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Block Party

It was a big day for hot dog consumption.


Today was Friends Day at the boys' kindergarten, a huge wild west themed event that includes open house classes for the elementary school kids, pony rides, hay wagon rides, horseback riding for 3rd graders and up, live music by a couple of cowboys who play steel guitars, mechanical bulls (yes, like the honky tonk bars!), and tons of food and games. And more, but I can't remember. Thankfully, if both Osamu and Kenzo continue Friends Club through 6th grade we have seven more chances to experience Friends Day.












In Kenzo's English class I actually saw him sing. A first. Usually he gets shy with parents watching, but today he was belting out the tunes. I got to meet his teacher Mr. Nathan for the first time as well. A very nice guy and beloved by all the kids. He looked super nervous with all the parents in the room. He's kind of a rookie, but a good rookie.

To top it all off we came home and continued the fun with a barbecue in the garden. More hot dogs. More grilled meat. Our neighbors were outside barbecuing too so it was basically a block party with kids running everywhere and savory smoke rising up through the neighborhood.



When we arrived at Friends Day one of the teachers, Mr. Dave, saw me and immediately handed me a ticket for the mechanical bull, which I was super excited to try. Kenzo had been excited to try it, too, just from the pictures, but when he saw it live in front of him he was out.

There were two mechanical bull machines in the middle of huge round air filled mattresses and kids were lining up with excitement.

I was waiting for another dad to get in line, but it never happened. Looking back I should've just tapped some random dude on the shoulder, or Mr. Dave for goodness sake, and said hey let's do this.

The guy who doesn't get uncomfortable in any situation couldn't get in line to ride a mechanical bull with a bunch of seven and eight-year-olds. Looks like I found my boundary, odd as it is.

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