3rd Harvest - Potatoes

I didn't plant the potatoes. They came up all their own, probably from last year's potatos which I had buried.

As usual, Olivia helped me. She is at that age where she wants to do EVERYTHING that I do.

Yummy Cherry Pie

Since Summer is when all the seasonal fruits are abundant, I decided to try my hand at baking a cherry pie. The only thing that I thought was hard was pitting the cherries. However, I found out that pitting the cherries were a piece of cake as well.

After the cherries are pitted, mix them in a big mixing bowl with sugar and corn starch.

Then, transfer the cherries onto a pie crust, top with another pie crust, brush the crust with egg wash and into a 400F oven for 50-60 minutes.

The result. Best eaten with vanilla ice cream.

Now, when are those cherries going to be on sale again?? :)

2nd harvest - Tomatoes

I reaped my 2nd harvest a while back - tomatoes! I have 4 tomato plants - 2 cherry tomatoes and 2 beef steak.

Waiting for them to turn red.

These cherry tomatoes didn't last long. As soon as they were cleaned, Olivia popped them in the mouth. She loves tomatoes.

Sesame Place - Part IV (Final)

The next day was going home day but we visited Sesame Place one last time before our journey home. Since Olivia slept quite well the night before, I thought perhaps she would be in a better mood to go on the rides.

Well, I was wrong. The only ride she went on was the one below where the fishes fly in a circle.


In fact, we almost did not make it because half way through the wait, she wanted to leave the line but I knew she would enjoy it, so I kept her in line. She loved it. She love flying in the air and was laughing the whole ride.

After that, it was No No No to any rides or water attraction. So, we decided to just have lunch, then embarked on our journey home.

We had thought that Olivia would enjoy Sesame Place more but we did not regret making the trip. We chalked it up to the extreme heat because who would want to wait in line for 1/2 hour in the hot sun, especially an impatient 2 yr old toddler? We used to take her to carnivals in the spring and she would go on EVERY ride!

She seemed to remember the trip, even to today and she was very excited and happy when talking about it. With kids, you'll never know what they will like or dislike.

My rice cooker....

died on me last week. I was in the midst of cooking rice and it suddenly stopped working. Luckily the rice was cooked.

I've had it for almost 8 years. Hubby bought it got just before I moved to the US. He knew I eat rice almost everyday and anticipated that we will be eating rice quite frequently.

So, I began researching for a new rice cooker and found that these days, the rice cooker is so 'canggih' (sophisticated). Complete with fuzzy logic and multiple modes to cook brown rice, porridge, sushi rice etc. Some even come with induction heat. The shape of the rice cookers are very futuristic and they are quite expensive as well, USD100 and more!






Looks like I haven't kept up with time. The rice cooker that died on me look like this. Very basic and came with a vegetable steamer.


I remembered that my parents' old rice cooker lasted for almost 20 years before it died. So, which brand is better and last longer?

Sesame Place - Part III

After the Elmo show, we proceeded to go on some other rides. While waiting for a balloon ride, Olivia got cranky and started crying (there was a long line and only 8 balloon baskets).

I realized that she must be hungry cos she did not have her morning snack (my bad). So we quickly went to Elmo Café to get something to eat. After lunch, we asked her if she wants to ride this or that and the answer was No and No. As the weather was very hot and humid, we thought she would enjoy the water attractions.

I quickly changed Olivia into her swim suit and her daddy took her on a tube ride. BIG mistake! Water splashed on her face as they were tubing along and she won’t stop crying and kept asking for me. What to do….they have to tube along until the end.

Here she is crying.

To comfort her, I took her to watch the Sesame Place Parade. All the Sesame Street characters were in the parade – Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Oscar, The Count, Grover, Zoe etc. They were dancing and interacting with the onlookers. I think she enjoyed this the most.

When the parade ended, we took her to a shallow pool where she can play and wade around but she wanted nothing to do with that. Since it was very hot and she wasn’t interested in any rides, we decided to go back to the hotel.

Perhaps tomorrow would be a better day.

Sesame Place - Part II

We woke up bright and early on Friday ready to hit Sesame Place. After having some complementary breakfast at the hotel, we head out. Sesame Place is about 8-10 miles from our hotel and it took us 15-20 minutes to drive there.

Elmo's walk of fame.

The admission tickets are SO expensive. It is $50.95 for each person. Children under 2 are free. We bought the Elmo 2-day ticket for the same price and if you are an AAA member, there is a discount on the tickets.

As soon as we passed the admission gates, Olivia ran to look at Elmo, Cookie Monster etc which were cut from bushes.



Then, the daredevil went on the roller coaster with daddy. I was concerned she would freak out but she enjoyed it so much. She told me "I went FAST!"


We checked out the various dry attraction first. Of course, she has to go on the carousel.



After the merry-go-round, we were just in time for an Elmo show. Olivia was very excited to see Elmo live. The look on her face is worth the whole trip.


Then, everything just went downhill from there.

To be continued......

Sesame Place - Part I

On the first day of our trip, we left the house around 9.45am and headed to Sesame Place. Since it was a weekday, there were no traffic. This would be the first road trip for Olivia.

We reached Pennsylvania around 12.30pm with a 20 minute stop at a rest area. Olivia did pretty well considering this is the longest car drive she has been in. Towards the end of the trip, she got a bit cranky and I had to let her watch a Little Einstein dvd. Thank god for portable DVD player...:)

After checking in at the hotel and having lunch, it was already 2pm. So, we decided that we would visit Sesame Place the next day. As for the rest of the afternoon, we would visit an outlet mall nearby - Franklin Mills.

We were not impressed with the outlet mall at all. Not all the stores are outlets, only certain ones are.

After about 2 hours, Olivia got bored and started to get hyper. So, we left, went back to the hotel and let her play in the pool.

That's the end of day 1. Stay tune for more from Sesame Place.