I really don't know where to start with what has turned out to be a birthWEEK. For time's sake, I will have to keep it short. Psssssss...I heard you sigh with relief!! :-)
Anyway, I only have a short time gap to update, so let me get to it.
Monday, the 28th: Michael took the day off so we could spend it as a family. We wanted to go to Disneyland here in Tokyo to visit the famous Cinderella's castle amongst other things. We checked the weather and it looked dismal. Our hopes, however, did not waver. Until we saw the DOWNPOUR of rain when we drew the curtains in the morning of her birthday. We knew we needed a change of plan as it made no sense travelling there. It wasn't just a few drops here and there, but was bucketing. One of the biggest downpours I've seen in Tokyo yet! Anyway, we opted for an aquarium instead. Yokohama Sea Paradise.
But before we left, we brought Josephine a cupcake in bed with a candle in it. We sang heartily to her and she beamed. Every year, it just gets better. She was anticipating this day since Christmas literally and it was a big countdown. She loved opening her presents and said "AAAHHH!" and "OOOoooohHHH!" and hugged her things. I love puzzles and tend to present her with puzzles in wrapping paper. She however, wasn't rude, but dodged it by saying "Ooooh, that's nice! I fink Evie will love it. Maybe this one can be Evie's!?!" And so, that was her way of sifting the good things from the less good things. For her, the good things were: her pwincess dwess and wand, a watch from Gwan and Gwamps, princess sticker book and princess pencil case.
From the cupcake in bed and unwrapping some presents, we hobbled over to the study where we met with Gwan and Gwamps on Skype! Michael put them on the big TV, so it was really like they were right there with us! Wonderful! Josephine said "Hello Gwamps. It's your Fifi here." ;-) Josephine opened her card and gift right in front of them. A lovely Fifi watch. And a perfect card with traditional Japanese wear (kimono).
We then hobbled on to the kitchen and had breakfast together at the table and got ready. It took about 45minutes to get to Sea Paradise and the parking was about 500m from the place itself. So we walked with our umbrellas, prams, nappy bags, pwincess fings and all dat stuff you can only nightmare about. Our kids were well kitted out with raincoats, wellies, rain hats. But us adults. Well, we had our trainers on (what else!?!) and got wet feet soon enough. So we sloshed our way through the day feeling those icky wet socks sticking to our cold toes. Gross!
We saw some lovely fish. The dolphins and the shark whales were a special treat with shows. The walrus, sea lion, seals and funny little penguin were most entertaining! I have to say my heart bled for the poor polar bears - 2 of them which were being kept in a space the size of our lounge with artificial rocks around them with chipping white paint supposed to represent snow. They had a plunge pool, I'd call it. Rather cruel (in my opinion) in comparison with the vast space that the North Pole would have offered them. Anyway.
Josephine thoroughly enjoyed her day and we sang about 15 times to her and made her feel as special as we could.
Evie also got 2 or 3 small gifts so she could be part of it. She's too small to understand that it's Josephine's birthday and that it will be her birthday in 3 months time. So, she joined in on a smaller scale and was totally satisfied. Phew!
Tuesday, 1 March: Josephine celebrated her birthday at KG. She took an "Ant Cake" with her. "Josephine, are you sure you don't want a cat cake or a heart cake or ???" "No, I weally weally want dat ant cake, Mamma. Plllllleeeease". So, I made her an ant cake. It had 3 parts with 6 legs, 2 antennae (pipe cleaners painted black and bent into leg shapes), 2 large compound eyes and small mouth. If you ask me, it looked more like an alien with those huge oval eyes slanting in a little....Urgh. I actually felt rather embarrassed about it, taking it to KG. But I was wholeheartedly assured it was great. And Josephine loved it. She was very proud of it. She told the kids "You can actually eat dis one because it's not weal. It's just a pwetend ant." And so, for the kids who ate their lunch, they were allowed to feast on ant.
KG really makes it special for the birthday children: they sing, sit around the table and have a little party, give her a crown to wear, etc, etc. She loved it.
Wednesday, 3 March: we celebrated with our lovely neighbours, Britta and her daughter Victoria. Britta was leaving for Germany on Saturday and so only Victoria could make the party. We didn't have a big feast on Wednesday, but they gave her a lovely ballet bag as a present. Thank you!
Thursday, 4 March: Josephine came home on the bus and Evie and I met her with her bicycle. Mika and Tama took us home with them. It was our first invitation into a Japanese home :-) Wonderful wonderful hospitality and Mika went to so much trouble. She prepared everything for Hina Matsuri day (Japanese royal doll day) and so her daughter (Josephine's friend), Tamaki, wore her kimono. They lent Evie and Josephine a kimono each too. And she had prepared a very fine traditional lunch for us. What a treat! Her Japanese dolls were out on display. I hope she will send me some photos as I foolishly left my camera behind....grr.
Friday, 5 March: boy, that was the "baking day". I prepared several cakes, cupcakes, biscuits, you name it. And in the evening after all had gone to bed I had peace and quiet to decorate and ice the cooled cakes. I made a princess cake and a castle. I took my time on the princess cake and hastily did the castle cake, as you will see in the pictures.
Saturday, 6 March: Michael took the girls to play football and ride their bikes at the school grounds while I prepared the party room and did final preparations. The children arrived punctually at 2pm and we had a total ball till 5.30pm. I will do a separate blog for this, but for now, I must just say how totally touched I was at the really really LOVELY children that Jospehine is friends with. They are outstandingly polite, kind, well brought up. The group consisted of 11 children. 3 of them were 3 years old, another 3 were 4 years old, 3 were 5 years old and 2 were 6 years old. The whole bunch are close. And the whole bunch are so NICE! I'd love to have ALL of them regularly!! They look after each other and are thoughtful. I actually couldn't believe my eyes! There were 4 girls and 7 boys! Yes, they ran around. Yes, they climbed up things they could find. Yes, they screamed with delight. But they were good CHILDREN. So nice to have them around!! And Josephine loved it. She loves them all very much. And for the first time, I'm starting to see the growing importance of friends for her. She's starting to grow up now. Our Josephine. x
Sunday 7 March: We did our Sunday school lesson at home (the first commandment) and then Michael went to play football while I put both girls down for a nap. At 2pm the doorbell rang. I thought it was our neighbours, but nearly passed out with surprise to see a beautiful girl with a crown on her head and a beautiful princess dress on standing at the front door. A good friend got the wrong day. My first reaction was: Yikes! I haven't really even brushed my hair and they've come dressed up!!! Michael was still stinky from football and we were minutes away from eating a late lunch! Oh dear! But, do you know what? It turned out to be SUCH a lovely visit! It was my Japanese friend who can't speak English/German. But we somehow get along anyway. And her husband came about an hour later (after his work finished at the radio station). Josephine whipped herself into her princess dress. I whipped out the birthday table cloth and the other half of the cake .... we sang again! We blew out candles again! We did it all again! But it was lovely!! They were of course so apologetic, but we were really happy to see them and it was just right the way it worked out. :-)
Anyway, now my blogging time is up and I must fetch Josephine from KG.
x Photos coming next.
