Hina Matsuri Celebration

(This photo is from Thursday, March 3rd)

Miriam's preschool class celebrated Hina Matsuri today.  Hina Matsuri, or "Girls' Day", is a Japanese holiday to celebrate and pray for health and success for girls.  The class all learned a song for the celebration, but when the Kotos (the stringed instruments in the photo) started playing, most of the kids became too distracted to remember to sing.  :)

As a bonus, here is Miriam singing the "Hina Matsuri" song at home

Enoshima Aquarium

(This photo is from Wednesday, March 2nd)

Today we headed to Enoshima Aquarium with a pretty big group of friends.  It was fun to mix up the "friend groups" a bit, and it was fun to hang out with everyone.  The aquarium is one of our favorite places to visit for a nice, leisurely morning+lunch outing - it's not too big and not too small, and not too far to drive (about 40 minutes or so).  My favorite part of the aquarium is the jellyfish room - they are such eerily beautiful creatures, as long as they're in behind glass.  :)

Book-loving Sisters

Both of my girls love books.  I love that Miriam loves to read to Hannah, and that Hannah loves to listen.  Miriam is just starting to read for real, but she knows so many books by heart, plus she loves to ask Hannah "where is the ......?" or "what does the cat say?" while they read.  It always makes my heart smile to see them sitting in the chair together reading.

Spring Sneak Peek

(These pictures belong to February 25th)

Friday was a beautiful day.  High 60s, sunny, and a light breeze.  We headed outside late morning to PLAY play play.  We (and some friends) went over to the playground that's across the street from us and ran around and had a great time soaking up some much-needed Vitamin D.  :)

Flat Stanley

(This pic is from February 24th)

This week we received Flat Stanley in the mail from some friends in Maryland.  Caleb is in 1st grade and his class read the book and mailed their Flat Stanleys to friends in all sorts of different places.  I wonder if Japan is the farthest that one traveled?  Anyway, we're supposed to entertain him for a few days and then send him back with some information about what he did with us and about Japan in general.  On Thursday, Miriam took him to school with her to introduce him to her class.  Here is a picture of Miriam, Stanley, and Miss Annie (Miriam's primary teacher).

Daddy Dolls

I had heard about "Daddy Dolls" from a friend, so I decided to get them for the girls.  I though maybe they would help to keep Daddy close while he's away.  They arrived in the mail today and the girls (especially Hannah) immediately fell in love with them.

Better Than Starbucks

We order coffee for our Keurig from Keurig's website.  They have a "coffee club" where you earn points for ordering things and then can use the points for 1/2-off certain items.  I finally used some of our points and bought the milk frother from their website.  The first drink that I made with it was a homemade caramel macchiato.  It was delicious!  :)

Two-Fisted Drinker

(This photo is from February 14th)

Have I mentioned that Hannah is silly?  Today during lunch she decided that she was going to drink out of both of her cups at the same time.  Silly girl!

Kaylee's Birthday

(This photo belongs to February 12th)

This weekend we had another birthday party for another of Miriam's school friends.  This one had a "Tangled" theme, and all of the girls were invited to dress up as princesses.  They played "Hit Flynn with the Frying Pan" and had lots of fun.

Nap Time Hair

(This is the photo for February 10th)

Hannah's hair is getting to be a bit crazy - long enough to brush, too short to do anything with it.  It's especially funny when she wakes up from her nap.  :)

Ladies' Night

Tonight for dinner we had a "girls night out" with our friend/babysitter Bethany.  We went to a local Italian restaurant and then Baskin Robbins for dessert.  Yum!  :)

PWOC Tea Ceremony

(These pictures belong to Tuesday, February 8th)

The Japanese Women's Bible Study ladies sponsored a Japanese tea ceremony during our normal Bible study time.  They showed a video about Christianity in Japan, and it talked about the similarities between communion and the tea ceremony.  In fact, during a period of heavy Christian persecution in Japan, many Japanese Christians took communion disguised as a tea ceremony!  Isn't that amazing?  I have seen a tea ceremony before, but it was neat to see it from a new perspective.

Preparing the tea

Sweets are served before the tea to offset the bitterness of the tea.  These are signs of spring - an orange slice and an "ume" (plum) blossom

My tea bowl

Choking down the Matcha - not something that I particularly care for!

Kayla's Birthday

(These photos belong to February 5th, and were taken by my guest photographer... yeah, I was a slacker last week!)

Joe took Miriam and Hannah to celebrate Kayla's birthday on Saturday while I attended a baby shower.  The girls had fun, and I'm happy to report that Joe survived in tact.  :)

Miriam with the birthday girl

Hannah making new friends

Cupcakes - YUM!

AWANA Awards

(This picture belongs to February 1st!)

Just a quick pic of my T&T kids during our weekly awards at the end of club.  :)

Spaghetti Night

We had spaghetti tonight for dinner.  I made a Turkey Bolognese sauce to go with it (from a Rachel Ray cookbook).  It is the first time that I've ever tried to make anything resembling spaghetti sauce (I'm a Prego girl).  It was pretty good, but a little too sweet - needed more salt and pepper, and maybe a little more garlic.  Guess I'll have to remember that for next time...

 

Snow!

It snowed today... maybe for 1/2-hour total.  It flurried, and then it SNOWED enough that the ground had a white tint (on the way to church).  By the time church was over it was done and gone.  Oh, well...

If you look REALLY closely, you can see little white specks in the picture...  :)

 

Happy Birthday, Miriam!

Miriam had a great birthday.  We went to Yunessun in Hakone and stopped at the "Giant Nan" (Indian) restaurant in Kamakura on our way home.  Happy 4th Birthday, big girl!

Let Them Eat Cake!

We celebrated Miriam's birthday tonight with cake and presents because we're headed to Yunessun (a hot springs water park) bright and early tomorrow morning.  Here are some cake pics.

Brrrr!

We went outside this afternoon to play for a bit.  It's chilly, but nothing that can't be handled with a little bundling up.  Hannah and Miriam both love the big slides out on our playground, as you can see here.

There He Goes

The Blue Ridge headed out today for a few days.  The girls watched as "Daddy's ship" cruised by our apartment.

Cubbies

 (This is Tuesday's photo)

Miriam is enjoying AWANA Cubbies this year.  She is doing a great job learning her verses.  Here's a picture of her vest, filling up with patches.

Silly Hannah

Hannah is a silly girl.  She loves to laugh, and she loves to do things in silly ways.  She and I were both laughing today when I caught her playing with her toy piano in a unique position.

A Sunday Oops!

Sunday was a busy day.  After church we went to friends for dinner (homemade pizza, yum!).  I took my camera, but it got left in the car.  Oops!

Indian Cooking Lesson

Today I went to a friend's house (with about nine other friends) for a lesson in Indian cooking.  It was so much fun to watch her cook - we made samosas and curry with Basmati rice and a salad.  Everything was delicious!  Her cabinets are filled with all sorts of spices, but she has one special tray of main cooking spices.  She explained that when you get married you receive this special tray as a wedding gift, and it is so important in her kitchen that it goes in her suitcase when they move.

Super Secret Shower Club

I was getting ready for an Oakleaf even tonight, and Hannah decided to crawl into our shower (thankfully it was mostly dry).  Miriam decided to join her and they had a grand old time.  I dubbed them the "Super Secret Shower Club", which Miriam thought was quite silly.  You never know what will keep them occupied...

Artwork

(This is Thursday's picture)

After the girls woke up today Miriam wanted to color a picture that she had printed the other night, and of course once Hannah saw Miriam coloring with markers then she wanted to color as well.  Here is a picture of their artwork.

Anpanman Children's Museum

Joe took a mid-week day off today, so we decided to go to the Anpanman Children's Museum in Yokohama since he has NEVER been there.  It is one of the favorite places of the girls to play, so they were excited to show Daddy around.  I was excited that he finally got to try all of the yummy character breads from the bakery.  All in all, I think he had fun.

Taken by a "guest photographer" - Joe  :)

Tulips

I passed the flowers at the commissary yesterday and the beautiful, fragrant tulips jumped out at me.  I bought some pretty pink ones to bring home so that they could add some cheer to our living/dining room.

Kannonzaki Park

Joe was off for MLK Day today, we we headed down the peninsula a bit to explore Kannonzaki park.  The park is quite large with various hiking trails (along the water, up to the lighthouse), but our destination was the playground and roller slides in the park.  We made it about halfway up the hill, to the playground and smaller two of the three roller slides that are there.  Now that we have our bearings a bit, we'll have to head back out there sometime play some more.

Miriam got the hang of things quickly

Hannah giggled like crazy every time

This is a bouncy trampoline net that was lots of fun

Back at Chapel

Miriam and Hannah spend enough time at the Chapel to feel pretty comfortable with the people there.  Tonight Miriam was chatting up Chaplain Metzger, the "head chaplain" at the chapel (who also happens to be our upstairs neighbor).  He is great about always saying hello and being willing to stop and listen to whatever she wants to tell him.

Bowling Fun

We went bowling tonight for the first time in a long time.  Primarily, that is because Hannah has been at that awkward "mobile but not quite steady" stage for a while, so she wasn't ready to bowl but she wasn't going to sit still either.  We all had lots of fun tonight, and Miriam was very excited to help Hannah bowl for her first time.  Hannah lasted 6 frames before she got bored - not too bad for an 18-month-old - and then Miriam was happy to help her finish out the game by bowling for her.  :)

Here are Daddy and Miriam helping Hannah bowl her very first frame

Tiny Dancer

Miriam started ballet classes last fall and has really been enjoying it.  I finally remembered to take my camera today so that I could get some pictures of our tiny dancer.

It's Pajama Time!

Today Miriam's preschool had "PJ Day" - all the kids wore their PJs, many brought a stuffed friend, and they had a "snow day" at school: watched "Tom & Jerry", had cookies and hot cocoa, and sang songs about snowflakes and snowmen.  I got to go read to the class during story time (in my PJs, of course) - we read "Chicken Soup with Rice" and "Pajama Time".  The kids and I all had lots of fun.  :)

Here is Miriam ready to go before school (it's becoming impossible to get a decent smile out of her for a posed picture):

Bath Fun

Just some fun with shampoo in the tub tonight...

Ready, Set, Study!

Tuesday mornings generally consist of dropping the girls off at the hourly CDC (Miriam for preschool, Hannah for daycare), and then a quick run and heading to Bible study.  This morning I skipped the run so that I could get to the chapel and get my room set up.  I am teaching/facilitating a Bible study for the winter and spring study sessions - it's basically a "Bible Basics" course, with the emphasis for this winter on the Old Testament.  So here is a shot of how the room looked after I finished setting things up.

Breakfast for Dinner

Tonight was PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel) night.  We had a "breakfast for dinner" potluck.  As the president so perfectly stated it: "I love breakfast, but I'm so not a morning person so I never really get to enjoy it."  As you can see, everyone enjoyed it.

Chapel Potluck

We had a potluck tonight after the service.  Hannah very much enjoyed the pink frosting on her cupcake - can you tell?  :)

Family Date

(This is Saturday's picture)

We went on a "Family Date" with our good friends the Wilsons tonight.  We introduced them to Shabu-shabu - Japanese hot-pot style cooking.  It was lots of fun.  I tried to get a group photo afterward, but Hannah didn't want to cooperate...