May9

Japanese Gardens on Kodomo-no-hi Children’s Day

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Take a trip with me for a few moments to a place long ago and far away…to celebrate Kodomo-no-hi.  Or just to see how we celebrated Japanese Children’s Day on the fifth day of the fifth month!  We discovered the Kurimoto Japanese Garden at the Devonian Botanic Gardens near Edmonton.  During this Japanese national holiday, families fly colorful carp-shaped streamers (koinobori), display special dolls and ornaments and generally celebrate children!  We started our celebrations with a picnic, then wandered the gardens under the flying carp!denna's ideas: Kurimoto Japanese Gardens to celebrate Children's Daydenna's ideas: Kurimoto Japanese Gardens to celebrate Children's Daydenna's ideas: Kurimoto Japanese Gardens to celebrate Children's DaySpring has hardly sprung around here!  This was the first really warm weekend we’ve had since winter…which ended about 2 weeks ago!  The gardens are beautiful, even so.  The kids were fascinated by this waterfall which leads to a pond with koi fish.denna's ideas: Kurimoto Japanese Gardens to celebrate Children's DayClimbed the hill to ring the big bell….the kids enjoyed hearing the tolling over the quiet garden!denna's ideas: Kurimoto Japanese Gardens to celebrate Children's Daydenna's ideas: Kurimoto Japanese Gardens to celebrate Children's DayAnd then crossed the bridge and watched the fish for awhile….denna's ideas: Kurimoto Japanese Gardens to celebrate Children's Daydenna's ideas: Kurimoto Japanese Gardens to celebrate Children's DayIn the Temperate Zone Greenhouse, surrounded by tropical plants drinking in the sun, we heard a traditional Japanese folk story told with a kamishibai story box!denna's ideas: Japanese traditional storytelling with a kamishibai story boxThe story was about Momotaro the Peach Boy and then we listened to another story from a book…denna's ideas: Kurimoto Japanese Gardens to celebrate Children's DayAnd then back to the gardens where my little friend was convinced to wear her costume that I had been carrying around all day!!  It’s not “real” but we had such fun!!denna's ideas: Kurimoto Japanese Gardens to celebrate Children's Daydenna's ideas: Kurimoto Japanese Gardens to celebrate Children's DayI’m loving this photo!  It makes me think of a photo in a 1960′s magazine!!  Then my friend and I watched the huge carp streamers, lovely to watch in the breeze…denna's ideas: Kurimoto Japanese Gardens to celebrate Children's Daydenna's ideas: Kurimoto Japanese Gardens to celebrate Children's DayIn the classroom, we made our own flying carp kites and did a little origami…denna's ideas: making koinobori flying carp to celebrate Children's Daydenna's ideas: making koinobori flying carp to celebrate Children's Daydenna's ideas: Kurimoto Japanese Gardens to celebrate Children's DayAfter flying our koinobori carp streamers, we headed for home to display them and eat popsicles!denna's ideas: making koinobori flying carp to celebrate Children's DayWe had our large carp that we made, then some smaller more traditional looking windsock-type ones from the gift shop.  Each carp represents a member of the family.  Usually the father is a large black carp, the mother is usually pink or red, then the children.  I made a few extras to even out our carp numbers using the pattern I linked up to the other day from HERE.denna's ideas: making koinobori flying carp to celebrate Children's Daydenna's ideas: making koinobori flying carp to celebrate Children's DayIt was a lovely way to celebrate the day, being together, discovering something new and learning about customs from another culture.  And taking photos (of course!) though I mostly relaxed and let Henry snap away!!denna's ideas: Kurimoto Japanese Gardens to celebrate Children's Day

May6

A glimpse of home…

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denna's ideas: tropical plants and flowers

These hibiscus type flowers grew like weeds in our hedge…

Yesterday we visited the Devonian Gardens for the first time.  I wasn’t expecting a glimpse of my past!  It was our first visit to the Gardens and I was surprised to see so many plants and flowers that reminded me of my childhood.  I grew up in Guatemala City and our yard was always full of flowers and green leafy things!  Here are some of the plants that I was happy to recognize (though I can’t name them all!)

denna's ideas: tropical plants and flowers

I have always loved bougainvillea of any color and you can see it everywhere in Guate!

denna's ideas: tropical plants and flowers

I was so surprised to see this flower as I have never seen it outside of Guatemala before…it was in the butterfly greenhouse. Just 2 small branches of flowers…a taste of the masses of lilac blooms I remember…and I remembered exactly how the leaves would feel…like stiff sandpaper….

denna's ideas: tropical plants and flowers

We had a small coffee bush growing in our yard, and I remember popping the red berries into my mouth to see what they taste like, not like coffee that’s for sure!!

denna's ideas: tropical plants and flowers

These papyrus plants used to grow in our back yard and we would use them for pretend umbrellas when we were little….

denna's ideas: tropical plants and flowers

Papayas!!

denna's ideas: tropical plants and flowers

My Mom always had cacti around and we were always picking up spines in our feet and knocking into the prickly things!! (Ok, and even licking them! That was me…)

denna's ideas: tropical plants and flowers denna's ideas: tropical plants and flowers denna's ideas: tropical plants and flowers denna's ideas: tropical plants and flowersWhat a beautiful day we had!  After a long long cold cold winter, seeing the flowers and greenness was a site for sore tired eyes, that’s certain.  And the gurgling of a little stream….nice!   Ahhh, my tropical memories!

May5

Japanese Children’s Day

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Along with being the Cinco de Mayo, today is also a fun festival in Japan, Children’s Day!  Originally it was called Boy’s Day, celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th month, and Girl’s Day being the 3rd day of the 3rd month, but more recently the 5th of May has been remade as Children’s Day to celebrate all children.

I happened upon this fun and cute craft on Squirrelly Minds that is perfect for today!  How to make Japanese flying carp streamers, which is the traditional symbol for this day…a carp for each boy of the house!  (Now I assume that it would be a carp for each child!)  I have been saving up toilet paper rolls for the last few days so we can try our hand at these cute crafts.

Koinobori (Japanese Flying Carp) DIY from Squirrelly Minds

These photos are reposted with the  permission of Tan from Squirrelly Minds and here’s the link to her blog with the photo tutorial on how to make these colorful carp!  Aren’t they the cutest things?  Thank  you Tan!!

I had thought we would make these Japanese carp yesterday, but while we were looking at her site, we also found out that there is a Kodomo-no-hi celebration at the Japanese Gardens near where we live, so have decided to check that out!  There will be carp and kite making for the kids, stories and other fun stuff!  I’ll post a photo of our Japanese inspired creative efforts later!!  It is very early spring here, with yesterday being the first really really warm day of the season….there are still patches of snow around and yesterday I saw a pond still mostly covered in ice!!  It has been a long long winter this year….and finally it feels like spring!!  Nice weather to fly a kite or a carp!!

Yesterday we had a little Cinco de Mayo lunch at our house, though I made Guatemalan food! (of course!)  Last year I did a bit more Cinco de Mayo fun stuff, which you can see  here: cinco de mayo.

Have a happy Children’s Day and Cinco de Mayo :)

May3

DIY Recycled 10-minute Mini Piñata

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DIY Recycled 10-minute Mini Piñata

Flashes of genius happen at the strangest times.  Like when you are shredding documents.  And then emptying the shredder.  And you think, “this shredded paper is so cool, what could we make out of it??”  How about a Piñata?  A mini piñata that won’t take much time to make.  A recycled earth-friendly piñata.  Sounds good to me, I say to myself.

First of all, I collected all the kids’ field trip forms that are always sitting around cluttering up my counter….they are usually printed on brightly colored paper….perfect for a cinco de mayo type piñata.  I mentioned that I had already emptied the shredder, so then my daughter had a fun time feeding in all the colored paper that I had decided to recycle.  Now empty the shredder again…denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñata

Lovely!!

I’d be happy to just have the shreds sitting around in a jar to decorate….not everyone’s idea of glamorous decor….denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñataFind some little boxes to use, and some tape and something to hang the thing with…like string or ribbon…we found a box from icing colors, so even the box looked colorful….denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñataNow would be a good time to fill the box with candy….if you want to!!  Then knot a length of string and secure it in the corner of the box, then fold the flaps down to hold the string in place and tape it all closed.  Can you see the loop of string coming out of the corner?denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñataCover one side of the box with glue, plain old white school glue…denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñata

Grab a small handful of the shredded paper and start sticking it on!  Don’t be a perfectionist!denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñataGlue paper on another side,  doesn’t really matter what order you do the sides in!denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñataMy 6 year old daughter and I each made one…denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñatadenna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñataSeriously, it took about 10 minutes to make one of these little guys!denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñata

Now hang it up!!  And add a little tissue paper tail….denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñatadenna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñatadenna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñata(I “boosted” the color in these photos…I wish I had kitchen walls this lovely papaya shade of burning orange!)

May1

Mayo Fiesta Parrot Cake

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El Primero de Mayo!  It’s May today…I’ll bet many of you are having a day off work…I guess I don’t need to point out that I’m not.  Heh heh.  Someone’s gotta bake cakes, even on holidays.

I was doing some research on what exactly is celebrated on the first of May, but have run out of time to post about it (I’m sure that’s a relief!!)  Needless to say, many things are celebrated in many places today.  There you go.

I made a cake today….to celebrate all the good stuff in May.  It also happens to be the 7th year anniversary of AntiguaDailyPhoto, a site with the most gorgeous and interesting photos of Antigua Guatemala.  So here’s a big Happy Anniversary to you!!  And some cake…..denna's ideas: mayo fiesta bird cake

Yum yum yummy….denna's ideas: mayo fiesta parrot cake denna's ideas: mayo fiesta parrot cake denna's ideas: mayo fiesta parrot cake

Here’s what is inside the cake: chocolate and mandarin orange….filled and frosted with Nutella!!!  What a flavor combination!denna's ideas: marble cake denna's ideas: marble cake denna's ideas: marble cake filled with Nutelladenna's ideas: marble cake

If the parrot cookie on top of the cake looks familiar, it is because I posted about it yesterday.  I entered it in Lilaloa’s ”think outside the cookie cutter challenge”.  I made the flowers yesterday, too.  So today I just had to make a delicious cake.  :)

I had some more blank cookies that I had made for the challenge…so I challenged my kids to think up something to create out of the “diamond ring” cookie cutter shape.  I think they came up with some pretty creative ideas!!   I melted up some candy melts and they decorated the cookies themselves…denna's ideas: kids entries for Lilaloa's cookie cutter challengeHello Kitty…denna's ideas: hello kitty cookieA good idea Lightbulb….denna's ideas: good idea lightbulb cookieA happy kid of some sort…. :) denna's ideas: happy kid cookieAnd Nemo the fish!!denna's ideas: Nemo cookieYes, yes they are creative kids!  Wonder where they get it from….?!

Well, after all the cake and cookies….I feel a diet coming on tomorrow!!  ;)

Have a festive Month of May everyone!

Apr30

Mayo Fiesta Birds

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May is almost here!!  We just had 2 days of blowing snow…and finally this afternoon the sun burst out and is turning the snow to puddles.

Today I started thinking about May, since it begins tomorrow.  In many countries of the world, tomorrow, May 1st is a holiday, but not here!!  On the weekend there is el 5 de Mayo, which is another holiday also not around here!  I’m late for holidays this year….but I did make some festive cookies today…kind of for May fiestas, but mostly for Lilaloa’s cookie challenge!!

The challenge is to think outside the box….or outside the cookie cutter shape!  There is a diamond ring cookie cutter that is popular for engagement cookies, and Georganne over at Lilaloa has challenged everyone to make something different than a diamond ring, using that cutter.  I confess that I have been thinking about it for a week (or more!) but just haven’t had the umph! to make anything, until today…inspired by the sunlight and the festiveness of May….I made some parrots.  (I also happen to have been thinking that a parrot would be the perfect pet for our household.  Years ago we had a green parrot and he had such a fun personality!!  Ok, ok, lots of feathers everywhere….but he was my little baby….anyways…)

Here’s the blank cookie shape….see that big diamond ring?denna's ideas: mayo fiesta fondant bird cookies

I saw parrots.  My kids saw swimming fish and little people in hoodies.  I was going to try and make everyone’s vision….but….well, maybe I should let them decorate their own cookies this afternoon…denna's ideas: mayo fiesta fondant bird cookies

denna's ideas: mayo fiesta fondant bird cookies denna's ideas: mayo fiesta fondant bird cookies denna's ideas: mayo fiesta fondant bird cookiesI’m liking the “1960′s filter” on these photos!  The lighting is so awful in my house….I have to try and edit to try and get near the cookies’ original colors… I know I complain a lot about the lighting…really I’m just not a great photographer and never use Manual :)

Get ready to have a great May!!

Apr25

The Hello Kitty Party!! or “La Fiesta de la Hello”!

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Yes, we have finally come to the Hello Kitty party itself! :) denna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party Ideas

I had been thinking for a long time that a Hello Kitty party would be fun, but here are the two things that made me feel really inspired to go ahead and go for it!!

denna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party Ideas, chocolate

this Hello Kitty chocolate “Easter egg”

denna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party Ideas, mug

and this Hello Kitty mug!

denna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party Ideas, HK mug

My photos of the mug didn’t turn out so great, but really the mugs were my inspiration for the party.  The girls have had them for years, and I am always seeing them!  The mugs have Hello Kitty with ice cream cones and candy, and they are done in these pastel colors.  So I decided that the colors for the party would be mint green, pastel pink and red, oh! and chocolate instead of black!  And that it would be a Hello Kitty Sweet Shoppe kind of theme!  Following are some easy how-tos for some of the Hello Kitty stuff we did for the party.  Links to sources and how-to posts are in red letters, so just click on them!

(An Aside:  my friend over at Paper Glitter did a Fab-U-Lous Hello Kitty Sweet Shoppe party for her daughter! It’s amazing!  I decided to go with my mug-inspired homemade party this time, though.  If my printer had been working, I would have printed some of Paper Glitters’ gorgeous Sweet Shoppe Party printouts and this sweeeeet stationary set!  Linnette makes the most adorable things for parties!  But my printer is on it’s last legs :(  )

So mint and pink and red….and a little white cat!  A package of pastel card stock from the dollar store made a quick and easy backdrop.   Just tape the pages onto the wall with painter’s tape so they won’t stick forever! (We were able to print out one black and white kitty and my youngest colored it in.  We found it on this site of coloring pages).

The lighting in our house in the winter is just atrocious, and so all my photos look kinda strange…they look very brightly colored, but really are softer pastels, oh well, I guess you get the idea….denna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party Ideas, easy Hello Kitty party backdrop

The little Kitty banner was so fast and easy to make. denna's ideas: Fast and Easy Hello Kitty Party Banner how toCheck out the How-To here for a quick and easy Hello Kitty banner.
denna's ideas: Fast and Easy Hello Kitty Party Banner from playing cards

A trip to Party City for a few little party favors, and a trip to the T&T Asian supermarket for some fun Hello Kitty packs of gum and box of cookies!
denna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party Ideas, Hello Kitty party favors

At the dollar store, I found this cute little book of painting pages….(I must say the kids weren’t the only ones who had fun painting them!)
denna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party favorsdenna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party Ideas, HK party gum favors

We set out a few of our Hello Kitty memorabilia to decorate…enna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party ideas, HK memorabiliaand something new….denna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party Ideas, HK lunchbox

And now for the party table set up!denna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party Ideas, bubble teaWe found some bubble tea in just the right colors…they looked super, but just are not my personal cup of tea!  I made a plate of Hello Kitty crackers…um, those weren’t so fabulous, but might work out with a different recipe.denna's ideas: Hello Kitty crackersSome easy party balloons in the shape of ice cream cones for the party table.  Just add some “cherries” and sprinkles!  There’s a quick how-to at the end of this post heredenna's ideas: Hello Kitty Banner and party ice cream balloonsEverything was finally put together….with the Hello Kitty Cake, too!

denna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party IdeasI made a Pocky Cake and added Hello Kitty peeking over the top!  Her whiskers are made out of Pocky, too.  I posted about what a Pocky cake is the other day, what a quick way to decorate a cake!!denna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party Ideas, Hello kitty dessert tableThe salad bowl was really a flash of genius, if I do say so myself!!  So fun and tasty, but super easy to make, too!

denna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party IdeasHere’s the post about the Hello Kitty Fruit Salad Bowl containing my favoritist sweet salad ever!  (I know that’s not a word! but it’s yummy)enna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party ideas, my girl

My birthday girl!!!  No girl is ever too old for a Hello Kitty party!!denna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party ideas, my girldenna's ideas: Hello Kitty Party IdeasSAM_0879It was a whole lot of sugary pastel colored sweetness, with a few Japanese and Korean treats thrown in!  The only things missing were these Hello Kitty strawberry treats!!  They were easy to make, but just didn’t make it to this party, haha!  The link for the how-to is here.denna's ideas: Hello Kitty Strawberry snacks