Kelly's first dat at Preschool

Earlier this year we decided to add Kelly to the preschool crew in June so that all 3 sisters were together for a few months before I pull Molly out for Kindergarten.  Today was the first day of school for her and it was full of emotions.  When I tried to get her to pack her blanket in her backpack and it caused a 1 hour meltdown.  The past month she wore the backpack all the time and seemed excited but something about messing with her beloved blanket caused a major problem.  Her sisters were a constant source of encouragement wanting her to succeed.  They "helped" taking her picture and getting her in the car.  Once we pulled up to the preschool she was ready to go.  She threw her backpack on, walked up the stairs and waited while Molly helped her take off her shoes.  She walked in the class without a backwards glance at me and only stood still when her sisters held her down for a picture:)  To celebrate we got ice cream after school and now she is crashed. 

What did I do during my time? I worked out, showered, talked to my parents, went shopping, had a quiet time and looked at my pictures from the morning.  It is amazing all you can do in 3 hours.  In future mornings I plan to scuba dive with friends, have coffee dates and find areas of the island that I have seen in pictures.

 

 

2 hours into a nap.  I laid with her a little so we could cuddle and talk - she loved her day!

I got ice cream!

The note in her teacher

You are going to love it!

Wait for me

We are off

Best picture of the morning

This is what I think of preschool and you taking my blanket

I will not take a picture

Ok mom - she is not wanting her picture but you got us at least

Family Fun

Jon found a fun Pizza restaurant for us to try this weekend.  When you walked in the door I felt like walking into a pizza joint in America except for the corn pizza that is advertised.  It was an all you could eat pizza buffet with some different choices like corn pizza, tuna and something else pizza, taco rice and of course salad with cabbage as the main greens.  Overall it was actually good and the girls enjoyed it so we will probably go again.  Afterwards we toured around and saw a salt factory, got a few geocaches and finished at the facility with salt ice cream.  I thought I ordered one salt ice cream and one with some yuka salt topping.  However I got 2 with the extra salt and well no one really appreciated the extra salt.  To end the day we stopped and got our picture with the sweet potato statue hear our house.

 

Purple Potato

Salt ice cream

I don't like that

She got the one without extra salt

geocaching

Exploring and looking at crabs

Riley fell walking up the stairs but I couldn't resist the picture

Family Fun

Take our picture with the pig mom!

They also got to work on the car with Jon

Memorial Day Weekend

This year for Memorial Day Weekend we decided to get away as a family.  I had heard of a rumored treehouse camping area.  All my normal sources didn't have much on the place but there was enough that I could find through google translate to know it existed.  When I called Kunigami Forest Park to try and reserve a spot it was well interesting.  My few words of Japanese made it very hard to communicate since I do most of my taking by pointing to pictures.  After a few minutes of saying treehouse over and over and over I finally said camping and got a HAI (yes) so I went with it.  Not knowing if we would be camping in our tent or a treehouse we packed all our gear.  We loaded our car down with about 1/4 of our house between food, cots, pool stuff, lifevests, stuffed animals and enough stuff to entertain 3 small kids in case of rain and headed out.  We drove and found the park on the first try!!!  A big success for us here and when I got to the front desk my normal point to the picture method of speaking Japanese worked! I pointed to the treehouse asking if they had any available and they did - well of course the entire campground was empty except for us.  Rainy season is a little unpredictable around here.  It was pouring when we left home but the entire weekend was beautiful.  We loved the treehouse, it was perfect for our family.  It was very bare minimum just a fan, light and bamboo things to sleep on but still we loved it.  It was so nice to be in the woods - we hiked around a few miles and found a park, lake and geocache.  The girls loved it but had a hard time sleeping since they were so excited about the treehouse.  The next day we loaded up and headed to the north to Cape Hedo.  It was a nice view but I am glad we did this on a trip when we were already in the north because it wouldn't have been worth driving the 5 hours total just for it.  Afterwards we went to find another geocache and ended up finding a rock garden and hiking area that was so fun!!  In the afternoon we headed to Okuma - the military resort - and played at the beach.  While there we were so glad we found our little gem hidden in the woods because there were so many tents lined up and way to many people for us.  To end the night we cooked kabobs and after 2 exciting nights the girls crashed!  On our way home from the weekend we stopped at a playground we spotted on the way up and had some more family fun.  Once we made it home and everyone got a nap we then loaded them up again for a waterpark adventure.  To end the weekend we played in the backyard and had friends over for a bbq. 

It was a nice time of family bonding and so refreshing just to hang out!

 

Why not put chalk on your face?

Ready for the Japanese waterpark

They all rode the slide together

I love parks and can't stop for a picture mom!

OKUMA - beach time

We aren't tired!

Celebrated 11 years of marriage on an epic adventure with our family

This is the best smile she could give me

And this was her smile

Fun park!  Even girly girls will climb and get muddy

Tree Therapy

Who needs working toys?

Our Treehouse

Family Fun

Climbing trees

Resting after hiking to the top

Cape Hedo - with our normal Japanese pose

Sleeping in the treehouse

Smores 2 nights in a row!
Best parents EVER!!

Why I haven't posted

Ok so the past few weeks have been busy then my phone decided to get frozen.  It took a trip to the apple store where it was posted that they no longer service iPhones - WHAT???  The lady was kind enough to fix my phone.  This was after she told me I would need to call the new location and I just kept showing her my broken phone pantomiming I can't call anyone with this broken thing!!!!

What has happened in the past 2 months? 
Well my friends from high school visited and we had a blast touring the island together.  We even got to do a plane tour of the island and saw the entire thing in 2 hours.  I signed us up to take a sushi making class - we went with some friends and it was a blast.  Jennie and Jessica were smart and spent a few days in mainland Japan before coming to get over jet lag and see some more of Asia.  Then when they landed they got to tour with my 3 girls:)  It was a little different than when they visited in Alaska but it was so fun - I love have friends visiting!!!

We have had play dates, made Jon a birthday cake, celebrated Molly's performance at AWANA, been in charge of our units eggstravaganza, gone to a Sunrise service at the beach and watch a friend get baptized, had more play dates, played at the beach and well played some more.

Tonight we will celebrate Kelly's b-day! 

To my one adoring fan who has been begging for an update - there you go mom:)

Riley is 3

Since she was born we have prayed for Riley to be an Oak of Righteousness!

This weekend she turned 3 and we loved getting to celebrate with her.  She is still in love with the color yellow and now loves telling people she is 3.  Riley requested to go to Chuck E Cheese so we took her to the closest thing we could get Xystus kidsland.  After we took her for a fondue lunch - forgot she doesn't like fire so that part was a little fun - which was mostly awesome!  She is not a fan of being the center of attention but she does love getting a little extra special love.

 

Riley did her own hair - ahh the joys of little girls.

Celebrating Ash Wednesday as a family

She got a yellow package of happiness from our good friends!

Not taking her yellow off

Playing

Sisters stick together

Happy Birthday to me

This is so fun!

No fondue just the bread

Eating on the special day plate!!!

They even gave the girls balloons

Yellow balloon fight at home

One last dish to end the night

Had a slumber party with her big sis on the air mattress

Walked up to the nursery and told the ladies - I not in the nursery anymore.
She is in Kingdom Kids and I was her teacher today!