A Party and Lots of Obentos

I`ve been so busy. Not the running-around-with-too-much-to-do kind of busy but the lots-of-fun-stuff-to-do kind. Tigergirl was invited to her friend`s birthday party a couple of weeks ago and had a fabulous time. The party was a "Girls Day" party and took place at the nail salon where I had gotten my pedicure just a week before. This salon has a special deal for children that includes a foot bath and nail art. I think it was a great idea for a party.




Can you guess which foot is Tigergirls? I won`t post a picture of the other girls (including the birthday girl) as I don`t want to invade their privacy but I thought the foot shot would be okay!

The host brought beautiful "Princess" gift bags for the girls to take home and they ate cake at a table overlooking the sea:



Fun fun fun!

I`ve forgotten to post the kid`s obentos lately so I`m going to catch up today. Here are the last four I`ve made:









I think it`s pretty obvious what everything is but if you have a question about anything, just ask in the comments and I`ll set you straight. My "dips" are usually a goma dressing (sesame) or a mix of mayonaise and crushed sesames.

V-Day

Tigerpapa surprised me this year by suggesting that we go out for dinner to celebrate Valentine`s Day. In Japan Valentine`s Day is for women to give chocolate to men and so 
this suggestion was met with surprise and delight! I even got to pick the 
place. I wanted to try somewhere new and thought Thai would be nice so 
Tigerpapa did a quick search online and found a place relatively close
to our apartment (big surprise as we live in the sticks!). It was AMAZING! Probably the best Thai food I`ve ever had 
outside of Thailand. The woman who runs the restaurant (with her Japanese 
husband) is Thai so no wonder but usually the flavours are toned down a bit
in Japan. Not here! Yum. Unfortunately the only picture I took was taken
far too late: 







After dinner, we returned home to eat the cake that me and the kids had made during the day. We started out making cupcakes but, since I can only cook 6 cupcakes at a time in my teeny tiny oven, I used the rest of the batter to make a cake. Everything turned out really well and Tigerpapa would have been really surprised if Tigerboy hadn`t spilled the beans at dinner. Darn those underdeveloped 3-year-old brains that just can`t keep a secret!





I also got Tigerpapa some yummy chocolate bars...just to keep with tradition in Japan.



All in all, it was a fabulous Valentine`s Day!

Lucky Day

Yesterday was a holiday here in Japan and so Tigerpapa and the kids had the day off. We were contemplating what to do with ourselves when my LSF (Lovely Scottish Friend) called up and invited us for a ride on her dh`s boat! The weather was gorgeous and so we happily took her up on the offer. As we were leaving the harbour LSF remarked, "The water looks like glass" and it did. Unfortunately, once you get out to open water it`s quite bumpy. Nothing too serious but about as bumpy as I can handle without hurling. Anyhoo, the next thing I know Tigerpapa is yelling, "Look, Look!" and pointing off in the distance. I looked just in time to see a whale JUMPING out of the water...just like a dolphin. It was amazing! LSFDH (Lovely Scottish Friend`s Dear Husband) picked up the speed and we chased whales for a couple of hours. At one point the whales were within 50 metres of the boat! I actually asked my LSF if they ever hit boats. She said sometimes. Oh. Luckily, they didn`t hit us. This picture is the best we could get and sadly it doesn`t represent the whales well at all so you will have to use your imagination a little bit:


The "Lucky" part of this day was seeing the whales. They don`t usually come in so close to land and so you have to go out on a whale watching tour to see them.

And the fun didn`t stop there. We decided to have a bbq at LSF`s house and so off we went to prepare the grill and get the food ready. My LSF is such a great hostess and she always thinks of Tigergirl and Tigerboy....like getting them a little tennis set to play with and starting up a game of hide and seek. How she stays on top of everything so well is amazing as she also has 4-week-old triplets!



Needless to say, we all had such a great time and I can`t wait to do it again!

Photos

The long-awaited (and long forgotten) picture of Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately, the best shot I could get was through the glass from the "viewing room" we found at a rest stop:



It`s been awhile since I`ve put pictures of the kids on the blog so for your viewing pleasure, VOILA:















I personally like the shot of Tigerboy looking scary (1st one) and the one of Tigergirl winking. She`s starting to pose like that a lot.....I don`t know if she is "modeling" or what!

A Little Piece of Heavan....

Right here on Okinawa Island! Yesterday one of my friends arranged for a group of us to have a pedicure at a fabulous local spa. It was my first pedicure ever and I don`t know how I`ve lived this long without such bliss. It was FANTASTIC! This particular place doesn`t just paint your nails...no no no, it`s a leg massage, foot massage, foot soak, one hour long experience. Come and visit me and I will take you there.



Today`s obento was easy-peasy. I used frozen blueberries, furikake on the rice, and made the eggs (tamagoyaki) with my new "tamagoyaki" fry pan. Woohoo.



Last week I made crepes for the famdamily. They were soooo good and fun for the kids. Unfortunately, I was late in grabbing the camera and so the ingredients were seriously depleted by the time I snapped this shot:



I`m off to pack for our weekend up north. We are going to go to an orchid festival and possibly go swimming at an indoor pool. We thought we found a good place for swimming but when Tigerpapa clicked on the "rules" button on their website we quickly realized that it may not be the place for us. One of the MANY rules stated that the kids had to have yellow bathing caps THAT MATCHED WITH THEIR PARENTS.....time to look elsewhere. Wish us luck!

What are you doing this weekend?