Teens | Hip to be Mom

Dressing up Barbies

Dec 042010

Raine is supposed to keep her eyeballs glued to her books. Instead one afternoon, she and Skye decided to empty out the top shelf of their closet, all because I asked if anyone had a spare box I could use to stow away some of my costume jewelry.

Out came all of their prized childhood possessions from the top shelf – cute keepsakes, artsy boxes, beloved tote bags and scarves with art prints, and these Barbies…

Excitedly, the girls recalled how thrilled they were when I finally redeemed them a Barbie each from a reward card that I had. What to do when Mom is so bent on educational toys that all her kids ever got were Legos, Legos and more Legos?

The girls have spent many happy hours combing Barbies’ hair and dressing them up. See the one with the red dress? That’s a homemade dress Raine, our resident fashionista, made from a stretch of red ribbon. So cute !

Happy December!

Posted by Clairity 1 Response »

Dec 022010

December is here. It’s my favorite month of the year. I love the frenzy of activity. I love that the malls are decked out in Christmas decor with the same old carols playing endlessly. No matter how hot and rainy it is outside, it’s always snowy inside.

Those magical Christmas trees will inadvertently find us standing sheepishly in the foreground, having our photos hastily taken, hoping none of our friends walk by at that instant and see us behaving like tourists.

December is the perfect excuse to celebrate everything and anything. This year, there’s one more thing to love about December (not counting being torn between a machine and a TSA massage). We’re going to California! Can’t wait to see Steev. Can’t wait to do that whole Disneyland bit!

Pulling out the food stops

Posted by Clairity 4 Responses »

Nov 292010

My kids know that come major school exam time, Mom will (usually) pull out all the stops and say yes to all of their food requests. It’s Raine’s turn to call the shots this year. The other day, she has requested for pancakes (for now). I went out the very next day and got all the ingredients to make pancakes for 2 pancake breakfasts.

This is the time I make sure we have plenty of snacks and fun food around the house. Rocking the books can really work up an enormous appetite and every now and then, someone will sneak down to the kitchen to rummage for something to eat!

My philosophy is – feed the tummy and you feed the brain. So whatever Raine wants to eat, I’ll cook it or bake it, by hook or by crook. During exams, we try to stay off outside food because I don’t trust the cleanliness and hygiene of our food here, no offense!

Digging through my pantry for food ideas, I stumbled upon a packet of orange and poppy seed muffin mix that had expired last month. No big deal!

Remember those good old days when stuff didn’t come with expiry dates and we happily ate up everything in sight without a thought for those pesky use-by dates. Well, I decided to bake the muffins and eat them anyway.

Skye, my trusty sous chef, was on hand to help me with these. They turned out great and use-by dates aside, we’re still here to rave about them !

Next on the list of requests are Buffalo Wings, baked potato, cookies, um, anything else you’d like to grace your royal palate, O Fair Princess?

A simple meal of thanks

Posted by Clairity 2 Responses »

Nov 262010

Like I said, I was going to cook a really simple Thanksgiving dinner this year since there’s just us girls. I marinated said bird overnight for extra flavor and voila, here’s my Rosemary Turkey in Disguise with super-crispy skin!

Ya, it’s okay to eat the skin and�you won’t be needing diet pills if it’s so crispy that all the fat’s melted off ! That’s my philosophy anyways.

This is our romaine salad with bacon bits lovingly tossed by Skye.

And the garlic bread that she made. The baked potato soup was a last-minute switch from the roast potatoes I’d planned to make earlier. I rarely make soups from scratch and this is purely experimental. It turned out okay but a little mushy, according to our resident food reviewers.

The whole meal took me 2.5 hours to put together. Not too bad, huh?

Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating! And may you have a bountiful Black Friday!

Stress, what stress?

Posted by Clairity Comments Off

Nov 252010

Yes, we’re smack in the middle of major exam week here and Raine’s head is in her books. She’s giving it her best but it’s not as stressful as you may think. We all sleep early the nights before exams, wake up early and enjoy yummy, homecooked meals from Mom’s kitchen.

I’m not into cracking the whip so much that my kids need the best natural acne treatment. I’m not dangling any carrots in front of their noses either. Only good food but that’s a post for another day.

At the same time, I expect them to do whatever’s necessary to give the exams their best shot. If they do well, they get praises, hugs and kisses from me, and� usually a nice eat-out dinner. Not an iPhone, not money. So there, what is there to stress about ?

Girls’ day out with my youngest

Posted by Clairity 5 Responses »

Nov 202010

Skye and I went grocery shopping for Thanksgiving this morning. Just the two of us. Raine is cramming for her big exam so we left her at home with a bit of quiet study time. Looks like this will be the first of a good many girls’ days out for Skye and me in the coming weeks while Raine hits the books. Yay!

For Thanksgiving next week, I’m going to roast a large chicken and potatoes, and put together a simple salad. Steev will be celebrating Thanksgiving with his roommate and his parents in California. So without our big eater, we’re just going to cook something simple here.

We set out armed with a long list of ingredients to buy and as usual, we still managed to miss out some items. Sigh! But never mind, that means we get to go out again tomorrow . The perfect excuse for another girls’ day out!

And since Tyson, our playful little beagle, has chewed up practically everything within his reach including his collar, Skye has been wanting to buy him a new one and a few new toys as well. I don’t think he deserves them but she is intent on spoiling him. That’s Skye, our pet lover! No wonder Tyson is crazy about her !