Melina had a nice day at the aquarium with her friend.

Melina’s second year Sports Day was similar to last year, a lot of cheering, dancing, and racing. For Sports Day, the kids all divided in three groups: the red team, blue team, and white team, and they all cheer on their teammates whenever they are not doing a performance or racing. Melina was on the red team this year and she did a nice dance performance and ran as fast as she could during her race. I think she could have ran faster if she wanted though.

As per tradition now, Melina got two cakes for her birthday. This year was another Unicorn cake, but I tried my hand at making a Universe cake.

At Melina’s elementary school they have the annual sports day near the beginning of the school year rather than the traditional Autumn season. Also for precautionary measures the format for the sports day and the events were changed. Out of the 6 grades, the sports day was split into two halves with the lower 3 grades doing their events followed by the upper 3 grades. This way only about half the parents were watching at a time. Lastly, some of the more traditional events were removed which left only social distanced dancing events and the ever important racing events. Still, it was better than nothing and it was a joy to see Melina dance and run as fast as she could.

I dont remember my first day of elementary school, but in Japan it is a big deal where the kids and parents get dressed up and go to a small ceremony welcoming the kids to school and to meet their new teacher. Melina seemed a bit exited to go to school but also a bit nervous, luckily one of Melina’s friends from her preschool was in her same class.

There was one last event with Melina’s preschool classmates which was a spring hike through Kamakura. It was a great day with the cherry blossoms in full bloom and all the kids exited make it all the way to the beach. After a nice morning of hiking through the hills we had lunch at a temple before heading to the beach to cool off. Melina was the first one in the water.

Melina graduates from preschool. She was sad to leave the school she went to for the last three years and made sure to take some pictures of her friends and teachers. We have a lot of good memories from all the school events and activities over the years.

Another birthday party with two cakes for Melina. This year was another rainbow cake, and a unicorn cake. The rainbow cake this year was made with rainbow sprinkles and a rainbow made of frosting. Also by request, we had lots of pizza for everyone to eat.