Misc. June

The rest of June was somewhat anticlimactic after such a fun vacation but we did manage to have a little bit of fun in between naps. :) 

VBS:

Coco attended her final year as a VBS camper with her friend Haven.  This is what I get when I ask for a picture before Day 1. 

Dance Auditions: 

As a slight change from previous years, dance auditions took place in May AND the girls found out their team placements in June. Coco will be on the Lincoln Teen Elite team again this year! Auditions were fairly stress free this year because we knew she'd most likely be staying on the same team. 

SAT: 

Rowan took the SAT for the first time. It is now done digitally and the score is provided digitally within ten days.  

Recital: 

Cora was in EVERY single recital show this year, all 5. This made for a long but fun weekend for her with her besties. We all attended the last and final show to cheer on our girl. 

Father's Day: 

Rog had an epic 36 hour long Father's Day. It started off in Japan and ended in Chicago. I planned for us to visit Team Labs Planets in Tokyo as part of Roger's Father's Day festivities. He chose a new watch while in Tokyo and came home to open some gifts from family and cards and a watch puzzle from the kids. We sure love this guy! 

Ballet: 

Any dancer will tell you that the way to become a better dancer as a whole is to work on your ballet technique. Cora and a few teammates have been taking intensives at a local ballet school. Coco started the day after we got home from Japan and has been working hard since. 

Welcome to High School: 

SCS sent the incoming Freshman special "welcome to high school" boxes which included a t-shirt, cookies and Blazer bucks. So excited for our Cruz. 

Cruz has also been working hard since we came home from Japan hitting the weight room daily and doing school basketball practices three times a week. 

Inside Out 2: 

Cruz and Cora were the only ones who wanted to go see this movie with Roger and me and Cora was the only one interested in a photo. It was SO cute! 

Japan- Part IV: Back to Tokyo

We took one final Shinkansen ride from Osaka to Tokyo. We then took another train, the subway and one more train to arrive at our final hotel, Sheraton Tokyo Bay. Lugging all that luggage was a bit of an adventure as the train stations often had a lot of stairs and long lines for elevators. We managed to pack in a backpack each plus four carry on suitcases.  

Our final mode of transportation was the Disney Resortliner....

Once we got settled in the hotel, Rog and I took a couple of trains and headed back to Ginza for a date night. We did a little shopping and had a shabu shabu meal.  We were given plates of shaved Kobe beef, mushrooms and noodles which we cooked in a dish of boiled water and dipped in various sauces. We had to take our shoes off for this experience and we were in our own little room. 

We had a Club level room at the Sheraton so breakfast and dinner was included. The kids went down and had dinner and did a great job managing at the hotel by themselves. 

Disney Sea is an incredible park unique to Japan. 

This ride was one the kids were very excited for. 

10,000 Leagues Under the Sea felt like you were in an actual submarine. 

Little Green Dumplings are a snack unique to Disney Tokyo. These dumplings are filled with chocolate, custard and strawberry fillings. They were tasty. 

The Mickey shapes in Cora's kids meal were so cute. 

Instead of a parade, Disney Sea featured a water show. 

Disney had SO many different kinds of popcorn to try- this must be a thing in Japan. All our sweet Row wanted though, was the regular salted popcorn. There were only a few stands that sold it so every time we'd find one, he would get two. :) 

It was quite warm on our Disney days as well. 

Fantasy Springs is a new "land" in Disney Sea which only opened 10 days before our visit. It has three separate sections themed towards Frozen, Rapunzel and Peter Pan. Passes to enter sold out quickly and you were only able to ride the rides if you had a pass for them. We managed to get passes for the Rapunzel ride and it was absolutely beautiful. 

Breakfast in our hotel was great! I loved having udon every morning for breakfast. We learned that in Japan, it is most customary to eat savory items for breakfast rather than sweet. 

The train was so cute with its Mickey windows. 

Team Lab Planets was our final activity. We went on Sunday morning and our flight was at 5:00 PM. This was also Father's Day. We joked that due to our crossing of time zones, Roger basically got a 36 hour celebration. 

Team Labs is a collection of art that includes all your senses. In this first room, there was fog and you were able to push and move those giant silver sculptures. 

The Flower Room was really neat. The floor was mirrored and there were giant vines of flowers moving up and down through the room. 

There were all sorts of LED light exhibits which changed colors and brightness at various times. 

This room was filled with water and lights to illuminate that water. If you look closely, you can see LED fish float by that would eventually disappear. 

This room was filled with giant soft white balls. It was kind of like a maze and the lights changed colors as you walked through. 

After Team Labs, we headed to the airport. Our flight home flew from Tokyo's Haneda airport straight to Chicago O'Hare. 

When we arrived at O'Hare, the kids had a little surprise waiting for them. We were supposed to have a three hour layover but it turned into almost seven hours thanks to United so we were thankful for the distraction of Grammy and Grampy. 

That silly mushroom came in handy for naps as we waited! We pulled into our house around 3:00 AM EST which was almost exactly 24 hours after we'd left Tokyo. 

That's a wrap on Japan! We're beyond grateful for this epic trip.