The end of October means one thing: no, not Halloween, but JOHN'S BIRTHDAY. I love birthdays and usually try to make mine last at least a month. John is the most relaxed member of our family (I know, I know, this is very surprising), and would probably be perfectly content with good whisky and a bowl of ice cream. I would not be perfectly content with this.
While John's birthday celebration in Okinawa would not have as many balloons or as big of a cake as I would normally prefer, it certainly would be memorable. First we headed to Bios on the Hill which the girls and I had visited before with John's parents (and which I wrote about here). The girls couldn't get enough of the play structures here. They loved playing a game in which they assumed American Girl identities (Kit and Ruthie) and pretended the structures were their houses. The funniest thing about them playing pretend is always listening to the planning: "Ok, pretend I knock on your door and then you say, 'Hello' and then I say, 'It's time to go to school' and then you say, 'Okay." To which the other one responds, "No, I don't want to pretend to go to school. Let's pretend we have a babysitter." And on and on. Sometimes the planning of the imaginary play occupies all of their time. Improv is not their strong suit.
The water buffalo circled the play area every 15 minutes or so. They left calling cards in inconvenient locations which posed more danger than their horns or their brute strength.
Next to the play area, Zoe was in some kind of standoff with a goat, and Maddox desperately tried to make hers into a sweet pet.
Another fun activity to try was walking on stilts. It was really hard to do, but with some help from the Birthday Guy, Zoe enjoyed it.
Both girls also enjoyed the hula hoops. Zoe has a future in the hoop community. She nailed it.
As our family gift to John, we rented kayaks with the girls. Maddox was a great paddler, although she and I often were laughing too hard for me to steer properly. There were other tour boats on the water, filled primarily with Japanese tourists. They took a lot of photos of us. This was one of many times I wished I spoke Japanese as I wondered what the tour boat operator was narrating over his microphone.
As the man of honor, John didn't have to paddle. Zoe did all the hard work. I think the photo above is one of my favorites of our entire time in Japan.
There was something magical for our girls at Bios. They had more fun and were nicer to each other here than almost any place. Maybe we should have moved in to the play structure on a more permanent basis.
For John's birthday dinner, he wanted to try a local steak house right in Onna called Shige. During our dinner, Zoe showed us the proper technique for chopsticks. Nailed it. Again.
Photo credit for our dinner out goes to Maddox. Always nice to have the WC sign in the background of a photo.
John had requested an ice cream cake for his birthday, so Maddox and I had managed to find a Baskin-Robbins (I mean, why wouldn't there be a Baskin Robbins in Okinawa?) where we bought this fabulous train cake driven by Mickey Mouse.
Who knows what John's birthday wish was - perhaps a Mini Max Big Green Egg? - but it's clear in the photo below that he has already received all a dad could ever want. Pink-flowered birthday plates included.
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