Japanese Cultural Event= FANTASTIC!

 The Japanese/American Society put on a cultural event on Saturday.  I made the kids go.  Except for Callie, who was pathetically sick and in no condition to go.  I hauled the rest out into the cold, gray, drizzly day and we walked to the school.  The event was held in the school cafeteria, which was barely big enough.  There were quite a few things to do, but not much room to do them in.

There was food: yummy yakisoba and fried rice.  There was some card painting, and Kanji painting.  You could participate in a Japanese tea ceremony and you could mold with clay.  I think you were suppose to be molding it into some traditional shape, but the line was always too long for my kids to get in on it.There was also origami and flower arranging, and there was a game table for the kids.  While you were doing all these other things, there were demonstrations going on on the stage- dancing and drumming mostly.  It was pretty cool.

Enjoying the yakisoba.  It was tasty, but I had to pick out the cabbage from Rylee's.

This kid stayed long enough to eat, then wanted to go home.  I think there was too much going on in a small room and she was a little overwhelmed with all the people. I said I had to get a photo before she left, and this was it!  Notice the enthusiasm. 

Delaney is showing me her card she just painted. 

Rylee in front of the display. 

Rylee ran into a friend from Yochien and ran off to play and had a marvelous time. 

Super cool dragon dancer. 

Rylee fishing at the kids' game table. 

The drummers got reeeealy into it.  And they were loud! 

This lady's outfit was gorgeous, and this instrument was nifty. 

Joshua, showing me his Kanji he just painted. 

Delaney made an origami box. 

One of the lovely Japanese ladies doing the tea ceremony. 

Rylee did this adorable flower arrangement.  She was so cute, but hard to get a good photo of. 

This lady in traditional garb was dancing and her kimono is so awesome! 

Her friend saw me taking a picture and came in for a shot as well. 

I arranged flowers too!  There is a specific art to it, FYI. 

Rylee, tuckered out and ready to go home.  She's wearing a fabulous Samurai paper hat!

Delaney's Read-a-Thon

 On Friday, Delaney invited me to her class for their Read-a-Thon.  It was pajama day as well, and at the end of the day, they were going to spend 45 minutes just reading.  Delaney wanted me to join her.  I'm always up for a good excuse to read, so I meandered over to her class.  Her teacher confirmed that yes, parents were welcome and invited, even if I was the only one.

I hung out and read.  The kids lounged on the carpet and crawled under the desks, and clustered together to read out loud to each other, or silently to themselves. It was cute.  And fun.  And Delaney was so happy to have me there too.

Delaney, on the carpet.  She's holding cousin Charlotte's "flat" doll who is visiting us right now.

 Me and my sweet girl.

  She's so cute when she reads.

Actually, she's cute all the time!

Why Japan is AWESOME!

Japan is the best ever! We love living here.  The people are fantastic and the country is beautiful.  I have to laugh at Joshua's description of the people.  He was describing how nice the Japanese people are. He said, "I want you to take the niceness of your grandma and multiply it by Morgan Freeman's voice."  That's how nice they are.

Plus, Japan has some of the coolest things.  For example:

This.  This is the most awesome thing ever. It is essentially an adult diaper.  You really need to biggify this to read the English.

Again, make it big enough to read the directions.  Hilarious!

And these..... amazing!  Chair Socks!  Love them. They keep the chair from screeching across the floor.  And they come in all kinds of styles.  I need to get some of the argyle ones.

This is my AC/Heat control.  I have one in each room.  It is fabulous because I can turn it off at night and my room will be a lovely 64 degrees when I get up. that is perfect for sleeping, but not so much for getting up.  So I turn my heat on and in 5 minutes, my room is 73 degrees.  The only annoying thing is that now I have to turn the 3 of these downstairs of these down each night and up each morning.

The Japanese wrap everything so nicely!  This was one of Rylee's Valentine's from one of her friends at Yochien.  So cute.

And this is what was in it.  Adorbs!

You can find boxes like this in Japan and no one is offended.

Look who's a Father!

 Joshua is taking Home Ec this semester.  As part of it, he got to take care of a Flour "Baby" for a week.  He is not ready for fatherhood. Not just because he dressed his baby up and named it "Bat-Baby".  He lost points for forgetting his baby several times.  Thank goodness it was just a flour baby and not the kind that actually tracks if you hold it or feed it.  Just hauling the darn thing around was more than Joshua was happy to do.  He survived his week and was delighted to return his "baby" this week.

This is the face he gave me when I asked for a photo.

This was the next one.  More appropriate though, as he was on his way to school to turn in Bat Baby.

Daddy Daughter Dance

 I am a bit behind on blogging.  Oops.  

Saturday before last was the Daddy Daughter Dance and 3 of the girls wanted to go. MArian is my anti-social kid and she preferred to stay home.  Callie wasn't sure she wanted to go till I mentioned there would be food, and the flier mentioned a dessert bar.  After that, Callie was in.

The girls were careful and specific in their dress selections.  Sigh.  I have failed in some areas and matching tights and shoes with dresses seems to be something I neglected to teach my girls.  No matter, they were delighted with their choices and eager to go.  They demanded pretty hair and I obliged.  Except for Rylee, who decided that "pretty hair" meant adding cute clips that did not match her dress.  Meh.  They were adorable!

All ready to go!  The best part was when Callie reached into her dress and pulled out an enormous fan and flipped it open coquettishly.  

Delaney, showing her pretty hair.