Backtracking through the holidays....3 Yufuin Once More

After F's birthday party we finally set off for our annual one week family holiday! To Yufuin once more.
As soon as we got there, I was straight in the pool!

The next morning we went to Kijima Korakuen Theme Park. At the entrance I knew it was my kind of place: Puri Kyua girls were there to greet me.

Then there was some lego nonsense.

And on to the attractions. Me and Daddy got passports, but Mummy was chicken. (Excuse me, I was the photographer!!)

I was too short to get on this - thank goodness! It took my Daddy up to a great height....

Then dropped him!

His face says it all.

I got on a go-cart to warm up.
Which was kind of crap....

I wanted to get on Jupiter, the big wooden roller coaster that Kijima is famous for.

But I was too short so I had to make do with the photo stop version.

It looked exciting till I saw these people doing this!

Daddy wouldn't try that, but we persuaded him to get on Poseidon.

And then we found the section I could get on lots of things in.

The promise room. What I promised Mummy is a secret.

My favourite ride was the unfortunately named go-carts.

The sign says no-one under 135cm can drive.

Wrong!
First driving lesson from Dad!!

On the way home we stopped at our favourite Pizza place.

Yummy food and a great view at Kunugi no Oka!　Definitely recommended if you are in Yufuin!

Next day we went for a drive to Aso.
We found this unmanned lucky charm stall at a rest stop.
The gold sign says: "Happiness will not come to those who don't put the ¥100 in the box!"
Brilliant!

Happiness came to us at the cafe "Chez Tani" down the road, which has a great Cake Buffet!

Then it was off to the volcano.

Taking a dip in the crater.

Quick horsey ride at Kusasenri.

Then up to the actual mouth of the crater of the volcano, which is still active by the way.

Cool rock formations everywhere.

But I didn't feel like swimming in this cauldron!

I loved Kijima so much tht the next day we went back. First it was raining, so I did a little dance session with Pinky the rabbit inside the Toy Kingdom.

But when the rain stopped we went to this outdoor paddling pool, with all this cool stuff.

I was allowed one ride afterwards.

What a great few days!

On the drive back we found these cool road monkeys.....almost as good as the robot policemen!

Backtracking through the holidays....2: Happy Birthday F!

If I'm baking a cake.....
That's right, the M family must be coming to dinner!

As is customary on these occasions, we made a big chocolatey mess, and ate it.

And then everyone showed their true colours playing Wii. Friendly competetion? There's no such thing.

Couple of days later, it was F's 6th Birthday. We dropped in on our way to our holidays in Yufuin.

Summer birthdays are great! You can have a pool party!

F seemed to like the super water blaster I gave him. Not sure his Mum did though!

His Dad was advertising beer in the hallway for some reason.

While the N family were near the food as usual!

Me and E really like F's pool!

And the multi chambered pinata was a work of art and brilliance!

Although I wonder if I bunch of sugar hyped boys and big stick is such a good combination sometimes!

But is IS great fun!

Thanks for having us F!

Backtracking through the holidays....1

It's that time of year again when I am running about too much to do the blog regularly, so we'll be having a summer round-up over a few installments.

It all starts and ends with heat. Unspeakable asphyxiating heat.
So Mummy has the bright idea:
"Hey Mairi come here and I'll show you how Mummy used to play in summer....WATER FIGHT!!!!"

As is common with these great Mummy ideas, the original plan of doing this great fun thing for about 5 minutes, is not enough for the insatiable mess loving 5 year old, and the original plan of Mummy soaking the 5 year old and then carrying on with what she was doing - bone dry- goes completely by the wayside.

And the car never did get clean.

But it was fun making rainbows!

I FEEL THE NEED TO ANNOUNCE

I have a backlog of photos and stuff to post here really, but to hell with the order:

本当は他のことを先にのせないといけないけど、言いたくて仕方がない！
WE OWN OUR NEW HOUSE
新しい家を正式に買いました！

as of yesterday!!!!!
昨日でね。

もう出かけるお金が残っていないけど、リフォームしたら、出かけたくないぐらいカッコイイ家でしょうね！
And are of course also the proud owners of debt that we will never likely pay off...but staying home skint will be very cool!