THE PRINCESSES DIARIES

Mia Nichelle is...

Lilypie Kids birthday Ticker

Chia Marina is...

Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Amelie Christine is

Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers

Alisa Oceana is

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Princesses Amelie: How to make Irish Soda Bread

Chia suggested we bake raisin bread for Daddy's snack so we thought we'd show you how to do it. It's very fun but you have to follow the instructions step by step -don't leave any out else it might not work.
NOTE: Must have two (or more) kids to lend their expert cooking skills. Don't have two? Ok then, even one will do.


Step 1: Practice kneading on homemade play dough while mummy gets the bread ingredients together.

No cook play dough recipe
2-4 cups flour
1/4 cup salt
1 cup hot tap water
splash of oil
food colouring

Add more flour in as you knead to make it not stick & be just the right texture. Easy! (we made ours back in August and it's still working great. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.)


Step 2: Choose a recipe. Hmm... no yeast left, lets find another recipe


Step 3: Get started with measuring


Step 3: Use your hands to "sift"


Step 4: Do the important measuring while your big sister is occupied with "sifting"

Step 5: Must count the cups of flour -good math practice you know.... One...


Two...

Four!
(No photo of three, mum was laughing too hard)

Step 6: Prepare the raisins


Step 7: Sift some extra flour onto the counter and floor for good measure


Step 8: Mince your raisins... just for fun (This is what a grown-up is good for)


Step 9: Add the liquids a cup at a time


Step 10: Add the raisins
VERY IMPORTANT: Test the flavour of the raisins. I like to call this a "quality control check"


Step 11: Mix it all up-focus intently when mum checks to see if you're still eating -I mean doing a "quality control check" on the raisins


Step 12: One last "quality control check"


Step 13: Divide the dough in half and lovingly shape into two rough circles


Step 14: Place on a floured greased oven tray & cut a 1cm cross into them.


Step 15: Brush tops with melted butter & bake at 190 degrees C for 30-40 mins or till it sounds hollow when tapped


Step 16: Photograph the tired grown up with flour and dough covered hands to show how much you love her


Step 17: Pull it out and cool it down for 3 hours


Step 18: Dig in (with butter or cream cheese of course)





Click to watch something that Chia insisted on stating ad infinitum after tasting the bread

Ahh, satisfaction. There's nothing like the taste of home made bread. Oh, we'd better save some for daddy!

The End.

PS. We love baking and hope to make this sometime soon. (Don't worry Al, the goods are stowed in the freezer till we can do it -won't be long now!)

Friday, September 12, 2008

The Princesses: Dawn and Yasu's Wedding, Part 1

We went far far away to Dawn and Yasu's wedding. This is how we got there.




Bye bye bride & groom -see you soon!

We're off! Do you see the police car up the front? Its the one with red lights on top. It was driving at the right speed and no one would pass it.


See? Lots of cars were lined up behind the police car, but no one was in front of it.


After a long time the police drove off and we could drive faster!


Daddy is the best driver, he is so safe and drives carefully -not at the edge of the cliff.


Peek-a-boo!
The drive was very long and mummy took lots of photos cos she was bored. My little sisters slept, but I stayed awake and took photos with mummy.

The roads were straight

There are lots of mountains

Look at mummy's toes! She wants to run on the road. :)


Daddy drove and drove

Here comes the tunnels

AHHHH!

The clouds were touching the mountians


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
That's what we say when we go through tunnels.

We're driving into the clouds now!
Ready, set...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Someone cut this mountain to make sand. It doesn't look like a mountain any more.


Now there are lots of rice paddies


Almost there!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Princess Mia: Dawn & Yasu's Wedding, Part 2

We arrived!


Flower girl dress fitting


All photos from here on by ME!
Mummy is adding ribbon to match the bridesmaids dresses

Tired mummy trying to sew

A silly sister self portrait!

A pretty little house

A pretty little park

There were pretty flowers

And baskets

Here's how to escape


These are the scary stairs that Chia fell down....