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On Sunday, January 18th, Audra turned three years old.

 The Balloon Fairy had a really, really hard time finding balloons in Tokyo.  When Audra saw the balloons, she knew her birthday had FINALLY arrived!  She ran through them several times shouting, "YAY! YAY! My birthday!"

Audra said that she wanted pizza for her birthday dinner, and everyone was really excited to eat non-Japanese food.  We love Japanese food, but we are all missing pizza!  I searched in several stores to find tomato sauce and ended up finding a small jar of Ragu pizza sauce for about 400 yen.  The olives were hard to find as well.  The pizza was good, but didn't taste the same as it does in America--and it wasn't just the Ragu.  I also made the same quantity of what I always make in the states, but it didn't fill everyone up.  The flour is really different here, somehow.  

 Then it was time for presents.  Audra was excited to get to play "Heavy, Heavy Hangover".

 Oh, the suspense!  What could it be?

 Why, it's the Hello Kitty compact that she had picked out at the Sanrio store a few days prior!

 And the little comb is still there, too!

 A few other Hello Kitty things....

 ...and then, the big present. 

 It's her Hello Kitty that she got at the Sanrio store!  When we had returned home from our Girls' Day Out, she asked me for her Hello Kitty, but I told her that she had to wait until her birthday.  She did not like that, and had continued to beg for it all weekend.  Now, she finally had it back....

 ...only to put it down and get her compact out instead!

She solicited Caitlin to hold her mirror for her so she could comb her hair.  Ever the princess, this daughter of ours.

 We have very few dishes here, I didn't bring any of my kitchen from America and we are only using a few cast off dishes that our realtor was given from previous clients.  I have a few stove top pans, but no cake pans or cupcake tins.  Our oven is very small and has three built-in cookie sheets that we use to cook with.  I decided to use them to make a carrot cake roll for Audra's birthday cake.   That seemed to be the only option that I could come up with for a birthday cake.  I used some of my precious powdered sugar as well. 

 Finding candles in this place proved to be kind of hard as well.

 Audra joined us as we sang "Happy Birthday" to her.

 Audra wouldn't just eat her cake, she had to un-roll it and eat it that way.  She liked it, though, and felt pretty special and loved. 

After we cleaned up, the older girls went to a fireside, while the rest of the family snuggled up and watched cartoons on youtube.  Since we only brought sleeping bags for us to sleep in, they are what we snuggle up in.  Kirstin wasn't really into cartoons, apparently, because she zonked off quickly.

Happy birthday, sweet Audra Mae!  We love our princess!!