Maggie is usually the princess, sleeping under a spell, guarded by a dragon, awaiting rescue-
Sunday, November 7, 2010
The land of Knights, Princesses and Dragons
My kids are so neat. They make me laugh all the time and their creativity surprises me. One day they decided to play knight and princess, and this is how Lily walked into the room -
Yes, those are toilet paper rolls on her arms as "arm protectors." That is indeed an elephant mask on her head, representing a helmet, and her shirt is on backwards because knights are boys and boys don't have Hello Kitty shirts...
Maggie is usually the princess, sleeping under a spell, guarded by a dragon, awaiting rescue-
Although, it seems that this is the only situation where being the knight is preferable to being the princess, because Maggie has taken up being the knight when Lily is playing something else or sleeping
The costumes have evolved over the last couple of days. Thanks to Leanne for the tin foil armor recommendation. We've also added shields, new swords, and different "helmets"
Where's the dragon, you might be asking? Well, I've got a mask, too, and a nice green fleece with a hood that serves as wings. But I take the pictures, so you'll just have to use your imagination.
Maggie is usually the princess, sleeping under a spell, guarded by a dragon, awaiting rescue-
More stuff we've done
We've had a couple of weekend rambles that I haven't posted pictures of yet.
A couple of weeks ago we went out to see the Bosque do Papa (the Forest of the Pope). It is, specifically, the forest of Pope John Paul II. Here is is with Bean-
It's also, more generally, a Polish memorial and has several little log cabins representing what the living conditions of Polish immigrants would have been like. And other famous Polish people, like Copernicus-
It's a nice little piece of woodland with a bunch of very large Parana Pine (the symbol of the state of Parana, where Curitiba is location). It was a really pleasant place to walk around on a sunny day (yes! we had an actually sunny day on a weekend!)
I don't know what happened to this picture, but I think it's pretty neat. It looks like they're in a time warp, or something.
And we must stop at every playground, even if said playground consists mainly of old cement tubes in a sandbox. Here are my three kids in the "foxhole"
Right before our walk in the park, we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant nearby. It was rodizio style - they just keep bringing food to the table until you tell them to stop, all-you-can-eat style. We all ate too much, but it was good.
The next weekend was sunny again!!!! So we finally headed off to see the Brazil Telecom tower.
Can you see the little family at the bottom for scale? We rode the elevator up to the top and got to look out over the entire city of Curitiba from the 360 degree viewing platform.
In the middle of the picture - in the open spot beyond the buildings- is the glass house of the Jardim Botanico.
The lake in this picture is in Baragui Park, the one with the capybara.
Around the inside of the viewing area was a cement mural telling the history of Curitiba. Maggie found this horse, declared it was hers and named it Patch.
Finally, and completely unrelated to anything above, from the "food that makes you feel like a giant" category, a very tiny banana.
You can get bananas in several different sizes around here. We'd do a banana mania, except that neither of the girls like or eat bananas, so you would be left with me and Mac drawing faces which I don't think would be nearly as exciting. And they pretty much all taste the same so far.
A couple of weeks ago we went out to see the Bosque do Papa (the Forest of the Pope). It is, specifically, the forest of Pope John Paul II. Here is is with Bean-
It's a nice little piece of woodland with a bunch of very large Parana Pine (the symbol of the state of Parana, where Curitiba is location). It was a really pleasant place to walk around on a sunny day (yes! we had an actually sunny day on a weekend!)
And we must stop at every playground, even if said playground consists mainly of old cement tubes in a sandbox. Here are my three kids in the "foxhole"
Right before our walk in the park, we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant nearby. It was rodizio style - they just keep bringing food to the table until you tell them to stop, all-you-can-eat style. We all ate too much, but it was good.
The next weekend was sunny again!!!! So we finally headed off to see the Brazil Telecom tower.
Can you see the little family at the bottom for scale? We rode the elevator up to the top and got to look out over the entire city of Curitiba from the 360 degree viewing platform.
Around the inside of the viewing area was a cement mural telling the history of Curitiba. Maggie found this horse, declared it was hers and named it Patch.
Finally, and completely unrelated to anything above, from the "food that makes you feel like a giant" category, a very tiny banana.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Mango Mania
We didn't have anything planned this past weekend, so we held a mango taste test. In contrast to what I can usually find at the Ingles back home, there are bunches of kinds of mangos to be had down here. The girls and I went to the market one day and I bought one or two of each kind I found. Two days later we went to the grocery store and they had a big display of 5 or 6 different kinds, conveniently labeled with produce stickers so that I knew what kind they were. On Saturday I cut them all up, took pictures and let everyone taste them. The girls gave their opinions graphically, Mac and I have occasional comments.
Mango #1 -Manga Rosa (manga is Portuguese for mango)
My comment sheets says "smells really mango-ey"
Lily really liked it, Maggie was so-so.
Mango #2 - Manga Palmer
This one wasn't nearly as ripe, so that probably influenced the ratings. It had kind of an odd taste to me. Mac liked it - mostly because it had more of a firm, less slimy texture. We (the adults) agreed that it tasted vaguely of pine needles.
The opinions were reversed on this one - Lily was so-so, Maggie liked it. Maggie is wearing a felt crown that she made, in case you were wondering.
Mango #3 - Manga Espada
This one was very fibrous. The mango itself was quite small and squishy. Most of the volume was made up of a large seed and there wasn't a lot of flesh. What flesh there was was hard to cut up because of the odd texture - it wasn't exactly slimy (slime is mentioned a lot here, as it is Mac's main objection to mangos in general), it was almost gelatinous. Anyway, split decision on the taste - Mac liked it, I didn't.
The girls didn't like it, as you can see from the yucky faces.
Mango #4 - Manga Bourbon
This was a smallish, greenish mango. Mac thought it had a mushy texture, but a good flavor. I didn't write any notes.
Lily thought it was ok, but not really good. Same with Moo.
Mango #5 - Manga Hadem
This was the unanimous favorite of the competition. Lily declared it was "Good stuff" and asked if I could cut up some more. I liked that it had a good tartness to it, as well as being sweet.
Both of Maggie's faces are smiling (it's hard to tell) and Lily made sure to embellish hers to show how much she liked it.
Mango #6 - Mystery Manga
This was one of the mangoes that we picked up at the market that didn't have a nice name sticker on it. I thought it might be the same variety of one of other ones, maybe at a different stage of ripeness, but after tasting it, I think it was something different. It was much sweeter than any of the others and didn't have any tartness to it. Mac declared it was slimy and yucky, and way too sweet.
Both girls gave so-so verdicts. At this point in the taste test, Lily is trying to match her facial expression to her drawings.
Mango #7 - Mystery Manga 2
Another mango without a sticker, and again I think it was different than any of the others we tried. It had a very strong, sweet smell when it was cut. Again, it had no tartness at all. The most intriguing thing about this one was that it tasted almost like it was infused with coconut. Mac said it tasted like a pina colada and rated it his second favorite. It also had an almost creamy (not quite slimy, Mac said) texture.
I think Lily's reaction is obvious. Maggie drew a yuck face, but she kept on eating it, so maybe she didn't really get the whole idea...
Mango #8 - Manga Tommy
These are usually the only mangoes available at the local supermarket, and I think they're the same ones that we buy at home. The one I had in the fridge the day of the contest wasn't ripe at all, so we didn't include it. We'll eat it later. The girls and I like them and eat several every week, I think Mac says they're slimy.
The aftermath...
Mango #1 -Manga Rosa (manga is Portuguese for mango)
My comment sheets says "smells really mango-ey"
Mango #2 - Manga Palmer
This one wasn't nearly as ripe, so that probably influenced the ratings. It had kind of an odd taste to me. Mac liked it - mostly because it had more of a firm, less slimy texture. We (the adults) agreed that it tasted vaguely of pine needles.
The opinions were reversed on this one - Lily was so-so, Maggie liked it. Maggie is wearing a felt crown that she made, in case you were wondering.
Mango #3 - Manga Espada
This one was very fibrous. The mango itself was quite small and squishy. Most of the volume was made up of a large seed and there wasn't a lot of flesh. What flesh there was was hard to cut up because of the odd texture - it wasn't exactly slimy (slime is mentioned a lot here, as it is Mac's main objection to mangos in general), it was almost gelatinous. Anyway, split decision on the taste - Mac liked it, I didn't.
The girls didn't like it, as you can see from the yucky faces.
Mango #4 - Manga Bourbon
This was a smallish, greenish mango. Mac thought it had a mushy texture, but a good flavor. I didn't write any notes.
Mango #5 - Manga Hadem
This was the unanimous favorite of the competition. Lily declared it was "Good stuff" and asked if I could cut up some more. I liked that it had a good tartness to it, as well as being sweet.
Mango #6 - Mystery Manga
This was one of the mangoes that we picked up at the market that didn't have a nice name sticker on it. I thought it might be the same variety of one of other ones, maybe at a different stage of ripeness, but after tasting it, I think it was something different. It was much sweeter than any of the others and didn't have any tartness to it. Mac declared it was slimy and yucky, and way too sweet.
Mango #7 - Mystery Manga 2
Another mango without a sticker, and again I think it was different than any of the others we tried. It had a very strong, sweet smell when it was cut. Again, it had no tartness at all. The most intriguing thing about this one was that it tasted almost like it was infused with coconut. Mac said it tasted like a pina colada and rated it his second favorite. It also had an almost creamy (not quite slimy, Mac said) texture.
Mango #8 - Manga Tommy
These are usually the only mangoes available at the local supermarket, and I think they're the same ones that we buy at home. The one I had in the fridge the day of the contest wasn't ripe at all, so we didn't include it. We'll eat it later. The girls and I like them and eat several every week, I think Mac says they're slimy.
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