Last minute fun

This was our 1st 'real' weekend in a very long time. Literally, for over 2 months we have had no real feel for the weekend. We were on permanent vacation! Patrick wasn't going to work, the kids weren't in school, and I had no social calendar to abide by. But this week Patrick had a full work week (gasp!) and I was busy with the kids again. So Saturday really felt like something to celebrate!

We actually had NO plans! The kids were starting to get wound up so we decided to run some errands - just to get out of the house. Literally 2 minutes before we were about to leave, my new friend Amy (shout out to the Mormons) called to see if I wanted to go to a function at their church. It was not a religious activity - rather just a get together that was held at their church (I had gone to plenty with my Mormon friends in Ohio and always had a great time). Apparently, their ward (church location) has 2 services. One in the morning in English and another in the afternoon in Japanese. This upcoming week is the Tanabata Festival around here (kind of like Halloween where they celebrate the dead coming back to bring joy and happiness to the living), so the Japanese sisters wanted to put on an activity to help the American sisters dress in kimonos (called yukatas, summer cotton kimonos) so we could go to the festival in style!

A few of the members could not attend (but replied they would go) so they had some extra yukatas. And that's when Amy called me. So Evelyn and I went to her house (she lives right behind us) and we drove over to the church together. Evie loved watching everyone get dressed and there were about 8 Japanese women helping everyone get dressed. One of the younger ladies did mine - but the oldest 'sensei' made me take it off because she said I was too skinny for it. I wanted to kiss her right there on the spot, but I didn't know if that was appropriate :-) They made me choose a smaller one and then the sensei wrapped me in it TIGHT! It was fun to see how there was no problem with a language barrier when women are helping each other with fashion!!! One lady even let me borrow some clothed for Evelyn...they were boy ones - but she didn't care. Pokemon is cool for boys and girls!!!

After we learned about the yukatas and about the reason behind the festival, we walked about 10 minutes to go there. It was what I expected - with bright colorful balloons and streamers, dancers, dragon puppets, vendors, etc. We weren't too daring with the food - we only got sno cones and popcon for the kids - but it was still such an unexpected, last minute fun activity for our family!