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

Gymboree Classes

Gymboree the popular children's clothing brand has been offering play and music classes for kids up to the age of  five for thirty years. Their classes are quiet popular. I came to know about Gymboree from my friend Marsha. Marsha takes her one year old son Maziar to Art class for his age group once a week. So one fine day Aariz and I registered to take try out the Art class for free! Aariz didn't like the Art class and had to get out of there after just five minutes because he was too interested in the class he passed by. The Play & Learn class which is a big open room filled with child safe play equipment like slides, balls, bouncers and many more. So I decided to try out the Play & Learn class for 24 to 36 month kids taking place at that time. Aariz loved playing there occasionally joining in with the group. It is basically an activity based class where everyday they read a story to the children and then they act out the story through imaginary play. One day they read about astronauts going to the moon and then acted that out in their playground with make believe space ship, special food etc. The teacher Nadia blows bubbles towards the end of the class which the kids try to catch with bubble catchers. The class is filled with different activities to keep the child creatively engaged. Aariz enjoys it so every Wednesday Aariz and I take the number 11 bus near our apartment to go to Gymboree at Bayview. Its a ten minute bus ride and then a two minute walk to the class. Barira was always curious what Aariz does in his class and she wanted to do something herself. She loves art and wanted to join the Art class. I've enrolled her on to the Art III class for 3to5 year old kids for the two summer months only. When school starts in fall it'll not be possible to match the time with school. She took the first class last Wednesday and loved it. Asks everyday when the next class will be. Gymboree has open play times three times a week where the enrolled children can come and play on their own in the activity room. Yesterday we took Barira and Aariz for the open play time. They had a great time for the two hours they were there. The pictures are from yesterday.

Barira : Ammu ami ekta murgi ami boshe dim parchi

No TV

Enjoying sliced almonds on the balcony

On the swing

Barira pushing her brother

Aariz resting on the park bench with his bottle of water

We're on a TV curfew at home for the kids. Its been five days so far that the kids weren't allowed to watch any cartoon on TV. The only thing we watch is the daily NTV evening news and that's all. They're being pretty creative in finding new ways to keep themselves busy. They had a picnic on the balcony on their favorite "Kathas". Aariz's red one and Barira's purple. Barira's favorite color has changed from green to purple after coming here. She loves everything purple now. When we read books together she notices even the tiny things that are in purple! They play hide and seek, running after each other and enjoy diving from the sofa. So no tv is getting a little dangerous at times too. I've introduced them to an alphabet learning tool on the internet. This is a program for teaching kindergarten kids. Barira's JKG teacher also used this program in her class. Barira and Aariz both enjoy playing the alphabet games. I plan to introduce the TV back for them in moderate doses. I want to allow them to watch tv for maximum an hour a day. That's what we had when were growing up. We take them to the park everyday now that its summer. So they're getting to do a lot of physical activity. Aariz walks to the big park at the end of our road which is a good ten minute walk from our apartment. After playing and running around he walks half the way back home. They love going on the swing. Both have graduated to the adult's swing. There's also a sand pit at the park with sand toys such as trucks, spades, shovels and pails. They love playing in the sand. Most days we meet with our neighbors/friends Enis, Georgie and their kids are the park. They kids are the same age as Barira and Aariz. The oldest Ema went to JKG with Barira. So they have a good friendship. Barira and Aariz are always happy to meet Ema and Ille at the park.