Sunday Sam Snap Week 37 - Samudra at Sumadera

This week we had another long weekend. Friday evening there was a Thanksgiving dinner with the neighbours and friends, which was really nice. The welcome here has been great. We didn't get any snaps, though!

We've also been trying to winter-and-Sam-proof the house, which is fun. The Christmas tree's up and there is a barrier blocking him in the living room! Yesterday we took the train out to Sumadera temple and to the Rikyu Park, which is really cool.

Here's the Sunday Sam Snap - Anya was holding him on the bouncy toy.

Week 37 on the bouncy rider. Samudra at Sumadera

The park is modeled on a stately home, by the looks of things. Lots of gardens and birds flying around, and a really cool slide  - it goes fullscreen:


Hesty got a bunch of photos, which are in this album. You can see how nice winter is here:

..........o0O0o..........

One Meeeelion views!

Work's been busy as ever, but starting to get on top of things and the i-Biology blog passed a million views this week, which is cool. Still trying to get some more Movember donations!

I'm off to Tokyo Thursday and Friday this week, which should be an interesting trip for Middle Years stuff.

Sunday Sam Snap Week 36 - Movember Special

Mo yeah!

Sam's got a mo for Movember!

It's moember, and Daddy's moustache is coming on nicely. Sam joined in, with a high-quality face-paint mo. You can sponsor me by making a donation here. Please! Read more about Movember on the post I wrote for my Biology website.

More photos of the Movember efforts on my Facebook profile:

Anya's Art and Fancy Nancy

This is her really good self-portrait. She is lucky to have two great teachers this year who can build on Mrs Brata's wonderful work last year - Mrs Thomas and Mrs Otsuki.

And here she is as Fancy Nancy for the book characters day parade:

With Alex

Hiroshima and Kobe Harborland

Stephen was out at Hiroshima and Miyajima on a school trip this week, which was pretty cool. We shot down on the Shinkansen bullet train and back in a day, and the kids were pretty good. The Hiroshima Peace museum is pretty hard-hitting and I'm glad we didn't try to bring Anya. Maybe when she's older.

Hiroshima Genbaku Dome

Yesterday was a lovely day in Kobe, so we headed over to Harborland. We'd never been before, but it was a nice day. As you can see, Daddy's Movember mo is coming along horribly.

Sunday Sam Snap Week 35

Week 35

He's standing strong now, and trying to walk along the sofa and climb up everything. It's a good job we got the baby gates in when we did. Don't let the cutey smile deceive - he has been screeching up a storm at night this week, with more teeth coming through. The nights are a bit colder, too, so we've got a heated carpet for his room to see if it will make a difference.  It might only make a difference to the electricity bill...

Sunday Sam Snap Week 34 - Standing Up!

He's pulling up onto his feet and now trying to walk along the sofa. All this today. He's been a bit groggy this last few days. Snot factory and two teeth through.

Here's a clip, made with a free app called Splice for the iPhone:

Sunday Sam Snap Week 33

Here he is, dressed as a bee, giving out trick-or-treat outside the playhouse.

Week 33: Backyard Halloween Fun

A nice week off, with plenty of playtime with the kids and Hesty. Now back to the grind...
Here are some more photos from Halloween.

Bib from Nana

Daddy had a chance to see Anya's swimming lesson too- though I missed the beginning of her jump:

Daddy's Birthday in Kyoto!

There is nothing better than waking up to a little girl so excited to get you out of bed to see the birthday cake she has decorated with Mummy...

... except for that morning to be a Monday morning off and for the cake to be breakfast!

Here is the cake-y masterpiece.  Hesty baked it, Anya decorated and Sam stuck his hand right in as we remembered (at the end of the first round of 'Happy Birthday'), that the candles were still in the drawer.

She wrote this all by herself as the World Cup final was on.

Today's trip was to Kyoto. We hopped on the train and went up to check out the shrines at Inari and have a wander about the city. By random chance we bumped into some of Hesty's gang of Indonesian ladies and then had dinner at the falafel place on the island.

"Sutiban wa san-ju-ichi saidesu" (Sutiban is 31 years old) From Google Translate.

 I have a lot to be thankful for.