Bright sun shiny Sunday in September

No sign of the fall weather we experienced last week, today was a perfect summer day. Bright sun but comfortable temperature. 
We set out for the beach with a pit stop at Guildwood Park. An amazing place that resembles an open air museum with pieces from old buildings placed amid well manicured lawn. Beautiful landscaping. It has old Greek style columns,sculptures, intricate benches. Aariz and Barira enjoyed running in the open space. Barira loved seeing different shades of purple flowers and took pictures with all of them. The park is set on a cliff so the views of lake Ontario from its edge is breathtaking. I could spend the entire day just sitting there. But ofcourse its a little difficult to do that with a kindergartner and a toddler. So after our tour of the gardens we headed for the beach. 

on the cliff

Barira with purple flowers

more purple...

Aariz with the polar bear

now purple leaves

dancing out of joy

But first we stopped for lunch at Pizza Pizza. Barira wanted cheese pizza for lunch. So we took a large pizza with half only cheese and our half had steak, mushroom and sun dried tomato toppings.  

at the Rouge beach

We went to Rouge Beach today. This was the first time we went there. Now its our favourite beach in Toronto. It reminded me a little of the beach at the edge of Sunderban. Its really beautiful and the water is clear up to two feet. So you can see pebbles under your feet in knee deep water. Barira and Aariz enjoyed being in the water today. They were a little scared in the beginning but then got used to it very easily. Even Aariz went in to the water by himself. It was a Sunday well spent. Kids were tired and had a good nap on the way back. 

Berry Picking Saturday

entrance to Whittamore farm

We went berry picking today. It was the last day of the season for strawberry picking. Barira loves strawberries and I really wanted her to have the experience of picking berries right of the plants. We were  all amazed to see the line of strawberry bushes on the fields. We arrived at Whittamore farm ready for picking berries- Barira and Aariz with pales in hand. They told us at the strawberry field that there weren't any berries left but we still opted to have a go just for the experience. We managed to pick nearly a pound of tiny berries. The biggest we picked was way smaller than regular ones we buy from the stores. But those berries were sweet. Now I know they're not being pompous when they say Ontario strawberries are the best. They truly are. They're the sweetest strawberries I've ever had. From strawberry field we headed for raspberries. They were plenty in supply. Both kids got their buckets filled. The pictures show how engrossed they were in picking the berries. 

on to the fields

showing her first strawberry

looking for strawberries

we couldn't fill our buckets with straberries

 

very seriously looking for raspberries

Barira the expert berry picker

showing off her pick

berry pickers busy in the raspberry field

bucket full of raspberries

 

Aariz was more interested in his gummy bears!

trying to milk the goat..

Barira bravely went to feed the calf

Berry picking done we headed for the snack shack. We lunched on freshly made mini cheese pizzas, chicken tenders, fries, apple turnovers and blueberry strudels. After a hard day's work we devoured the sumptuous feast. Next we headed for the farm yard play ground. The kids just went wild. Even in that sweltering sun they went all over the farm -trying to milk goats, riding wagons, bouncing on the farm bouncer, playing in the sand lot, sliding through a thirty foot tunnel , Aariz didn't meet the height restriction to go on that big slide but he was so enthusiastic that I let him go. And he loved it. A day well spent.

Barira the little chef

rolling her first paratha

Barira is turning in to quiet the little chef. She enjoys baking cookies and cupcakes and making parathas. The first cookie she and I baked was Choco Chip Cookies. Our first batch turned out well.... Shadman loved it and took the cookies along with the jar ! We baked a fresh batch last night to refill his jar. After choco chips we baked jam cookies. Barira loved the jam cookies she was given at school for snack and wanted to bake a batch herself. We made our one with strawberry jam and put fresh blueberries on some of them also. Those came out alright. Probably a seven out of ten. haha... But our Blueberry muffins came out really good. Barira loves blueberries because of the purplish blue color and wanted to bake blueberry muffins. She couldn't have any from the first batch because of the cinnamon powder on top! Like her dad she hates the smell of cinnamon. None of us thought of that when we were making them.

jam cookies

blueberry muffins

muffins rising in the oven

our first batch of Chocolate Chip cookies

Tea Party table

Barira working on her paratha

Now Aariz gets to play with some dough

decorating her cup cakes with bubble gums!

After cookies we tried Red Velvel cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for the tea party we had for Barira's friends and their families. I think we got ten on ten on the cupcakes. Ema (short for Emanuel) had five cupcakes, Anagha had two, Ema's brother had one also and the adults enjoyed them too. So that recipe is definitely a keeper. 

preparing the pan for muffins

The first day Barira wanted to roll the paratha dough I just let her play with it. Next day I made the dough in to a ball for her and she rolled it out. I helped her put oil  inside and folded it for her. She did the rest of the rolling. It did retain the square shape in the end. She's got steady rolling hands. Nowadays when she wants to have paratha we let her roll the dough herself. This hopefully teaches her the importance of being able to make your own food. Aariz loves to roll the dough too. He only gets to try with miniature dough balls at the moment. 
Sometimes when we do watch TV.... Barira and I enjoy watching baking shows. Shows like Cake Boss where they bake cakes in different themes. We aspire to try out those kind of cakes ourselves some day. The reason why we can't bake more often is we don't have people to eat the results of our labor. Ammu and I are watching out diets and its difficult for us to resist. So we end up having them anyways :(. Uncle seldom tries the sweet stuff. Barira and Aariz aren't very enthusiastic either. Barira loves to bake for "others" only! For now Shadman is our only hope. Barira got a lovely kids baking set as gift from Nipun and Bidita when they visited us last week. We can't  wait to try it out.The other day Barira said she wants to bake cookies and cupcakes for Reazan chachhu, Dadiya and Dada bhai and send them back with Baba.

placing cookie dough on sheet