Sticky Pics

Something that is very big here in Japan is the so called "Sticky Pics" that are taken in little photo booths. You can find these booths in rows after rows in the mall and in all kind of different locations. There are sometimes up to 30 booths in one location, all with different themes and styles! There are many several different themes about the pictures, and you go in and click your design/style of strip, and then you can add stickers and all kind of things to the strip afterward before printing. It costs 200 YEN for two strips, so perfect for friends to share! And cheap enough to take plenty!

Cassie has taken a few of these with different friends and last week when she spent time with her friend E, they went to American Village where they had a booth that had a Halloween themed strip. What's very special about these strips/pictures are that the Japanese think that it's beautiful with big eyes and all these sticky pics come out already edited with big eyes, and a doll like image! I think it's kind of cute, and a big step up from the little photo booths that my friends and I used to hop into at the train station in Bern, CH when we were teenagers! I know that I somewhere have a couple of these with Chris too, us around 20 years old..That would be something to frame!!!

Wickedly Handsome & Cute Pumpkins

I have to post these pictures of the kids from last week. I haven't been up to date with the postings, but I did post them on Instagram, but as not all in my family has Instagram or Facebook, I wanted to let them see these cute pictures here too. Isabella and Benjamin were not allowed to dress up in school for Halloween, and they didn't have a parade or anything in costumes.

They still wanted to do something and feel special for the Friday, the day before Halloween, so I told them that they could wear their Halloween shirts and I had found little hairbands/hats in the matching fabric for the girls.

I got these pictures of the kids walking to school in the morning, but Cassie was already gone by then. I did get pictures of her before she left, but none of the three kids together. I've missed taking nice fall pictures of the kids, or family photos for that matter, like we always used to take at our annual visits to the Pumpkin Patch. Here in Japan, we didn't have a chance to take those pictures. No Pumpkin Patches or special Fall festivals here unfortunately..

How I miss the REAL fall, with all it's colors, cool air, boots and knitted sweaters...But, I'm not really complaining. I'm still enjoying every day here on our paradise island!!

Trick-Or-Treat - Halloween 2015

The Trick-or-Treat wasn't the same this year. Chris was working and couldn't go with us, they were extra busy that night as it was of course a lot of activities on base due to the trick-or-treating, then they had opened up the base for the locals so that they could enjoy this holiday and lastly, it's also a party night for some, which always brings trouble..

Anyway, not having Chris with us, not having Cassie at home for the first time this Halloween, made it just me and the little ones. They were excited to go, and as they had a Trunk-or-Treat going on at their school, I took them there, but that was a bust. There was maybe only about 8 cars standing there, and there were so many people around!! There were long lines to get to the trunks or to get to the doors around that area. We did walk around for awhile, visited some houses, and especially a cul-de-sac that had gone all out! There were plenty of decorations, everyone had dressed up, there were lots of people and scary music going on!

The hours for Trick-or-Treat on base were sat for 6-8pm, so there isn't such a huge window for walking around, and with little legs in tow, it hardly was enough time. As their school is on another base, we spent almost all the time there, as the traffic was thick getting off base, and when we were back on our base, it was just short to 8pm. Still though, we had a pretty good night, the kids were tired, and weren't the happiest campers after all the walking, so getting them ready for bed was challenging.

Here is a big photobomb from our Trick-or-Treat night!!