Moon-Beans

Springbok Shoes

2009-08-12T19:21:00.004-04:00

The Dijkstra family came to visit us this summer for a family vacation from South Africa and surprised all the girls with awesome sandals from South Africa. Handmade from leather & springboks. Springboks (pic show above) are graceful gazelle (Antidorcas marsupialis) of SA.
My girls love their new sandals and even wear them to summer camp! Thank you to our great friends from SA.

The Giant Cupcake

2009-04-21T22:15:00.003-04:00

I'm planning on making this big cupcake for Ella & Emmy's 7th Birthday Party in June. We are planning an "elegant tea party" at the garden. I'm planning the details which I will share with you soon. In the meantime, you can purchase the giant silicone cupcake mold on http://www.qvc.com/.

Our 10th Wedding Anniversery!

2009-04-21T20:52:00.009-04:00

Bob and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in Aruba. Aruba is a great island along the coast of venezuela. It's a small island (within the kingdom of the netherlands) with about 100,000 population & 51 combined nationalities. The two official languages are the Dutch language and Papiamento. Papiamento is a language that has been evolving through the centuries and absorbed many words from other languages like Dutch, English, diverse African dialects, and most importantly, from Portuguese and Spanish. However, like many islands in the region, Spanish is also often spoken. This island is like a large fruit salad - a mix and mash of flavors from all over the world. One the greatest places in the carribean.

Garden of Ideas - Ridgefield, CT

2009-04-21T20:23:00.002-04:00

Spring has finally arrived! The girls and I enjoyed an afternoon at Garden of Ideas, just around the corner from our home. A wonderful garden in Ridgefield for relaxing and enjoying nature. The girls brought drawing pads and sketched beaufiul pictures of the gardens, while mom enjoyed photographing the girls.

GIRLS NIGHT OUT at the Maritime Norwalk Aquarium

2009-04-21T20:13:00.001-04:00

Mia's last Brownie Scout meeting took place at the Norwalk Martime Aquarium in Norwalk, CT. The sleepover was awesome...we slept with the Otters! We enjoyed a night full of fun!

Ice Skating on the Lake...Ridgefield CT

2009-01-19T20:58:00.007-05:00

We enjoyed Ice Skating on Fox Lake with the Kelly Family. The boys enjoyed a game of ice hockey while the girls practiced figure skating (of course). Diane provided the hot chocolate to keep us warm . I enjoyed skating too and taking some great pics. After a few hours of skating we enjoyed Diane's delicious homemade Chili. Thank you Diane & Amanda! We had a super fun time.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-05T13:31:00.006-05:00

We all start out the year thinking about what we would like to change, do or accomplish. I would like to share my list of Top Ten Things To Do for 2009. I will publish/revise my Top Ten list monthly until the end of the year and recap what I actually accomplished or didn't accomplish in 2009. This should be lots of fun and can be used as great motivational tool. Please try it with me and let me know your results.

Val's Top Ten Things To Do for 2009

Exercise a few times a week
Quit "social" smoking
Develop photography skills with new Sony SLR Camera
Learn Photoshop CS3
Visit The Dijkstra Family in South Africa
Take a mini vacation with my husband for our 10th Year Wedding Anniversary in May '09
Schedule "me" time
Balance personal and professional life
Continue Blogging
Make sure Valerie is thankful & grateful for all she has :)

Lastly...I wish you lots of success in 2009!

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T14:06:00.001-05:00

My First Photos

2008-12-29T21:16:00.007-05:00

I took my first ever photos on my new Sony SLR camera given to me by my husband Bob for Christmas...I love my new camera! I plan on learning digital photography and developing my Adobe Photoshop skills in 2009...Stay Tuned.

2008 Christmas @ the Liu Home!

2008-12-29T20:37:00.012-05:00

Here are some great pictures of our Christmas Holiday with family & friends. These pictures say it all...This was the BEST Christmas!

Thansgiving with the Lum Family

2008-12-29T20:18:00.005-05:00

Thangiving Day with the Lum family (Bob's family) is always a blast. Ayissa & Larry hosted with a delicious spread which included a Spanish Turkey, an American Turkey & a Chinese style Pig Roast. My favorite was the Spansih and Pig Roast, of course. The sides and desserts were amazing. Krissy Lum made the delicious Bananna Rum Bread Pudding...yum. The girls played with cousin Baby Riley and I enjoyed hanging with Bob's aunt Guma & Cousins. Ayissa's brother made 6 different types of Mojitos and they were amazing. So, we spent the night and Guma then took us food shopping to the Chinese & Korean markets before heading back to CT. What a great Thanksgivinging. Thank you to our favorite family...The Lum Family. We love you!

Kitchen Renovation (Part I)

2008-11-24T22:30:00.007-05:00

We're currently in the process of redoing our kitchen. Our challenge is to update our 80's kitchen into a cottage style kitchen with a set/limited budget. What does this mean? We're doing most of the work ourselves, minimal labor costs.

The first step was to determine what we were going to change. We decided to change our appliances, countertops, sink, cabinet hardware, faucet and backsplash. Our cabinets were custom built and in great condition so we decided to keep and paint the cabinets. We plan on changing the tile floor to hardwood flooring (in the future). In addition, the kitchen will be freshly painted and the final touches will include new lighting and window treatments. I hope to share the "new kitchen" photos with you soon...hopefully before Christmas 2008. Check out what we're currently working with...

True Heroes

2008-11-24T22:09:00.005-05:00

On Sunday, we helped our daughters create Thanksgiving floats for their school's Thanksgiving parade. The first graders were asked to develop a float on their favorite hero. Our daughter's Ella & Emmy created their floats on Mom & Dad, instead. Although, we were flattered, we felt it should have been created on a true hero such as a soldier who is fighting each day for our country. We're thankful for our amazing daughters and our true heroes...our soldiers. Happy Thanksgiving!

Day After Halloween

2008-11-03T21:27:00.000-05:00

We made a delicious Pumpkin Curry Soup using a soup mix, canned pumpkin, half n half and butter. It was easy and delicious. We then cleaned out a large pumpkin (saving the seeds) and used it as our serving bowl. Served with homemade bread. We then baked our seeds and topped with cinnamon sugar for a yummy treat.

Halloween Bash!

2008-11-03T21:26:00.000-05:00

After taking the kids trick-o-treating, Bob and I went to our neighbors house to celebrate Al's 50th Birthday/Halloween Party. His wife, Sandy organized the entire party with beautiful Halloween decorations, delicious food and amazing desserts...loved the pumpkin cheesecake. It was a blast...enjoyed the costumes..and the great company of friends. Bob went as a pig/chef and I went as "Nurse Ophelia Pain" and actually won the "Sexiest Costume"...won a bottle of "Vampire's Blood". Great Halloween Party...Happy Birthday, Al.

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-03T21:02:00.000-05:00

Another great Halloween...trick-o-treating on Main Street. Mia dressed as a "Goth" Dracula, Emmy was a Vampire "Princess" & Ella was a "Diva" Witch with beautiful silver lashes. We enjoyed the beautiful warm night and all the spooky costumes (check out Gold Medalist, Mark Spitz) and decorations. My favorite home display was the Chinese Forbidden City with dragons and beautiful Chinese costumes, the children received fortune cookies instead of candy...creative and spectacular!
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Mia's Halloweenfest!

2008-10-26T22:02:00.000-04:00

Mia invited her friends to celebrate her 8th birthday at Ichiro Habachi Restaurant in Danbury CT. The kids enjoyed the cooking show and delicious Habachi food. After the restaurant, we came back to the house for a Halloween party with spooky treats and a haunted house ice-cream cake. The girls had a sleepover and did not fall as sleep until 2am...we were very exhausted. Thank you Kiki for joining us - Mia loves you. Happy Birthday, Misop!

Pumpkin Crazy...

2008-10-26T21:54:00.000-04:00

I went shopping and I guess the theme was pumpkins. I found curried pumpkin soup mix, pumpkin cobbler mix, pumkin ale beer and spiced pumpkin apple cider mix...wow. Bob loved the ale, of course! I plan on trying the soup & cobbler this week. I love Fall and Halloween...looking forward to Halloween on Friday!

Yummy Apples!

2008-10-26T21:29:00.000-04:00

We made delicious caramel apples with marshmallows and candy corn after apple picking.

CHEESE HEAD!

2008-10-16T15:59:00.000-04:00

I'm currently working on our 2009 POS football promotion and have received some neat samples. My favorite is the Cheese Head...Suzanna you look great!

FALL in love with FALL

2008-10-12T21:28:00.000-04:00

Another picture perfect "Fall" day as we visited the Outhouse Orchard in North Salem, NY. We enjoyed pumpkin and apple picking on this perfect "Indian Summer" day with our little friends Katy & Trey. Bob waited an hour for his smoked Turkey leg drum (well worth it) and I enjoyed the BBQ pulled pork sandwich for lunch. The kids enjoyed the maple and honey candies. I purchased a bushel of ripened Tomatoes for only $10.00. We got back to the house and the kids made caramel apples while I made homemade pasta sauce with fresh basil and oregano from our garden, lots of garlicccc and pine nuts. Dinner was soooooo fresh and yummy. I love FALL!

Oktoberfest in Ridgefield!

2008-10-12T20:10:00.000-04:00

We took part in the sixteen-day festival celebration held each year in Munich & Bavaria Germany, right here in Ridgefield CT. Thanks to our friend and neighbor's, the Jaeger Family. Keeping up with Tanya & Eric's tradition and heritage they sure put together an amazing festival.

The festival took place at the Jaeger's home on there 3 acre property. The Oktoberfestbiers "BEER" were from at least six breweries in Germany, a wooden barrel keg and several German wines. Bob's favorite beer was the smoked beer (German: Rauchbier of Barmber) is a type of beer with a distinctive smoked flavor. The taste is very similiar to smoked bacon...SMOKIN!

While the adults enjoyed the "Oktoberfestbiers" the children enjoyed the hot bretzels (pretzel), hot off the pretzel machine & hot apple cider. They also enojoyed playing and jumping in the large jumpy house with 3 babysitter's watching over them. Our pup "Toby" was invited and enjoyed playing with the other dogs. The food selection was very traditional with several types of sausages; Weisswrust (White Sausage), Wurstel & Bratwurst. The Schweinebraten and Kasespatzle/spatzle (cheese noodles), homemade Sauerktraut & Blaukrat (red cabbage) were all big hits. I could not try the desserts but all looked very good.

I would like to thank the Jaegger's for such a wonderful experience and hope we can celebrate with them again next year. It truly was the "Festival of the Year"!

Go Bobcats...

2008-08-27T23:14:00.000-04:00

The girls went back to school this week. They were so excited to see Mr. Ruby the bus driver and ride on Bus #7 again. Mia will be in 3rd grade and the twins in 1st grade - a full day of school for the twins...yeah. Even Toby wanted to go to school with them...I had to carry him off the school bus. Too cute!!!!

Outta Cape Cod Tonight!

2008-08-27T22:37:00.000-04:00

Another great summer vacation in Cape Cod - Dennis, MA. We enjoyed playing at the beach collecting shells, making sand castles and playing with hermit crabs. We went biking, visited P-town, cooked up delicious meals including 3 pound lobsters and grilled clams, and just chilled with our cous Nora who is just HULARIOUS! Our puppy Toby enjoyed his first family vacation, too.

Camping with Yogi Bear!

2008-07-30T21:14:00.000-04:00

We enjoyed our camping trip at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park in Woodbridge NY (Catskills). This Family Camping Recreational Park is filled with fun for the entire family - swimming, fishing, boating, scheduled daily activities.

We stayed in a two-room cabin with central air/heat, full refrigerator, microwave, running water and electricity...not really camping huh? Our cabin was located on Boo Boo Lane directly across from a large playground area and restrooms with showers (perfect). The girls enjoyed riding their bikes around the grounds and to the rec center to play video games...on their own! Bob went fishing with Ella and caught a large big mouth bass which we grilled for dinner. We met a wonderful famil, the Walkers, from Canada. They have three girls too! We enjoyed many activities with them including swimming, karaoke night (sweet caroline...ho ho ho) and toasted marshmallows and made smores by the fire late at night. The girls loved each other! The Walker family is actually coming to visit us in Ridgefield, CT on Friday before they drive back home to Toronto on Sat.

Our kids cannot stop watching Yogi Bear's Boo Boo Runs Wild episode on Boomerang. What a pleasure to see our kids watching Yogi Bear...a"classic". We enjoyed camping with Yogi Bear and will plan another trip soon!

Celebrate...Remember...Fight Back

2008-07-17T12:36:00.000-04:00

Relay For Life offers everyone in a community an opportunity to participate in the fight against cancer. The event celebrates the lives of those who have battled cancer, the strength of survivors inspires others to continue to fight and remember loved ones lost to the disease. We Relay because we have been touched by cancer and desperately want to put an end to the disease.

We joined the "Miracle Walkers" team in Warren, NJ in honor of our friend Dorthe Schechter. We enjoyed walking, eating, laughing, drinking with Dorthe's family and friends, while raising funds to fight cancer and raise awareness. At least one person from Miracle Walkers walked the path of all times from beginning to end. This event was truly a life-changing event for me. Thank you for all your support ...our team raised over $1,800 in the fight against cancer. Let's keep on fighting!!!!!!!!!!

Happy 300th Birthday Ridgefield CT

2008-07-08T12:09:00.000-04:00

This weekend we celebrated Ridgefield's 300th anniversary. The town continued its 300th anniversary celebrations with 10 bands, 27 decorated floats, a Viet Nam War helicopter, the Governor’s Foot Guard, the Governor’s Horse Guard, vintage cars, a stilt-walker, a rider on a Penny Farthing and riding up in front, descendants of our original proprietors. The festivities continued after the parade at the "Country Fair" behind the Ridgefield Playhouse filled with food vendors, games, and history! Ridgefield likes to party!!!!!

CRABBIES...

2008-07-08T09:56:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, Bob took the girls to visit my in laws in King of Prussia, PA. On his way home he picked up "Live" Blue Crabs from South Philly to celebrate my Birthday! We steamed the crabs in a large pots with water, vinegar and seasoning (Old Bay Seasoning) a popular variety in Maryland. We cracked them by hand, picked the meat , pulled the meat out of them and ate away...it took us a few hours to finish. This is my favorite summer dish and a great tradition on my Birthday every year. My horoscope is Cancer/Crab, I wonder if this has something to do with my craving for crabbies!

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!

2008-07-07T11:40:00.000-04:00

We celebrated July 4th at our beach on Friday with our neighborhood friends. The fireworks were beautfiul this year. Happy 4th of July!!!

2008-07-07T11:29:00.000-04:00

On Monday, June 30th I went to the Fancy Foody Show in NYC for work. We
enjoyed a great day of food tasting instead of working a booth this year! My favorite booths were of course our partner's booth Lotito with delicious cheeses imported from Italy and this chef/artist which created wonderful scuptures out of fruits and veggies.

Good Puppy!

2008-07-07T11:17:00.000-04:00

Meet the newest Liu family member, Toby Liu. We rescued this 4 month old Golden Retriever pup last week from Danbury Ct. He's wonderful and we are so happy to have him in our family. He reminds us of our dog Timber who passed away in Oct. 2007.

Bye! Bye!

2008-07-07T11:15:00.000-04:00

We had to officially say good bye to the Dijkstra family! The Dijkstra's will be moving from Ridgefield CT to South Africa. The Sabato family hosted a suprise party at their place of residence in beautiful Rainbow Lake. We enjoyed many laughs, food and of course the lake. We are going to miss our very good friends. Ella and Emmy will miss their best friends JJ & Jezz. We love you guys and will miss you. Hope to see you soon!

Happy Father's Day!

2008-07-07T10:47:00.000-04:00

We enjoyed a delicious Lobster meal for Father's Day at our neighbors house. Bob received a chef's jacket to wear when cooking great meals for the family. We love you daddy!

Happy Father's Day!

Monkey Around

2008-06-27T16:33:00.000-04:00

We celebrated our twins 6th Birthday at Mamanasco Beach for a Monkey Beach Party. We invited all their friends for swimming and fun. We played monkey in the middle with water balloons while wearing monkey masks, colored surf board books, tattoos, monkey photo session, climbed tree for small bananas. Finally, the children made monkey cup cakes, and dipped small frozen bananas in chocolate. The party ended with a monkey pinata. It was awesome!

Happy Memorial Day!

2008-06-02T19:04:00.000-04:00

I marched with my daughter's girl scout troup at the Memorial Day parade in Ridgefield CT. What a beautiful day. Happy Memorial Day and Have a great summer!

Mamanasco Lake Association...It's a Party!

2008-06-01T19:00:00.000-04:00

Hurray! On Friday night we had our first Friday night get together at the beach. Mamanasco Beach Club is an association within our watershed community. We have awesome parties and every friday evening during the summer the members bring dinner to the beach for cooking up a great summer meal on the stone grill. The kids play and swim all night long. We usually just chill-out with a glass of wine and wrap up the evening with a smoking fire and eat smores. Next week is our official opening day party that the Board of Directors actually organize. My husband, Bob is currently on the board and is launching a new website, http://www.mamanasco.org/. I love SUMMER!

Mother's Day

2008-05-11T15:39:00.000-04:00

My day started with a wonderful "Breakfast in Bed" by Bob and the girls. Bob made his delicious chocolate and banana crepes...yum. I then spent the day planting in my garden and landscaping with of course the help of my family. What a special and relaxing day! Thank you...I love my family.

Love, Mom

My Dancing Daffodils

2008-04-28T13:06:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, the girls and I visited Richardson Park in Ridgefield, CT. The park is actually on the other side of our lake, “Mamanasco Lake”. Every “Spring” season we enjoy the fields of beautiful golden yellow Daffodils in this 30 acre park. I also enjoyed a picnic with the girls and took great photos...my little dancing daffodils! Sooo picturesque!

NYC's Green Apple Festival

2008-04-28T12:58:00.000-04:00

Last week on Sunday, April 20th we took public transportation to NYC and celebrated "Green Apple Festival" Earth Day in Central Park with our friends the Dijkstras. The girls enjoyed face painting and planting plants in Central Park while the adults enjoyed the free "live" music and exhibits. What a beautiful day - we love the "Green Apple"!

2008-04-22T13:23:00.000-04:00

In 2007 Hindmarch, in collaboration with the global social change movement We Are What We Do, designed the global sell out tote bags - I’m Not A Plastic Bag, using her influence in a positive way to make it fashionable not to use plastic bags.

Make a difference...Be Greener!

Chinese Tapas

2008-04-20T22:17:00.000-04:00

On Sunday, the Liu family took the train into NYC to meet our good friends, the Dijkstra's for authentic Dim Sum in Chinatown - ideal for family gatherings. Dim sum is the name for a Chinese cuisine which involves a wide range of light dishes. Dim sum is served alongside chinese tea during breakfast, brunch and lunch. Yum cha is the term used to describe the Dim Sum's dining experience which literally means, "tea drinking". We enjoyed various types of chinese small dishes, wheeled to our table in trolley carts filled with chinese style tapas which included; steamed buns (cha siu baau), rice noodle rolls (cheong fun), steamed pork dumplings (shaomai), bun with barbecued pork filing (Char siu baau), taro dumplings (wu gok), shrimp dumplings (har gow)and my husband's favorite, marinated chicken feet called phoenix talons (fung zao). We then roamed the streets of Chinatown which were fun and entertaining, especially for the kids. What a great day. We're going to miss the Dijkstra's who will be moving to South Africa in a few weeks. Our girls are truly going to miss the little Dijkstra's, Jasmine (Jezz) and Juliet (JJ).

Celebrating Peace, Harmony & Balance

2008-04-18T11:45:00.000-04:00

This coming week is Downshifting week. Downshifting is about slowing down your pace, finding a better work/life balance, consequently embracing living with less and leading a simpler, greener and happier life! It's about making simple changes to improve and enjoy your way of life...make time to enjoy life.

My top successful tips:

Time - Find the "time" to spend with your loved ones

Cook a meal from scratch

Give - Dontate clothes, volunteer to a local charity

Create hand-made cards with the kids for birthday parties and holidays

Eleminate non-essential purchases

Plant/Grow herbs, flowers, plants and trees

Most importantly, I like to turn off the TV and computer (Internet) and spend quality time with my family, play a few board games!

Support InterNational Downshiting week: Saturday 19th to Friday April 25, 2008. Find out how you can take part and improve your life - visit downshiftingweek.com.

Happy Downshifting week...Be Healthier & Greener!

Draw On!

2008-04-07T22:06:00.000-04:00

Mia and I visited The Aldrich Art Museum on family day to draw our way through the exhibitions. Our favorite exhibition was Life & Death–A Visual Taxonomy by James Prosek. The exhibition included elegant paintings inspired from a collection of birds, skinned, and stuffed by the artist.

We then joined James Prosek's drawing workshop on drawing hybrid animals - a cross between two different type of animals. Mia created these paintings inspired by his work.

The Art of Sushi Making

2008-04-02T20:42:00.000-04:00

Not only does my husband surprise us with eclectic meal creations every day, he shops for the necessary ingredients to make special meals. When he goes to visit one of his clients in Edgewater, NJ, he visits Mitsuwa. Mitsuwa is a Japanese/Korean grocery store for finding key ingredients to make sushi. Bob shops for a variety of sushi grade fish from eel, tuna, halibut and yellow tail, sushi rice, rice wine vinegar (powdered), dried sea weed, wasabi in tube or powder form, jar of pickled ginger, cucumbers, avocado, sesame seeds, salmon and flying fish roe. These are Bob's instructions on the art of sushi making:

step 1: Cook sweet sushi rice until sticky

step 2: Add rice wine vinegar (powder)

step 3: mix well and set aside to cool

step 4: Sharpen a knife

step 5: Cut your fish into bit size pieces

For "Sushi"

step 1: Form bite size balls of rice - add a dab of wasabi (optional)

step 2: Lay your favorite piece of fish on top, decorate with fish row or sesame seeds

For "Maki" rolls

step 1: lay a sheet of dried sea weed on special bamboo rolling mat

step 2: Add rice and flatten

step 2: Add filing - fish, cucumber slices, avocado (your choice)

step 3: With a special bamboo rolling mat you roll the dried sea weed tightly

step 4: Roll dried sea weed with bamboo rolling mat tightly

step 5: Wet ends of sea weed with water and cut in half then in thirds for 6 pieces

Note: The sea weed doesn't have to go down first, you can invert the layers, try adding the rice first then roll

Most importantly, Sushi making is about the artistry just as much as the taste. Serve with saki and enjoy!

Hookah Delight

2008-03-31T21:45:00.000-04:00

Bob and I went to check out a few Hookah bars downtown and were pleasantly surprised at the gastronomical delights that graced one Horus, an establishment neatly situated at the corner of 6th Street and Avenue B. An Egyptian cafe called Horus Cafe, named for a famous Egyptian God. A magnificent Middle Eastern fare which makes up for typicality with abundance, decorated with statues of ancient deities, abstract tapestries, exposed brick walls and a mix of table and floor seating. Entrees cooked over seasoned wood chips - "Smoking" Kebabs! In addition to drinks like Horus (nuts, coconuts and milk) and hibiscus tea, my favorite was the giant hookah for smoking fresh herbal fruit, over 40 flavors to choose from... a tasty delight.