Tokyo Disney

We had an amazing time as a family at Tokyo Disney!  It was a joy to see the girls faces when they saw the princesses or got to go on rides or play at the playgrounds or Molly as she was able to shop.  We landed Tuesday and after making it to our hotel we rode the monorail around the property to scope things out.  There is a place with tons of shops and restaurants much like downtown Disney at the Disney World Resort.  We dined at Rain Forest Café where Riley was concerned about the elephant drinking her water, Kelly didn't like the animals and Molly was mad that we hadn't let her shop yet.  While wondering around we found a Krispy Kreme - so for our last day we had donuts for breakfast!  The first night Jon contemplated buying tickets to go in one night early but the cheapskate in the family prevailed and we held out 12 more hours.

On Wednesday we got an early start!  I don't know who was more excited Jon and I or the girls.  We were up and ready to go to breakfast at 6:45am.  After breakfast we got on the monorail and headed to Disneyland.  After getting to the ticket line at 7:45 we found out the park didn't open until 9am not 8am like we thought.  It is only open 8am on Sat and Sun.  We joined about 20,000 of our closest friends and sat in line waiting to rush into the park.  In Okinawa we are used to our friends being very orderly and patient - throw some Disney at them and all hell breaks loose.  There were people cutting in line, cutting us off, sprinting to get their fast passes.  We made it through and got to ride Buzz Lightyear which reminded us of our honeymoon but with 3 kids.  However unlike on our honeymoon where I won - Jon managed to win both times we rode on this trip.  We then dragged the kids on some more rides while Molly kept asking when she was going to get to shop.  After going on 5 rides we took a shopping break and allowed Molly to have her moment of pure bliss.  She bought a key chain and notepad and convinced her sister Riley to buy a key chain also.  After that moment of happiness we took the girls on some more rides and then found a playground.  There could have been a few international incidents as Kelly pushed people and then her sisters can to finish off the attack but Jon and I were able to bring peace to all mankind with a smile and sorry.  We took about 20 snack breaks and each day enjoyed one meal at Disney.  I always wondered why my mom packed so much food and wouldn't let us buy things at parks and boy and I glad I followed her example - even though I think everyone was tired of peanut butter sandwiches.  After many rides and snacks Molly persuaded us to let her shop some more.  This time she would not walk away without this towel thing and got her sister to spend their money on it too.  It was a good thing the girls had their own money that was budgeted and saved by them otherwise I would not have let them buy those things. We pushed the girls hard and long and by the end of the first day they were all falling asleep on their feet.  My pedometer said we walked 5 miles that day.

Thursday was our day for Disney Sea.  We heard this park was not as big and we knew the open time so we let the girls sleep in and not rush things.  Umm yeah - the not big enough was a LIE!  Disney Sea is spread out more so we walked over 7.5 miles that day.  We rode the Toy Story Mania ride and Jon got a fast pass for later that night.  Again I was unable to beat Jon but we did enjoy ourselves.  We walked around and Molly made friends with lots of the characters - any that would give her just a minute of their time.  King Triton's Lagoon was AWESOME!!  Again there was a playground area for the girls just to run around and have fun and a few rides all in an air conditioned building.  Molly loved the Flounder's Roller Coaster and got to ride it a bunch as she would rotate between Jon and I while the little 2 played in the splash pad area.  Around 5pm the girls starting asking to go to hotel but we held them out until after 8:30 so we could see the laser show and ride a few more rides.  Fast Pass is the only way to do some rides with little kids.  Jon and I would take turns on some of the rides and the wait time was only 30 minutes total instead of 1.5 hours.  

 

The pictures are in no particular order - just the only way I could get them off my phone and on the computer.

 

Light show night one

Please let us nap

Roller Coasters!

Seriously falling asleep on their feet

Here are the shops I want to go to

How to save $200 on food - PB sandwiches and gorp

Look what I convinced everyone to buy

Is this really worth it?  YES IT IS

Working on their peace sign

Follow me

Ok you can have a picture with me:)

Jellyfish ride

Splash Pad

Disney is awesome - I love the play area.  Please no more roller coasters.
Oh yeah and I CALL STROLLER!!!!!!

Ariel showed us how to pose

Toy Story Mania !

Cheese!!

Night 2 only 2 more hours of Disney left

Molly admiring others in her towel thing

Why yes I would like a picture with you

A popsicle while daddy rode Space Mountain

Again leave me at the playgrounds please!!
Oh yeah and I CALL STROLLER!!!

Pooh's honeypot Ride

Look mom the princess!!

Ok dad I think we should get to Disney and have fun!

The lobby of our hotel!  Fun everywhere

Giving the girls their 100 yen goodies.
So glad I raided that store - saved us $40 at least

Jon and Kelly in the space ship

Molly driving her car

Scoping things out for the adventures.

Took Molly on a date Day 1 while her sisters napped

Teacups!!

I love waiting in lines

Aren't these are the coolest things ever?
Yeah!!

I love this hotel a fun thing to jump on right outside the elevator

Last day - waiting to get on the bus.
Riley is in her favorite place - THE STROLLER

The girls and I enjoying our last few minutes

Jon taking the girls on one last shopping trip

Molly sayings: I want to shop, Can I shop, When can I shop, Is this in my budget, I want to ride the roller coaster again.

Riley sayings:  I want the stroller, I call stroller, whine whine whine, I don't want to walk, I don't want to ride the ride, can I just play here please.

Kelly sayings:  Mouse, Mouse, Milk, Sisters, Shoe, NO, Minnie (her towel thing)

Camp Mc B - RAIN IN THE FORECAST FOR 4 Days

Ok so I was ready for 1 or 2 rainy days but the next 4 day are supposed to be rainy so I thought we would start it off with a bang.  My girls went to preschool for 3 hours so the others could get a little more one on one attention and I could help do a elementary science project with the boy.  After dropping the McP' s off I took the B's to the Japanese "Home Depot" and got copper wire to help the boy do a science project.  This was a fun thing to get but lucky for me my phone translates and the workers were patient with me and my buddies.  Once we got the wire we needed a lemon so we headed to the San A but they had not received the fruit delivery for the day and only had a few oranges and NO LEMONS!  So on to the last store the commissary where we went in for a quick lemon grab and came home with stuff to make cookies also.  Once we finally got out of the rain with all our stuff I let the girls play with playdough while the boy did his science experiment.  Put a copper wire and steel wire in a lemon then touch it to your tongue to feel the current http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/projects/lemon.html.  He thought it was awesome and did it over and over and over all while laughing. 

After playing around the house we picked up my girls and headed to an indoor play place attached to a food court here.  The kids played there for an hour and then I took the boy to the youth center.  I am sure he was excited to hang out with boy and kids his own age. 

While he was out hanging out at the teen center I pulled out the easel and the girls got to finger paint then color and then there was some more play dough.  It is so funny to hear the volume changes when 1 -3 kids are removed.

 

Play dough

We are playing school and Molly is the teacher

When can we go outside?  Oh wait its still raining

6 kids in the play place = lots of options of who to play with

This is awesome - "it tingles but not as bad as an apple"

More Camp McB

So in the past 2 days we have continued to keep our days full and our nights ASLEEP!  Jon and I decided we if push them to the point of exhaustion each day they will not be able to giggle all night long since they will be too busy sleeping.  This plan seems to be working well.

Sunday was birthday party central - our girls were invited to a My Little Pony party and the mom graciously let me bring our friends while our buddy had his own Mindcraft party.  Even with all the sugar from birthday cakes and candy the kids still were begging to go to bed.  Today was our outside day!  We started out with a 4 hour pool visit with lots of friends followed by a grocery trip.  After this we had "quiet time" and there might have been a moment where the mean me had to make an appearance but after that 3 of the 6 actually slept and 6 of 6 were quiet for 30 min.  Once I had recovered from non stop talk since 6:30 am I let the boy play Lego while the girls were handed chalk and asked to create me anything beautiful.  They each would draw it and tell me all the awesome qualities while sitting in chalk and getting it all over their face.  To end the night we had our weekly dinner with friends and it was so nice to have adult conversation!!  We had fajitas and root beer floats followed by an extra hour at the park to run off the root beer.

 

 

The beautiful creations

6 kids at the pool - only able to do this since I had 4 adult friends come also

Probably  the only moment they were all together

My Little Pony Party

Waiting for Cake!!

What it looks like to transport a family of 8

Lunch after church at the USO - Chili's too!!

Heading out the door for church - gave ourselves 30 minutes and it took them all.
Also that morning we had 1 request for Elsa braid, 2 Elsa Buns, 1 Anna braid and pig tails.
Hair only took 30 minutes - at least the boy can comb his own!

Camp McB - Day 1

Day 1 of Camp was AWESOME - or as I heard over and over EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!!!

Things I am getting used to - Boy humor, a few tears, a little whining, play dough in the carpet and a whole lot of fun. 

This morning those that were awake got to join me for my Saturday morning workout at the track with friends.  They climbed the bleachers, ate snacks, and begged to go home (it was 100% humidity and around 90 degrees)  After that we all played around the house to stay out of the heat.  Tonight Jon got to be apart of a deployed spouse event at the beach so the kids and I headed out with him and hour before he had to make his appearance.  Once we got to the beach all the kids got on their floaties and were off.  They loved playing in the ocean and followed it up with the splash pad.  While at the splash pad I found a table in the shade and we had our picnic dinner there.  At this point one child was down for the count and by the time we got home and showered others were begging to go to bed.  They had to stay up 20 minutes more and have story time - I am hoping with all that they will sleep in beyond 6 am tomorrow!!

 

Story time - Jon is asking why people are whining.

Its 7pm can we go to bed?

Why aren't you playing with me?

I'm not tired

All the boys are trying to defeat the water - They would yell VICTORY when it would stop

So much fun

Hey guys watch me

Can you spot all 6 kids?? I can

Bounce house time before some mandatory quiet time

The guys changed oil as a learning time

Preschool graduation

Today we celebrated our oldest as she graduated preschool.  Her school is small and there were only 8 in her graduating class and it was very nice.  The school started with them singing their welcome song and then the kids sang us a few songs they practice in music time.  One song they sang in 5 languages - Chinese, French, Spanish, Japanese and English.  I was expecting things in 2 but the 5 surprised me.  As the students were called up one of the teachers got up and read a little something they wrote especially for them.  During this time you could see how much the teachers loved the kids the really took the time to say something specific for each kid and multiple times they had to stop for tears.  One teacher who doesn't speak much English had to have another read his because he couldn't stop crying.  I think it was hard as some of the students were not just graduating but also PCSing - one left the ceremony early to catch his flight to leave.  Seeing how they really spoke individually to each student made me so happy and glad the little 2 still have the rest of their preschool days to finish out here.  Here are some fun pics of the day.

 

Celebrated a Chili's -her go to restaurant of choice

Celebrating with sisters.

The teachers and pre K class

Yohan Sensei

Keiko Sensei

She passed

Kelly taking a few pictures with her calculator

Singing- I think the tallest and shortest got put next to each other

She chose her outfit and requested "elsa" hair

Notes from a few teachers:
Molly-
Wer're going to miss you so much.  I remember the first day you came to AI school.  you were nervous cried a lot with Riley.  But now, you made a lot of friends!! I love yours smiling Face and I'm going to miss it.  Please make lots of friends at new school too! Visit us anytime! Keiko  Sensei
Molly -
We'll miss you so much! You are very smart, active and loving young girl.  And you are very nice and take good care of your little sisters. Keep up the good work and have fun at your new school.  Learn a lot and play a lot. Rio Sensei
 

Dating at our house

Jon and I make an effort to try and go on dates monthly and then try and take the girls out one on one on occasion and call it special dates.  There are certain things we don't allow the girls to say and until recently their insult of choice was - your not my best friend.  Well after many talks and explanations that they will be friends and we will not say that to each other they moved on.  Now I hear I'm not going to take you on a date!!  Not that they had dates planned with each other but somehow the statement hits home and one will start crying please take me on a date.  They will then sit next to each other and act happy until one make the other mad and we start the cycle of I'm not taking you on a date again.  Also when we are out and about they start saying don't you love our date. 

 

Riley and Kelly decided they we on a date on our geocache

"Kelly you are on a date with me"

some were more excited than others
Molly was getting a little time with daddy as he drove to the next spot to pick us up

Found our 200th geocache

Dates in the backyard

I don't like rainy season - the clouds opened up right as everyone was enjoying themselves

Change of command

Molly's special time with me - tending our "garden"

B-day fun at friends

See those helium balloons - we have had a shortage of helium for a year so no balloons.
Jon and I had a blast sharing funny voices!

Is there something on my face?

Praying as a family for national day of prayer

I am totally listening to daddy and doing what he wants

Ready to make prayer boxes

Date night with Jon
At least he doesn't yell he doesn't want to take me on a date