Japanese Festival-Botanic Gardens

To celebrate my birthday, we went to the Botanic Gardens for their Japanese Festival.  They had a storyteller, kyoto drum performance, a tea ceremony and a harp player.  They also had activities for kids-a kite craft, a fan craft, a play sushi set with learner chopsticks, Origami, zen gardens, and a station for writing Japanese characters.  The kids really sat and listened intently to the storyteller for about 20 minutes or so-we had to excuse ourselves after about 25 minutes to go do the crafts.

They each made kites and then flew them in the grassy area by the pavilion.

Then we watched the Kyoto drummers.  They were so fun to watch but none of the kids liked them as much as I did.  They just wanted to fly their kites!

Then we went to explore the other activities-like practicing with chop sticks, and raking zen gardens.

Then we went back to my house and had dinner, cake and half cupcakes for N2 since it was their 1/2 birthday!

 Mom had to play dress up and imaginary play while dinner was cooking.