Leon's 6th Birthday Photography

Where better to take pictures of a six-year-old boy then his neighborhood park?  We snuck out Saturday morning while everyone else was doing chores to take pictures.  Leon was pretty easy to get to do a natural smile.  I just had to pretend to tickle him or tell him not to smile and it worked every time.  He is really such a happy little guy.

We made sure to do lots of playing pictures between posing pictures.  They might be my favorites because they show how Leon actually is.  He never just stands still and smiles.

He is always playing.  Either by himself or with one of his siblings.  Usually Tucker.  They wrestle around quite a bit.  But he isn't against playing with one of the girls either.  Leon can even be pretty helpful with Calista.

True to most six-year-olds Leon can get pretty upset over what seems like small things.  I think he has little brother syndrome because he is always so loud.  He has to be loud to insist he gets a turn or his fare share.  I feel like I'm always asking him to calm down or quiet down.

I made Leon wear jeans for these pictures.  He usually always wears sweats and a t-shirt with tennis shoes.  It is almost like these shoes go by the front door instead of by the other shoes because he cannot remember to put them away, and he is always taking them off and on to run outside.

Leon is very sweet and likes to give me lots of hugs.  Like lots and lots of hugs.  Ok, probably just a couple a day, but they seem to come out of nowhere and sometimes I have to resist pushing him off of me and asking what he is doing.  I have to slow down and remind myself that he is just trying to give me a hug and he is not trying to make me spill the food I'm making for dinner.

These we Leon's favorite pictures.  He just played on the bar for a little bit while I took photos.

It is cherry blossom season here in Japan meaning his birthday pictures will probably always be near the pretty sakura trees.

Happy Birthday Leon!

Bob's Birthday and More

Christmas break was so nice this year.  I was really ready for a break from homeschool and we had lots of fun family time at home.  Bob celebrated his 35th birthday!  They have him this little cake at work.  It says Bob san,  the san is the Japanese equivalent of Mr.   Bob works with lots of Japanese people everyday.

Bob did have to work the morning even though it was on Saturday but we met him for lunch at one of our favorite curry places.  And then went to the movies on base.  We saw Mary Poppins Returns.  I really liked it!  The kids loved it as well.  It was the perfect family movie, just like the first one.

That night Bob opened presents and we had his favorite cherry pie and ice cream. Happy Birthday Bob!

These next couple are just random pictures from during our break.  Calista loves to comb people's hair.  Now if only she would let me do something to her hair to keep it out of her eyes.

Leon made me a "Put yourself together," and I thought it was adorable.

This was my first time getting a puzzle of myself so in return I made ones for all the kids.  

The kids like to put on lots of shows and plays for Bob and I to watch.  I usually love it.  Sometimes I'm busy and the "shows" seem to drag on but I'm so glad they are being creative and using their imaginations instead of doing something electronic that I always make a point to watch, no matter what.  

Penelope made this little "show" for us, and then Bob left and came back a couple minutes later and asked her to do the show again.  It was pretty funny.

We also did lots and lots of baking.  Holiday treats are the best!

Penelope's Birthday Photography

Penelope's birthday pictures this year were super easy.  I always kind of put off taking these pictures because they just seem like such a hassle, and I never seem to have time.  Looking back I am so glad that I just take about an extra hour to take some nice pictures of the kids each year for their birthday.  This time, we curled her hair and took these on our neighborhood path.

After looking at the pictures Penelope and Bob both commented separately about how old she looks.  I'd have to agree, she does seem to be growing up pretty quick.

Happy Birthday Penelope!

Kokeshi Doll Birthday Party

For Penelope's friends party this year we decided to do a Kokeshi theme.  Our basic idea was we would decorate it Japanese style and paint our own kokeshi dolls.  It worked out great!

 Penelope set up this next sign herself.

We used benches and pillows for a little floor seating eating area and hung lanterns and fans around the house.

At first I didn't have balloons because I didn't think it went with the theme, but Penelope said she wanted balloons, so we added some in. 

 Penelope and Scarlett dressed up and were happy to pose for pictures.

She was excited for friends to come.

I wanted something for the girls to do while others arrived and came up with this coloring sheet.  It was perfect.  They quietly and nicely colored for almost 30 minutes!  It worked out really well because one of the moms was stuck at the dentist and some girls were pretty late.  All they missed was coloring, no big deal.  The sheet also had one blank doll and I encouraged the girls to practice their design on that dress.

Once coloring was finished we painted the dolls.  I prepainted the eyes and hair and thought they faces could be left blank.  That way the girls could do the dresses however they liked and no one would get upset.  Sometimes Penelope gets frustrated if her drawings don't come out how she envisioned them so I thought me doing a little prepainting would help with that.

 I also had beads to paint and hot glue to their heads to make buns.

They turned out so cute!  I love how different they all are.

Next we played a couple of chop stick games while waiting.

The first was a relay.  We split up into groups and the girls had to use the chopsticks to get marshmallows from one bowl to the other.  The girls were all really into it.  Penelope even said this game was her favorite part of the party.

I also had the girls get in a circle and use the chopsticks to pass a large marshmallow around the circle.  I had music playing and when the music stopped, if you were holding the marshmallow you had to either say your name or a Japanese word.

I totally forgot to get pictures of this, but before the cake the girls all sat down and ate some sushi.  It was dessert sushi, made out of rice crispies, fruit roll ups, and Swedish fish.

I struggled a bit to figure out the cake, but it turned out cute in the end.

Lastly we had presents.  I keep debating if we should just ask for no presents at the parties or not, but of course the kids love this part.

For their goody bags I opted to pass out homemade fortune cookies.  The fortunes all said "Thanks for coming to my party. -Penelope"  The reviews online said that these would be easy to make, let me just set the record straight on here that they were not easy to make!  We spent hours and I feel like my fingers were burning off because you have to quickly fold them after they bake but before they harden.  I could only bake two cookies at at time.  The kids sure had fun helping make them though and adding in their own fortunes.  They turned out pretty tasty.

The party was a success!  Now I feel like I can rest until the next one.  These parties always become stressful, but I love it!