Economics project...

I am quite amazed at times about how things are thought to our kids at US schools. We (myself and my husband) come from an education system that encouraged memorization and repetition, where discussion and investigation was not frequently encouraged, especially in earlier school years.

Sude's second grade economics project was an interesting experience for us all... The goal was for her to make 12 of something (anything handmade, baked, etc) to sell at a market to better understand concepts of cost, profit, marketing, slogan, pricing, etc.

She has decided to make chocolate dipped pretzels. And kudos to her, she did a wonderful job. The only thing I did was to warm the chocolate up in the microwave...

And yes, she is wearing a pair of skull earrings... "Rock on"

Then she came up with the slogan and made a sign... I only gave her the materials and helped her to draw lines so that she could write straight. She later came up with a price with her teacher...
I was surprised to see how nervous the night before about whether anyone would want to buy her pretzels... I have encouraged her to be confident in her "product: and her hard work...

Sure enough... She sold 10 of her pretzels and gave the two to her friends who could not make it to the market. What a great way to learn... I sometimes wish I am a kid again...

International day/night

This spring our school had it's first International day/night.

One of the things that always amazes me about US is how interested and amazed everyone around us is about where we came from and our culture. Our kid's school teachers, coaches, etc, emphasise always how cool it is that they are part of two cultures and speak two languages.

As a result, our kids seem to think it is very "cool" to have parents who grew up in a different culture and be able to spend summers with family and relatives at another part of the world...

I was glad that they were very enthusiastic about the international day/night idea. After all, sometimes kids just want to "fit in", they don't like the idea of being "different" from everyone else. So I was pleasantly surprised that they wanted to go for it all the way. They went to school with traditional outfits and helped me to prepare for the night part...

After school, we had tables prepared with things that represented Turkey and sample food. Our table was at the cafeteria and we served two kinds of Turkish food: "Simit" which something in between a sesame bagel and a pretzel and "Baklava"...

Kids had "passports" and had to go to each table and get stickers or stamps from them. Each table had some sort of activity to entertain the kids. We had lots of evil eye beads and kids got to make some good luck charm bracelets...

There were a total of ten countries represented and everyone got to experience a small part of that country...

We all had great time... The international night will definitely become a tradition at our school...

Easter egg hunt...

The spring is officially started when we went for the annual egg hunt... Kids still get so excited for candy and wait patiently next to the fields for the fire truck to give the signal.
Then it is 2 minutes of chaos and we are done...I love that...

We got to see some friends and enjoy the beautiful weather...

I love this scarf that I have on. My hubby got it for me all the way from Japan...

Tornadoes and birthday cakes...

Last week we had major tornado scare. The kids were at school and I had to sit in the closet for almost an hour.

We ended up not getting a tornado but we got major hail... (see below)

After we got home from school, all activities were cancelled. We decided to bake a birthday cake for one of Sude's coaches... This is how it looked at the end...

It was a very creative process... I wanted to make it fun for Sude...

After we mixed up a box of yellow cake we split it up to 3 bowls and made three colors of batter, her choices...
- brown (added cocoa powder)
- pink (added food coloring)
- green (added food coloring)

We poured them to the pan randomly and Sude used a knife to swirl the cake batter to mix the colors further...You can see in there a cake created by an artist...(At least that's what she says)

I applied a new trick that I have learned and it WORKS.... I did not want to have a dome on my cake. Usually I cut off the dome to make the cake flat but I did not want to loose any cake that way. There are always more kids at the gym who are interested in cake...

I washed a kitchen towel and wrapped the cake pan with it and baked the cake that way. Sure enough, it worked and I had an evenly raised cake...

I made the cream cheese icing myself. A proven and yummy recipe...

- 1 stick of butter

- 1 pack of cream cheese

- 2 cups of powdered sugar

- 1 teaspoon of vanilla

- In my case, pink food coloring

I had to do the icing myself the next day when she was at school.

The cake was a huge hit. It is a shame I don't have a picture of the slices... (No surprise there)

Spring is here: Ice cream cup cakes

I have not been baking lately... I don't know why...
I guess you kind of get out of the habit.

Since Sude has moved up a level at gymnastics, I have been meaning to bake a treat for the team. Finally last week I ended up making these ice cream cup cakes.

This was a simple recipe, well I guess no recipe... I used boxed chocolate fudge cake and store bought cherry icing (baking Gods would be mad)

You need to fill out the ice cream cones by 3/4 with the cake batter, not more... Then bake them at 350 until the cupcakes are done. Then decorate with icing like it is a cone of chocolate ice cream.

Kids enjoyed them and it was easy enough to get me eased into baking again...
Enjoy...

New York - Thrift adventures

I have been meaning to post the details of my vintage/thrift shopping day in NY but it has been hard to find time with work, kids, and the beautiful weather outside that keeps calling me.

The more I waited, the more harder it was to also remember the details. I tried to trace our steps as much as I can and hopefully I remember it all...

Some notes up front:
- I went to this shopping trip with two of my cousins and they live in Brooklyn. They know their way around, so it was easier.
- We (I) used Yelp iPhone app extensively. We had a plan to start with, but we found many other stores by searching on the go...
- We covered areas that are outside of Manhattan since I would be able to do that by foot the next day.
- We had a car and drove between areas but walked between stores.
- Thrift shopping apparently does not start until noon... We came to find out quickly. Make sure to check the store hours in advance and start late. Also there are a lots of stores that are closed on Monday and/or Tuesday. Our shopping day was a Wednesday.
- Wear comfortable shoes and clothes that can easily be changed or wear a tank top under your clothes so that you don't have to go into the dressing rooms.
- None of these stores knows who I am and if I did not buy something from a store that does not mean it is a bad one.

Since the only store that we could find that opens up before noon was in Staten Island, we first headed there. You have to pay for the toll, just FYI. You can also take the ferry since this store is very close to the ferry station. The store opens at 10:30 am.

Everything goes clothing
140 Bay St
Staten Island, NY 10301

This store is not very big but it had a great selection of skirts and coats. It is also very reasonably priced. I bought 2 skirts. Both of them needed some work with buttons and hooks. After they were dry cleaned and fixed up, both looked awesome... $14 in total.

Then we headed back to Brooklyn. Since we still had time, we sat down in a cafe right across the Rosebud vintage store and had yummy pastries and coffee. The owner was very helpful, even called the store owner to see when she was going to open.

Rosebud
726 Franklin Ave

(between Sterling Pl & Park Pl)
Brooklyn, NY 11238

This is a really small store and it is not thrift. It is more vintage. They had cute stuff but a little too pricey for me. I did not get anything there.

Then we drove to the next general area and parked the car close to Dolly G's.

Dolly G's
320 Graham Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Another small, vintage store. I did not get anything from there also. Then we walked to Atlantis Attic which is around the corner from Dolly G's.

Atlantis Attic
771 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211

This was a quite large thrifty store. Lots and lots of stuff. Lots of shoes also. I don't know if I can ever bring myself to buy shoes from a thrift store. I ended up finding this pretty silk shirt made in France and three belts. Total $25.

Then we walked down the Graham Avenue (opposite direction from Dolly's) and got in to one of the stores on the right. It is a small store but again very cute stuff. I cannot remember the name, which is a shame, and it was not in our list.

I bought this polyester dress for $18. The skirt is pleated and I already wore it two times (opera and fancy dinner with friends) with black patented belt.

From there, we walked back to the car and drove to Williamsburg area. We first stopped by Monk Vintage which is one of the most packed thrift stores I have ever seen. It is just packed with stuff..

Monk Vintage
496 Driggs Ave
(between 10th St & 9th St)
Brooklyn, NY 11211

I had great finds in this store also. A beautiful jean dress that fits me perfectly, a scarf and black and white sweater (I do not have a picture of that). I think I paid $35 in total...

Then we walked to;
Buffalo Exchange
504 Driggs Ave
(between 10th St & 9th St)
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Guvnor's Vintage Thrift
178 5th Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11227

Both were good. My cousin got some things but I did not get anything...There are a lot of stores in this area in walking distance. Yelp helps tremendously.
In one of the stores that we found through Yelp, I found this beautiful scarf. One of the most expensive pieces I bought, a whopping $20. Just perfect for this summer...

We had a late lunch at Crif Dogs when we wanted to a little break...

Crif Dogs
555 Driggs Ave
(between 7th St & 6th St)
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Let me tell you something, one of the best hot dogs that I had. Maybe it was because I was starving. It was the perfect quick lunch, we got back out there to sift through more clothes.

More staycation fun...

On another day of our staycation, we got kids new bikes. They still have not mastered to ride them without the training wheels.
We are trying a new method that is recommended by the bike shop. They have removed the pedals and kids try to stay on top of the bike by using their feet. Sude made lots of progress but they still need practice time. They practiced at our school's parking lot...

We got to sit at the back of the car and sip coffee...

Of course that was short lived and we got ousted from our spots pretty soon...