Family Night: Asian Inspired

From our garden -- eggplant!

Eggplant  over rice -- add in some gyozas -- dipping sauce -- and Kung Fu Panda movie!

The girls even welcomed their dolls in for evening activities..... 

Cooking With The Kiddos: Oriental Fish Packets

It was a night for cooking with the Daisies.  They really do love helping out in the kitchen.  They want to help almost all the time.  I usually try to come up with a task that they can do - because not all tasks are appropriate AND to be honest, sometimes I just want to quickly get it done and on the table - it is easier just to do it myself.

But, because I desire to teach my children some good cookin' skills (Dear future husbands, you will thank me for this!),  I try to let them help whenever possible.

And, when my girls help -  they play the part!!  They have a drawer that contains hats, aprons, small cooking utensils (whisk, spoon, kid knife) mits, etc.  They dive into the drawer and find a suitable outfit for the evening.

Tonight we are having "Oriental Fish Packets"

Ingredients: Tilapia Fish, EVOO, Yoshidas sauce, Rosemary Sprigs, Assorted Cut Veggies ( We had carrots, zuccchini, yellow squash, mushrooms ).

 Utensils:  Foil,  Non-stick spray, baking sheet,  and the best God given utensil: hands!!

 Tear off piece of foil and spray with non-stick spray.

 In the center of your foil sheet, place assorted veggies

 Atop the veggies:  Sprig of Rosemary and drizzle of EVOO. (salt & pepper if desired)

Place the Tiliapia fish on the top of the pile & carefully pour Yoshida's sauce over the entire thing. (Not too much).

 

 Pull up sides of foil and fold together, crease, and roll down.  Fold up both ends the same way to create a sealed packet. 

Write initials on each packet -- that way each kid eats their own created packet! They like to eat what they made!

Bake fish packets on 400 degree oven for at least 25-30 minutes.  Open up a packet and check for flaky fish...

Serve just as is or over some brown rice or quinoa!  Delish.

Family Fun Fridays

I am starting a new "series" with Lil Daisies that I hope you will be able to join in with us.

Family Fun Fridays

I started Lil Daisies in 2006 as a way to share about our family with others and journal about the things we have been doing....it has grown into different venues of food, crafty-ness, Spirit driven thoughts, as the years have unfolded.

But, one thing I want to remain a focus on this blog is: Family

What is Family Fun Friday?

Spending fun, quality time with your family is more challenging everyday. I am sure like most of you -- the week is filled with plenty of activities: Soccer practice, dance lessons, AWANAS, piano lessons, homework, week errands, Bible Studies, office work...all seem to get in the way of a family enjoying each other's company. Our family can struggle with how to balance work, school, and activities...

However, I think it is important to create memories to last a lifetime for my children. We spend Friday night together as a family doing something fun, creative and different. It's a great way to unwind from the week and a fun way to bond as a family.

Lil Daisies in starting up a party called Family Fun Fridays where we can share with one another tips, ideas, and adventures of spending time together as families. Each Friday there will be a link up for you to share your adventures with your family. This will be a great innovative way to see what other families are doing during their family time and be inspired.

So Let's Begin: How can you go about having your family time?

Schedule Regular Family Time
Grab your family calender and schedule in your family time. It could be once a month or once a week. The important thing is to schedule it and treat it like gold. I know if I don't schedule something, it goes by the wayside.

Plan It
Don't wait until the last minute to figure out what to do. Agree as a family ahead of time what you will do and then make your reservations, print your maps, organize your supplies, and fill your car with gas ahead of time.
Our family sat down and made of list of things we would like to do together. We also thought of themes to celebrate our special Family time.
Whether it's movie night, take-out night (think pizza or Chinese, for example), game night, or a family walk night, the key is that a night each week is designated for together time. Relax...and talk with each other! You might be surprised the things you learn from your kids on your special night.

Share It
Come back here on Fridays (or whenever you get to it) and share about your Family Fun time with the rest of us. I will have a MrLinky set up each Friday for you to put your link so that others can see what fun ideas you have done with your family. This will be a great way for us to get ideas from one another.

So schedule and plan your family time now. Your kids will thank you for those “little things” and their little lives will be blessed immensely with the time you have prepared for them.

We will be starting the party Family Fun Friday on August 13th. And, to kick off the party -- there will be a giveaway! Woo Hoo! For each person that participates in the party will be entered into a giveaway! More details to come! Okay...now, go and get prepared for Family Fun Friday!!

Family Time -- Going Deeper 2

I am going to be starting a series or "party" of family time next month. I have been working on getting it set up and hope to share with you soon.

If you remember this post -- an idea for family time that I shared earlier. Here is another idea that I would like to share with you.

AFFIRMATION NOTES -

Write notes or have kids draw pictures of encouragement to the other people in your family, expressing what you appreciate about them. Attach any verses that come to mind as you think about each person and what he or she means to you.

Family Time -- Going Deeper

As I was cleaning my office and going through papers - I came across little packet of things to do with your family. I love it when I ponder on things at just the right time. I thought this would be really useful lately to create some meaningful time as a family. I have been wanting to instill more activities and ways of creating deeper relationships with one another in our family.

I hope to share several of the ideas with you over the next few weeks.

Going Deeper -- Great Discussion Starters



ALPHABET OF THANKFULNESS

Read 1 Thessalonians 5:18 as a family, and then play a fun twist on the alphabet game. Starting with the letter A, think of one specific reason to be thankful and continue around the family until the entire alphabet has been used. Write each reason on a huge piece of butcher paper and hang it in a prominent place in your house where everyone can be reminded of what to be thankful for. This is especially good for those nonthankful days all smaller children have at one time or another.

Family Night: Ballerinas

This post has been sitting in my draft box for over a year now. I wanted to post it, but computer was not cooperating for me to post a video. I am not Computer savvy enough to figure it all out. But, during the time that I have been planning my speech for a MOPS event about "party planning", I had remembered that I had wrote this and thought I should just go ahead and post it. Hopefully, someday I can update the post to show the video and some other pictures of the ballerinas. But, for now enjoy reading about our Family Night. ~ Bella



Having girls makes for a "Ballerina" themed family night a must in our household. Papa was game too. Though, he did not choose to wear a tu-tu. Though, he was man enough to wear a piece of tulle on his shoulders for a picture at our dinner table. His role for the night was to be the photography man and the prince charming who swoops down and dances with his princess ballerinas!
We have several pictures and video to share with you from our lovely night!

Pirouette

Our Dinner was "Pink"!

Our menu consisited of pink rice casserole, pink salmon, and asparagus with mozerella cheese (to make it look like ballerina leg with ballerina slipper). To drink we had pink cherry soda with cherries!


For Dessert we feasted on Ballerina Bear Cupcakes.

Piqué

We made Ballerina Dance wands from ribbon and some wooden rings bought on sale from a fabric store.

Then the ballerinas danced!

Grand plié

Afterwards, we played with our spinning ballerinas. This was so much fun! Papa was really good at getting them to spin fast. We ended up having competitions to see who's ballerina would stay up the longest.

We had planned to either watch Angelina Ballerina or play the game Angelina Ballerina, but we got too carried away with dancing and our ballerina dance competition, that it was too late to do the rest of the planned out events.

Nonetheless, at the end of the night it was a pretty in pink, tu-tu delightful evening with three tired out beautiful ballerinas!