Shinkansen Piñata

As I blogged about in yesterday's post, on Sunday we had K's 3rd birthday party. The festivities started out with a Shinkansen race in which the dads (and one very good friend) pushed the kids around in Shinkansen bedecked boxes. Once the race was finished, we moved onto the piñata.

K has a few favorite Shinkansens at the moment and Dr. Yellow is certainly at the top of the list. This is not your standard Shinkansen - this one doesn't carry passengers, instead it rides the rails checking for problems. A few weeks ago, Dr. Yellow stopped at Shin Osaka Station and Y and I took K out to see it. It was on a holiday, so it was pretty packed out, but K got to see Dr. Yellow and he was stoked.

The shape of the train is pretty simple, although I did take a few artistic liberties to make my life a bit easier. Luckily a few weeks ago, we bought a plastic chest of drawers for K's old toys and it came in a huge box. We saved the box, so I really only had to carve away at one instead of piecing a million little boxes together. Once I got the shape, I did only two layers of paper mache.

 

In previous years I had done four layers, I think, but decided that it always takes a long time for us to bust it open. Also it takes a long time to make since you have to wait for layers to dry before doing the next. I took a bit of a shortcut this year and it was fine!

 

I wanted the bottom of the train to be black, but instead of gluing on black paper, I started by using black duct tape and just went across the entire bottom. 

 

Once that was ready, I used yellow crepe paper to do the whole body. I started by cutting long strips and then making a bit of a fringe. Then I glued each strip on starting at the bottom and working my way up. Once it was covered in yellow, I cut and glued on black construction paper for the windows and blue tissue paper for the stripes.

K was stoked on it when he saw it. He wanted to play with it, but just like the Shinkansen boxes, I told him it was for the party and he would have to wait. Instead he would just stare at it. It was adorable.

On the day of the party, K and I filled the piñata with candy and after the race the guests took turns busting it open. As the birthday boy, K went first then all of the kids had a chance. When it got to my friend's 14-year old son, he actually broke the stick - yikes!! We stopped him before he broke the piñata open so that the moms and a few dads could have a go at it.

Once it broke open, the candy all fell to the floor and the kids politely picked at it - a far cry from my childhood where it was a free for all to get as much candy as you could. Ah well, different cultures and all that, I suppose. While it took a while for all of the candy to be picked up, it seemed that all of the kids and parents had a great time. Once the mess was all cleaned up, it was back to ours for snacks and cake - more on that tomorrow though!

Shinkansen Party

Last year, K had a Thomas the Tank Engine themed birthday party. To be honest, I think he would have been more than happy to have the exact same party again this year, but there was no way I was going to remake that cake! While he still loves Thomas, he also loves Shinkansens (bullet trains) - as a result this year, K had a Shinkansen party! We threw the party this past Sunday, even though his birthday was a few weeks ago. I really wanted to post this last night, but was exhausted and couldn't be bothered writing it all out.

I started with the invitations to four little boys about a month ago. I tried to make the invitations look like a Shinkansen ticket, but I think only one of the moms picked up on that. At the very least, she was the only one to mention it. Of the four little guys, three of them are three, like K, and one of them will be three in a few months. One of the three year olds couldn't come, but we still ended up with five kiddies as one of the boys has a four-year old sister.

Now that the little boys are a bit older, I thought a game could be fun. We started the party with a Shinkansen race! We had decided a few months back that we would rent the little gym outside the condo so that the pinata would be a bit easier to deal with. This meant we had ample space to have the Shinkansen race. My plan was to make 5 "Shinkansens" out of boxes and have each kid sit in a box. I had Y make signs for each station from Shin Osaka to Tokyo (Kyoto, Nagoya, Shin Yokohama, and Shinagawa), as well as tickets for the boys, and the dads would push the boys to each station, where a mom would be waiting with a stamp to mark on the ticket that the boy got to her station. Once the dads took the boys to each station, they had to race back to the starting line - the first one would get a prize. Because one of the boys couldn't come, we had the older sister play as well. The dad pushed her and a good friend of ours pushed the little brother.

That was the game plan, but first I had to make the Shinkansens. Holy moly, did this take ages to do. I wasn't anticipating it taking so long, but nothing is ever easy, right? I started out with five big cardboard boxes and covered each one in a huge sheet of white paper.

I was most concerned with how the outside looked. I left the inside as is and the bottom with just the paper folded under and tape holding it together. Whatevs. Although I wasn't too worried about them looking great, this still took quite a while to deal with.

Once that all of the boxes were covered, I drew on the windows and lines to make them look like a Nozomi Shinkansen (the one that takes you from Tokyo west, past Shin Osaka and on to Fukuoka, I think).

Once the lines were drawn on, I colored them in with marker. Both these steps took a long time to do as well. I wanted them to all look uniform, so it was a lot of measuring and then a long time coloring - I went through a few permanent markers getting this done.

 

Once I had them ready, they were stacked up like the above photo in a room that (for whatever reason) K almost never enters. We had the door open one day, however; he came in the room, saw the Shinkansens and gasped. It was about the cutest reaction I could have hoped for. He knew that they were Nozomis and asked to play with them. It was really difficult keeping him away, but I just kept saying they were for the party and let him get excited for the big day.

 

While I think I could have been done with the Shinkansens at that point, but pushing these across the floor with just paper and tape on the bottom sounded like a bit of a bad idea. I really didn't want them to get destroyed so quickly, particularly given the amount of time it took to make them.

So I covered the bottom of each one in a huge sheet of felt. I just hot glued it on and then let it dry.

 

When the kids arrived at the gym, the Shinkansens were waiting in the corner for them. Once everyone arrived, we started the game. It was adorable!! Unfortunately, since I was stamping the cards and Y was pushing K, we don't have any photos of this bit. Trust me when I say the dads were in it to win it and the kids were giggling the whole time. Seriously, I could not have asked for it to have gone better. 

Y ended up winning the race, but just by a second or so. He forfeitted his prize (a 6-pack of beer) to the runner up - the dad of the little girl. That dad was very gracious and shared his beer with everyone, and each of the kids were able to take their Shinkansens home - Lord knows I don't need five more Shinkansens sitting around this place!

 

The race was a lovely way to start out the party and get everyone in a Shinkansen frame of mind. Just after it, we moved on to the pinata - but more about that tomorrow (hopefully)! 

Baby Kio

 

Since K was probably a year old, he has shown a lot of interest in babies. He would often use a stuffed animal, usually his elephant, as a baby - carrying it around, feeding it, wrapping it in blankets and putting it to sleep. For the millions of toys K has, he does not have a single doll. Because of this, as well as the fact that we will have a real baby here in a few months, I thought it would be nice to make a doll for K.

 

Just as I was contemplating how to go about doing this, one blog that I read fairly often posted about dolls the mom made for her kids. It was a free pattern, so I printed it off, took a look at my scrap fabrics and got to cutting.

 

It was such fun deciding what color to make his shirt and shoes. K has recently started school and he picked out yellow shoes for his uniform. I made K and his baby matching shoes.

The first step was to sew the arms and legs together, as well as the body and head, then the hair and eyes. Then of course, the arms and legs had to be stuffed. This was a surprisingly quick sew, I assume it's because everything is so tiny.

Once all the pieces were ready, you just sew the body together, sandwiching in the arms and legs. Easy!

The little guy, of course, needs a pair of shorts. They are so teeny tiny; they crack me up!

Once the shorts are sewn up, it is time to add the mouth. It is just a few simple stitches by hand and the baby is ready.

Since the mouth was the last thing to be sewn, I went in and out through the back of the head as instructed. If you look closely you can see two tiny pink knots. I don't know who would ever study the back of this doll's head so closely, but if you didn't want that, you could always do the mouth up before sewing the body and head together.

I think the little guy turned out quite cute. It is possible, however, that I sewed his arms on too low - he's a bit of a Harry high-pants.

I gave him to K in the morning just after he woke up. I asked what we should name the baby and he said, "Kio". It just so happens that I am raising a name-stealer. Our good friend had a little boy a few months back and lo and behold, the baby's name is also Kio. K held on to Kio all morning and gave him bottles of milk and just snuggled him.

 

At some point, Kio got cold and K asked for a blanket to wrap him in. Since that morning, K has shown little interest in Kio, except for at naptime and bedtime. He always sleeps snuggling the doll. It is one of the sweetest things I have ever seen. Alas, you will never see a photo of this as I am too scared of waking K up with either the flash or the sound of the camera. You'll just have to take my word for it that K snuggling up to and soundly sleeping with baby Kio is adorable. 

Children's Day

As I mentioned in a previous post, Y has had 10 straight days of holidays this Golden Week - a series of public holidays to give the good people of Japan a much needed break from work. Yesterday was "Children's Day." It is a day where we celebrate the health, growth, strength and happiness of children. There is a tad bit of a focus on boys on this day; as we have a day dedicated to girls in March, this is the boys' time to shine!

Two main symbols for the day are samurai and koi nobori (flags of fish). Both of these symbols are meant for boys only. Many families with boys have a samurai, or just a samurai hat, as well as a set of fish flags that are displayed during the month. When K was born, Y's parents sent us Y's old samurai set up to diplay for a few weeks in late April/early May. We were pretty slow to set it up, but got it all done a few days ago.

 Y and I set it up while K was asleep and when he woke up in the morning it was quite a surprise. For some reason, he didn't remember it from last year and asked a lot of questions about it - many for which I had no answer!

We have Y's old set of flags as well, and while they are set up on our balcony, I failed to get a good photo of them. I did, however, remember to take a photo of the fish flags that are set up for our condo while K was outside playing before dinner tonight.

To celebrate Children's Day, we decided to do something that K would like. If there is one thing this kid loves, it's a picnic in the park. He particularly likes it when I make him his own bento, instead of one big one for the whole family. Yesterday morning, I got to work on making him a Children's Day themed bento - a tiny samurai onigiri and a set of koi nobori sausages. I wasn't sure if he would like the whole "chara-ben" (character-themed bento), but he ended up being pretty stoked on it.

After lunch, he played soccer with Y, we looked at the boats on the pond and then we went to the playground - his most favorite spot in the park. It was packed full of kids, apparently we weren't the only ones with this brilliant idea, but he found plenty of room to play.

He even got a few rides on the bouncy boats. It was super hot yesterday, but we stayed playing in that area for hours. He had such a wonderful time.

 

On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store to get a few things so that I could make K a nice Children's Day dessert.

 

 

It was so hot, however, that before even making it home he begged and begged to stop for an ice cream from the convenience store. As it was Children's Day, and to be honest, ice cream sounded delicious, we stopped and got a treat for each of us. Then we got home, ate our ice cream and gave the little guy his shower - he was filthy. While he was playing in there, I got cracking on his cake.

 

I, of course, would have liked to do this cake up from scratch, as per usual, but with Sunday's party preparations, I have been really busy and didn't have time. Instead, I bought a roll cake and some whipped cream (we already had the strawberries). First I spread whipped cream on the top and sides of the cake.

Then I sliced up about a million teeny strawberries and carefully placed them on the cake for the fish's scales.

Finally I cut a strawberry round and sliced off the end of a green grape for the fish's eye. Although his expression looks pained, K seemed stoked on it when he was out of the shower.

After dinner, we watched a DVD Y's mom had made of photos from K's second year of life and ate cake - the perfect ending to a lovely day! K particularly liked the strawberries; he didn't care much for the cake, but I shouldn't have been too surprised. In hindsight, I should have just given him a bowl of strawberries and called it a night!

Bunny and Strawberry Bookmark

Sorry for the lame blogging this week - Y is in the middle of 10 days of holidays and I am doing lots and lots to prepare for K's third birthday party. Last year we threw a Thomas party and it turned out really well. This year will be a Shinkansen (bullet train) party and I have been putting off the preparation for weeks. It's now go-time!

Back to today's post, as I have written about many times at this point, I recieved a request from my youngest English student - a bookmark with a bunny and a strawberry on it. I really had no idea what she was talking about. I asked her if she wanted to draw it to show me what she wanted it to look like, but she politely declined, "anything is fine...just make sure it has a bunny and a strawberry on it." Fabulous.

I started by looking up bunny clip art to find a cute bunny shape to model the bunny off of. I found a very sassy looking bunny, and thought it would be really cute. Looking at the clip art, I sketched out the bunny on felt and cut it up. I just kind of free-handed the strawberry.

The first thing I did was sew on the bunny face as well as the details.

Next I added the strawberry, with a few seeds so it was obviously a strawberry - as requested.

 

I don't know why I didn't take a photo of the final product before giving it to her - you'll just have to either use your imagination or flip back up to the top of the post to see the finished bookmark. To finish it up, however, I sewed a back onto the bookmark to help cover up all of my stitches. Then, because I felt something was missing, I added a little pompom/bow to the top corner. I think that the pompom/bow makes the bookmark. The little girl was stoked on it, so I guess that is what she was hoping for when she requested "a bookmark with a bunny and a strawberry on it."

K Turns 3!

Today my little guy turned three! These few years have gone by so, so quickly, but without sugar-coating it some of the days have seemed to last for ever. That being said, K is an awesome little boy full of kindness and love, and I cannot think of a single bit of him I would like to change - scratch that! He doesn't like cake and it kills me!!!!!

I have mentioned before that K is not the biggest fan of cake. Frosting is okay in his book, but it seemed to lame (and also kind of gross) to let him tear into a vat of Swiss Meringe Buttercream. Plus, how would I have gotten the candles to stick in it!? The one thing that he asks for week after week is Christmas cookies. Last Christmas, I made a few different kinds, but he fell in love with the "brown circles." Although we are four months out of the Christmas season, I decided that Christmas cookies were due.

As I started mixing up the dry ingredients, the house immediately started smelling of Christmas - cinnamon, ginger, allspice and cloves will do that.

Once the dry ingredients were mixed in with the wet - including molasses - it definitely started to taste like Christmas, too.

Once the batter was ready, I rolled the little balls and then coated them in sugar. I was able to get all of the dough prepared while the first set were baking - so simple. The recipe said to bake for 9 to 11 minutes. I stuck with 9, as I like them on the chewy side.

This isn't the best photo, but they are puffed up a bit when first taken out of the oven. I found that they are really difficult to transfer to a cooling rack until they flatten out and cool a bit on the tray. Then they move quite easily, yet are still nice and chewy once cooled.

This morning, in lieu of a cake, I popped three candles in a stack of cookies. As soon as K saw the cookies, he was so excited, "Mama!!! My favorite cookies!!! I love Christmas cookies. Thank you!" I will admit that making Christmas cookies in April was weird, but hearing those words and seeing his little face light up was worth it. I think I would make these for him daily if I kept getting that reaction.

After singing, he wasted no time blowing out his candles. It took him a few tries, but in the end he got them all out.

Then he made the most adorable face and noise when he took his first bite. I love him.

Steamed Banana and Chocolate Bread

Today was K's first full day of preschool. He got on the bus at 7:53 in the morning and I picked him up at the bus stop at 2:26. As awful as it sounds, a day to myself was glorious. I took out the trash, did the laundry, cleaned the house in record time, went for a walk, then to the grocery store, and finally to another shop, made and ate my lunch, made dinner, and then since I had some time before heading to the bus stop I made K a treat for after school - steamed banana and chocolate bread.

As today was a full day, he had school lunch. This had me a tad worried because K can be a tad picky about his food. I really wasn't sure if he would eat anything, so I thought having a nice snack at the ready would be a good idea. Turns out he had sandwiches, one of them (from what I can gather) was egg salad. The concept of eggs in a sandwich cracked him up. What a nutter.

Anyway, for the steamed breads, I started by mixing up 150g of flour, 5g of baking powder, 30g of sugar and a pinch of salt.

Then I added 150ml of milk and a tablespoon of vegetable oil.

Once that was all nice and mixed, I roughly chopped up a banana and also threw in a small handful of mini chocolate chips.

Once that was all mixed up I spooned a little into cupcake papers and then put them in my oven on the steam setting for 20 minutes.

They spread out a lot, and don't look much like little cupcake breads at all, but they were really quite tasty. I'm wondering if I could put them in cupcake tins and then steam them. Otherwise, I need to invest in some stronger cups to steam them in.

 

Either way, it really didn't matter. K was stoked on them and that is all that counts!