Birthday Celebration - A National Holiday!

Kelly's birthday happens to fall on the final day of Golden Week here in Japan and that means there were plenty of places for us to party with a whole lot of people.  The entire country shuts down for the week to celebrate children - how nice.  We have seen families at parks, beaches and today a coliseum filled with families.  I ventured to Adventure World which promised to have penguins, robotic Hello Kitty, pools, snow, bounce houses, and so much more.  It lived up to the hype but I must say not being able to communicate or read the signs is a little nerve wracking when bringing your precious cargo.  It didn't take Molly or I long to realize how they wait in line - you take your shoes off and sit in line in font of the bounce house you want to go in.  Riley however was a different matter - she would sprint to the nearest bounce house and the security would have to hold her back until I caught up and got her (oh boy)!  We watched some of the entertainment - a clown that Molly really wanted to get a balloon from but it just didn't happen, dragon dancers and hip hop dancers.  We looked at the snow but I couldn't bring myself to pay $10 bucks for my kids to ride the sled on 1 inch of snow.  One thing I have noticed is that in this culture it is the norm to pack your lunch and picnic anywhere and everywhere so we picnicked at the pools and everyone loved lunch.  We came home for the birthday girl to get a nap since we planned on going to the hospital to meet Nicolette the newest member of the 1-1 UMT who was born this morning.  And we finished the night off with cupcakes as a family!  A great way to celebrate our little girl who loves life.

 

Bubbles

Birthday Girl

Makman - getting the final washer for the bunk beds

Playing in the pools
The white enclosed area is the snow place

One of the many bounce houses

Finally figured out the waiting in line thing

Looks yummy

Yep - that was yummy
Can I have a birthday tomorrow?

The good and bad of Golden Week

Good: Tons of things to do

Bad: Parking, tons of people, the one iphone shop on the island is shut down until the end of Golden week and my phone is messed up!

 

The phone store gave me a loaner phone which is great since I have to wait until after May 7 to get my phone worked on because stores shut down for Golden Week.  What we thought would be a problem wasn't as bad as it could have been but I now have a Japanese email account so that I can get the pictures off my loaner phone otherwise we have no way to document our fun!

 

Today's adventure included dolphin park, a stroll on the beach, the Ferris Wheel in America Village and carrying 4 2x4 about a mile with 3 kids (one in the ergo, one walking and one is the stroller with 2x4 sticking out the back). 

The Ferris Wheel was really nice and relaxing and the girls all loved it.  They even had a giant Hello Kitty to greet us at the end.

Makman was across the street so we ran in to get the final pieces for the bed and then had to walk them to the car which was close to a mile away parked at the naval post near by.  We looked like quiet the sight but I managed to not get a picture of that.

 

Hello Kitty to say Goodbye.  Don't worry Riley does have a second shoe!

Enjoying the view

Can't be troubled for a picture -too much to see

Farmer's Market, Egg/miniZoo and awesome parks!

 

Today was our day to run a few errands and then have some fun.  We ran to the farmers market to get our fruits and veggies since they are cheaper and better than what we can find on post.  Then for some fun we went and bought our eggs and the mini zoo and got some ice cream.   After that we ran home to drop off the goods and get some lunch.  One thing I miss about speaking the native language is the ability to go through drive through.  Instead of getting something fun to eat we just ate peanut butter sandwiches at home then got back in the car for round 2 of the day.  Nap schmap I just told them to rest in the car while we went to the park.  Wow the parks here are AWESOME!!  No safety things just good old fun - rocks to climb on to go down slides and roller slides.  The girls had so much fun and loved playing there.  We have a few incidents where Riley tried to climb in front of the super fast slide and Molly took a kid out at the bottom when he decided to climb up when she was going down but other than that it was all fun!  Both the little 2 crashed and are now sleeping probably until dinner but Molly is with her friend Caroline playing.

 

The super fast slide - don't be caught off guard at the bottom

Roller sliding with my buddies

sweet potato ice cream - tasted too nutty for Molly

Inside of the cream puff - YUMMY - Kelly didn't share as much as I thought she would

Chocolate

The rock wall to climb up to the slide.
You can also use that to climb to the roller slide or use the stairs.

Love that the girls had fun with others and they were all laughing

Cheesy hat I bought Jon yesterday.
Foreigners have a Y on their license plate - hence the Yankee plate club

Kolache Craving

I love Shipley kolaches and have been missing them for the many years we have not been in Waco.  While making calzones the other day I had an idea - use Rhodes rolls, a long breakfast sausage and cheese and try to recreate the yummy goodness.  So for snack today I did just that because I was afraid to do it for breakfast in case it didn't turn out.  It worked and tastes almost the same!! We now have a new meal added to our menu on breakfast nights and I can't wait to show Jon. 

Best part is that it made 10 and I was watching a few neighbor kids so a mom could go to the dentist and they loved them too so there are only 4 left over for Jon to try as his appetizer tonight.

 

Playing at the park
Only sane thing to do with 5 kids!

Brave until she got to the top!

1 roll defrosted, 1 sausage and 1/3 of a slice of cheese
Bake 400 9-11 minutes

2 without cheese for the neighbor kids

Indoor play place

Today we took part of our first FRG function by helping with the bake sale.  After an hour and half of selling baked goods and the girls eating a few of their own we had to leave b/c the girls could not sit still any longer.  We ran to Makman and got some more lumber so Jon could work on the beds tonight and then as a treat went to the indoor playplace next door.  Let me just say it was AWESOME!!  The girls played non stop for 2 hours.  Molly made a few friends and she would go off for long periods of time then run back smiling and talking of all that they did.  Kelly loved the ball pits and wanted to eat them all.  Riley couldn't figure out if she wanted to be with Molly running off my herself or close to me and Kelly so she would go back and forth.  Needless to say with the nonstop going some people didn't get their nap and when that happens this family is prone to accidents and Riley now has a huge knot on her head from the bed frame.

2 monkeys climbing the walls

loving getting some 1 on 1 time

slide races

Ball pit!! Riley getting ready to launch herself in

At the bake sale they were selling old gear so I bought my first unit doll

Knot on the opposite side of the head as Molly!

Building a bunk bed in Okinawa and THE CUBE

I asked Jon to build us a triple bunk for the girls once we got to Okinawa forgetting we wouldn't have the truck anymore.  We thought it would be best to get it built before our things got here - only one problem with that our tools are in our household goods!  So Saturday we loaded up the car and headed to our local Makman (home depot) and spent 2 hours figuring out what we needed to buy.  Remember our plans are from America so the figures are in feet but we are in a metric world so I pulled out my phone a ton and did conversions (thank you smart phone).  I did conversions for the length of the wood and the size of the nail and then used my smart phone to ask where wood glue was.  I don't know how people survived before - but I know they did.  The store will cut the wood for you if you buy it there so we didn't have to worry about a saw but we did purchase our first ever Japanese drill set and don't worry we can't read the directions because it is totally in Japanese but the pictures helped explain things for us.  Jon has been working away at the bed and hopefully in the next few days it will be finished!

Missing the truck right about now

Hoping for a smooth ride home

Jon and his helpers

1 down 2 to go

1 frame finished now to make it a bunk bed!

Jon's CUBE.  Proud owner of a first generation 99 cube.

Good times and bad driving!

Here we are again with me trying to communicate in a positive light things that in the time made my heart race a lot.  I love adventure and new things but seriously this no street signs thing is killing me!!  I hear from all these ladies how grateful they are that people give directions by buildings and other random sites but give me a street address and my gps any day.  So with the no street names comes buildings with that's right no real address for my gps to plug into so I am required to go by turn at the Toyota dealer then look for the yellow house and take a right.  In the heat of the moment I am usually trying to make sure I stay in my lane since I like to veer to the left (a lot - hit a tree and curb so far) and use the blinker and not the windshield wiper since they are reversed from American cars.  But this week I have ventured out the last three days to find parks and potential preschools.  My navigator during the week is my friend Molly who is so very helpful in her nonstop talking and good old Riley who when I ask a rhetorical question (or any question) raises her hand and yells me all while I drive lost on the island.  Today I heard this from the back seat - I text daddy and find out where to go, hey mom dad says take a right then right and we will be there got it - thanks for that one we were only 9 km away from home and steadily driving the wrong direction at this point.  Did I mention the roads are so extremely small that they barely fit the 2 cars much less the crazy foreigner who needs to turn around so I usually drive a few extra kilometers to find a safe turn around.  Good thing they designate us foreigners with a Y on our license plate - Okinawans get a Japanese character so we can all know what we are dealing with on the roads:)

But for the good part we found a great park, found a preschool I hope Molly and Riley can get into and found a preschool I never want to drive to again if I don't have to.

Best part the island is only 2 -17 km wide and 67 km long so really I could just drive a big circle so at least I won't be lost for too long.  Oh yeah and the fact that I can plug in the Air Force Base and it will at least get me there if not to most local places!

 

Sisters

They sure do love each other

This is what I get when I say smile for the camera.
Riley is explaining to Kelly what is required.

Calzones thanks to pioneer woman

Movie night in the fort.