More Birthdays.

Sometime next month, it'll be the birthday of my lady friend. I'm not so crass as to tell you what age she'll be but it's not too far from mine. Here's where I go to the masses to offer me advice. I rarely have a significant other over Christmas, Valentine's or their birthday so I'm uncertain what to get her or where to take her. Any suggestions?
(The above may be moot, she is angry at me because I've forgotten the specific date of her birthday. I narrowed it down to June and she told me when we first met. Can I get some slack here, folks?)

Meanwhile, here are some more birthday logos presented by today's Grade Sixers.

January inevitably includes New Year's decorations and often the envelope of money that they get from their parents/grandparents. Some of these kids rake in 200-500 bucks!

No matter what day in February their birthday is, they inevitably draw a picture of beans and an Oni for Setsubun (Feb. 3rd). One gal thought outside of the box and made hers about Valentine's Day.

I had NO kids born in March yet I almost always get some drawings of the dolls from the Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival). The lad above is lamenting the beginning of School via tears but managed some time to revel in the cherry blossoms. The other kid is obviously a One Piece fan.

Almost all May drawings are similar to the above no matter when in May their birthday is. It's Children's Day and they are flying their 鯉幟 (Koinobori or Carp Streamers).

June begats the Rainy Season and with that comes snails in the garden.

July inevitably has the Tanabata fest but these two lads also depict the capture of the cicada.

This is probably my favourite and not just because it features a ghost (from Obon). Also we get some strawberry-flavoured kakigori and some fireworks to glory at. Sunflowers are also in full bloom in August so these two gals win the originality awards for leaping outside of the textbook for their inspirations!

September has Respect for the Aged Day but also the Harvest Moon. The Rabbit Making Mochi is the Japanese pareidolic image equivalent to the Man in the Moon.

Somehow I missed any October or November images. I know I had a couple of Halloween pumpkins and some Shichi-Go-San shrine visitations. December took a cue from my crudely drawn picture of a Christmas tree and the kids usually made an Xmas themed-logo.

I regret that my afternoon class is always really sleepy and so I didn't get any good images at all. I did particularly like this one though:

Happy Birthday throughout the year !