Dominique Ansel Bakery

We had some time after our pilgrimage and headed over to the Dominique Ansel Bakery in Tokyo.

I didn't know much about the bakery before we went but when I heard it was opened by the creator of the Cronut I couldn't pass up the chance to go.

Everything was so pretty!

I tried to get the kids to share their blooming hot chocolates but no one wanted to.  Leon choose the Mr. Robato donut instead.

In the end everyone was jealous of Leon.  The hot chocolates were pretty but they were made with very dark chocolate.  They were bitter and not at all what we were expecting.  After adding sugar they were more editable for us.  But I ended up throwing most of them away.

My frozen s'more was my favorite.

It was a marshmallow on the outside with chocolate graham cracker crumbs and ice cream on the inside.   Sooo good.  I already want another one.

I also got a orange creamsicle cronut to bring home.

Calista's First Food

Calista had her first taste of solid food a couple weeks ago.  I was really putting it off for a while.  Bob wanted to start before I did but she just didn't seem ready to me.  I made sure we waited the full six months before letting her try it. 

The look. "What is that?"

The lick. "I'm not sure."

The taste.

"What just happened?"

She seemed to enjoy the cracker a bit more.

Honestly her first attempt at eating went pretty well.  I was surprised.  But we have been doing it for a couple weeks now and we usually try it every night.  After her first try she didn't want anything to do with food for at least a week.  We never made her eat.  If she wasn't interested, that was fine with me.  After about two weeks of her not really wanting it these past couple of days she seems like she really likes it.  I even tried a couple other baby foods that aren't rice cereal and she really did not like them.  The one perk for me is that once she eats a little food I feel like I can leave her at home with Bob for more than two hours.

The kids really love Calista.

Here she is in her favorite nap time spot.  

And all wrapped up sticking her tongue out.

Okonomiyaki and Shabu-Shabu

While living in the Navy Lodge we are eating out ALL. THE. TIME.  Seriously, we tried to make pizza here in the oven and it set off the fire alarm.  The firemen came and then someone from the Navy came and we had to show ID.  It was a whole big deal and pretty embarrassing.  The worst part was that it was barely smokey in here at all so now I am afraid to cook anything.  Between that and me always itching to get out of the hotel we go out once or twice a day.

There are tons of restaurants nearby and lots of new things for us to try.  This first one is of Shabu-Shabu.  It reminded me of the Melting Pot back in the states, but only the meat course.  You get to choose your broth and then cook your own meat.  It is all you can eat so we have a little screen and just keep ordering more food on it.  Mostly different meats but also some veggies. 

We all really liked it.  The only hard part was that Calista was being fussy and it is a little difficult to hold her and try to bounce her while cooking the food and passing it out and ordering more all the time.

These next two pictures are from an Okonomiyaki place in the mall.  We've had it before but this is our first time at a cook it yourself place.  Notice how Calista has a firm grip on my salad.  I'm always trying to eat and in a struggle with her over my dishes.  If I put the plate far away then I spill food everywhere trying to get it to my mouth.  Too close and she gets her hands on it.  One time she pulled a dish off the table at a restaurant and it broke on the floor.  I'm sure the Japanese people love it when they see our family walk into their place ;)

This is like a cabbage egg pancake thing.  A very different flavor than any of us were used to.  Maybe I'll grow to like it.

Sushi-Go-Round

I like sushi and we used to make it quite a bit at home.  But I only put in it things that I liked and that never included raw fish.  Now that we are pretty much living in the sushi capital of the world I want to expand my horizons a bit.  We went to a close by Sushi-Go-Round restaurant the other day.

Of course everyone wanted to sit next to the conveyer belt, but after some rearranging Bob and I sat there.  We learned that lesson the hard way years ago.  Once a plate is taken down you aren't supposed to put it back up, and you pay for how many plates you have.  Kids like to touch and pull the plates down.

Can you see the english monitor?  We were able to change it to English, woohoo! If we wanted anything specific we ordered it on the screen and a couple minutes later it got sent on the conveyor belt to us.  It was pretty cool.

We all totally ate a piece of squid until Tucker took the batter off of one.

Even though I knew it was squid in the first place seeing it totally grossed me out and I couldn't eat another.

This next one was pretty good.

I did have to draw the line somewhere.  I'm still not ready for full out raw fish.

Calista even wanted in on the action.

I wanted to try the different desserts as well.  I've seen the first one around several places and when I tried it, it wasn't at all what I was expecting.  I thought some sort of sweet noodle.  Nope.  It was more like a mousse frosting thing.  And below that are candied sweet potatoes.

Scarlett's Birthday

Scarlett's birthday was only a week and a half after Calista was born.  I thought Calista would be born at least a week earlier so I was going to plan Scarlett's birthday after I got out of the hospital.  I usually try to only worry about one thing at a time.  As it worked out we had to pretty much do everything for her birthday the night before.  I didn't want her to feel overshadowed so we tried our best to do all the things we normally do.

It is amazing how little traditions can become so special and exciting for kids.  I think when it is something we only do on their birthday and we do it every year they learn to look forward to it no matter how small it is.  So we blocked off her door with streamers, we decorated her chair at the table, and we let her pick all the meals for the day.  She loved it and thought it was great.

Scarlett and Penelope had a big frontier girls field trip for most of the day.  They rode the ferry and went to visit the Suquamish museum on the Indian reservation.  She said it was one of the best activities they've ever done.

After they came home Grandma and Grandpa Swift came over for the festivities.

Scarlett really wanted cupcake hair.

She loved all her presents.

I even made the requested Shopkins cake.  Calista took her fist ever nap in her carseat and I spent the entire time making her cake.

Things felt a little last minute to me but Scarlett said she had a great birthday and I'm happy with that.

Jungle Jims

Today's post is all about the Cincinnati food!  First off they have skyline.  If you've never heard of it, I'd say it is definitly worth a try.  We don't have it on the West coast and I actually didn't know this sort of thing existed until I met Bob.  It is basically a type of chili that you put over noodles and smother in cheese.  The chili is almost the same consistency as spaghetti sauce.  They also put it over fries and hot dogs.  I like it, but I'm not the biggest fan.  We usually go once per visit and that is just perfect for me.  Some people really really love it.

My favorite is Graters ice cream.  We really need to get one of these on the west coast.  They sell a chocolate chunk raspberry ice cream that is delicious.  We went there a couple times over our visit.

We also made a trip out to Jungle Jims.  This was my first time there and it was pretty interesting.  It is basically a huge grocery store with lots of different cultural foods in it as well as fun animal (fake) and other displays everywhere in the store.  It was really fun to explore and the kids especially liked it.

Scarlett was not a fan of the fish section.

I thought these little pineapples were cute.

They even had a little movie theatre showing a film of how the store got started.  It all began with a little bit weird guy named Jim.

And that was our trip to the grocery store.