"Mommy don't squeeze this one"

This is the story of Quinn's second sand ball. Two weeks ago I picked up Quinn from Yochien and he was excited to show me his sand ball that the sensei made for him. I had never seen one before and gave it a gentle squeeze. Well it exploded in my face and on the other mother standing near me. She said, "I've been coming to this school for 3 years and never seen that before." So the next day Quinn came home with a new sand ball and told me, "Mommy don't squeeze this one".
The last picture is Quinn pretending to be a witch.

It's a Long Story ....

Yes that's our Nissan Serena behind that big old pile of stuff!

Sapporo Snow Festival

Here's a few random photos. Doraemon was at the Chitose Airport promoting his movie.

Odori Park - Sapporo Snow Festival 2010

Odori Park is the site of the massive snow sculptures. They were very impressive and the details were amazing. Quinn loved the Mickey Mouse. Check out the picture of Neal & Scarlett in front of Michael Jackson and Quinn and Neal in front of Totoro and many more. The video is of "B Lucky" Quinn's new favorite Japanese boy band (probably bec. he got a flyer picture of them).

Ramen Alley/Susukino - Sapporo Yuki Matsuri

Yes that is real fish and crab in the ice sculpture.

Slides of Sapporo

Here's a few videos of Quinn tubing.

Sapporo Snow Festival Tsudome Site

The Tsudome Site is a kid's wonderland of snow. It was so cold and snowy the day we were there. We went sledding, took a ride on a tube pulled by a snow-mobile, used our head to finish a giant snowman, and played in the snow.

Snow Festival...Keio Hotel

By mid-day Scarlett was exhausted from trying to move around in her 12 layers (if she fell she couldn't get back up by herself) and from the cold (or maybe from fighting us every time we had to put her mittens on). We would retreat back to the hotel for power naps. It was a good size hotel room especially for Japanese standards. Enough room for the kids to chase each other around, and jump on the beds. Scarlett does whatever Quinn does these days.... the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Ninja Restaurant

On Wednesday night we went to dinner at the Ninja Restaurant in Akasaka. We arrived a little before our reservation and it took us a few minutes to figure out if we were at the right door to get in. Once you enter the restaurant, your ninja greets you and brings you by lantern light through secret tunnels, across a hidden bridge, and into your own "cave" room. The main menu is written on a scroll. The dessert menu is a small piece of paper that they light on fire and it disappears. But the highlight of the evening was when a specially trained ninja comes into your cave to do magic. Our ninja made a lemon and lime appear and made coins move from his hand to different pockets. The best card trick was when he had Quinn write his name on a card and place it in a deck of cards but somehow made it reappear in his pocket in a wallet in a sealed envelope. Quinn loved the whole experience, from the Chinese star cracker to the fun monster dessert. Scarlett was not as impressed and spent the evening running around our cave getting into everything and pretending to talk on the phone. The food was delicious ... of course pricey, but worth it.