trippingdifferently

Yes that’s right – it snowed!
Autumn isn’t quite over – i think this is one of those early snows that won’t stay but still it was lovely to wake to a blanket of white.
Tobias was so excited – he woke & walked into the living room like he always does & then comes rushing back to me (in bathroom) saying,: "It’s winter Mummy, snow!"
Then he goes on to talk in great excitement about going skiing – he loves skiing – unfortunately we had to tell him – it’s not quite time to ski yet. He did want to go out & play in the snow – i said ok – but we never got round to it. We had spent most of the day, sorting through his old clothes & his hand-me-downs (which we have tons of – & are grateful for).

The snow actually started the night before – here’s my attemp at getting a picture of it in pitch darkness:

Here’s what it looked like this morning:

i had remembered posting about early snow falls last year or at least the year before but can’t seem to find it – it’s too late now…
Ok off to my cozy duvet & bed now…
syc

Leonny at Our Everyday Things wrote about Overscheduled Kids & i completely agree with the article from FamilyFun.com which she quoted from.

There is so much out there for you to register your kids for – dance classes, music classes, art classes, ballet, piano, langauges etc… Am i guilty of that too? Sometimes i feel i am – i look at our weekly schedule & think – oh my God, we are hardly at home! We spent 1x whole day a week at home – other than that, we are out & about – going to stuff. It is only about 1x activity a day (so that’s a total of 5x activities).

The article highlights good reasons to bring your kids for extra activties & i think we fit that bill…

• for stress-free fun
• positive peer support
• interaction with other kids (if not available near home)
• activity which the child loves

We go to most of our activities for the interaction & he loves going to all of them – the only real learning class is Chinese – & that’s to keep up with our home language in a foreign country. Oh actually we sent him to daycare to be exposed to Swiss German & also to give mummy a little downtime. So am i overscheduling? i don’t think so but sometimes it feels so.

What about you? Is your week packed full? Or do you just go with the flow?
syc

Today Mummy had a mini book sale to do at St Ursula’s Church in Bern. As Daddy has gone to Canada for work (again – sigh!), Tobias tagged along – one of his favourite things to do ;).

& of cos we came home with a little more than we made at the sale – you see it was a sale of mostly second-hand kids clothes & toys so guess what our little mister came home with – yep – a new toy! He had his eye on it almost from the moment we arrived there to setup. Actually, he was looking at a motorcycle toy with Batman on it but saw the truck & changed his mind & when the nice lady said it came with a tool kit – that was it – it was his already.

Here’s a picture of him working on his truck – see that look of concentration ;p

That little drill thingy actually works – here’s a video of it:

It is a really fun toy – the whole thing comes apart, so he gets to take something apart without being yelled at & gets to put it back together again – he played with it almost the whole morning while we were at the sale which is great for me as i didn’t have to worry about him – there was no "Mummy i want this or that" or "Mummy play with me" or "Mummy i want to go now" – actually in the last hour we were there he did say he wanted to go – but this is after almost 4hrs of playing nicely by himself with his new toy & with another older gal who was also there with her mummy. So he was really really good 😉 i’m most pleased 😀

Of cos we came home with more than 1x toy. There was also 2x Roald Dahl books, 1x Mr Men book & 1x winter vest – great finds for a good price 😉

The second-hand stuff market is really great in Switzerland – most people here really take care of their stuff – so when they say second-hand here, you can be sure it is in good working condition & would look hardly used. Being second-hand, you can most definitely expect to find great finds for really low prices which is great for the budget – especially in the current global economic situation. You can get everything from kids stuff to snowboards (Walter got his snowboard second-hand) for much much less than half the brand-new price. Churhes regularly use this method to raise funds for good causes – today’s sale proceeds went to support kids with cancer. You can also visit a brocki or brockenhaus (second-hand shop) – every village would almost certainly have one – at least for kids stuff they will.

i wished that there was such a second-hand market available in Singapore – but i think in Singapore there is of cos available cheap alternatives & factory outlets so why get second-hand? Also people tend to frown upon getting things like clothes from someone they don’t know. Do you know of a good second-hand shop in Singapore? Do let me know & i’ll check it out on my next visit home. Or maybe you know somewhere in Asia that has a fab second-hand market like here?

Wishing you all happy shopping wherever you are 😉
syc