Rope Bridge | Japanese Crackers

Saturday was a day of a farm festival in Isehara, the city Tamie’s parents live in. They wanted to take Layla and we were more than happy to oblige – Tamie’s always excited to expose Layla to terrifying animals like mice and chicks. Layla seemed excited to go too, talking about how she wanted to see and pet rabbits at the fair.

After what should have been a quick stop at the hospital for Layla’s routine checkup for her asthma, delayed only by a swine flu outbreak in our city and a hospital computer system that went down, we were off to see the farm animals.

The festival was a bit bigger than last year’s, with a lot of people milling about like the livestock they were gawking at. Layla summed up all of her courage and milked a fake cow. Unfortunately with her courage sapped, by the time we got to the petting portion of the festival, she was scared stiff of all the animals running around her. Even the bunny she was so anxious to pet was terrifying.

Tamie’s sister joined us in the petting pen. She tried to get Layla to pet a rabbit to no avail. Even grandma was getting into the act — she promised the cowardly little girl popcorn if she could touch a baby goat just once. Layla, too smart for her own good sometimes, knew grandma would be getting her popcorn regardless and ignored the goat completely. So instead of petting animals, we went and got some festival food. And popcorn.

After the festival we went back to the house to have a deliciously homemade Sukiyaki meal. Twice in two weeks! Sorry Tamie, but I love it. Layla crashed on the way home, ragdolling in my arms before we made it back to the apartment. I bet she dreamed of ferocious bunnies and scary chicks.

Sunday was almost a typical Sunday. A typical Sunday involves waking up late, rollerblading, Tamie jogging at some point and starbucks-ing. We woke up late-ish, Layla waking up around 10.

I rollerbladed 8.34km, hitting a maximum speed of 25km/h and maintaining an average speed of around 12km/h… yep, my google phone is amazing! =) Highlight of the trip was almost running over a praying mantis! I’d never seen one before and wasn’t sure if what I saw was really a praying mantis and not just a green leaf on the sidewalk (it’s hard to make out such small things when you are flying at 12km/h!). When I got home I asked Tamie in disbelief if Japan had such cool bugs and the disgust on her face told me yes.

After I showered, we were getting ready to go out to starbucks. It was such a nice day outside, I suggested we head out somewhere else, and I knew the perfect place. Instead of our regular trip to Vina Walk in search of musicians, magicians, dogs, babies and frappuccinos, we headed out to the park we used to frequent. With Layla being bigger, she was able to use the playground jungle gym with a lot more confidence and independence.

Hours were spent playing with slides and rope bridges, balls and bubbles, running and laughing. It was a good time and great to see Layla having such a good time amongst the thousand or so other kids at the park.

Galleries:
Farm Festival
A Day at the Park

Let me know how slow the loadtimes are for the galleries. I’m trying to work on a new interface and am wondering how fast the current ones are.

Previews for the gallery: