My World Tuesday geodesic dome

http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

After the horror of cyclone Yasi, my Australian nephew is taught to be cyclone smart.
Lincoln had to do a school project on cyclone proof shelter. In this picture, the school project is made using A4 Paper.

Then they decided to a build a model out of newspaper for his little brother Thomas. Testing his dome is sister Olivia and their neighbour Noah.

A geodesic dome is a spherical or partial-spherical shell structure or lattice shell based on a network of great circles (geodesics) lying on the surface of a sphere. The geodesics intersect to form triangular elements that have local triangular rigidity and also distribute the stress across the entire structure.

Lincoln is quite an inventor. Last year, he did a recycling project. Ka Pai and paki paki Lincoln.

Marvels of Science

Served on a platter fit for the King.

Niece Ruth visits Singapore Science centre.

Reflective shirt

When the water engineer went on his walk-about to the outback of Australia, he was issued with this 100% cotton reflective shirt. I tease him that he is a garbage collector. He retorted that then he was probably the most qualified garbage collector. I laughed, instead of being the water engineer, in America, he would be called a sanitory engineer.

When we were growing up, Mum and Dad used to tell us that if we didn't work hard, we would end up being a garbage collector. The garbage collector then was the lowest of all low career choice. The hot tropical weather made the rubbish to rot and stink. People did not bag their rubbish.

We, all nine siblings have all heeded Mum and Dad's advice and worked hard and received a college education. We look back with fondness of how one cousin who retorted his Mum's similar line of advice and how he rebutted that if everyone studied, who would be a stevedore. ( a stevedore's job is seasonal and hard work). In anger, his mum said, yes, the world needs stevedores, but it doesn't have to be you.

Making a gingerbread house 2

This is Grace's secret recipe:

The kids don't like ginger, so I omitted ginger and the other spices in the recipe. But the molasses was overpowering, it has a burnt or bbq smell which turned everyone off while we were mixing the dough.

So I added nutmeg, cinammon and cloves (I had to pound myself). Don't have any ginger powder and cardoman. The spices improved the fragrance. Michael broke a piece of his roof to eat. After that, the kids only ate the sweets and I had to throw the houses away.

Next time, I will make use chocolate.

We only bake food that's eggless for Angelina's sake, even the icing was eggless and it was hard to pipe for the kids.

Deb knows that it gets difficult when it comes to making stuff with the kids. She helped the kids decorate the cookies.

Love Grace

Comment from Australia:

We usually buy ginger house kit. Kids only like to eat the sugary icing and lollies on the cake. Can we have your recipe.
Looks yummy.

Another comment from Oz to Grace:
These photos are fantastic – so good to see this generation of mothers still want to do things like this with their kids. They must have inherited your flair for creativity. It’s a wonderful way to have some fun together. You’ve done a great job. Trouble is, when so much work has gone into creating them, you can’t bring yourself to eat them. Did your kids eat theirs?

My girls still talk about the wonderful cakes that Aunty Grace used to bake for their birthdays when they were small.

***Last year, my home group at church won the competition of protraying how different countries celebrated Christmas round the world. C made the winning prizes of beautiful Christmas cakes like an alpine house complete with Santa stuck in the chimney. She wanted to give 1/2 of the cake to me. Before I could stop her, she had cut the cake into half. I told her the cake was too pretty to eat, and it was such a heartachne to have it cut. I would rather the other winner take the whole cake home. C said, cakes are meant to be eaten. Each time I ate the cake, I choked.***

Everyone Loves Mickey and Minne

These are my sisters Elizabeth and Grace and some of their family. What a beautiful photo of beautiful people.

Bonding with cousins.

Grace said she hadn't baked for a long time except for the odd pavlova. Then she went on to make a gingerbread cake.

D baked chocolate chip cookie with all the kids, eggless for Angelina's sake.

Lucky Child

While Mum and dad are thousands of miles away in New Zealand, D is very lucky to have her Aunt Grace celebrate her birthday for her. She spent the day with her cousins Jessie, Chris, Michael, Angeline, Uncle KY and friend Lynn.

Happy Birthday D.

D is my first born. In some parts of Taiwan, they also celebrate the child's birthday as SHIO NAN LE,the day of suffering for Mum. All Mums would identify with this. Therefore, Mums deserve a present too. In deed, when I was in labour with D, I thought I was going to die. I had 26 hours of labour.

What do you think? Do mums deserve a gift on her child's birthday?

Making a gingerbread house.

What an excellent way to bond with children. My sister Grace makes pinata, bakes cookies and cakes.

Grace is emulating the way Mother brought us up. During the Chinese New Year, Mother would make cakes, cakes and more cakes. She didn't have an electrical mixer. The beater she had was a big spring attached to a broom like stick. We all took turns to beat the one hundred eggs. We learned from a hands on lesson on baking, and co-operation. Mother distributed her cakes to her sisters and Grandma.

Mother's cake was the best cake I have ever eaten. They were baked in her own fashioned charcoal oven.

****I really admired you Grace. I always wanted to do that wiht my children. Few times Sharlene and Arlene baked cakes with Matthew. comment from Malaysia *****

Chook! Chook! Chook!

Two year old D sees a chicken for the first time in her life.