Hanami!

Hanami is the Japanese custom of viewing flowers, most often associated with Cherry Blossoms or Sakura. There's a big festival held at Hirosaki Castle every year during this time and it's only about a 2 1/2 hour drive from home. Katie and I made the drive with a few friends this year and had a great time on the grounds of the former castle. Above, you can see Katie smelling some low hanging blossoms and below she's watching a swan float by the bridge.

All that remains of the castle is the building below. It's so beautiful surrounded by the cherry trees.

Below is a lovely view from the top of the remaining building at Hirosaki Castle. I was so busy trying to keep Katie away from the extremely steep stairs inside the building (they were so steep that I was only a couple inches away from sitting on every step on the way down!) I almost missed the mountain!

We wondered around the grounds checking out the scenery for hours and had a picnic lunch in a grassy area surrounded by the cherry blossoms- it was great! The weather was really great too. I was a little worried we'd be pretty soggy that day, but the rain held off until just as we were about to leave. We couldn't have been luckier!

Above is Katie with her friends Noah and Jacob. Below Katie's making eyes at her friend Jacob. I really wish I had my camera ready for that photo a bit earlier. Just before I snapped this one, she actually had her head on his shoulder looking up at him and it was just too cute!

Easter!

I know...Easter was nearly three weeks ago...but here it is!
Katie and I had a wonderful Easter weekend! We really missed Daddy, but Katie kept her "Daddy Doll" close by :)
We started Saturday by giving Katie her new Easter basket. You can see her modeling it for the camera below!
She loved her new Easter basket, and we spent Saturday playing with her new toys. I'm still not sure exactly what happened while I was out of the room though... I came back to the living room after being in another room for not more than a couple of minutes and she handed me several pieces of her new basket...which turned out to be the handle. Needless to say, she was no longer going to be able to hunt eggs with that basket so we made a quick trip to the 100 Yen store and found her a cute little metal bucket to use instead!

Katie also enjoyed her Easter outfit, complete with coat and hat! Below is one of only a few pictures I was able to snap of her without the hat on. She's also trying to get out of the house wearing my shoes....

On Sunday morning the Easter Bunny dropped by to leave some eggs scattered across the front yard for Katie to hunt. She had a great time once she figured out they were all for her. She ran all across the yard and found every egg!

After her own personal egg hunt, Katie and I met up with some friends at the club for Easter Brunch. There was also a big egg hunt for the kids afterward. After her practice round that morning, Katie was ready to go for the big hunt! As soon as the organizers said "Go!" Katie was running away from me to find her some eggs! Can you find her below?
(notice the other kids with Mom or Dad close by....Katie's the only one running around by herself!)

At Easter brunch there was a display on the stage with a large blow-up Easter Bunny and lots of smaller blow-up eggs. It was extremely difficult to keep any of the kids in their seat long enough to eat. They all kept heading for the stage! Eventually, everyone was able to corral them enough for some of us to take a quick picture.

We finished the day at a dinner with our Bible study group (yep, lots of eating going on.) Some friends invited everyone over for a potluck dinner and an adult egg hunt! We did let the kids help us find the eggs...or at least hold on to the eggs after we found them! It was a lot of fun with lots of great food, great prizes and great company!

A day at the park with friends!

Today we packed a lunch, met up with some friends and headed to the Towada Horse Park. It's the first time we've been there, and definitely won't be the last! It's only about a half hour drive from the house and it's amazing! It's spread out over a large area for the kiddos to run around and they have great toys to play on. Below is a huge horse you can climb into and slide down the back side. There are also horses there that you can feed, pet and even ride. Katie LOVED petting the horses, but wasn't too keen on riding one! Actually I'm not sure that it was the horse that was the problem....more the fact that I let a stranger lead her off while I stood watching.

There's also a roller slide at this park, which is tons of fun! There are many tiny rollers on the bottom and you take a pad with you to the top to ride down on. There's a short, covered one that the kids really enjoyed and went down too many times to count. But there's also a BIG one...I thought it looked pretty cool, so I grabbed Katie (she knew what was going on and refused to walk), two pads and began my hike to the top. About halfway there, I realized why Katie didn't want to walk up...but, being the stubborn girl I am, I had to continue. Out of breath and overheated, I made it to the top with all my luggage! It was a fun, fast ride down....and the only ride we took on the big slide.

I think everyone had a blast today...I know Katie and I did! When Daddy gets back home, this is definitely going to be on our list of things to do with him!

Spring!

Spring has finally made it to Misawa, Japan! Yes, there are still some very small piles of snow at the end of our road....but I'm sure they'll be gone in a matter of days!
Today was such a beautiful day that Katie and I decided to go for a walk/ride--I walked while she rode her bike, sort of. She doesn't know it yet, but she could ride that bike all by herself. She just gets upset when she realizes she's having to push harder on the pedals to get anywhere, or if she glances back and sees that I'm not pushing her.
We also took a little time just to run around the front yard and finally get some use out of those slides that have been hibernating under the snow all winter. Yes, Katie's still wearing her bike helmet. I've found that it's easier to make her take it off just before we go in the house. It has Dora the Explorer on it, so she loves it and refuses to take it off.

Katie also loves the new "blooms" in the front yard and brought me the beautiful bouquet pictured below. Believe it or not, she picked at least eight bunches of "flowers" to make it especially for me!

Easter is also near, so I thought I'd post a picture of Katie's Easter creation. She loved making this bunny! She carefully colored each piece (although she did it so lightly you can hardly tell in the picture) and glued them into place all by herself. She especially loved the cotton tail we added...she loved it so much that it was the first piece she tore off! Sadly, this is all we have to remember our little Easter Bunny by ...