I'm a full-time mummy

We've been adopting a new timetable for our kiddos since last week where we wake up at 8am, get ready for breakfast by 8.30am and then reading time, or water pool activity time (or replaced with running or cycling at porch when my kiddos do not want to play water) then playroom activities, daytime bath, then preparation for lunch, then learning activities for half an hour then naptime at 2pm to 4pm then they wake up for tea break and another round of learning activities for half an hour and TV time for 1 hour and then dinner time, then rest for a while and go for evening bath followed by bonding time with grandma and/or daddy before heading for bed at 9.30pm.

I've also changed our kiddos breakfast to cereals (we buy Post cereals) and I've been making fruit juices and fruit smoothies for them to accompany their cereal breakfast.

This is one of the fruit smoothies I made last week:

Half a carrot + 1 apple + 1 mango blended nicely and served in their own sippy cups. Sometimes my 1.5 year old girl will finish hers, else I will end up finishing for her while my 4 years old boy will always finish his fruit juices/smoothies. I think this idea is great as I get to sneak in some veggies in the juice/smoothies and they don't notice anything.

I basically just blend whatever fruits we have on hand, but mostly we rotate between apples, pears, bananas, mangoes and carrots definitely.

Do you have any favorite/signature fruit juices/smoothies?

My 4 years old boy is a huge fan of Little Critter's books and of course the moment I saw the press release for this app, I have to have it! Can just imagine seeing my boy's excited face when he sees the newest addition to our Little Critters book app! Without further ado, here goes my feedback...

* Title: The Trip Little Critter Reading Adventure
* Price: $3.99
* Category: Books
* Released: Mar 25, 2013
* Version: 1.0.1
* Size: 63.8 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Baker & Taylor, Inc. © 2013 Mercer Mayer, Silver Dolphin Books, Dancing Penguins LLC, J.R. Sansevere
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Description from the product page:

"In this fun-filled, interactive reading adventure, young children are invited to learn along with Little Critter on his family’s road trip. Rich in learning activities, games, and exciting surprises, kids will be entertained as they discover a new adventure on every page. The Critters’ trip is full of amusing twists and turns—just like the actual road they’re following! Kids can help Little Critter choose the route the family will take and explore the countryside, the city, the beach and more: fix the car when it breaks down; move a horse stuck in the middle of the road; feed the seagulls; and even find time to grab a hot dog! All this while playing lots of games with Little Sister along the way to pass the time!"

* It is engaging and interactive and I personally prefer the 'Reading Adventure' option instead of 'Just Read' option which you will missed quite a few animated surprises here and there when you just plainly read along the storybook!

* I like the idea of this story as I can easily use it to relate to my kiddos when we go for our family trip next time.

* Other than going through the adventure journey with Little Critter and his family in the road trip, there are also educational and fun games to be played throughout the story such as color matching, alphabet games, object sequencing and alphabets flashcards.

* There is also a mini problem-solving games where your child can find and keep objects in Little Critter's backpack which will come in handy when they got into problems along their road trip. This helps build up problem-solving skills in our little ones to determine and figure out which objects in the backpack best to be used to fix a problem.

* In summary, this is a fun-filled and educational app which is a must for Little Critters' fans! Definitely must have!

You can purchase the "The Trip Little Critter Reading Adventure" app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code to redeem the application for free from iTunes Store in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"

I had earlier confessed that one of my 2013 resolutions (I rarely made them in my life so when I made it for this year, I'm trying to stick by it!) is to learn to cook for the family. For this post, I am sharing my next dish, guided by hubby (who got the recipe from his eldest sister) and to be honest, this is the dish that sort of helped me get over my luncheon meat addiction during my initial morning sickness phase (yup, been eating luncheon meat everyday for almost 2 weeks!)

Ingredients:

1. Chicken (depending how much you want)
2. Salted chicken seasoning mix (I use about 4 tsp for the amount of chicken meat we have)
3. A small ginger (sliced thinly)
4. Some wolfberries (Chinese called it 'gei ji')

Methods:
* Marinate the chicken with the salted chicken seasoning mix for about 1 hour. I usually pour out 4 tsp of the seasoning mix into a small container and rub the chicken meat all over with the seasoning mix.
* Placed the sliced gingers all around the chicken meat in the metal plate.
* After 1 hour of marinate process, cover the metal plate with an aluminium foil and steam for about 45 minutes.
* Add in the wolfberries by placing them all over the steamed chicken and cover back the aluminium foil.
* Steam for another 15 minutes.

Outcome:

I love this dish! Really! So much that I made it again and again over the next few days! I once tried to put the wolfberries together with the chicken and ginger and steamed them straight for 1 hour (according to my MIL, it is best to steam the wolfberries earlier to get the nutrients from it) but the outcome is slightly different in the sense that the juice produced from the steamed chicken is darker (due to the coloration from the steamed wolfberries). I much prefer to add in the wolfberries 15 minutes before the process finished as I prefer the juice to be clearer.

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!