Hexenhaus

I and Kana joined a cooking class to make a Hexenhaus for Christmas which is made of cookies and sweets.  It took almost 3 hours to finish it.  Kana decorated most of them and I helped her to keep hold the cookies for icing.  It was not difficult and very cute than I thought, maybe I will try it by myself at home next year.  She enjoyed it and wanted to show her dad as soon as possible on her way home.  And now the sweets on the roof have gone already before Christmas as we ate them to consume until the end of the year that we are visiting to see my parents.

753

Kana had a 753 festival which is a traditional Japanese event to celebrate children's growth and pray for their future health and well-being, when they are 3-year-old girls, 5-year-old boys and 7-year-old girls.  This time is for 7 year old.  She was in Kimono, and we visited to a shrine to pray with her grandparents.  When she was 3, she was too small to wear Kimono and she cried a lot those days.  This time there was no cry of course.  In that respect, I felt she has grown up.  To see her in Kimono next time will be, when she is 20 year old.

Tomita Farm at Furano in Hokkaido

Summer holiday for my family was in Hokkaido in the middle of August.  We visited Furano where it's famous for lavender.  We had a lavender ice cream and a lavender juice but there were no lavender any more at Tomita farm in Furano.  It was too late to visit!  We should have got there by beginning of August.  Food in Hokkaido like seafood, curry soups and noodles were really nice!!

Fruit Tart

This time of year is very pleasant after muggy hot summer.  I feel like doing something and starting something new.  It would be great to make cakes like a banana pound cake, a pumpkin pudding for Halloween and a tart cake.  I and my family love tart cakes but I don't feel like making the dough as it takes long procedure.  So I got mini base tarts from a supermarket and made custard cream by microwave that was really easier and quicker than I thought.  And final process which put custard and fruits on was Kana's role and she enjoyed it. This dessert was perfect to cook with a child.
Next week, I will make a pumpkin pudding for my sister putting up my home.

Test at swimming school

The last week in every month is the examination day of swimming school called Itoman to move up to the next grade.  Kana failed grade 21 again which she has tried same test last month.  To pass it, her body must be kept straight floating on the water, but she can't.  Her legs goes down. The comment on her report card was written that she needs to relax her legs. So how can I tell her how to do it?  That's not easy, I think...  Floating is the first step for swimming as you know.  It would take time for her and I must wait until then.
I hope she will success the third test next month.

Long summer school holiday

Kana is in a long summer school holiday over 1 month.  This is the first long vacation for her because I had job last year and then she was in a nursery that has no holiday except for weekends.
How can she spend such a long time at home?
I planed she goes to the kids club which is placed at school, to play with friends every morning as long as we don't have any plan to go. They provide various programs such as playing with water, craft and visiting elder people.
Besides, I arranged 1 dollar concert for pipe organ at Minatomirai hall, musical of "Lion King"  produced by Shiki theatre company and a film to go out with her. 

In a middle of August,  our family will travel to Hokkaido where it is the northernmost of island in Japan.  I hope it will be cooler than here.  We love travel a lot, so when we would like to go, we could go anywhere anytime at lower price until last year.  This year is not.  Ken's holiday affected by the great east japan earthquake has been fixed by his company.  School holiday is fixed.  There is no choice to have a travel during a peak season.

Travel to Nasu

Breakfast

We can not go to my home town Fukushima where my parents live in, and the nuclear power plants have exploded and been not quite safe yet, taking Kana on this long summer vacation .
If my parents don't visit us in Yokohama, they can't see their grandchild for time being.  So we arranged to be able to see each other in Nasu.  My parents were looking forward to seeing her and also Kana. 
It was great time that we visited Numappara-shitugen and Nasu garden outlet.  Nasu is famous for summer resort but it was very hot like Yokohama at the time.  Unluckily, a air condition at hotel Matsuya we stayed was out of service for 4 hours, and even after repairing it was weak.  All other rooms were full in that day and we got the price of hotel refunded.
A cheese cake bought at the cheese garden was full of rich taste and a cafe there called Shirasagi-tei which is modern interior and has nice view of verdant garden, was great to pop in on the way.