Happy Japan Day!

Our favorite activity on base is Japan Day. In fact I would say that our kids wake up as if it were Christmas, shouting "Happy Japan Day" at the top of their lungs. Here we are walking over to Japan Day events. You may not be able to tell, but the cherry blossom trees have a slight pink hue to them and are getting ready to bloom.

 This year one of the new booths at Japan Day was learning how to use chopsticks. Evidently peanuts are a good way to begin, but I would not want to put one in my mouth as is.

 The girls got to choose a character to write in Japanese. Jane is excited for spring and choose "cherry blossom".

 Helen, on the other hand was reveling the Japan-ness of Japan Day and learned "Japan".

Ryan tried to break it to the kids that they don't celebrate "Japan Day" in Tennessee.  By the looks on their faces, you'd have thought he'd just told them that Christmas was cancelled next year too.  After much discussion, we agreed that we could have Japan Day in Tennessee next year, but we have to come up with all the activities ourselves and invite our friends.

After talking to my sister about the challenges of keeping Carl busy in safe activities, she recommended a ramp to send cars down. To date, Carl seems to be more interested in putting himself down the ramp or swinging the ramp around the room. But at least he's cute about it.