Little trip to Hiroshima

 My friend Hope asked if I wanted to go to Hiroshima with her.  There was a little bakery shop she wanted to visit.  She was on a quest to find the elusive and seasonal "sakura"  or cherry blossom flavoring.  I was happy to agree to the trip.  Unfortunately, Rylee was a little sick that day, and stayed home from Yochien.  Fortunately, Hope didn't mind an extra passenger.  Rylee was mostly fine.  Aside from the 4 bathroom breaks we had to make, she was quiet, and pleasant.  And she napped a bit in the car.

We found the bakery shop after a lot of left turns and a missed road.  It was fun and I found some goodies I liked.  Hope was delighted to find her sakura flavoring, and I went ahead and got one too. I think it is a slight cherry falvor, but I'm not sure.  Guess I'll have to try it out....

Next we went to Aeon Mall.  It is a huge  mall.  We meandered to a Chinese Buffet (I know, a Chinese buffet in Japan?!) and enjoyed some tasty lunch.  I wish I had gotten pictures.  Rylee was thrilled to partake of their waffle bar and had a waffle with ice cream and caramel syrup on it for lunch.

Hope then took me to the big thrift/resale store in Hiroshima called Circle One.  It was huge!  And fun. The upstairs was amazing with all kinds of furniture and odd things.  I finally busted out the camera there just because how can you not?!

Seriously!  A suit of armor?!  Yep, need a photo of that!

 Larger than life size Christmas decoration?  I so wish we had room for that!  (Plus a spare 400 yen...)

Rylee just wanted a shot of her holding the branch of the plant. 

Now we're on a roll. 

And can you imagine having things like this hanging from your ceiling?  How fun! 

Egyptian sculpture?  Why not? 

 Rylee had a marvelous time finding things I had to take photos of her with.

Oh, I forgot to mention the best part.....

Look what is at the Aeon Mall! 

Yep a real Krispy Kreme!  Sure they had some odd varieties, like a tuna stuffed donut, but they also had the traditional delights.  And delighted were the children when I brought this home!

(As an aside, a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts in Japan runs you just under $20)

A Very Mari Birthday

 Marian turned 12!  My little girl is growing up. Thank goodness she is growing into a delightful young lady.  Wait.  She's always been a delightful young lady.... well, maybe with the exception of that whole defiant 2 year old phase.  But I digress.  Marian is now a 12 year old!  And we celebrated with all her special requests.  She wanted stuffed shells for dinner with Uncle Jonathan's delicious Oriental Beans (Thanks Jonathan!).  And she wanted the Lemon Cake for dessert, the one where you poke it full of holes and spoon thin glaze over the top so the sugary goodness oozed down through the cake.   An excellent choice I agree.

The cake.  Yes, I was a bit lazy with my stirring and had powdered sugar clumps left on top.  Whatever.  And Rylee and I found these adorable sugar figures at the baking store earlier in the week.  Adorbs!

So the little figures were super cute, but not incredibly tasty. 

Rylee wanted a photo of her and her sugar panda. 

Yummy cake and ice cream and Delaney. 

I love the deadpan face on this.  She really was happy with it!  It was exactly what she asked for, so she certainly should have been! 

Enjoying the loot. 

Rylee was so pleased with herself because she picked out these candies all by her little self.  I love that my kids enjoy getting gifts for each other.

Kids and the Kintai

 I am a wee bit behind!  It was over a week ago that I took the girls out to the Kintai.  It was a gorgeous day and we just HAD to go out and enjoy it. So off we went.  Callie thought Levi needed to go as well.  So we brought the dog and had a very pleasant morning wandering the lovely grounds behind the bridge.  The Cherry Blossoms are suppose to be glorious when they bloom, but they have another week or two before that happens.  The Pear Blossoms were out and they were quite lovely.

Levi is excited to be going somewhere.

Trying to be all artistic with the blossoms and Iwakuni Castle on the hill there. 

I love the Pear Blossoms!  The dark pink are my favorite. 

Marian, playing in the water. 

We brought Callie's friend Charlie with us and here are Callie and Levi and Charlie. 

Rylee wanted her picture taken on the little bridge 

So Callie wanted one as well.... with Levi, of course. 

Rylee posing by the water. 

Posing by the blooming trees. 

Such pretty flowers! I can see why it gets a big festival. 

Callie and Levi. 

Rylee ran up to the fountains and called "Take my picture!" 

Sneaky long distance zoom shot of Marian. 

Having fun feeding the giant Koi fish.  The Koi were sluggish and disinterested, and the girls were a little disappointed.

Love the pretty Toriis. 

Love my girls! 

Rylee cracks me up.  She loves to pose, so it is hard to get a good, natural picture of her. 

We found this lovely swan who was delighted to relieve us of the last of our breadcrumbs. 

Marian caught me trying to zoom in on her. Heh heh heh. 

And then I got totally lost on the way home.  I ended up on increasingly narrower streets till eventually I popped out right back at the Kintai.  But I drove down this for a bit!

Levi was all tuckered out!

Random things

We've been having fabulous weather.  Then, last week, the temp dropped and it tried to snow.  The sun was out and there were snow flurries!

Rylee and Vivian walking back from the bus stop after Yochien. 

At Activity Day, we made "Prayer Mats" to help the kids to remember to pray daily. 

Marian's was awesome!  After the picture she finished it and wrote, "You're  never too crabby to pray."

Marian's Project

 Marian is awesome.  She likes to give presentations in class.  She had a project and presentation on the ancient people of South America.  She was very excited about it and especially delighted to create her own "artifact".  She practiced her oral presentation to me at least 6 times.  She's so funny because her voice is really monotone when she speaks for that sort of thing.  And she mentioned that her teacher was going to want her to speak with more emotion.  It was cute to hear her practicing and trying so hard to project more emotion into her voice.  I love that she's not shy about publicly speaking in her class.  She did come home the day she presented to tell me sadly, "I still sounded like a robot."  I love this kid!  (And I love her teacher for taking and sending me these photos!)