Osaka; first birthday party; Kay's Bazaar; Randoseru is here!!!
whelp! it's that time again: Halloween! i don't have much time to post since anyone who has taught English knows that Halloween is one of the busiest times in the year at your job. i remember last year, i was arranging for a Halloween party at my old school all by myself, and i was totally frazzled by the end of the month! fortunately, i don't have to do any planning this year, and leave that up to the Japanese staff at ACB. however, implementing what they want me to do is a whole nother story :P
anyway, i'll post about Halloween after everything is all said and done. right now, i'll just make a brief post about what's been happening lately. :)
15th: Day trip to Osaka with hubs
hubs scored some super cheap plane tickets, so he decided to take Kay to Osaka for a day trip. she took that day off from school and left the house really early and came back really late, but had a blast with her daddy despite the rainy weather that day :)
we've been giving Kay an allowance of 50 yen each week starting this month, and she bought this little cell phone strap with her allowance. it cost her almost all of it (450 yen), but she was soo happy to buy something with her own money! ^_^ that was the highlight of that trip, i think.
19th: Kay's Hoikuen's Bazaar and Arts and Crafts Gallery
her school held a big Bazaar that day where they showcased all the arts and craft projects they'd been doing for the past few months. they had a big Totoro theme going, so everything they made was from the movie. i, again, had to miss out on this because of work, but there are some pics hubs took :)
20th: attended first birthday party
now, Kay's never had a birthday party before sadly (mostly due to my laziness and wanting just to celebrate by ourselves :P ), but she's been invited to some before and it's always been a scheduling issue for me since i work so much. finally, hubs and i thought that Kay was responsible enough to be on her own in someone else's house without burning it down or breaking anything, so we said yes to an invite this past Sunday :) my coworker and friend's daughter was having her 6th birthday party, and she really wanted Kay to come, because I-chan really likes Kay and vise versa. i had to work that day, but i dropped Kay off early, had some lunch with my friend and then left for my lesson. Kay was totally cool about it since she loves going to other people's houses ^_^;; i came back to the party just in time to see the festivities begin and stayed til around 6:00-ish :) the rest of the party ended at a karaoke place, but unfortunately i had so many things to do to prep for my Monday classes that night that i had to take Kay and head on home. :( sigh, maybe next time. ^_^
my friend's party was really awesome. the theme was of the Disney Fairies, so all the girls dressed up in fairy costumes! it was so cute!!! my friend made all the decorations by hand and the cake was also her handiwork too! totally awesome!! ^_^ we had a really great time!
24th: Kay's Randoseru came!!!!
so after shopping around with my mamatomo, we finally settled on a style that Kay liked. then we searched the Internet for something similar that was not so expensive as the ones being sold in the stores. the ones that were being sold on shelves were of 2013 or 2014 models, which usually ranged from 30,000 yen to over 50,000 yen. since we're paying for it out of our own pockets (traditionally, the grandparents are suppose to pay for them, but hubs didn't want to burden his parents with an expense like that), that price range was just ridiculous. :P
it took about a week of us looking online before we finally settled on one that all of us could agree on. hubs put in the order and 3-4 days later:
it's here!!! this is a model from 2011, so it was half the price as all the current models. originally, we wanted to get a more popular brand, but we stuck with this one instead because it was 10,000 yen cheaper and had all the same features as the other brands. plus, Kay really liked the color of the bag :)
so with all the shipping and handling included, we got this Randoseru for around 15,000 yen :) my only gripe about it is that it's just a wee bit smaller than i'd imagined, but it's all good :) i really like how the color looks on her. originally, we thought that she'd look nice with a lighter pink, but on that Monday when we were trying on different Randoseru, i realized that it didn't suit her as well as the bolder pinks. :) just goes to show you that when buying one of these, you HAVE GOT to go and look at them yourself. it's almost like buying a pair of shoes or a sofa or whatnot.
btw, did you know that most, if not all, of the Randoseru are made by furniture companies? i always thought that was weird too, but after looking at one up close and owning one, you can see how sturdy it is and understand why they're made by furniture companies ^_^;;
this Randoseru is actually the first for all three of us, so we're all totally STOKED! hubs never had one when he was in elementary school, because he was born and raised in Hokkaido for the first half of his elementary school, and apparently, they didn't require them back then up there. so, when he moved to Yokohama, he was the only kid without one in his entire school :P his parents couldn't get him a new one because times were hard for their family then, so he spent the remainder of his elementary school years without one.
i'm so excited that i can't believe we have to wait until April 2014 for her to use it! ^_^;;
so, now you're all up to date :) i'll post about Kay's Halloween party experience this Saturday when we go to my Saturday school's party :D
anyway, i'll post about Halloween after everything is all said and done. right now, i'll just make a brief post about what's been happening lately. :)
15th: Day trip to Osaka with hubs
hubs scored some super cheap plane tickets, so he decided to take Kay to Osaka for a day trip. she took that day off from school and left the house really early and came back really late, but had a blast with her daddy despite the rainy weather that day :)
we've been giving Kay an allowance of 50 yen each week starting this month, and she bought this little cell phone strap with her allowance. it cost her almost all of it (450 yen), but she was soo happy to buy something with her own money! ^_^ that was the highlight of that trip, i think.
19th: Kay's Hoikuen's Bazaar and Arts and Crafts Gallery
her school held a big Bazaar that day where they showcased all the arts and craft projects they'd been doing for the past few months. they had a big Totoro theme going, so everything they made was from the movie. i, again, had to miss out on this because of work, but there are some pics hubs took :)
20th: attended first birthday party
now, Kay's never had a birthday party before sadly (mostly due to my laziness and wanting just to celebrate by ourselves :P ), but she's been invited to some before and it's always been a scheduling issue for me since i work so much. finally, hubs and i thought that Kay was responsible enough to be on her own in someone else's house without burning it down or breaking anything, so we said yes to an invite this past Sunday :) my coworker and friend's daughter was having her 6th birthday party, and she really wanted Kay to come, because I-chan really likes Kay and vise versa. i had to work that day, but i dropped Kay off early, had some lunch with my friend and then left for my lesson. Kay was totally cool about it since she loves going to other people's houses ^_^;; i came back to the party just in time to see the festivities begin and stayed til around 6:00-ish :) the rest of the party ended at a karaoke place, but unfortunately i had so many things to do to prep for my Monday classes that night that i had to take Kay and head on home. :( sigh, maybe next time. ^_^
my friend's party was really awesome. the theme was of the Disney Fairies, so all the girls dressed up in fairy costumes! it was so cute!!! my friend made all the decorations by hand and the cake was also her handiwork too! totally awesome!! ^_^ we had a really great time!
24th: Kay's Randoseru came!!!!
so after shopping around with my mamatomo, we finally settled on a style that Kay liked. then we searched the Internet for something similar that was not so expensive as the ones being sold in the stores. the ones that were being sold on shelves were of 2013 or 2014 models, which usually ranged from 30,000 yen to over 50,000 yen. since we're paying for it out of our own pockets (traditionally, the grandparents are suppose to pay for them, but hubs didn't want to burden his parents with an expense like that), that price range was just ridiculous. :P
it took about a week of us looking online before we finally settled on one that all of us could agree on. hubs put in the order and 3-4 days later:
it's here!!! this is a model from 2011, so it was half the price as all the current models. originally, we wanted to get a more popular brand, but we stuck with this one instead because it was 10,000 yen cheaper and had all the same features as the other brands. plus, Kay really liked the color of the bag :)
so with all the shipping and handling included, we got this Randoseru for around 15,000 yen :) my only gripe about it is that it's just a wee bit smaller than i'd imagined, but it's all good :) i really like how the color looks on her. originally, we thought that she'd look nice with a lighter pink, but on that Monday when we were trying on different Randoseru, i realized that it didn't suit her as well as the bolder pinks. :) just goes to show you that when buying one of these, you HAVE GOT to go and look at them yourself. it's almost like buying a pair of shoes or a sofa or whatnot.
btw, did you know that most, if not all, of the Randoseru are made by furniture companies? i always thought that was weird too, but after looking at one up close and owning one, you can see how sturdy it is and understand why they're made by furniture companies ^_^;;
this Randoseru is actually the first for all three of us, so we're all totally STOKED! hubs never had one when he was in elementary school, because he was born and raised in Hokkaido for the first half of his elementary school, and apparently, they didn't require them back then up there. so, when he moved to Yokohama, he was the only kid without one in his entire school :P his parents couldn't get him a new one because times were hard for their family then, so he spent the remainder of his elementary school years without one.
i'm so excited that i can't believe we have to wait until April 2014 for her to use it! ^_^;;
so, now you're all up to date :) i'll post about Kay's Halloween party experience this Saturday when we go to my Saturday school's party :D