Birthday and First Day of School

Our darling daughter is now 5 years old. We had a fun birthday celebration recently. It was Hello Kitty themed. Five of her friends and little brother were there for the fun. We played pin the flower on the Hello Kitty poster and bingo. Then we went outside and played with water guns and water buckets. This was followed by yummy hot dogs and fruit, cake and ice cream. Finally, Kara got to open presents!

This last week was her first week of Kindergarten. It may as well be regular school. I have to say that I was a bit choked up when I realized that she would be gone all day! The hardest thing for me has been that she is in a class of 23 kids and she doesn't have enough time to eat lunch. Her school is a lot bigger than I thought it would be (although I didn't really think about it). I like her teacher, though. She is very experienced and seems to like what she does. So far Kara really likes it. She loves people and is stimulated by the environment. On Monday, Dwight will start preschool. We'll see how that goes..

Sand Boy and Wave Girl

Since the weather has been cooperating and we are right by the ocean, we have been going to the beach for a least a few hours most days. This works out for us, because this is what we like to do on vacation anyway. Kara and Dwight are pretty much opposites when it comes to the beach. Kara really enjoys playing in the water and riding over the waves. Our beach is perfect for her. It is protected, so the waves aren't too big, but big enough to be fun for her! She doesn't care for the sand quite as much because of the sand fleas. Dwight, on the other hand, is afraid of the ocean. He won't even touch the shallowest part of the waves. But he will dig in the sand for hours. So our solution has been to build walls with little pools behind them right where the waves are coming in and build canals to bring the water in. He will get wet playing in the pools. He doesn't care so much about the sand fleas.

We had a nice "4th of July" celebration with my brother Luke's family. We had a nice meal together and did some fireworks. Luke's wife, Anna, helped the kids make decorations for a Japanese summer festival called Tanabata. They made origami and hung it on a bamboo branch. We got some nice pictures of the cousins.

A Day in Japan

Our family has been in Japan now for over a week. We are staying in a cabin by the beach. In a foreign country, even the mundane can be an adventure. A couple of days ago we took my parent's car and drove to McDonalds and then went shopping. Gary was curious about the different items in the grocery store and wanted to buy and try new things. The fish and seafood especially is abundant and resonably priced. We bought some salmon and had my dad grill it, it was delicious!

Yesterday I had a real treat for lunch. My family is friends with a woman who runs the Japanese verison of a Bed and Breakfast. She serves a very nice traditional Japanese style lunch. It is a small place that maybe seats 20 people at a time, a local word-of-mouth kind of place. She served us wonderful sashimi and fried fish. Gary said the look on my face was the same for him if we were at Old Country Buffet!

Later in the day we took kids to a park the had a big white bouncing thing and slides with rollers (kind of like you see on conveyor belts). It had a look-out tower where you could see the ocean on one side and the city and mountains on the other. The kids really enjoyed it. One of the pictures above is the view from the B & B.

Gone Fishing

This past weekend was the free fishing weekend, so we took full advantage of it yesterday (Sunday). We went fishing at a well stocked pond and caught 6 bullheads and 1 sunny fish. We bought a little Spongebob Squarepants pole for Dwight and the first time we put a worm and hook on it and he was holding it he caught his first fish almost immediately!!!!! He wanted to take it home as a pet fish, but that was not going to happen. I don't think big ugly bullheads make very good pets!!! The kids got very excited every time we or someone else caught a fish and wanted to "pet" them. I only catch fish when Gary hands the pole off to me or has to leave to go to the bathroom. Go figure. Anyway, it was a little nerve-racking for me, but everyone enjoyed being out and had fun. Gary has also gotten better at getting hooks out of fish mouths (he definitely got some practice yesterday!).

Soccer Star

We are trying a children's soccer league for the first time this spring. Kara is on a team with 5 other kids and Gary is the coach, although he doesn't know much about soccer. Kara has played 2 games so far and we try to keep it not too competetive by not keeping score, etc. There are no goalies so it's easy to make goals.

Kara is good about getting in there and being aggresive with the ball and she was able to kick several goals. Dwight is too young at this point to be on a team, but he has practiced with the team before the game. Now we just need to teach the kids how to pass!!!

Happy Easter

We had a fun and busy Easter this year. We tried to intentionally spend time almost each day last week reading about the events leading up to Jesus' crucifixion. When we told the story about Judas betraying Jesus, we used 30 dimes to illustrate it to the kids. Later on, Dwight took some of the coins and declared that he was being Judas! He later changed it to Zaccehus, much to our relief.

We also did a Seder meal and watched the Jesus film which the kids seemed to enjoy. They took turns pretending to crucify each other!! We also dyed eggs and the kids and I also made a big Easter basket to put on the wall to decorate. On Monday we went to Maquekta and Davenport so we had some fun family time.

New pictures and the coming of Spring!

After months of snow cover, it is nice to finally see some green! The kids and I met a friend at the park this morning and though it was a little chilly, it was nice to get to play outside. I have to say that taking the kids to the park has gotten eaiser now that they are a little older- I don't worry about them falling off the equipment quite as much and Dwight is not really afraid of the slide anymore. We played a little soccer too. Kara dominated, being the oldest and biggest kid. She is signed up to do soccer in a few weeks and it will be interesting to see if she likes it.

The picture is Kara all dressed up for the Daddy Daughter Dance that she and Gary attended at YMCA for Valentine's day. This friday we will be doing the Easter egg hunt as the Y as well. We have really been enjoying our membership there.

Last Sunday we celebrated Grandpa's birthday at Happy Joe's with pizza and games. The kids enjoyed helping Grandpa's blow out his candle and eat his birthday dessert. Kara is already talking about what she wants for her birthday, even though it is not until August! I want her to just enjoy being 4 for just a little bit longer........