Surprises
makes about 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

1/4 cup granulated sugar, for cinnamon-sugar topping
3/4 tablespoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
Rolo chocolate caramels, mini Reese's peanut butter cups, or your favorite chocolate (enough for one per cookie)
Himalayan pink salt or coarse sea salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat baking mat. For the cinnamon-sugar mixture, combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon in a shallow dish and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat 1 1/2 cups sugar and butter at medium speed until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

Sift flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt into mixing bowl. With mixer on low, add dry ingredients to the egg/sugar mixture and mix until thoroughly combined. Working a spoonful of dough at a time, flatten dough into a circle, place a single piece of chocolate in the center, and form dough into a ball around the chocolate. Roll dough balls in the cinnamon sugar mixture and place on the baking sheet. Sprinkle a few grains of pink salt on top.

Bake for 7-8 minutes. The cookies should look raw between the cracks and seem underdone.  Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Enjoy!

Printable recipe

Science Camp

And so begins my mad dash through all the rest of our summer happenings.  It was busy.  And SO MUCH FUN.  And I hope I can get through them all before Christmas.  

First up: Science Camp.

My dear friend Gwen suggested we get together one week of summer to do some science experiments/learning activities with our kids.  Because she's a teacher and she's great about educating her kids.  Never mind that I used to be a teacher.  I have no idea what happened to me.  Whatever.  She was full of suggestions of lesson plans, going through the scientific method, physics experiments, or quantum something or other...

That's about when my eyes glazed over and she lost me.

But because I'm all for higher learning and the quantum stuff (read: playdates), I threw out the idea of doing a ready-made Chemistry and Physics science kit.

Mostly because I found it at TJ Maxx just before we started planning out the week.

So Gwen humored me and we went with the science kit because she is a good friend and she knows how important higher learning and quantum playdates are to me.

And also our original full week somehow got whittled down to three days of one week.

But quality over quantity, eh?

Anywho, the kids learned a whole lot as we made slippery slugs, real-looking guts, fart putty, and fake blood.  It was intense.  So intense that I brought out the camera only on the last day.  Again, I have no idea what happened to me.

On our last science camp day, we made us some bouncy balls!

Heheheh, this picture cracks me up.  Lookit my boy Jonah.  This about sums up his week.  Er, three days.

Hahaha, sorry.  This one also makes me laugh.  He was totally just going around and around that little table doing his own thing.  On another note, lookit how big my other baby is now!  Hanging with the big kids and doing her own experiments with protective goggles on her head.  All growns up.

She has a steadier hand than her mama does.

Who knew brightly colored sand-like stuff can turn into a bouncy ball?  Okay, you probably already knew this.  Give a girl a break willya?  I skipped physics in high school and never looked back.  Until now.

The cold water dunking.

Holding it under water for a minute.  Or was it three?  I forget now.

The moment of truth...

The girls witnessing the moment of truth...

That it actually worked!

Bouncy ball success was had by all.

This one.  Such a sweet.  :)

We had a fabulous three-day science camp with these two.

Thanks for everything Auntie Gwen, and can't wait to do it again next summer!  Will keep my eyes peeled for another kit!  ;)

What We're Eating: Sukiyaki

Short and to the point- this is a super easy version of sukiyaki that I initially learned from my mother-in-law and then added a simple dipping sauce to it.  Ponzu sauce, garlic sauce, or other dipping sauces would also be good with this.  Whatever floats your boat, as they say!  :)

Start off with a nice selection of cut up veggies (I used baby bok choy, napa cabbage, spinach, shiitake mushrooms, and cubed firm tofu), thin sliced ribeye (or chicken or whatever meat you prefer), and sliced kamaboko (fish cake).

Cooked right to order at the table on a portable burner (sorry for the wonky photo.  Bah.)

A Tsai family favorite.

Especially when the noodles were thrown in at the end and cooked in the yummy broth.


Easy Sukiyaki
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
4 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
1-2 cups water
1 lb thinly sliced beef, chicken, or pork
1 package kamaboko (fish cake), sliced
6-8 napa cabbage leaves, cut up
3-4 baby bok choy, cut up
handful of spinach leaves, cut up
1/2 block of firm tofu, cubed
1-2 packages ramen or udon noodles

Sukiyaki Sauce
3/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup water
1 cup sake
1 cup mirin
4 Tbsp sugar


Directions
1.   Combine all the ingredients for the sukiyaki sauce in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil until the sugar is dissolved.  Set aside.

2.   Pour the chicken broth and water into a medium pot on the portable burner over medium high heat.  Pour in half of the sukiyaki sauce and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a low simmer.  Pour the remaining sukiyaki sauce into small dipping bowls.  Bring the meat and veggies to the table.

3.   When ready to eat, increase heat to return the broth to boiling, add in a few pieces of meat, cook for 2-3 minutes until no longer pink and remove from the pot into bowls.  Add in some shiitake mushrooms, tofu, veggies, and cook for a few minutes then add to the bowls.  The shiitake mushrooms take longer to cook than the other veggies will.  Add some broth to the bowls.

4.   Begin eating, dipping meat and veggies in the sauce.  Continue cooking the ingredients a few at a time while everyone is enjoying the sukiyaki.  When everything is about cooked, add in the noodles (but not the little packets) to cook for a few minutes and add to everyone's bowls to eat at the end.  Enjoy!


Printable recipe