Tanabata Festival

Alice has embraced helping in the kitchen. Especially when she gets to lick the bowl clean while Mom is busy putting the cake in the oven.

.

Helen has been reminding me to make her a new pink dress since last summer. Here is this year's model. Is there anything better than pink and flamingos?

I've been trying to get a lot of baking done and cookies into the freezer in anticipation of summer. The girls are always willing to help.

The girls love when Ryan comes home and they get to try on various and sundry pieces of his uniform. 

Last weekend was the Tanabata Festival, which our kids love. They get to walk/run all the way up and down main street swimming through streamers. On the right you can see the squid drying out on a squid spinner.

In the picture below is a new food for us - a Japanese waffle in the shape of a fish filled with custard filling and topped with whipped cream and strawberries. It makes me think I need a new waffle maker.  

Here is a short video of a man making my favorite Japanese noodle dish - yakisoba.  It would have been longer, but the batteries ran out.