Sunday, February 22, 2009

Magic Camp
















Colleen starred in her first real performance. She was Zana in the local school production, a young witch with the ability to predict the future. She shared the role with her best friend Sydney. The two of them have become quite the pair and are becoming harder and harder to separate. The production was a hit and really quite impressive show with the number of scene changes and lines that they covered. Of course Bridget was not about to allow any theatrical performance to go on without a show from her, even if she wasn't part of the production.

Earthquake.............???????

We experienced our first earthquake in Japan this week. It happened about 6:45 in the morning. The kids had just finished breakfast and were putting the final touches (or attempts to proscratinate - depending on your point of view) when we heard some rumbling. We didn't think much about it until a few seconds later it rumbled again and you could feel a little bit or trembling and then all of the sudden it was quiet. At first I just thought it was a large truck or something going by but the sudden quietness afterwards said it was something different. It really was a minor quake but a good reminder all the same that we should be prepared.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Science Center Visit


We went to the science center this Saturday for something to do and to get out of the house. So we loaded all of the kids up and headed into to town. We stopped for lunch at a Korean barbeque place called Yummy's, which in fact is pretty yummy. By the time we were ready to leave we had managed to scare most of the other customers away. We then headed over to Science Center. It was our first time to the musuem, it is a nine story building with lots of places for the kids to play. We bought our tickets to the planterium and then headed up to the fifth floor to play in the dynamic energy area. The girls had fun playing with the water tools, filling the car with gas, and in general just running around. At 2:00 we headed down to the second floor for our first visit to a planterium with the family. We didn't really know what to expect since it was going to be in Japanese. We shouldn't have worried, we picked a great time for the show. Before we ever entered the planterium Ashlynn fell asleep. As we picked our seats we discovered they reclined (a nice option for watching a show on the ceiling) and then the lights went out and so did the rest of us. Fifty minutes later as the show was wrapping up we started to stir and we after a nice nap we were ready to finish off the musuem.

The next area we explored was the human body. They had a number of good displays but Bridget was drawn to the area on child development and baby birth. Needless to say different cultures have different opinions on what is appropriate to display and Bridget probably learned more about how babies come than she ever bargained for. So far she seems to have recovered well.

For a break we then headed up to the children's play area where they had fun making bubbles, playing on the musical instruments, and building blocks. Bridget wasn't so sure about the stability of her seat but she was a good sport to seat in it while we built a castle around her.

After the castle was destroyed by a giant earthquake (fitting for Japan) we decided we were hungry and stopped by the local hang out for a basket of fries and a Brownie Sunday. Sometimes you still need a taste of home.