Tag Archives: kuwait

Oct1

Educational Workbooks

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Educational Workbooks

I’m the type of person when I see something I just have to stock up!!! Especially things that are hard to find and not always readily available in Kuwait.

There are 2 major areas (other than unique food items) that are always a challenge. Crafting materials and kids books/workbooks.

While I was shopping yesterday at Sultan Center (in souq sharq) I went upstairs to the kids/electronic section. I was browsing as usual just to see what the latest books they have.

Sultan-Book

To my pleasure I found several rows of children’s workbooks… It was so nice to see them in quantity, variety and for children from preschool up to grade 5.

If you’ve been shopping in Kuwait in the regular places where you might find these you’ll know that they can get very expensive and over-priced. I was very happy to see that the price range started from KD0.750 to about KD3.500.

So if you’re looking for something to enhance your children head out to Sultan Sharq because you never know when you’ll find them again.

The girls were very excited when they came back from school and found their new workbooks….
Sultan-JZBooks

Sep25

Baked Chicken Strips

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Baked Chicken Strips

I’ve shared with you a few of the “sweet” tasting foods and it’s time to share something from the savory department.

I’m an advocate of home made and freezing over buying something from the frozen section at the grocery store. How can “fresh” meat last for 2 years? Doesn’t make sense to me. PRESERVATIVES!!! If I can avoid it then I will.

Not to say I don’t indulge one in a while but when it comes to the kids I’d rather not.

My baked recipe uses fresh chicken breasts that I prepare and freeze for up to 6 months and tastes fabulous, if I may say so myself. The added health perk is I don’t fry I bake them and they turn out just as crispy.

Ingredients
Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 1/2 Cup breadcrumbs
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Butter

 
 
 
 
 
 

Directions:
Preheat oven 175 degrees C (350 degrees F)

Coat each strip of chicken in the flour followed by dipping in the egg then coating in the breadcrumbs.

Place on a cookie sheet.

If you intend to freeze place the cookie sheet in the freezer for 20 minutes until the breadcrumbs holds, remove from cookie sheet and place in an airtight container place aluminum foil in between layers, return to freezer. Stores up to 6 months.
strips

 
 
To cook:
Melt butter in microwave.

Pour melted butter on each strip. bake in the oven for 15 minutes, turn each strip and bake for additional 5 minutes.

The same baking method is used for frozen strips but add an additional 10 minutes to the baking.

This recipe is great because you can make a really big batch and freeze. Useful for lunch box, birthday party menu, play dates and quick dinners.

chick

Sep22

School Open House

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School Open House

If any of you out there still don’t have kids (and are planning to) believe that you’ve graduated school and think its all over HAAAAAA Joke’s on you! Think again!!!

It’s only over after your kids have graduated, become adults and have their own kids to worry about!!

The first 2 weeks of school are over and I still have knots in my stomach!! Every time I see a paper coming home in Jennah’s folder I squint and think “now what!”

Ahaaa invitation to attend an open house…. So I’m thinking sure I can handle that! (but please oh please I don’t want to meet that overbearing mom face to face!) Opps should I write that in public?

We tuck the girls in bed, give them an extra 10 minutes to read and out the door my husband and I go.

Kisses here and hellos there to all the mom’s and dad’s we’ve become closer to in the past few years. As my heart is racing and my mind’s thinking “Oh please prove to me once again that I made the right choice in selecting this school for my daughter”

ClassWe walk down the 2nd grade hall approaching Jennah’s classroom. There it is on the left Room P014.

My Heart pounding and thinking “Please please be a pleasant year!”

We walk in and naturally we’re the first parents there….funny enough Jennah’s teacher guessed we would be! Yikes ! Am I turning into those mom’s that the teacher avoids when he/she sees them approaching.

Samar forget it….move along, who cares what he thinks.

We take a seat at Jennah’s table and take a look at her little note for us….AWE how sweet she thinks we’re the best parents even when we shout….

Twitter
 
 

Time to look around….OMG!! How cute is that Tweet board!

What an amazing idea!!!

Teacher posts a question as a Tweet and the kids write their responses on sticky notes.

Totally creative!

HopesDreams
 
 

Oh and check out that Hopes and dreams Board….

Each child write’s what they want to accomplish in the academic year.

Now I’m thinking why didn’t we have this stuff when we were growing up!

WelcomeNote
 
 

Back to Jennah’s table we go and take our seats.

Ready for our guidelines for the year!!!

Her teacher takes the floor and then I start to ease myself into a smile and say to myself.
He sure is going to be “Making Life Memorable” for Jennah!

Sep18

Birthday Cake

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Birthday Cake

It’s getting closer and closer to finalizing your child’s birthday party. Now its time to look at the actual Day of the party.

Hospitality and food is a big thing in the Middle East…. So serving just cake won’t cut it in this part of the world! If you can get away with it then good on you 🙂

Since a major highlight of the Birthday is the cake, other than the birthday child off course!I’m dedicating this whole post to be about THE CAKE!

While I see so many bakeries in town (Kuwait) and between every cupcake business is another cupcake business I’ve yet to really find one that are tasty and not horrendously expensive.

Cake for KD70+ (about$250) SERIOUSLY! and something seems to always go wrong. The color, the taste, the flavor, the cake is to dry, the frosting’s too hard and the worst is the filling or frosting that tastes like stale butter. To all you bakeries I’m sorry, I apologies but this is my opinion.

Being big on baking and cake/cupcake decorating I make my own cakes and cupcakes. They might not look that professional but I take pride in them and the girls and guests never complained.

Cake from scratch, buttercream frosting, fondant and all. Now you don’t have to go to my extreme but I really think investing a little time doing the cake and pocketing the money or spending it on something else for the birthday is well worth it.

After having done several birthdays I’ve come to a huge realization….. kids prefer cupcakes!!! So even though I’ve made fancy 3 tiered fondant covered cakes at the end it’s pretty to look at but they reach for the little stuff.

The big cake I make for me….I enjoy it! So I’ve downsized from the past.

As a result the big cake is used for the candles, singing and the adults to eat. While the cupcakes are for kids.

To figure out how much to serve use this general guideline:
12″ round cake serves 28
1.5 cupcake per child

This means for every 28 adults you can add a Tier and for 10 kids make 15 cupcakes. Fairly simple don’t you think?!

As for flavors stick to the basics. Chocolate and vanilla, but make MORE chocolate than vanilla!

The best frosting ever is the basic buttercream frosting. Easy to make and spread or pipe.

As for fondant I make a marshmallow fondant which is easy to mold and roll.

Now if you don’t want to spend all that time in the Kitchen a boxed cake and jar of frosting will do the trick just as much. All you need to do is just add some food coloring here and there, sprinkles, ornaments/décor or my personal favorite cupcake picks!!
(Cupcake picks DIY also coming soon!)

So spend a little time in the kitchen, get your kids to mix and measure with you. It’s not just about the end result it’s how much fun you can have on the way!! That for sure falls under “Making Life Memorable!”

Sep17

Invitations

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Invitations

You’ve decided on a theme and figured out your Guest list…

Next comes the invitations. This is where the fun begins and I bring out all my creativity to work.

I absolutely love making my own invitations. Cardstock, printing, designing, tape and all! I try my best to also create a fun wording to the invite too that’s theme related.

In this post I’m going to show what I’ve done in the past, I’ll also recommend alternatives if you’re not the DIY or creative type.

First there are essentials to what goes ON the invitation. I’ll divide it into MUST have and FUN to have.

You must include:
Child’s name. It’s a good idea to use the full name if you’re sending the invite to school that way if there are several Sarahs in the class the parents now which one it is.
Child’s Age. Make the parents’ life easier for choosing gifts especially if the friends are from different age groups.
Date & Time When putting the date it’s also nice to include the day. As for the time you should include a start & end time that way parents can also gauge when the cake will be served.
Address Be specific, if you have a green roof or a special landmark include it
Telephone number I usually put an RSVP, but in Kuwait I think they consider that “optional” but a number is always important. The worst thing is for a parent to be lost and can’t get a hold of you while the child is nagging “Are we there yet?”

You May want to include
A Map especially if the street address isn’t clear.
Theme based Poem you’ll see later in my past invites.
Special instructions. Is it a pool party? in the garden, costume….etc

So you’re all set with the invitation?? Here’s a sample of an invitation I’ve made?
ZeeInviteMonkey

For Zeenah’s 3rd birthday I had REEEEEELAY wanted to do a caterpillar theme. Off course her choice was a monkey theme. When I asked why she said “because I’m a Monkey!” fair enough. Her birthday her choice and its fairly easy to work with!

So I researched ideas and I came up with this…

Color scheme Brown, Lime green, pink and touches of yellow.

Pink envelopes with yellow labels

Pink printing paper for the card and a framing of green lime paper and heavy Brown cardstock.

Finally you need to distribute the invitations. I advise to send in between 10 days to a week in advance. I think this is probably applicable only in Kuwait. Reasons….. If you do it any time before that people are most likely to forget.

You can always send a “Save the Date” in advance via text message in case you’re worried people will get booked.

Some people choose to send a reminder Text message a day before the birthday. I don’t particularly favor that, if the person didn’t mark it down and forgot then they’re probably not that close and too flaky. Who needs that as a friend? Not you nor your child deserves that.

Yes I’m funny like that. “You didn’t remember my daughter’s birthday what horror how dare you!!” 🙂

If you choose not to make your own invitation the “old fashioned way” You can always use websites that actually do it for you and you can either print it at home or have it shipped to you (if you have enough time).

Here’s a list of websites that may be useful to look at:
Personalized Party invites
Tiny Prints
Shutterfly
Paper Style

Don’t forget to have fun with it. The whole process is about “Making life Memorable” for you, your kids and everyone attending.

Sep15

It’s Birthday Season

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It’s Birthday Season

Now that the girls are back in school and we’re getting back into the routine we also have the joys of attending birthdays.

This year we’ve started early and strong!!! Two birthdays back to back the first weekend since school started.

I’m the kind of gal that enjoys hosting birthdays and parties at home. Many choose to go with the outside venues like fast food chains or “kid places” like Baroue, Infunity and the likes. It does make everything easier but I find it a little impersonal.

Just like I had the “back to school” week on my blog I’m making this week “Birthday Week”

I’ll talk about themes, birthday menus, gifts and lots of DIY things you can do to make your child’s birthday a special and memorable one.

First thing I’m going to talk about is deciding on a theme.

Have your kids involved but not too involved or else you might end up bending over backwards for them. Here’s the trick. Give them choices of themes you actually want or are willing to spend time preparing for.

Choose things they already like but guide them through the decision, they’ll end up thinking it was their idea to begin with.

The latest movie, cartoon character or action figure might appeal to your child but if it’s tooooo complicated to create you’re only setting yourself up to go bonkers!

When choosing a themes it HAS to be something workable not only in decoration but also in entertainment and games. Yes there’s more to a birthday than just cake!

At the same time try not to over think it, sometimes space to just run around is all the kids want. So if you had planned on 5 games and only did 2 don’t fuss and force them to all stand in line to play “pin the tail on the donkey”, enjoy the company of the other mommies instead (says the mom that doesn’t sit!)

Do your research before hand and the trick is to pre-plan everything. In Kuwait it’s hard to just go out to the “dollar store” and find it all. I wish it was that easy.

So if you have a theme in advance every time you visit a “bu miya” or any where else you might find one or two things that you can just stock up on in advance.

Off course there’s always online ordering, the cure of all. But be careful because you might go way over your budget because of shipping costs.

I’ll leave you now with a list (in no particular order) of things you to consider for your child’s next birthday. And stay tuned for details on almost ALL of them!

1. Guest list
2. Invitations
3. Decoration (includes plates, cups & utensils)
4. Menu &/or Food bars and beverages
5. Games & Stations
6. Party favors
7. Set-up (Tables, chairs, sofas…etc)
8. Music & Entertainment
9. Adult supervision and help
10. Photography & Videography
11. Cake & Cupcakes
12. Always remember it’s about the KIDS!!

Themes I’ve done or the girls:
First Birthday
Minie Mouse
Tinkerbell
Strawberry Shortcake
Tiana (Princess & the Frog)
LolliPop
Fancy Nancy
Monkey
Ballet

Photo Gallery of My Girls’ Birthdays.
PicMonkey Collage

Sep14

Labels & Tags

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Labels & Tags

I’ve had many requests asking about the labels and tags that I’ve made for the girls.

I’m posting here the popcorn tags I made for the girls’ first day of school. I’ll add more eventually but I thought I’d try out this way and get your feedback on printing quality as I’m adding them as images….

I left the “from” part blank so you can make it your own.

Let me know if it works!! If not I’ll keep investigating for better “downloading” options.

Aug28

Study Station Success

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Study Station Success

Girls tucked in and fast asleep and my mind is so much clearer. Grabbed my cup of yogurt and sat in front of Jennah’s desk assessing the situation.

What should I tackle first?? The easiest naturally. All last year and summer Artwork removal. I decided what’s worth saving and what goes for recycling. I did go through them at the end of the school year but it seems I lost some of the attachment to the girls artwork.

Half way through going through the papers, art projects displayed and in folders I realized it’s taking way to much time. I decided to put them on the side and work on something else.

It’s time to organize the stationery. The containers I used were small tin buckets, small basket and small plastic bins.
 
Stationary desk
Tins: I put erasers in the extra small tin bucket. Pencils in the small tin bucket.

Plastic Bins: Colored Pencils in a plastic bin and markers in the other bin. I made sure I sharpened all the pencils with my electrical sharpener. A must have in our household with the amount of coloring we do!

Basket:In the small basket I put post it notes and small notepads, I use these for marking her assignments and for explaining things while studying.
 

After I cleared up any additional papers hanging out in the other cubbies of her desk I put a clipboard, whiteboard and an empty magazine holder for new papers coming back from school.

Now the laptop and headphones are neatly placed in the other corner of her desk.

I removed everything from the top up and it’s time to look at the bottom…. Yikes!!!

Do things crawl in our household? Why are their toys? Painting gear? Blocks? Crafting things…if I’m going to continue the list of what I found it’ll develop into a whole other post!
 

Obviously I had to spend a little extra time organizing homes for all these miscellaneous items. Painting and crafting on the painting corner, blocks & Lego with the rest of the blocks….etc
 
below Desk
 
All cleaned up down there for some leg room and a few empty magazine holders for my little second graders work.
 
 
 
 
 
 
I took a step back and felt proud of how neat the space looked, off course I’m not sure how long that would last but at least it’s a great way to start the new school year. Still I felt it was lacking something….I have to add some sort of personal touch.
 
board 
 
 
Then it came to me, the cork board looked so plain…. I took the push pins and made the letter “J” for Jennah.

I’m sure it’s not going to last before all the papers take over but hey I had to have my touch somewhere!

 
 
 
 
DRUM ROLL PLEEEEEEEZE….
The final look of an organized Study Space for Jennah, now she’s ready to tackle 2nd grade….you think?

organized Desk

Read the Part one of this post

Aug25

Back to School

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Back to School

I remember the last week of school like it was yesterday! I remember thinking “OH my God what am I going to do with the girls??” Well I survived, the girls are still somewhat civilized and we didn’t perish in Kuwait’s heat. Now we’re at the last week of the summer vacation and getting ready for school. Uniforms, supplies, back packs, lunch boxes and so much more to think of.

I’m dedicating all my posts this week to Back to School tips, organization and planning. First up is what’s your school year looking like?

Have you looked at the school calendar yet?? Most schools have them on their website so I suggest printing it out and take a look at the year ahead. Now if you have more than one child that go to different schools, like me, be sure to printout each school’s calendar.
 
calendar
Now the first step to staying organized and minimize stress is to stay on top of things. So go out and get a really good calendar. Something with enough writing space that can fit the whole family’s schedule. My favorite is the magnetic fridge calendar from Motherword. It’s got the perfect writing space for us all and the additional stickers to make it even more fun, who doesn’t love stickers?! It’s also a 16 month versus the usual 12 months. Really designed for mothers to put to good use.
 
 

pens
 

 

A method I use when writing on the calendar is using different colors for each family member and combinations (ie Kids playdates together, Fawaz & I…etc). It makes it so easy to visualize for the whole family. I highlight birthdays and holidays in advance so that we can anticipate the month ahead and be prepared with gifts without stressing out about it at last minute. and most importantly in my life would be no double booking.

 
 

 
 
 
 
A very important thing to remember is “location, location, location!” It’s crucial to hang your calendar in a place that EVERYONE can and will access. This calendar isn’t just so you’re organized and informed but so everyone around you is on the same page. In my household the most traffic is in the kitchen. Some people have their family room or entryway as the high traffic space. I suggest you take a look at your lifestyle and decide accordingly as to where the “perfect” place for the calendar is. The additional advantage of the Motherword calendars is that they have magnetic strips that you can stick on the back to mount onto your fridge. If you do find a calendar you like that doesn’t have that you can also buy magnetic strips at most stationery stores.

The more you’re organized and prepared the more time you have to “Making Life Memorable”

Aug24

Going Green

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Going Green

After many fad diets, life altering eating habits, checkups and all that there is under the sun about weight loss I have decided to go green….. May have been talking about it and raving about not only its health benefits but also how it helps the metabolism, decreases appetite, detoxing the body and other advantages.

It first started when I was following “My Healthy Dish” the blog and instagram account @myhealthydish_ It was a real encouragement to see the transformation of what a few fibers in the system can do. Then the real investigation started with downloading several books and doing loads of reading. Now I added two more GREEN blogs. Simple Green Smoothies and Raw Family. There are TONS of blogs and websites that you can also find but I stopped myself before getting too overwhelmed.

The concept of green smoothies is fairly simple. 60% Fruit & 40% Greens and 1-2 cups liquid. A great instructional video is “How to Make a Green Smoothie” by Sergei Boutenko from the Raw Family. You can also check out many of their other articles and videos for inspiration.

The hardest thing I found in Kuwait was actually the “green” ingredients. The most common green that is used is spinach because it’s a little milder in taste and is masked very well behind all the added fruit. I used to see fresh spinach all the time at the Jamiya, Sultan, Lulu hypermarket but now that I’m looking for it it’s no where to bee seen. So I had to do some alterations what other veggies can I use and I found a list . So there goes another investigation of finding these other greens. Kale….hmmm what is it in Arabic? What does it look like? so here you see me in the vegetable section with my iPhone looking at pictures of these greens and trying to find them. It was really entertaining I’m sure for those that were looking at me. Meanwhile, Jennah and Zeenah kept stocking up on fruits for me and weighing them. So I substituted with what I could and off to the cashier with a cart full of fruits and vegetables and two hyper girls. Paid, bagged and buckled on our way home. Excited that the first thing I do in the morning was get my first green smoothie and no coffee.

For help on the greens here’s a list of what you could use. Spinach, lettuce, parsley, kale, chard, basil, cilantro, bok choy, celery, and cucumber. Mostly everywhere I read state that the darker the leaf the better the heath benefits. So other uncommon suggestions would be beet tops, celery leaves and strawberry leaves. One desperate grocery run I actually bought fresh horseradish because the leaves looked perfect…. that really made a Spicy breakfast for me. I added a few dates to the mix and it balanced it out.

I think I don’t need to tell you what fruits are because most of us have a general sense BUT…. Don’t forget to add Tomato and Cucumbers to that list… a misconception to many.

Finally the liquid part. The most common in recipes would be either water or green tea. Other options are Almont Milk, Coconut water or milk, rice milk or orange juice.

Some recipes and websites recommend things called “Super foods” these basically add additional nutrients to your smoothie. I still haven’t ventured into that area. Possibly because I anticipate that many of these items would be a challenge to find locally and it’s too hot for me to find out….maybe in October?

The amazing result of these morning smoothies is that it really suppressed my appetite. I’m not sure if its psychological or not but hey it works!! I do recommend it to everyone. Whatever the reason try to incorporate it into your daily diet. It really will make a difference. I think my next step is actually to try out the 21 day cleanse. I want to take it one step at a time and really get the hang of the green smoothies before diving into something that I might slip up on.
 

blender
 
 
 

After 2 weeks of green smoothies and using my regular out-dated 10+ year old blender I was ready to step up my game. Many of the websites recommend the Vitamix blender. Which I’m sure is amazing but probably unavailable in Kuwait and I really wanted to just click a few buttons and have a good blender delivered to my doorstep. A Quick visit to Xcite App and 24 hours later my new blender with a special SMOOTHIE dial was delivered.

 
 

 

If you were debating and worried about the taste no need to wonder. The first time I made it the girls were so excited and tasted it and decided they wanted to have their own cup of green smoothie. It doesn’t taste green at all. I hope you decide to venture out and start Greening it soon.

My favorite recipe was Kale, celery, strawberry, blueberry, apple, peach, banana and green tea. If you’re a green smoothie drinker I’d love to hear your favorite recipe!