Valentine's Day

Happy Late Valentine's Day everyone! First, I put out some fun decorations....like all other decorations in the house, I'm just making due or up cycling what very little we came with or crafting with items from the 100 Yen Store (those stores are addicting, I tell you!). It's basically like the dollar store, but in my opinion better and much bigger.
I'm sure it's partly the teacher in me and partly my need for a creative fix, but I'd like to start decorating more for each holiday. Holidays were always some of my happiest memories as a kid (my mom was a teacher too, so she always had oodles of fun ideas), so I'm hoping to give that to my kids as well.

Thanks, Pinterest for most of these ideas.=)

Family Love Photo Display

Yes, I used a ladder as a shelf!

I strung some hearts along our window.

Pretty rose came from the super awesome owners of Avery's school (sorry about the dying ones next to it!).

And, of course Avery brought home lots of pretty artwork from school that we hung in the kitchen and her bedroom (which she shares with Noah...for now).

Their artwork display (thanks Uncle Michael and Aunt Jennifer for the Dora Banner thing. It worked great.)! Oh, how I'm dying to paint more walls in our house...but we have about 2 1/2 years left...worth it???

Avery made little treat bags for the kids in her class. Super easy since there's now only 4 kids in her class.

She put little heart stickers on the bottoms of the kisses.

After wrapping up the bag of kisses, we made a little note, and attached a heart shaped crayon which we made to each bag.

Voila! Didn't realize it was so easy to make different shapes of crayons (thanks again, Pinterest!)

Avery helped me make Valentine's Day Chex Mix for our neighbors.

Happy Valentine's Day! Love, The Drapers (here's a kiss from Avery=)

Homemade Play dough

I made homemade play dough for the first time ever. Avery was my little helper, and I was surprised it turned out perfectly! Even with a crazy powerful stovetop (unless you're careful, our stove will burn everything) and not your normal food coloring (it was the gel, not the liquid stuff...it's all they had). We picked up a bunch of cookie cutters at the 100 Yen Store (one of my happy places here!) and the Mr. Potato head pieces and they had fun.

Shurijo Castle, a Buffet, and Our Neighbor's Pottery Shop

I've said this before, but we really have the nicest neighbors! The lady (I feel so bad that I can't ever remember her name) has been wanting to show us her pottery store and some other things around Naha City (the aquarium is in Nago city which is north of us, and Naha is south of us). They drove us down to see Shurijo Castle first. What a neat place to go. The kids loved getting to stamp their pamphlet at every stop (and then receiving stickers at the end). Most of the areas inside were no picture taking zones, but I got a lot of good ones outside.

Next, our neighbor and her son took us out to eat at a yummy buffet. This is the first Japanese buffet we've been too, and it did not dissapoint. I especially loved the curry, salad, noodles, fresh fruit, and coffee bar. There was also a huge variety of meat dishes, rice rolls, and desserts. Yum, yum! We really haven't explored too many restaurants because I'm always nervous I'm not going to like the food. I've grown into a picky eater which is so not like me! I can ALWAYS find something I like at any restaurant when I can read the menu, but when the menu is in a different language and you don't always know what you're ordering, it's a whole different ball game. We're going to keep our eyes peeled for a buffet near us. Here's the lone picture I took at the restaurant:

Then we got to see their store which is what I was most excited about. It's located on a street in Naha with a bunch of other pottery stores. I believe the area is called Pottery Village or something of that nature. They make all of these items in their studio which is right next to us.

 They gave us coffee and we felt right at home.

 A view down the road:

 Noah was starting to grab at things, so our lovely neighbor took them for a walk while Steve and I looked around the store.

 Then, she took us down the street to see some old Okinawa houses. It was a pretty, quaint little neighborhood.

 Cherry Blossom Tree...just like in D.C. They even had a Cherry Blossom Festival.

So what did we get?? Some pretty little pitcher and mug set:

And a Tea set:

These will go great in the china cabinet (we don't own a china cabinet...it was here when we moved in).