First Snow

Ok, so it was only a few flurries, but it was the first snow we’ve seen in Morioka and it thwarted my plans to play in the park after school. Luckily, I had a lunch date with a friend and she invited Catie & I to join them at a huge, 6-story indoor playground/sports complex after school. 

Dancing before school this morning

 We bought the “3 floors for 3 hours mom & child” pass. This place was just wild! In addition to the kids play area (ball pit, giant balloons, slides, bounce room, ball air guns, tricycle track…) they had an indoor roller blade rink that you could also take little motor bikes out on, mini bowling, a huge arcade, tons of arcade-like games for basketball, soccer, tennis, archery, baseball, golf, and other sports I’m sure that I am forgetting. There was also a ping pong area, 8-10 pool tables, a mini golf course, a couple of restaurants and snack bars, and photo booths. The kids (and moms) had a blast! We ran around, bounced, played volleyball with balloons 3 feet across, had a nerf ball war with air cannons, shot arrows at targets, played tennis, soccer, basketball, & golf, played a couple of arcade games, went bowling, and took some goofy photos. 

The place also had a special Hello Kitty stamp hunt that the girls participated in. They each got a card with places for 8 stamps. If they could find and collect all 8 stamps they would get a prize. It took us a while to find all the stamping stations, but eventually we did and the girls got to pick out Hello Kitty bags from a selection of shoe bags, pencil cases, or coin purses. It was a nice way to end a very fun day.

We all loved playing with these giant balloons

 

The girls really enjoyed these soft tubes. They were pretending to be Oscar the Grouch, but kept falling over.

 

The slide down from the bounce room was the fastest slide I've ever been on! Each time Mika & I went down it we were airborn beyond the blue mat!

 

I have no idea what the point of this taiko video game was, but they seemed to have fun with it.

Catie's golf game looks much like it did this summer.

Unfortunately, so does her tennis game.

Luckily, she does a bit better with soccer.

Anna was brave swinging like a monkey on these ropes!

Catie preferred a quiet moment with some soft friends :-)