Valentine's Party & Jana.

We kicked off the weekend by going to a Valentine's Party at a nearby park.  The girls participated in decorating cookies, making crafts and exchanging valentine's.  It was their first time exchanging valentine's, and they enjoyed making and passing out their little cards with a heart lollipop attached.  Inside we wrote "Jesus loves you!" and "John 3:16"... Biggest sister was out on the playground passing out her valentines to kids she has never met.. and explaining to them what the verse meant... basically evangelizing!

That evening, for Friday Night Family Night, Bryant took biggest sister and big sister to the "World of Color" show at Disneyland/California Venture while I stayed home with littlest sister.  It was their first time seeing the show, and Bryant's first time going to Disneyland with just the girls... so they just all had a blast as you can imagine. :)

On top of that, the girls had the chance to see their favorite singer perform live at a local church.

Needless to say, the girls were pooped by Saturday evening...but we still made it to church this morning AND attend a meeting tonight!

Looking forward to this week... celebrating Valentine's with the family...and learning about God's love!

A Surprise.

Biggest sister has been waiting months for her Oji-chan (grandfather in Japanese) to visit so he can fix her guitar strings (on her toy guitar he purchase for her two birthdays ago).  She knows that whenever Ojichan visits, he brings a new set of strings and helps fix her guitar.

Oji-chan has been in Japan the last few months...and when she found out he was visiting this past week she was ecstatic.  She even reminded Oji-chan over skype that her guitar strings broke again and asked if he can help her fix it.

Well, to her surprise, when Oji-chan showed up at the door with Oba-chan last Tuesday he had another guitar with him! It was an OLD guitar that he had stored in the garage for a looong time. But biggest sister didn't care.  She was SO excited to have a bigger, and a REAL guitar to play with!! She immediately got the guitar out and started playing.. but of course, Oji-chan said "let me put new strings in first, and then you can play."  He spent most of the evening replacing the strings and tuning his old guitar and her toy guitar (which she happily gave to her little sister).

That evening both girls put on a great show with their "new" guitars!  And since then, biggest sister has written a song about each member of her family (including our dog Mochi)..

The simplest of things that brings JOY to our girls... The joy that comes from a new (even though old) gift... And the joy that comes from her grandfather's generosity and willingness to put the effort and time into something his granddaughter truly enjoys.

Jam Sessions.

Biggest sister loves to sing and play her guitar. 

She plays for fun. She plays to relax. She plays to entertain. 

It's just in her blood. 

Lately she recruits her little sisters to play other instruments with her for a jam session or performance. 

Maybe someday she will get to perform on a real stage... ;)

Here are some photos of her from this past year...playing and singing away: