Doll House

Soft toys are invading the kids' bed! Whenever I do night checks, they are near the edge of the bed, while their soft toys are comfortably surrounded to a side. After days of thoughts, I've decided that their soft toys need a separate home, and I made a rarely passable home for their 'friends.'

I don't have specific directions, I flowed as I 'build.' Mainly, cover the raw boxes with papers, coloured or plain are good. I happened to have some pictured papers, so I decorated it to look quite like a house. Jazz attempted to make this a joint project, but I completed most of it. It was rather challenging for the little hands.

What you need:

• Coloured/Plain papers
• Pictured papers (if any)
• Scissors 
• Glue

I used hot glue gun, which allowed me to work faster. 

Directions:

1. Cut the longer flaps of the boxes. Keeping only the shorter flaps as 'doors.'

2. Glue the boxes, one above the other, the 2 larger sides together.

3. Cover the raw exposed sides (in and out) with papers. Alternatively, you can get a large wrapping paper to cover. I worked within my resources.

4. Find suitable pictures or coloured papers for the walls and doors

 

Papers and 2 identical sized boxes

If you've time and creativity, make up the furniture!

Stuffed toys neatly housed, safe and sound between the kids

It wasn't a very intensive project. I visualized a thought, made it happened and got the toys sheltered. Not too bad of an effort, from the usually un-creative me. 

What else matters when the people whom I'm trying to please love it? Yes, Jazz loves it, she has the most contributions (she owns bulk of the toys) to the new made home. I'm just glad their beds look more spacious now.

Interesting conversations

After a series of classic conversations collecting, it's time to document them again.

Conversation 1
Jazz: Mummy, why is the moon sometimes round and sometimes crescent?
Mum: Why don't you ask Daddy?
Dad: Because the monster ate the moon!
Jazz: No! Because the sun cast shadow on the moon.
I'm impressed, but I felt like, I fell into her trick.

Conversation 2:
Mum: Jazzelle, see, fire engine is rushing. Like firefighter Fred.
Jazz: Where is the fire engine going to?
Mum: It's going to...
Dad: They are rushing to save a cat from the tree.
It could be true, but definitely not good knowledge to share about firefighters.

Conversation 3:
Dad: Jazzelle, let's not bring lolli (her soft, toy dog). Put him in the car so he can watch the car and bark when strangers come.
Jazz: Do you think lolli will bark? I don't think so, he's a soft toy
Sometimes, you keep thinking you're still talking to a 2 year old when she's 4!

Conversation 4:
Mum: Jareth, what did you learn in school today? What number did you write?
Jare: Forty-Nine
Mum: And who is George Washington?
Jare: He's my friend!
I've no idea where his concentration wandered to in school. Got a set of wrong replies.

Conversation 5:
Jazz: Mummy, you know why is goofy so clever? Because he's so tall.
Mum: I think because he eats well
Jazz: Then Donald and Daisy Duck are not clever because they are short
Dad: Because they got birds' brain
Gosh! My girl is disneyfied and my man is crazy!

Conversations like these keep me smiling and laughing just by reading and re-reading. I love the laughter  they plant in my life. I love my family!

Final summer trip - Las Vegas

From Vancouver, we flew in to Nevada, Las Vegas. The city known for gambling, fine dining, shows, shopping and nightlife. Simply, not quite a place to visit with kids. And being restrained by them, there wasn't much we accomplished, except eating and shopping. My parents were around, and I thought if we had more days, we would have caught the Celine Dion's concert, since we had child care 'service' readily available. 

 

Seeing cities within city

 

Vegas is a very exciting place, a city that never sleeps, with hot babes everywhere. What made everything hotter was the weather, it was 44 deg Celsius during our stay there! Yes, you read me right. The moment we stepped out of the air-conditioned airport, we were 'warmly' welcomed into a heat furnace. It was crazy! As I wheeled the kids through the taxi line, in their stroller, I can hear murmurs of conversation, "It's so hot! How is this bearable for the kids." Well, we didn't know when heatwave will strike. Although, July is one of the hottest months in Vegas, 44 deg c. is unusual.

Our stay was provoked by the weather, I had the burning desire to return home. What made worse, was spending independence day in LV, with mega huge crowd everywhere, from hotels to the strip. Everyone wanted to catch sight of fireworks, we too! I will never forget how closely packed we were on an overhead bridge that brought us across the road, almost skin to skin with strangers. A stampede could end us all. After that adventure, I totally sympathize sardines.

Amazingly, nothing subdued my love for shopping. Regardless the heat, we shopped a whole day at the Las Vegas premium outlets - North. We had another reason to walk into any shop for cool air, and perhaps stay longer. I shopped, my parents shopped and the kids cooperated with a long nap. Maybe, this was the true highlight of our trip. Other than that, Vegas was planned all for my Dad. "For your gambling experience, Dad!" We would have taken longer stroll down the strip, if weather was favourable with less crowd. It was my second time there, all I can remember it for, is seemingly like, Orchard road. Variety of shops within walks. Tiring and endless.

It was a good desert expedition though, less the camels and cactus. We went around on foot for 2 days and rented a car for our outlet visit, and dine at my long desired restaurant, Lawry's, on the third day. The place with ever highly pleasing steak! And cheaper than Singapore.    

 

Always a taste to last

We stayed in Venetian, which was very much like Marina Bay Sands, as both are owned by sands. More grand, and larger rooms in Venetian though. But MBS is more profitable. Monopoly vs Competition.

 

Little Venice within the hotel

Huge luxurious hotel room

Our stay wasn't too bad after all. Even though hot, humidity was low, we were slow to perspire. On our final day, we were excited to take flight home until the airline officer informed us of the plane crash at SFO airport. It got our flight cancelled. We were stranded for awhile, but didn't take us long to decide driving 10 hours home. My dad took half the journey, while my man took the other.

Being home safe and back to comfort is our ultimate reward. For weeks, I got tired of travelling and vacation. And now, gradually picking the mood for our next short vacation!