Just My Rambling

Oh, where are you, Mr UPS??? After a long wait, I finally managed to snag a Wii Fit at Amazon on Tuesday. Yes, I know I could have easily gotten one at some other sites but the stingy frugal me refuse to pay more than the MRSP. I have Amazon Prime which means 2 day free shipping. That means that it should arrive sometime today. I wish Mr UPS would hurry up!!

Just before we got snowed in for the Christmas holidays, we went ice-skating in the freezing weather. This outdoor ice-skating rink is only there for the holiday season. They just set up the ice-skating rink in the middle of the park under a tent structure.

It was definitely more fun skating in an outdoor rink than an indoor rink. It was also really beautiful since it had just snowed the previous day.

The little one really enjoyed herself!

Unfortunately a few days after we skated there, there was a mishap. We had a snowstorm and there were just too much snow. That caused the entire tent to collapse. Luckily there were not many people skating since most people were snowed in. Most of them escaped with minor injuries. The ice-skating rink has since reopened but without the tent. It is now an open-air rink.

Took this video of Lil’ C & her friend sledding today. They were having too much fun!!

Yup, it’s gingerbread house time again. After having so much fun with last year’s gingerbread house, Lil’ C wanted to make another one this year. So I got this kit for $9.99 at Costco.

Lil’ C having fun putting it all together. Unlike last year where she wanted to eat the candies, this year she was the one who reminded me that the candies are not for eating but for making the gingerbread house. : )

Ta-da….the finished product now proudly sitting on top of my fireplace mantel.

Lil’ C has been taking piano class for a few months already. Originally I never intended for her to start piano so early but it so happens that my neighbor is a piano teacher. She wanted to start a preschool piano group class and needed some guinea pigs. So that’s how she got started on piano classes.

I remember when I was young & took piano classes, I didn’t like them very much. Piano classes were also boring to me. There’s also the dreaded piano exams. So I quit after a while. A fact that I regret sometimes. Well, at least I know if Lil’ C ever quits piano, it will not be for the same reason as mine because they have NO piano exams here!! They just learn whatever they want. Right now C is loving her classes. She has since graduated from preschool piano group class to private class. With the private class, every month they have a little recital among younger kids. This was taken last month at her very first mini piano recital.

Today Lil’ C’s preschool had a field trip to the pumpkin farm. Even though the weather had been awesome the last few days, it decided to rain this morning. Mommy was not a happy camper but Lil’ C was so excited because she got to wear her new rain boots. Luckily the rain decided to stop when we got to the farm but it was still muddy and wet everywhere. Lil’ C and her friends were so excited and started jumping in the mud puddles! I think that was the best part of the field trip!! They took a hayride around the farm and then went to pick pumpkins from the pumpkin garden. After a snack, we headed home with a very mud-caked girl!

It’s pumpkin season and pumpkins are everywhere! They were even at a birthday party we attended last week. Give a couple of bottles of glitter glue to a couple of preschooler and you’ll end up with pumpkin masterpiece!!

Birthday boy got even more creative and decided to take off the cap and just pour the whole bottle of glitter glue on the pumpkin and himself.

My family has been asking me to post videos of Lil’ C for the longest time. Unfortunately the video-ignorant me could not figure out how to download from videocam to my pc!!! Duh!!! I still don’t and my technical support aka the hubby is too lazy to help me!! So I finally ended up using the video feature of the camera. So hopefully this works!!

I was just reading Mumgather’s post about board games and I couldn’t agree more with her that board games are good for kids. This summer with Lil’ C out of school and us travelling so much, I have been using this opportunity to play board games with her.

We started off with My first UNO. It is the kiddie version of the regular UNO and less complicated. When she first started playing, she started crying and got really upset when she didn’t win. But soon, she started to learn that she couldn’t win all the time and got over it. Now although she still likes to win, she doesn’t get upset anymore.

Another game we play is Chutes and Ladders. It is a great game for counting. The latest game that we are playing now is Monopoly. I got the Junior version. Since Lil’ C is able to read, I took the opportunity to let her read the instructions herself and figure out the game all by herself.

Here she is playing the game and actually beating her daddy!! She owns more blue ticket booth ( the junior version uses ticket booths instead of hotels in the regular Monopoly.) than her daddy’s green ticket booth. I love this game because she learns counting and also learn how to use the different currencies. It’s great for learning additions and subtrations too. For example she has to pay money to buy ticket booths. Now she understands that to buy a $4 hotel, she can use either four $1 or 2 $2 or even a $5 and get $1 change. Lots of fun ways to learn Math.

This year I decided to make a gingerbreadhouse with my little girl. So I bought a gingerbread kit from Costco. It’s so convenient since it comes with everything from the gingerbread to the candy & icing.

At first Lil’ C was having a lot of fun decorating. Then after realizing that she was not allowed to eat the candy, she started to lose interest in the gingerbread house!! So this mommy ended up having to finish up the gingerbread house all by herself!!  Sigh…. kids!!!

After an hour or so, this is the result. Not too bad, eh? Will I do it again next year? Only if Lil’ C promise to sit & finish the project with me!! It’s not very fun doing it by myself!!