Chung Family Contest # 10

What did Erik eat?

In this picture, Erik enjoyed lunch with his dad and tried something new.  Guess what it is and we will send you some treats from one of our stops in California on our upcoming trip (we're going to Ghiradelli, Jelly Belly, and Dewars for sure).

Here's your hint:  We wrote about it on this blog.

Leave your answer in the comment section.

A Beautiful Diorama, by Morgan Chung

One of Morgan's first quarter assignments was to create a peephole diorama of a scene from a book as part of a book report.  Morgan chose to read the classic, "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe", by C.S. Lewis.

It was smart that we started this project early.  Morgan chose the winter scene as Lucy enters Narnia and first meets Mr. Tummus.  Woody and I met up for lunch one day and stopped at Michaels.  Woody found the perfect street lamp for the scene.  We bought the lamp (that lights up with a battery pack) and some trees. 

At home, Morgan and Woody spray painted a shoe box white.  We sprayed a few of the trees.  Then we found spray texture for stucco.  Morgan and I sprayed more trees with the texture spray and some dead brush to look like winter birch trres.  The texture spray made perfect snow clumps.  Morgan cut one of the cheap plastic animals (not a Schleich) in half and used it for Mr. Tummus' legs.  For Lucy she printed a copy of a picture of Lucy from the movie and cut it out.  I gave her some of the path from our Dept 56 winter scene kit.  That was painted white to look like a snow covered path.

Morgan did all of the gluing of the scene after Woody installed the lamp and placed the switch in the back corner.  Some foam covered the battery pack - made to look like a hill.

Morgan wrote a three paragraph summary of the book and glued it per the instructions to the outside of the box.

The box looks fantastic.  A lot of work.  Great Job Morgan!!!

Camping on the Rim

This weekend the Chung gang ventured out into new territory - tent camping on the Mogollon Rim (Muggy-own) in the Sitgraeves National Forest.  For 24 hours we were roughing it at an undeveloped campsite directly in the forest.

It was fun but cold, mostly for the parents because we gave the best sleeping bags to the kids.  Erik slept for nearly 12 hours in his perfect temperature Vikings sweatsuit, wearing the hood all night.  The girls wore their new flannel pajamas.  During the day, it was warm enough for shorts and t-shirts.  Morgan and Annika were great at getting firewood.  Erik had a fantastic time.  So did Ingrid.

For sure we'll be camping again soon.  Enjoy the pictures.

Saturday Story Time Book and Recipe

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, by Judi Barrett

Meatball Cupcakes


Ingredients:
Vanilla cupcakes
Vanilla spray icing (with a narrow hole tip, such as Betty Crocker Cupcake Icing)
One Ferrero Rocher candy for each cupcake
1/2 to 1 cup seedless raspberry jelly

How to make it:


Spray the icing loosely on top of the cupcake using the writing tip. Wiggle the can about to make it pile up like spaghetti noodles.

Add the Ferrero Rocher candy on top of the "noodles" to make a "meatball"

Place about 1/2 cup of the raspberry jelly in a microwave safe container. Heat on high for 10-30 seconds until melted and easy to pour. Pour over the Ferrero Rocher candy to make it look like spaghetti sauce. Make sure the jelly has cooled or it will melt the frosting.

Wednesday Miscellaneous but Reportable Chung Events

So stinkin' cute.  And the attached skirt makes you sleep better.  "It's a fancy sleeping ' jama outfit, mom"

I took a bow making class on Tuesday night.  I really want to get more ribbon now.

What's in the bag?  We delivered homemade kimchi chigae and brown rice to our friend, Jill Lopez.  Just because.

Why we never seem to have enough black olives for homemade Pizza...

Saturday Story Time Book and Recipe

The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss

Trufula Trees

a.k.a. Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods



Ingredients:

Pretzel Rods
White candy bark (or white chocolate chips)
Sprinkles
Cotton Candy



How to make it:

Melt the candy bark in the microwave according to the package instructions. Carefully pour the melted chocolate into a glass. Dip the pretzel rod into the melted chocolate and let the excess drip off back into the glass. Roll the pretzel rod into the sprinkles that have been spread across a plate. Add a tuft of cotton candy to the top to make a Trufula tree. Enjoy.



You can change this recipe by using dark chocolate and/or not using the cotton candy.

15 Months and Smiling

Erik is now 15 months old - our ever smiling lovable boy!  You are such a bundle of joy.

To celebrate the milestone, Woody took Erik to his 15 month appointment at the pediatrician.  He's all boy, but definitely wiser.  The smile turned to a frown as soon as he saw someone in scrubs.  Erik is 32 inches tall and weighs 22 pounds.

He is starting to feed himself, forming words with inflection and syllables (what it means is any one's guess), and loves making car, truck and motorcycle sounds.  His favorite toys?  Matchbox cars and orange Hotwheels track.  He has started to ask for certain books to sit down and "read" with mommy and daddy.  Yeah, books!!!

Now that he is feeding himself, the pediatrician asked if we had appropriate sized silverware to promote small motor skills.  We have plenty of flatware in different sizes for each stage of growth.  But with a boy, we felt that maybe we need to get more appropriate sized silverware, just for him:

Wednesday Miscellaneous Photo Essay

Notes from the Chung House.

Six family members - thirteen toothbrushes??



Protecting your Silly Bandz from siblings??

Found this gem under the mess kit in the camping box.  Estimated era - 1998 American Cheese.  Cheese touch, anyone?

The Nocturnal Oxymoron

Ingrid's latest:

She can only sleep with the light on.  Yet, the light keeps her up.  We gave up trying to solve the riddle - until Woody came out of her room laughing with this picture.  She's sound asleep.

da Vinci

Not the artist, but the robot.

One of my current projects at work was the procurement and start up of our robotic surgery program.  And as part of the public relations campaign for the program, we got to take the manufacturer's demo model out to the mall today to let the public test drive it and talk about the benefits of the program.  The robot is around $2M so it's no small purchase.  We're not the first hospital in Phoenix to have it, but we do have the latest model and the first in our PSA.  Our surgeons are excited.

The robot uses four incision points instead of a wide open incision making the surgery minimally invasive with less pain and significantly lower recovery time.

After the soccer game, I had to get to the mall to help set up the display and wheel in whatever was needed.  The engineers did the set up and in no time, we had a line formed.  Public announcements had already been made on our social media sites and there was a boy carefully watching our every move.  I found out his name was Ben and he loved everything about bones and muscles.  He's three years old.  We let him go first.

The engineers set up little 5 mm and 10 mm rings that can be lifted using the robot and hooked on the molded stalagmites.  The other set up was a fish tie.

After handing out brochures and talking to some of the public, I took off for home.  Other staff from the O.R. were there along with the department director and public relations staff.  I agreed to come back at the end of the day to tear down.  I told the kids they could come then.

At 5:20 PM we set off for the mall to pick up the tables (ours) and all of the P.R. materials.  The engineers were anxious to take the da Vinci apart.  Annika had no problem talking to Brian, the clinical engineer.  The two of them started out on the machine and Annika was able to pick up three rings in less than a minute.  She was a natural - watch out surgeons.  Morgan and Ingrid gave it a try and we're able to get a rings, too.

After the kids finished "playing" with a very expensive piece of medical equipment, we helped take down the tables and give-aways and transported it all through Macy's to our car.  Busy Saturday, indeed!

1st Soccer Game - It was almost "rained" out!

Annika's first soccer game was on the verge of being postponed from passing rain.  It was not your typical rain - more like the sprinkler system was not shut off.

Let me back up a bit to my first alert moment of the day.  It was 6:03 AM when I felt the presence of someone peering over me while I was sleeping.  I opened my eyes and focused to see Annika standing over me in her uniform, soccer shorts, shin guards and socks.  Fortunately, she had the fortitude not to put her cleats on in the house.  "I'm ready to go, Mom!"  I moved out of bed, and stood in a position with a look that was not as "chipper" as my seven year old soccer star wannabe.

After a nutritious breakfast we were off to the field at Snedigar.  Annika had some of the first games of the day and this was the first game day of the season.  The San Tan soccer club is large - A LOT of families started arriving for many, many games throughout the morning.  I was grateful, somewhat, for the early AM game, because of the heat.

The girls warmed up with their coach, and met the referee who checked their shoes and shin guards.  And then the water started.  The girls stood and watched it and then squealed as they got wet.  The parents all yelled for them to get out of the water - and then we asked each other, "Is it reclaimed?"  It's so strange that the mindset here is that sprinkler water is bad.  But in fact it usually is reclaimed or grey water, so the joy of running through sprinklers doesn't really exist.

Anyway, the game start was postponed until some calls could be made to get the sprinklers off.  Finally, we got underway.  Annika plays wing and goalie and is the second oldest on the team - but still the shortest.  She's number 2 on her jersey.  She plays her positions very well.  She had no problems going after the ball or placing herself as a defender.  As goalie, she blocked twelve shots!  The team won 6-3.  Annika was asking if I could calculate the minutes until her next game - she's ready to play some soccer.

Saturday Story Time Book and Recipe

If You Give a Pig a Pancake, by Laura Numeroff

Pancakes



Ingredients:

1 egg
1 cup low fat milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons salt



How to make it:

Beat egg, milk and vanilla together. Combine remaining ingredients and stir into the batter, just until somewhat smooth, but slightly lumpy. Don't over mix.

To make the pancakes, pour a little batter onto a hot griddle. Leave at least 2 inches of space between pancakes. Allow them to cook until the tops of pancakes are bubbled, then turn with spatula. Cook just until the underside is lightly browned.
Makes ten 4" pancakes. Recipe may be doubled. Unused batter may be stored in the refirgerator. Thin with a little cold water if the batter becomes too thick.


****
Because of our early Saturday soccer game, we actually moved this to Sunday, today.   We made whole wheat and honey pancakes with enough left over to freeze.  During breakfast, I ready the story to the kids.  Even Erik was enjoying himself.  Or was it the pancake with agave syrup?

Bento

I'm starting to get into the Bento craze again.  This time I'm taking the time to learn a few more tricks.  It's been fun, trying to make food eating (especially the healthy food) more fun for the kids.  From using a pizza cutter on a chicken and cheese quesedilla to decorating apple "cookies", we are convincing our kids to enjoy their food.

Tomorrow, I have an early morning meeting.  I'm also presenting in front of physicians.  I should be in bed by now, but instead I finished a few bento ideas for breakfast.  Woody can take it out of the refrigerator and be all set for a healthy breakfast.

During the World Cup, we ordered soccer jerseys for the kids and to get just the right amount in the order to get the free shipping, we added these egg molds.  The directions were in Japanese.  Today, I finally found a translation on how to make perfect molded eggs.  We're trying them tonight.

Apple cookies are simply apples, sliced real thin, with blueberry eyes and white melon mouths.

Of course, some of the more elaborate Bento boxes are way over my creative head.  But they make great pictures.