Navy Pier: Winter wonderfest

The next day, we came back to the Navy Pier for more family fun at the Winter Wonderfest. Elle was having so much fun that we could see her face lit up with excitements. Everytime she finished her turn at an activity, she shrilled in joy saying, "It's sooo FUN! I want to do it again!".

Gosh! It was so hilarious, fun and crazy when we took turn accompanying her getting into the giant inflatable house. We giggled so hard as we tried to pass through all those obstacle courses: fighting through the poles, climbing up mini-steps and then sliding down, squeezing through a hole and crawling on fours, and finally came to climbing up steps about 5 feet tall to the top of this giant slide. It's too late to regret the moment we sat on the top of it and realized how steep and high the slide was. After letting her coming down the slide (which was the easy part), I was so hesitated sliding down myself. The look of me trying to hold on something for dear life as I'm coming down the slide was extremely embarrassing. The moment I landed safely and be glad it's over, I heard Elle screamed excitedly, "I want to do it again! I want to do it again!". So, her dada took her for the second round.
The holiday trees were so dazzling and dressed-up extravagantly.

We joked about hin was so sad about not able to fly in the pink dragon. The plan was he accompanied Elle to fly in the dragon. It turned out there's one empty space left and Elle agreed to go alone by herself.
This's the cutest mini Ferris wheel I have ever seen. To our surprise, Elle had no problem to go solo again. The boy sat next to her requested to get out after one spin. We're so proud of her sitting through it till the end all by herself.

Elle was already very exhausted and tired even though there're almost half more games we haven't played yet. We wrapped it up with a train ride around the giant Christmas tree and passing through a holiday wonderland.

It was freezing cold during our stays in the windy city. It's great to get warmed up with steaming hot pho and fried calamari at Chinatown. It's a bliss to hear Elle saying, "I'm happy." every morning when she woke up in the hotel. No doubt, she's having a great time.

Navy Pier: Chicago Children Museum

The CCM located inside the Navy Pier was a delight surprise. I've been impressed with its hands-on wide range of exhibits. The fort building room looked like a messy big room with upside-down tables and chairs, door frames, bed frames, pillows and sheets scattered all over the place. Yet, it was a big hit with the kids. Oh, Elle loves hiding inside the fort, chalking on the board, rearranging stuffs, and walking up and down the attic.
The Waterways room was way too cool. We played with boats down a river, turned a water wheel, and worked with the pulleys to fill the bucket with water, lift it up and drop the water off.
We built planes, cranked it up above and let it fly down. We made bad, okay and good planes. Some crashed, some wobbled down awkwardly, and some flew in a swift.
There're so much more we've done, skimped through and missed. Elle slided down the fire pole, drove a fire truck, netting fishes and insects in the water, bathing dolls in a tub, climbing tree house, dry ice-skating, dressing up a snowman and so much more to be explored. It's simply too overwhelming for a day trip.
At nightfall, we freezed our butts off at the dock overlooking Lake Michigan welcoming the new year 2010 with a splendid fireworks. Elle was so excited shaking along the music while watching the fireworks blasting in the sky.

Ater the firework was over, we went inside the building and got stucked in the crowd pressing back-to-front and pacing forward in a dreadfully slow pace. On top of being admist in the crazy crowd, the heater was blasting off as if standing next to a hot stove. We almost got a claustrophobia attack and were so relieved when we finally squeezed our way out to the garage, hopped into our car and left.

Day after Christmas

Having breakfast at the breakfast place nearby and then hanging out at the library. We just needed to get outside after staying inside the house for one whole day on Christmas.

Have you seen someone enjoying ketchup so much like her? She simply loves to eat the ketchup straight up.

Merry X'Mas

Finally we got an itsy bitsy Christmas tree this year to celebrate the magic of Christmas. It all started with Elle got an ornament gift from the daycare and asked about the Christmas tree. The moment we took the tree out of the box, she immediately went looking for the ornament and wanted to put it on the tree. She took a glance at the tree and pointed at the tip of it asking, "What about the star?". It never cross my mind that she knew about the star topper on Christmas tree and we promised we would get one soon.

A couple days before Christmas, we got a package from a mailman and Elle took it and wanted to open it. I told her we should put it under the tree and wait till Christmas day. She agreed and handed it over to me. At then, her dada asked if the package was his and wanted to check it out. I handed it over to him and Elle started getting nervous about dada was going to open up the package. She barked "NOOO!" and pointed her finger at the tree saying sternly, "YOU PUT IT UNDER THE TREE!". Oh gosh! We burst into a long, loud belly-laugh.

On the Christmas eve night, we put up the Christmas tree all together. Oh, seeing the joyful face of the little one putting the ornaments happily all by herself was priceless. With presents placed underneath the tree (no cookie and milk left for Santa Claus though), we're ready to open them up on the Christmas day.

We had a rainny Christmas day this year. The snow was melting away and it's been drizzling all day long. After breakfast, it's time to open up the presents. In no time, the wrapping papers were scattered all over the floor and Elle was delighted with her presents and had hours of fun playing them.
This year, we made a simple, yet succulent rib roast, tasted as good as the one we'd order in a restaurant. Having glasses of holiday cheers on our Christmas dinner.
Have a happy merry Christmas! Enjoy our groovy elves dance!

Holiday baking frenzy

We had been baking up a storm since last weekend. I thought it'd be fun for Elle to help out baking with me, but it proved to be also extremely messy and time-consuming. Oh you should see the damage she had done by the time we're done with baking for the day. Her face, hands, shirt and pant were covered with flour, cookie dough, chocolate sauce and icings!

She loved rolling the dough and using those holiday cookie cutters to make lots of fun shaped cookies. However, I think she even loved more to sneak one or two M&M's candies into her mouth which we used for decorating our cookie, and licked off the royal icing from the beater and melting chocolate from the bowl.
I love how adorable these gingerbread man cookies turned out. They're for each of the kids in her sunflower class. It's funny to listen Elle bragging about she's making cookies and be so proud of eating the cookies she made herself. That night, I overheard the little bedtalk of her with her dada. Her dada asked her how many cookies she ate and she replied "Three." and followed by "I make cookie and you DON'T MAKE cookie!".
Finally I got to cross off marshmallow from my to-bake list. Never a big fan of marshmallow, but these homemade ones are so fluffy and yummy, especially when they're covered with melted chocolate. Simply perfect for a fondue.Enjoy a cup of hot cocoa topped with pillowy marshmallows.

A boo boo

Got a call from daycare in the afternoon saying Elle slipped and hit her chin on the table while she's drawing. After work, I went picking her up and saw her running towards me with a bandage on her chin. She looked funny indeed. Initially I thought the bandage seemed like overkill for a scratch until we took it off and found the cut was covered with plenty blood stain. The scratch is over half an inch length!

It's snow fun!

The second snowman we built this year. We enjoyed sipping the hot cocoa next to it. Elle had so much fun at the playground, shooting down the slide and landed on the snow pile giggling. We sled down the hill so many times until she could hardly get up from the sled and walk up to the hilltop to do it another run. She signed, "I'm so tired." with blushed cheeks from the cold.