Girl's Day 2016

I almost forgot but managed to make the day slightly more special than every other day for our little princess! March the 3rd is Girl's Day in Japan and we celebrate it by displaying some special dolls and having some traditional food.

I only managed to follow a part of the tradition. Here is Ashley's Hinaninngyo - the dolls.

Some of the common food and drinks for the festival is 1) shirozake (yes sake!) 2) hina-arare - small flavoured rice crackers 3) hishimochi - diamond-shaped coloured rice cake 4) chirashizuki - not rolled but open version of sushi 5) ushiojiru - clam soup. 

Well, mine are not really traditional but I made some sushi dolls garnished with some cheese and rose shaped smoked salmon. I also made the boys some tamago sushi and rolls. 

When they are happy the dinner finishes quite smoothly. We had some time to play with Ashley's hina-ningyo before heading to bed. She can kind of sing the song for this special day in Japanese now which makes me smile a lot too :)

Lovely to have a girl in the family to enjoy another Japanese tradition! Happy Girls Day Ashley, we love you so so so much xxx