An Update Just for Hannah

Alternate title: Japan Week 2015

It's been an atrociously long time since I've updated this blog. It still has that dopey (but awesome) header that Gary made ages ago. It needs to be updated again, because Cora is so much bigger now! But babies tend to do that don't they?

So this week (April 18-26) is Japan Week in Spokane. Thus far it has been oooookay. It started off at the Northeast Museum of Art and Culture this year, as opposed to Riverpark Square Mall. So that was neat. It's only been a thing for a couple years, and apparently this year they had a lot more people show up than in previous years. As someone who has more than a passing interest in Japanese culture, it makes me very happy! Someday I might find some friends who have the same kind of interest as me. Gary wore his yukata that I made for him, though we need some practice getting it to stay straight while he wears it. I didn't get a picture of him. Darn.

Actually, we did run into the one other (non-japanese) person who was wearing kimono. We chatted with him for a bit. His name was Thor. He had a cool accent; his family is from Germany. He even made himself a bento for the occasion, which made me happy. Now I wish I had taken a picture of his bento box, because it was gorgeous and had a lid like I've never seen before.

It was tiny, maybe only 4 inches, and square with 3 tiers; like this (only with a phoenix motif, which apparently is also rare, because I can't find a picture of one):


But with a lid that looked like this:


Seriously the coolest thing I've ever seen. I've never been able to gush over a bento box with someone before, so it was a good day.

We got to see taiko drumming for the first time. Taiko is very loud but has a great beat, and unlike watching the drums in say, a marching band, it is very entertaining to watch.

Don't know why Spokane Taiko is comprised mostly of old ladies, but whatever.

A couple days later we were able to attend Mukagawa Fort Wright Institute's Family Day (goodness that's long). I actually took pictures, but they are crap blurry phone pictures. Sorry.

Peri as we were leaving. Seriously the cutest thing that ever walked the earth. She wanted to wear her Sailor Chibi Moon bow, so that made me happy.

This is her learning how to make an origami jumping frog. She loved it. The ladies running the booth thought she was so cute and got a picture with her too.

She decided to color this girl at the coloring station because she looked like a princess.

The she proceeded to give her a sunburned face.

This is Peri cheating at yo-yo fishing. You are supposed to catch your yo-yos with a hook attached to a bit of paper. You can see the little girl in the pink using one if you squint. If you can hook it before your paper breaks, you get to keep it. It's hard, so they let all the little kids who try keep one. There was also a goldfish catching pond, where you try to catch a goldfish with a paper paddle before the paddle breaks. We did not visit it, because we were not going to take a goldfish home. Maybe next year.

There were some Japanese toys to play with too.

We also got to see a demonstration of nihonbuyo (traditional Japanese dancing), and hear the choir sing. It was really nice. I took video, but maybe I'll put them in their own blog post.

At the end, Peri wanted to take some feelings pictures. Here she is looking surprised.

Here she is looking scared.

And here we are showing off her fish printing picture that she painted. They have rubber fishes that you get to paint and stick on paper. We had a lot of fun. After we were done taking our pictures, a couple Japanese girls came over and asked for their picture with Peri. She was super popular.

We wanted to go to the festival at Manito park, but it was during church hours on Sunday, and Peri had to give a talk and Gary of course had his young men's things to do. So we had to miss it :( But we had a lot of fun and maybe next year we'll get to do it again!

Oh, Cora and Gary were there too. Cora wore her jinbei, it was super cute, and kind of big yet.

Also, my sister Katrina. She got herself a yo-yo.

Check Out Our New Header!

We've been meaning to update our blog header for about two years now, and I finally decided to act on it, so... behold, or whatever. I just want to say that MS Paint is a powerful tool and a no-frills way of making little things like this. Anyways, we'll be taking new pictures of our family here soon, and Naomi with all of her art, digital art, design, and layout experience can make a new and better header. I like to write, and use power tools.

Cora is ten-days old today, and back past her birth weight. We had to jump straight to size 1 diapers for her, and her newborn clothes are already a little iffy. I absolutely adore her, and Peri wants to hold her all the time. Both Naomi and Peri are thoroughly worn out for their efforts, seen here:

We've been very blessed to have Naomi's mom come and stay with us for a few weeks. Peri has enjoyed doing crafts and going to the pool with Oma.

Anyways, this is just to introduce my dumb little header. We're all doing fine.

-Gary

Baby Cora McCulloch Jackson

Well,
 after a whole lot of work (99.999% of it on Naomi's part) we welcome baby Cora McCulloch Jackson to our little family. Cora came three days after her due date and weighed in well over a pound heavier than Peri did nearly three years ago. At 9 pounds, 9 ounces, and 20.5 inches, she's fairly massive. And she's strong. We arm wrestled a few times yesterday and she beat me half the time. She passed all of her tests and came home just over 24 hours after birth. Peri loves her to pieces already and is working very hard to throw her a birthday party (Peri LOVES birthdays).

Now we've got to get the picture albums out and compare her to pictures of Peri to find out "who she looks like." I think she looks like a Cora.

-Gary

Another Something Useful

Note: This is a guest post by Gary, because he only realized after he finished that he wasn't logged in to his own account.
 
Hey! I build lots of useful things. Like this bunk bed.

We've been talking for a while on how the arrangements are going to be when baby Cora comes. We also would like the idea of having the option of having sleepovers in Peri's room. The answer was a bunk bed. A bunk bed we could make ourselves.

I've been following a woodworker named Matthias Wandel for about a year now, and among his more interesting projects, he has published plans for more practical works. We found his bunk bed plans and ran with them. Naomi did all of the material calculations, layout, and markup while I did all the cutting, drilling, and assembly. This worked out to three weekend trips to Grandma's, which Peri didn't mind at all.

My mom wasn't too sure about the whole operation until she saw it dry-fitted in the basement before we took it home. I think she liked it, and I sure do like it. We still have a long way to go with it, like sanding, sanding, rounding over the hard edges, filling some gaps, sanding, and painting, but it's a great addition to our home. And really, the only one who needs to like it really, really likes it. Behold: