Happy Halloween!

Airplane movies

The only time I catch up on my movies is on my flights.  I usually can't sleep much on the plane, so I watch movie after movie. Here are the movies I watched on my 2 flights to and from Paris:

• Bridesmaids - Raunchy in the beginning, but kinda funny some parts
• Hangover 2 - bad, bad, bad!  Same formula doesn't work twice
• Midnight in Paris
• 2 days in Paris
• Ratouille (watched this before)
• Ant Z
• Bad Teacher

I got into the "Paris" mood and watched 3 movies that were filmed or based in Paris.  I must say that Air France didn't really have a good selection of movies.  I had a hard time trying to find a movie that  I like.  I usually enjoy watching Comedy / Romantic comedies because I just like "light" movies....nothing too intense.  I rarely watch Action films because I find them so violent. I have enough stress in my life that I don't need additional stress when watching a movie.  

Cooking Class in Paris

Bonjour! Greetings from Paris! I am here in Paris for business a total of 7 days, 6 nights: 4 days of meetings, and 2 weekend days.  I couldn't believe that the last time I was in Paris was 2 years ago, back in 2009.  I usually come to Paris 2x a year for business, once in June and once in October.  This past June, I opted to go to Hong Kong instead and bypassed the Paris trip.  So here I am, in Paris in October!  I've been to Paris 3x before this trip, so I've been to the most of the famous sites - Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Louvre, and the many museums. I even took a trip out to Versailles. This time around, I was looking for something else to do while in Paris, so my coworker suggested a French cooking class called Cook'n with Class.  She has done it before and highly recommended it. In fact, this class is the #1 on the list of "things to do" on Trip Advisor.  So I asked another colleague of mine to take the class with me and that's how we spent our Friday night!

We met the instructor at the Jules Joffrin station in Montmarte at 5pm.  There were a total of 6 of us (which is the maximum number of students per class): my coworker and I,  a family that comprised of a mother, daughter, and a son-in-law from Toronto, and a guy from Vancouver.  From the station, the instructor asked us about our food likes and dislikes so she can tailor the menu somewhat.  After that, she took us to the market!

First stop: Cheese Boutique

2nd stop: Meat Market

4th stop: Seafood market

Last stop: Bakery shop to buy fresh  baked bread

After buying the ingredients, we are ready to head back to the Cooking school's classroom.  Here are some of the tricks I learned (sorry, it may sound basic to you, but they were a-ha moments for me!)

• When doing a 3 course menu, always start with the dessert.  Most desserts will require time to cool, so best to do it in advance.
• Cut off mushroom stems before washing.  Mushrooms are like sponges so cutting off the stems help reduce the amt of dirt the mushroom might absorb
• Double cook your mushrooms - once to remove excess water (which can be reused) and once to add flavor
• Blanche vegetables in salt water to maintain its vibrant green color
• Peel vegetables (i.e. carrots) towards you, and not away from you so you can see what you're doing! 
• Double cook your meats (sear it on a stove top to get the color and put it in the oven to actually cook it). 

We made a total of 3 dishes. They are all very delicious, even better than some of the restaurants we've been to. I loved all of the dishes!  The meal is fancy French cuisine, yet the taste brings you comfort like home-cooked dishes.  I think what makes it good is that all the ingredients are super fresh and in-season (which is really important). French people like to buy everything fresh - i.e. a bakery where the bread was made, the butcher shops where they can see the meats being prepared, etc.  They don't really have "supermarkets" here like we do in the States where the food is packaged and frozen with tons of perspectives. No wonder most French people are skinny!       

Our meal: 

Appetizer: Fresh sea scallops over Chanterelle and White mushrooms

Entree: Veal with Vegetable medley and meat sauce

Cheese Platter - a sampling from the 5 families of cheeses

Dessert: Creme Brulee with fresh peaches

The class is not cheap but worth it!!  Well, considering that you get a 3-course meal with cheese & wine + the cooking experience, it's not too bad at all. I would highly recommend this course to anyone going to Paris and wanting to do something more than just visiting museums all day!

Pumpkin Patch

You know how when you have kids, things don't often go according to plan? Well, today, a group of us organized a play date outing to Ardenwood Historic Farms in Fremont to see the Fall harvest.  We all made it to Ardenwood but never made it into the farm!  We ended up at the Pumpkin Patch right outside the farm and spending an hour there.  We had a lot of fun nonetheless!  

Like we did last year, we all brought our Halloween costumes to the pumpkin patch.  However, unlike last year, we now have 4 little mobile toddlers in tow!  This made it for an extremely difficult group shot.  This is the only photo I got that had the 4 kids on one frame. Sarah was cranky because she's tired & desperately needed a nap.  We thought she would nap on the hour ride to Fremont, but she was too nosy looking outside the car window that she didn't nap! So Sarah was uncooperative and cried so the black kitty cat had to be quickly removed from the scene!   

Sand Blast 2011

This year's Leap Sandcastle Contest was held this past Saturday (10/7) on Ocean Beach.  Although we live so close to Ocean Beach, for one reason or another, we never made it out there to enjoy the sandcastle contest any year. This year, SQ's architecture firm sponsored one of the entries so we took the effort to be there to lend support.  The event is a fundraising event for Leap, a program that encourages and supports arts and architecture in local schools.  Each entry consisted of an architecture firm, a construction company and a local elementary school.  The school children were responsible for coming up with a design, the construction company sponsored the tools, and the architecture firm helped with the sandcastle building process.  There were a total of 26 entries this year.     

Sarah's not so much enjoying the sand

SQ was part of the water crew, transporting water from the ocean to the site

The event started at 9am, but we arrived late, at around 10am. SQ went to help out his Company's sponsored team, while Sarah and I people-watched. People took breaks on and off ~ and enjoyed snacks and a pizza lunch provided by the companies.  We stayed there until around 1:30p when Sarah was beginning to get really tired.   In fact, she felt asleep the second she got buckled in.  I have not seen her fall asleep in such a short time before.  Unfortunately, we left before they announced the winner.  I guess it doesn't really matter. They are all winners!!  

The sandcastle contest is a very nice, family-friendly FREE event.  It's great to let the kids get their hands dirty and create a sense of teamwork and accomplishment.  For the spectators, it's so nice to see the kids' creativity and imagination!  

Sarah turns 16 months today!

Daycare Week 3 / daily schedule

Whew! Sarah's 3rd week at daycare was muuuuch better! She seems to finally get the hang of the place and the people.  All week, she didn't cry during drop off!!  I am so happy that she got through this transition phase fast! (yes, yes, I didn't think it was fast enough last week).  Every morning, we would walk her in, wash her hands, and then bring her to the table to eat breakfast.

At breakfast, she has a variety of foods, including oatmeal, smoothie, cereal, fruits, pancakes, eggs, etc.  Then they have free play - they can roam around in the play kitchen, build blocks, hit the drums, pretend-play with figurines, soft toys, play dress up, or read a book. Then they do a morning snack with crackers and fruits. They have group activities which vary by day.  Sometimes it's puzzles, water play, or messy art. Then it's time to go outside to play in the play yard.  Sarah loves to go outside.  In fact, she insists that she is the first kid to go on the buggy so she is guaranteed not to be left behind!

After the outdoor play, they wash their hands & eat their lunch at 11:30.  The lunch menu is prepared fresh by the on-site Center's chef daily. Most of the food are organic, including milk. After lunch, they brush their teeth and go for their naps. Unfortunately, this lands during my lunch hour. One day I walked to the center planning to visit Sarah, only to find out that they were all sleeping!

Depending on the length of the nap, some kids will go outside for a second time. Others will continue to sleep. Sarah is a pretty good napper, so she usually misses the afternoon outing and sleep for 3 hours. Then by 3ish, all the babies come together for an afternoon snack. They then do afternoon activities such as music, dancing or more art projects. Then free play for the rest of the day until pick up time!

I feel that Sarah learns a lot from this daycare, since all the activities and even playing are geared towards child development. I noticed that there are no battery operated toys there... Not only because it's expensive to buy batteries all the time, but it takes away interaction time. The toys there induce creativity and imagination, which some battery operated toys lack.

This center is by no means perfect. There are things that I dont like. One of them is that I feel the place is very instituionized. Everything is by the book and there are a lot of rules and regulations, for both kids and parents! Most parents are very involved in the classroom....kinda like the PTA. I'm not used to it. Dont people know that I'm anti-social!!?

Sarah's 15.5 month old vocabulary

Sarah has been communicating to us a lot lately, which is great! I am surprised everyday with the new words she's picked up.  The other night, she pointed to the sky and said, "oon" I didn't know what she was saying until I finally saw the crescent moon.  Where did she learn that?? How did she know that was the moon?? Sure, we've read "Goodnight Moon" to her many times, but was she really able to figure out that cartoon picture of the  moon was the same as the real moon outside in the sky?! If she did, WOW!