Hinamatsuri! ひなまつり！

Today is a happy day for us because it is Hinamatsuri! Hinamatsuri is Girl's day in Japan. Girl's day is a time to celebrate little girls and pray for their growth and happiness. People put up beautiful doll displays and girls get to eat candy! Person set up a little Hinamatsuri doll display just for us. We were so excited about this that it was hard to hold still for our picture. We think we are very important.  After our picture, person gave us a pretty box to open. We weren't sure what it was but since it looked like a present, we were pleased. It was a little hard to open. 

What could be in this box?

Can you tell what it is Elsie?

I think it is something good to eat!

Yay! It is the special candy. Person is being very nice today!

Girls are only supposed to look at the pretty doll display and not touch. This is the one problem with Hinamatsuri. Little girls don't want to only look at dolls. That is a boring person type thing! 

We are trying very hard not to touch anything. 

George was not happy about Hinamatsuri. He wanted to play with the dolls and eat the candy! I think he felt left out because today is all about girls. 

No George, that isn't for you. You're are ruining our nice picture!

No, no! That is naughty George! You aren't the emperor!

We told George to stop playing with our things! He needs to wait his turn until boy's day in May. Since George was so naughty, we decided that it would be OK, if we played with the display too. This was very fun! Way better than sitting quietly and looking. 

I don't think that is a hat Elise!

We think these dolls are very fun!

Elsie is making friends with the Empress. 

When person found out that we were playing with the display, we were in trouble. We calmly explained to her that it was really George's fault because he started it. She failed to see the sound logic of our argument and we didn't get to play anymore. Clearly, person needs some training in basic logic. We will set up a class for her. I am a good teacher so hopefully next year she will be more reasonable. I think we will charge her tuition in the form of chocolate. Chocolate is better for us than money because no one needs to take us to the store. We don't know how to drive yet. Other than getting in to trouble, we had a very good time and think Hinamatsuri is an excellent day!

Snow!

We had a very good time this week because it snowed a lot. Person was not cooperative at first and wouldn't take us out to play so we had to watch the snow falling from the window in the house. It snowed for hours and hours which is a really long time. There was also some scary sounds from the wind. Elsie thought we needed to hide but I was brave. Our little noses got cold from pressing them up against the cold window. 

Snow makes everything very pretty.

Once we got outside, the snow was very deep. It was taller than both me and Elsie, even if we stood on each other's shoulders. Person said we had to be very careful not to get lost in the snow and to stay by her. For once, I think she was giving good advice. 

We had to bundle up in our scarves but we were still cold.

Person helped us  climb into a tree so we could watch the snow falling all around the neighborhood. We wanted to go sledding down the street but person said no. We did watch lots of big people sledding. Some of them had crashes which looked more fun to us than the regular sledding but person said it was dangerous.

The tree was slippery and we had to hold on tight.

After this we decided to build things with the snow. It was a lot of work and our little paws got very cold. We want to enter our creations into a snow building contest because we think they were very good and would win lots of prizes.

First we rolled lots of snowballs

It was hard to make them but we kept at it.

Stacking the snowballs on top of each other was hard. We had to
work together to make it work. Person says teamwork is important. 

Elsie your foot is in my eye!

They are looking good!

A beautiful snow bunny and snow girl. 

Elsie wanted to play in this hole that we made in the snow. She thinks it is a rabbit hole and that she will meet some friends in it. I told her that there aren't any bunnies living in it but she went in to explore anyway. 

Oh dear, I think we'll need person's help getting Elsie out!

We had a lot of fun playing in the snow. We don't understand why we can't just order snow when we want to have it. There are people who tell you that it will be snowing soon and we thought they made it snow and we could just ask them to send some. Apparently, it doesn't work like that. Snow just comes when it wants. It doesn't listen to what cute little animals request. We plan on filing a complaint with the weather service about this. Since they are called the weather service, they should be sending whatever weather we want. That will keep us busy for today. It is an important zebra mission. 

Road Trip!

Person went on a road trip to California to visit some of her people. We got to go too so Elsie could see her bunny cousins that live there. Before the trip we helped person get ready by making banana muffins. It is important to have good snacks on a long drive. 

Elsie stop putting your nose in it. It isn't a carrot!

Once we were in the car, we spent a lot of time yelling driving directions to person and explaining why we should stop at parks and places that sell snacks. She mostly didn't listen to us. It was worth it though because sometimes she listened. When we had been driving for a long time, we came to a place on the tall mountain where there was lots of beautiful ice. Person said it was called freezing fog. We thought it looked magical. 

It was too clod to stay and play! 

Person let us stop and take a picture near Shasta Lake. The water was very low because there is a drought there according to person. We don't know what a drought is but it sounds like something that we wouldn't like, so we decided not to ask too many questions. Pearson might try to teach us a lesson if we ask. 

Such a beautiful sunny day. It was hard to stay in the car. 

On the way home it was so sunny and warm that person agreed to let us stop to play at a park. We had a lovely picnic and played for a whole two hours! 

This fountain in the park was very colorful.

We make friends wherever we go!

Elsie took a ride on this turtle. 

This bird is teaching us how to fly!

We did not want to get back in the car to go home. Elsie was so sad she cried until I gave her a bite of my chocolate. We had a good visit with bunny cousins and enjoyed our trip to California and did not want it to end. Person said it had to because of work. We don't like work but she says without work there would be no treats or carrots! Apparently work is important for people. 

These are from California Farmers Market.

Emmalina didn't get to come on the trip so we brought her back some oranges. Elsie thinks they are toys. Next time we go to California, we will ask person to take us swimming. It was very warm there and we wanted to go swimming. Person said it was only 70 and that we don't go swimming in the winter. This is silly. We want to swim all the time so that we can perfect our synchronized swimming routine for the Teddy Olympics in July! 

Coast Trip

Last fall Elsie and I went on a trip with person to the coast. While we were there, we decided that we would like to become marine biologists. Person got us a pamphlet about sea birds that was very interesting and made us want to study them. We think that if we learn everything about sea birds maybe one day we will figure out how to fly.

We are studying very hard!

Person said that we should write up a report about what we had learned in the pamphlet. This was very hard for us. 

How do you even start a report? It is difficult.

Once we had finished the report, person said she was very proud of us for trying so hard. She took a picture of us with our report but we would have preferred a cake or party. That would have been more exciting. 

Our report looks nice!

The place we stayed at had a strange device in the kitchen. We had never seen anything like it before and were scared at first. Person said it was a coffee maker but we were sure she wasn't right. It looked like it was a very good size for us so we investigated what it could be. It had lots of buttons and nobs and was just right for me or Elsie to stand on. Finally, we determined that it was some sort of teleportation device for stuffed animals. We spent the whole trip trying to get it to work but we were never able to. 

If you know of a way to make it work, please let us know. It would be very handy to be able to teleport to a friend's house whenever person is being annoying or if we need to get some treats. 

New Year!

We all had a very happy New Year. Person let us stay up late and watch a Japanese singing contest on New Year's Eve. Every year there is a big singing contest in Japan. We will put our own singing contest on for person next year. 

This show is very fun for me!

Our person took us to the Japanese garden to celebrate New Year's this year. They had lots of pretty decorations that we enjoyed and tasty Japanese sweets. 

We thought we had made friends with this lion...

But then Elsie got into some trouble.
It wasn't friendly after all.

After we went to the garden, person gave us some tops to play with. Children in Japan play with tops and fly kites on New Year's day. 

Elsie is very good at this game.

Person made some Japanese curry for dinner but we did not like it. It was too spicy and did not have any sugar in it. Elsie picked out the carrots but I wanted more candy. 

Elsie is trying to learn to use chop sticks.

Person should have given us little envelopes with money in them for New Year's morning but she said we had already had enough treats. We were not pleased with this. Children in Japan get little envelopes with money in them and we should too! Next year we will make sure person does a better job with New Year's presents. 

I am making some important additions to the card design!

2014 is the year of the horse. I think it should be the year of the zebra. I tried helping person make the New Year's cards by drawing stripes on all the horses. She did not find this helpful which is strange because everyone loves zebras and knows that horses are just zebras who have lost their stripes for some reason. Elsie is happy because there is a year of the bunny. We will have to wait many years for that which will be extremely difficult. Elsie and I think that when it does finally come, we will get whatever we want since she is a bunny. 

This decoration is called a Kadomatsu. People decorate their homes with them in Japan. Next year we want person to help us make one for our house. It should not be hard. We will give person good directions so she won't make any mistakes. 

Happy New Year everyone! 

Birthday!

Person had a birthday recently. Birthdays are always a good thing because there are presents, singing, and cake and ice cream. Even if it isn't your birthday, it is extraordinarily fun and way better than a regular day. We woke up very early to get ready for person's birthday. Elsie thought we should wake person up right away but I told her that was a bad, bad idea. We had lots of secret things to do while person was sleeping. 

We all worked hard decorating the house.

Then we all made a card for person.

After person woke up, we helped make pancakes for breakfast. It was hard to wait until they got done but person said we had to. Person was very happy about our decorating. She said we did a good job but we already knew that. We always do a good job at things like that. We are very talented.

Pancakes were very yummy!

After breakfast we gave person our card and presents. We each got her something.

Person had no idea what was in these packages. 

My present to person was a very special pair of zebra socks. I am very proud of myself for thinking of something so nice for person on her birthday.

Person can think of me when she wears these!

It is fun to play in birthday packages!
Emmalina wants some zebra socks too!

At the end of the day, for a very special birthday surprise, we did our production of Nutcracker that we had been working on. Person was very impressed and I think we made her very happy on her birthday.

Elsie forgot some of her part but I don't think person noticed.

We are hoping that since we have shown person what an excellent birthday is like, she will know what to do when our birthday comes. It is important to set a good example for your human so they will know what to do.

Happy birthday person! We love you! 

We look extra cute on this card!