What to do with all them apples- bake a chocolate cake!

I bought some applesauce from Costco ages ago. They are great little pouches of 100% apple- no sugar, so a great little snack for Pi. But lately he has gone off so many of his go to snacks (I blame me getting lazier with his meals). So, rather than inevitably throwing away so many pouches, I thought I would use them to make some chocolate cup cakes.

I found a recipe here, which doesn't call for vinegar, and have adapted it:

INGREDIENTS

SERVINGS20YIELD1 cakeUNITSUS

• 1⁄2cups sugar
• 1⁄2cup oil
• 2eggs
• 2cups applesauce- or- 6 pouches of Costco 90g applesauce.
• 2 &1/2cups flour
• 1 1⁄2teaspoons baking soda
• 1⁄2teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2teaspoon cinnamon
• 3tablespoons cocoa

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Beat sugar, oil, eggs, and applesauce.
3. Add flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, and cocoa. Beat well.
4. Pour into cupcake/muffin pan.
5. Bake in 180 degree C oven for 15 minutes.

Enjoy.

Next time, I think I will substitute the oil for coconut oil. 

They turned out really great. Not the healthiest snack, but not too bad either and a great time killer for our Friday afternoon baking.

I put some spray oil to grease the pans, and it worked well. Just make sure you let your cakes cool for at least 5 minutes before trying to take them out of the pans,

Enjoy!

Baby playpen.

I still find the baby playpen useful even after all this time. Pi can't really be trusted to be left alone for any period of time longer than 10 seconds. I'm afraid he will break something, destroy something, or unlock the locks of the glass sliding doors and go outside for a stroll.

This makes shower time in the morning very difficult. While I try to have as quick a shower as possible, he still needs something to occupy him completely so I don't come back to ripped wallpaper (yes, this happened), or a missing child. Usually my 'go to' is to put on 'PlaySchool' (Australian TV show) for 20 mins while I prepare and shower, but today I got the playpen out again. It was such a nice change from my usual babysitter (t.v).

I bought my playpen second hand, online, and have been super happy with having one. He is big enough now that he can move the whole thing, and climb out of it if he is determined enough. However, with the help of some Duplo, and a quick shower, it was a safe and effective place to let him play.

Winter drool.

You might be able to see from the above picture of my beautiful little man, that he has a red rash around his mouth. The other day he was eating green grapes and suddenly it got worse. Was he allergic suddenly to grapes, but not before? I didn't really go away. The next day I gave him raspberries and again with the rash. I though he might suddenly be allergic to everything. Then I remembered that the same thing happened last year- I took him to the doctors thinking it was an allergy, but it turns out it is a drool rash. 

My lovely little boy drools worse than Pavlov's dog- even though his teeth are all well and truly through (I have looked into it, apparently some toddler still drool for a long time, like, until 5 years old). Last year the doctor gave me some special cream which helped clear it up. This time I haven't been back to the doctor, but am trying Pawpaw ointment (bought in Australia) and Aquaphor cream (bought from I-herb) first to see if it clears up. So far, it is working a little. 

So if your bub still drools and gets a red rash around his mouth in winter, it might just be drool rash....

Machida Squirrel Garden

I am always looking for fun activities to do with Pete. While I was looking for a branch of the okonomiyaki chain that we like so much (okonomiyaki honpo- in case you were wondering), we discovered a place in Machida called "Machida squirrel garden". 

Though Machida it north-west of here it is technically in Tokyo. Driving to the squirrel park would take about an hour and 10mins from our house. Public transport isn't much quicker (in fact, about 10 minutes slower), however Pi loves trains so we decided to make a day of it and go via public transport. 

When you get to Machida, take bus 53 or 55 from Machida Eki bus stop to Yakushiike (薬師池). It takes about 14 mins on the bus and costs 240yen. The bus drops you off almost outside (just a teensy walk down the hill before you see big pictures of squirrels at the entrance).

Kids under 3 are free. Adults were 400yen each. Once inside, there are a few cages with other types of squirrels, guinea pigs, rabbits, chipmunks and a patagonian mara of all things. The last was a bit depressing to see in a small cage. You can buy a small saucer of lettuce leaves and carrots for 100yen and feed the guinea pigs and rabbits. Pi loved doing this. 

 

After that, you can enter the big squirrel enclosure. A small bag of sunflower seeds is 100yen. They provide oven mits (kids and adult sizes) to wear so the squirrels don't scratch you (and also a host of other reasons). There is a fenced off area but the squirrels will happily come up to you (one even jumped on my leg). We go there about midday and though a lot of the squirrels were settling down for a nap, or too full, we still found plenty to feed. 

They are skittish, but friendly enough

Pi loved it, but took a minute or two to get used to the squirrels.

Over the road there is a beautiful park too- which I highly recommend checking out: Yakushiike Park. We ate hot udon in the gardens- it was lovely! Going to the park too certainly makes a nice day of it. 

The pro's and cons of the squirrel park:

Pro:
Entry was cheap
The main squirrel enclosure seems nice, and if I were a squirrel I would be very happy living there.
The animal feed is cheap too.
They employ special needs staff.
Pi loved it!


Cons:
There was a bit of overcrowding of the guinea pig cages
Some of the cages at the start were a little depressing- but my husband and I get easily depressed by animals in small cages.
 

For more information:

http://www.machida-risuen.com/

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1060907-d2042765-Reviews-Machida_Squirrel_Garden-Machida_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.html

https://www.google.co.jp/maps/place/Machida+Squirrel+Garden/@35.5780635,139.4500186,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xfb901826db30cd3?sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjc3MPaqITQAhWDyrwKHfRoAEsQ_BIIggEwDw

Natural science museum, Tokyo.

The other day rainy day we took Pi to the Museaum of Nature and Science in Ueno, Tokyo.
It is super easy to get to from Ueno station; just take the park exit and walk through the lovely park.



Entry was 6.10yen per adult, and children under 18 (yes, 18!) are free. It was super cheap!

There are elevators but it isn't super stroller friendly. It is much easier to access things through the escalators. However, if you don't mind waiting for the elevators then it isn't much of a problem. The layout of the museum was super confusing. You enter in B1, and then work your way up or down, and there are kind of two buildings (most of the exhibits are in the back building).

I was actually a little disappointed by the museum. I have been to some of the bigger ones around the world, and was expecting something much better than it actually was. I think the museum in Brisbane (my home town) is actually bigger, and better.

They have a small dinosaur exhibit, and some taxidermied animals. They have some science-y type exhibits that are mostly Japan related (like an earthquake simulator). They have a few other exhibits too, but nothing that made me go 'wow!'.

On the third floor, there is a kid's playroom called "Compass", which is free to get into, but needs to be booked ahead through their ticketing system. We got into the 12:00-12:45 timeslot. Pi had fun in there, which is mainly a big junglegym with taxidermied animals hidden in there, and some activites. There is a T-Rex statue in there too. You get the ticket for Compass on the first floor near the information desk (not to be confused with the B1 floor information desk). I believe it is for kids up until age 13. Children who cannot walk/climb will probably not enjoy it. Best ages for kids is 4-6. Pi enjoyed the run around though.

They have a cafe with some free space where you can bring and eat your own lunch near the B1 entrance. There is a restaurant there too (I think on the 1st floor), but we only had a glance at the menu. The prices were okay, but I can't comment on the taste. We ended up leaving at about lunch time and getting something from Ueno station that was most to our liking.

There is a gift shop too with some really cool things, and a theater with some sort of movie showing- but we didn't watch it.

Even though I was disappointed in it (because of my high expectations), for the price I definitely recommend it. It was a nice way to spend a family day. I hear it can get super packed on public holidays, and rainy weekends though. I thought it was busy enough on a Friday with all the school groups.

More information can be found in English via their website:

http://www.kahaku.go.jp/english/#

Rice pictures

It has been raining almost non stop for the last two weeks, which means we have been going slightly stir-crazy and running out of activities to do in the house. Luckily, I remembered some of my old artwork from preschool and thought we could make some rice pictures.

What are rice pictures? Essentially, they are just pieces of paper with rice stuck to them but they killed an hour or so, and gave him some different stimulation. Best of all, I already had all the ingredients at home.

You'll need:
rice
food colouring,
paper (for the picutures)
paper towels
glue (liquid glue)
a large container or bowl.

The first thing to do it color the rice. If you have different colours, you can make as many as you like. Put rice in a bowl with a little bit of  cold water (just enough to cover) and add food colouring. I suggest adding A LOT of food colouring, as it doesn't all get in there. Soak for about 5-10 minutes.  Drain and rinse the colouring off the rice, then pat dry with a paper towel. leave until it is dry. I cheated by spreading the rice on a plate and putting it the rice in the microwave and nuked it until the rice was dried out. You really need dry rice.

Next. take you paper and glue (the runny kind) and draw a picture with the glue on the paper (liberally apply the glue). Next, put the glue paper in a large container, add the rice on top and shake it back and forth until the rice covers all the glue.

Next, lift up the paper and leave to dry. Viola! Magic artwork.

Pi enjoyed doing it, and all up with the washing, drying, gluing and ricing took about an hour of fun. You can also do it without coloring the rice, but I think coloured rice is more interesting.

The food colouring that I used is a powder that should be found in the baking section of most supermakets. This colour was red, which turned the rice pinkish as I didn't soak it for too long.

Here are some other people's pictures for inspiration:

Pi's first haircut

We were planning on getting Pi's haircut in Australia- mainly because we were worried about being able to communicate about the kind of hair style we wanted, and because of the possibility of a lack of experience Japanese hairdressers might have cutting curly (ringlet curly) hair.

We had no idea how much of a chop we wanted so the ability to explain what kind of haircut we wanted was kinda moot. In the end, because we wanted to make a paintbrush (see related post when the brush arrives) with his first locks, we decided to get his haircut in Japan.



We heard of a great salon in Yokohama from the mother's group, that specialises in kids hair called Hana Kids- located near Motomachi shopping street in Yokohama. www.hana-kids.net

While no-one spoke to me in English, they had English forms and lots of pictures to point at to show what kind of cut you are looking for. They had a great waiting area for the kids with lots of toys (for both boys and girls). You can then choose which movie to play on the kids of personal tv screen while they get their haircut. There was a great selection of Western movies/shows. We chose Thomas the Tank Engine, but there was literally an A4 page of English options, and about 2 or 3 A4 pages of Japanese options.

The kids sit in a car to have their haircut, and having the screen on means that there is little head movement.

Luckily, Pi has seen me and Husband get out haircut countless times, so there were no problems from him. He didn't like to have his head shampooed (though it's optional, I believe) but it is easier for them to style with clean, wet hair. He was so great through it all, and only minor tear shed from his parents.



I am so sad to see those beautiful curls go. I never realised how much I would miss them. As for his new haircut- it is so much cooler (temperature) and doesn't get in his eyes anymore but I think it makes him look like Florence Henderson, or Julie Andrews from the Sound of Music.  >-<

Either way, the haircut experience was a good one, and for only 3240yen, it was great value.