On Saturday our housing community was holding 2 of their annual Summer time events. In the day time is when the kids in our neighborhood pulled the dashi. And in the evening was our actual housing community's Summer festival.
Noah pulling the dashi!
Branden and in front of Branden is Eisuke (E-kun) This year Branden's closest friends are E-kun and Keita-kun.
Branden and E-kun. And that pretty little girl with the straw hat on the other side of the rope is E-kun's 2nd grade sister. She's at our house quite a bit too. She's a very good girl.
The kids walked one side of the housing community. The kids all chanted...washoi!!! Many of us parents walked along with our kids. My dad and myself were there as well keeping a watchful eye on Branden and Noah. Noboru had to work but got off at 2pm and was home by 2:30pm.
So many other parents taking pics, video taping etc.
And we winded back to the tennis court area part of the park in the middle of our housing community. About to take a break.
The kids all took a break at the half way point. They were all given tea and even along the way they took a few breaks and parents brought out little dixie cup size cups of tea for all the kids and even for us parents/adults. Branden and Noah and K-kun taking a rest. Saya-chan taking a rest behind them.
And then back to pull the dashi on the other side of the housing community.
It was hot Saturday around 10am when we all did this. But the kids enjoyed it though.
There's bike paths and ped paths throughout our community so it's a very kid friendly place to live.
And at the end of the pulling of the dashi every kid that participated got a frozen drink, Qoo or sports drink. And a bag of treats. The boys said good bye to their friends and we'd see them all that evening. And we all went home. We stayed indoors (watching dvd's, having lunch etc) and then about 4pm when we headed to the Summer festival.
They sold, curry, yakitori, oden, takoyaki, yakisoba, hot dogs, popcorn was free, shaved ice and more. Lots more. They also sold toys, had a few games for the kids.
We stopped to talk to Genki and another friend of B's. And then we went and found a nice folding table and sat.
My dad had the butter potatoes, they were good, they came 3 in a set, I ate one of my dad's potatoes he offered me.
Noah had a lemon shave ice.
Noboru enjoying his motsunabe.
Noah went with Noboru to go get some takoyaki.
Hubby enjoying his takoyaki. ; )
Then they had this game for the kids. If you were brave enough to go on stage you were welcome to give it a shot. The lady covered your eyes and you stuck your hand in the frog box. And you had to guess what the thing was. They had a rubber snake and a kid guessed correctly he said..hebi! And they said...correct! ; )
And of course since this is Japan, some guys with huge enormously too big bow ties had to host this. ; )
And then Branden gave it a go! ; )
We had the hula granny's that dance here every year. They really are fantastic and so genki for their age!
Keita was dying of thirst and didn't have a drink. He came to B and asked if he could have some of his drink. B shared of course and then K-kun gave B all these gums in return for sharing his drink. Which was cute. Meanwhile I was munching on a shave ice. So was Branden. My dad was chatting with many people. Many people came to our table to talk with us.
Branden enjoying his kakigori. I am not sure if you can see the lady in the background with the dog wearing the pink summer outfit. Her dog was so cute and had braids, not just pony tails, but actual braids.: ) Anyway that older lady came and chatted with my dad twice during the festival. She was very nice.
Noboru eating his strawberry and milk kakigori.
And then it was nearing 6:20pm. We spent a good 2 hours there and we headed home. We all had the shortest walk since we all live there. A quick walk through the park. All the lights were illuminated already.
Noah had a bunch to carry, though grandpa was carrying a heap of stuff for the both of the boys as well.
When it's dark, it really is quite beautiful. With all the lighted walkways throughout our community. I wish I could have got a picture of when it's dark out...but this gives you sort of an idea at least though. ; )
To get to our house, we go this way from the park and through this ped path.
My dad's birthday is August 3rd. He'll be 63 this year, hence the 6 tall candles and the 3 short ones. ; ) We won't be with my dad on his actual birthday this year, so we decided to surprise my dad with a Baskin Robbins icecream cake anyway. So a bit early but that's okay. : )
Noboru and the kids and I sang him happy birthday. And my dad blew out the candles.
My thumb messed up the P and A as I was putting it on my dad's plate. It was a strawberry cheesecake icecream cake with yellow cake on the bottom. This was really good.
My serving, The berries were good. It was nice to come home from the festival and have some cake.I took this video Saturday in the day when the boys were pulling the dashi. The loudest voice, I hear is E-kun. Sweet genki kid (oh on the video, I referred to E-kun as the jinbei boy, we sometimes refer to him that way and it's not for a mean or weird reason but a cute reason actually but I can't really say why here). ; )Anyway we all really enjoyed Saturday's pulling of the dashi and the Summer festival. : )
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