Bento fun for the kids

We signed up for a bento workshop organised by Alicia through her Home Learning group, the workshop was on 19 January 2013 and held in Anchorage.  It was a small group workshop and we had a blast of time!

It has been raining since morning but it did not dampen our spirits, we reached Anchorage at 2.50pm, 10mins earlier.  I was not familiar with the place as it was our first time at that place, since it was raining there wasn't any security guard I could asked for direction as they were taking shelter in the security guard house or some where.  We managed to find the location and saw that the workshop is not ready yet.  The teacher was still preparing things, we thought of hanging around outside but they saw us and invited us in.  We did not have to wait long before the rest starts to arrives.

The kids were excited to see so many new gadgets and things on the table, soon they were playing with the punchers, the spatula etc...

soon they got bored and its time for a game of...

That's the game DinoBoy played in his child care centre and he is teaching his cousins and friends to play this, sometimes insist that they play this rule.  Strangely they obliged though they have no idea the exact rule for this game and why he is always the one winning.

Soon everyone arrives and settled in, the workshop finally got started and it is conducted by Ms Josephine Yam of Baker1314.  She is very patient in explaining and showing us the various tools and methods to make cute little rice shaped such as Hello Kitty, star, heart, gingerbread man, Tigger, Pooh etc.  This is a kids hands on workshop so they are suppose to do most of the work with minimum help from the parents.

Bento Teacher Ms Josephine Yam

Every one's listening attentively at Teacher

A while later the *impatient* kids finally got their wish and starts to do their bento, they got their hands "dirty" but moulding, squeezing, patting the sticky rice into the different moulds. I was too excited to want to help DinoBoy (which he promptly rejects me) that I keep forgetting to snap photos!

DinoBoy had a chance to "play" with so many different tools, he was especially interested with cutting out the cheese and seaweed (both his favourite food) into flowers shapes.  On top of that, he gets to put them in the bento and decorate it any way he likes.  Needless to say he enjoyed himself to the fullest.

Hard at work

Look at DinoBoy's creation!  Ms Josephine also prepared some finger food, fresh vegetables and fruits for the kids to decorate their bentos.

Finally, our Bento!

DinoBoy even receive a Certificate of Achievement for a job well done!

Ms Josephine prepared cupcakes for the kids to enjoy after the workshop ends and DinoBoy is delighted to receive his cupcake as it is not as plain and boring as the ones I baked, its got a cute little monkey on it!

And what's best to enjoy cupcake with a friend, Ms Poppy... ...

Poppy & DinoBoy

How about enjoying it with TWO friends, Ms Poppy & Ms Dana?  Happiness to the MAX (though he looked "squeezed" by Poppy's overwhelmed enthusiasm hahaha~)!!!

Dana, Poppy & DinoBoy

And of course I visited the neighbourhood Daiso to get some bento tools, I hope to make some simple bento for DinoBoy soon.

Remarks : I am in no way affiliated to Bake1314 or have been compensated to write about this.  All opinions are 100% based on our experience during the workshop.