School holidays playgroup: Making sushi and other activities.

Salam to all,

Tuesday, 6th April 2010
@10 a.m.

We had a really nice playgroup session  at our house today. There were about five mommies and 10 children took part in the session. (Each mommies have two children) They are about the same age ranges from 7 years old to almost 2.There were Hanna with her daughter, Aisya and son Adam, Hanani with her daughter Najihah and son Najmi, Sazlina with her daughter Aisyah Nur and son Aiman, Adibah with her daughters Farah and Sarah and me with my daughters.  Our main activity was making sushi but we also had colouring, drawing, decorating balloons and face painting activities.

We started of with free activities when the children warming up with each other. (some of them are still new here). While the children were playing, the mommies were busy in the kitchen preparing the ingredients of making sushi. Of course we had to cook the sushi rice, cut the vegetables (we used cucumber and carrots) and mixed smoked salmon (the canned pink salmon) with some mayonnaise. Hanna (one of the mothers) asked our children to gather in the living room and made them busy with drawing, colouring and decorating some balloons.

By the time all the sushi ingredients were ready, our children just finished doing the crafts. We took out the ingredients and we started our main activity which was making sushi. According to this website, we made the Futomaki Sushi (large Maki roll with many different ingredients) and Oshizushi Sushi (vinegar rice with other ingredients pressed into a mold). There were two experts that used to live in Japan when they were doing their first degree who told us (the other mommies) about the other types of sushi. So, we were actually sharing our knowledge about sushi among other topics. hehe.

The bigger kids were the ones who got so excited to try their hands on making sushi. They really listened to our instructions and were quite patient. When they had finished making at least a roll each, they can't wait to try the sushi. I helped them to cut their Maki Sushi and they looked so happy when they were able to try their creations. It didn't take long until most of the kids tried to make their own sushi. We, the mommies had to finish making more rolls and the Oshizushi Sushi when the children just left to resume with their own kind of play. Well, as my daughters has had accumulated a number of toys, the children were happily created their own play theme. At one time, they played in Fathini's princess hide out (a collapsible small hut/tent) and then moved on to building something with the huge blocks.

After the sushi rolls were all ready, it was time to have our lunch. We had various types of food since we combined the sushi with some readily prepared food like A Morning Sticky Rice (literally translated into B.I. atau sebenarnya ore kelate panggil Pulut Pagi), Some Dried Anchovy Fritters (cucur ikan bilis),  Tuna Pizza (from Hanna) and the desserts from Hanani- Lychee puddings. Our children didn't really sit and eat as they always couldn't wait to go back and play. Thus, only the mommies who really enjoyed the food while chatting and gossiping. takdelah mengumpat sesiapa pun. hehe Only after we said that if they (the children) wanted to try the Lychee Puddings, they had to finished eating first, our children then came back and at least ate something. They were thrilled to be able to received a small container each that had the Lychee Puddings. 

Our last activity for the day was face painting. We thought that we didn't want to proceed with that but Fathini reminded me about my promise. I told them we could do a face painting at the end. By that time it was almost 1 o'clock. So, we had to quickly helped our children to paint their faces as our initial plan was to have a two-hour playgroup session. Our children had their own ideas on how we (the mommies) should paint their faces. Some even attempted to draw on their own by looking into a  mirror. By 1.30 p.m., most of them left our house and we agreed to at least have another playgroup next week.