Happy Mother's Day!

I woke up late this morning - 7 AM! And it's a good thing I did. I had forgotten that Stefan asked me to "sleep in". Turns out, I was happy to oblige!

I had just pulled the pillow off my face when this little, twinkling elf face appeared holding a tray of breakfast for me! I think Stefan was more excited than me!

It was complete with eggs the way Stefan likes them - plain with cheese and ketchup! Not full of spinach and such... ;). I had OJ, tea (we are out of decaf) and a COOKIE for dessert!

Dougie ran off, squealing with excitement to get cards. They had made these lovely cards with coupons. Stefan's are for freebies (even washing the car!). Dougie charges... And only accepts ¥5 coins... Shylock!

Dougie was shaking with excitement over the party - hilarious! He was super excited to point out his heart leaf he put on the card. I loved it!

Stefan, ever the sophisticated, had pressed a marguerite and another wildflower on his - it is beautiful! (He gave the idea credit to Ms. Robbins!)

Ian grumbled from his room - just waking and not wanting to be excluded. He brought in the gift he made in school - a kangaroo bag recycler.

Complete with a picture of...

DADDY!!!!!

Daddy with a toupee and a carrot nose ;)...

Best gifts a mom could ever have - three impish faces looking on me with excitement and love.  And thank you to the Daddy that helped make it happen!

Kidzania!

Gina & I decided to let the kids play hookie and took them to Kidzania on Wednesday!  We invited Matthew to come with us to keep Stefan "company" and we just called it his birthday party!

Kidzania is this AMAZING place where the kids get to "work".  It is filled with various vocations, facilities, retail shops, entertainment, restaurants, factories, research facilities, etc.  It is all miniaturized, but the equipment is all fully functional and state of the art!  The sponsorship in this place is top notch!  Each place has their own uniform the kids don and they are taught how to do their chosen craft.

The kids can either earn or spend their Kidzos (Kidzania currency).  They open bank accounts and get ATM/debit cards.  They have to keep track of their balances in order to insure they have enough funds to support any spending they might like to do (soccer, ice-cream sunday, fill paint tubes, build multi-colored pens, etc.).  The key is to get them to work at Pizza-La, MosBurger, the ABC Cooking Studio, Morinaga or the like.  They get to eat their creation AND they get paid to do it!

Stefan has dreamed of working at the Coca-Cola bottling plant so he could have a Coke.  Happy Birthday!  Have a Coke & a Smile!!!  This was done after making a MosBurger and then followed up with a Birthday Cheesecake they got to decorate (and eat!).  And they got paid to do all this...

The glasses shop is very popular since you get to make your own sunglasses (even grind the lenses!) and take them home.

There was a considerable wait, so Gavin & Ian went to the Soccer Pavilion (only later did I see the recommended age was SIX!!!  Whoops!  They would have been declined if it was not OK - and there was no one else participating...).  They did some warm ups, kicks, got a little in-service on form AND got to be a soccer-star in a crowded stadium!  We were given sheets that show their stop-time kicking forms before and after their clinic.  And a video!

While they played soccer, Lindsey & Dougie set out to create paint sets.  And then again...  Dougie wants to collect all the metallic colors...  He has succeeded - more than once!

Ian & Gavin made Uniball pens - you get to pick out the three colors to put in your pen and assemble it.  Ian picked out orange, a slightly different shade of orange and... you guessed it...  GREEN! (ha - got you).  It is very "Catholic/Protestant" of him...

They all played a round of soccer while they waited (Gina & I went to eat lunch and missed their end-time.  They took the initiative to just go do another round of soccer!)

Stefan & Matthew were basically on their own all day.  I would scan the area and find them every now and again - usually at the ATM!  Putting them in tie-die shirts makes finding Waldo so much easier!  Regardless, I got very few pictures of them.  Here they started their shift on the Security/Rescue Team. They got to grind a key (that they got to keep), get harnessed and roped up, climb to the second story and unlock a door...  Really a dream come true!

For lunch, Dougie, Lindsey, Gavin & Ian went to the ABC Cooking Studio where they made some fancy onigiri (and got the "how to" sheet to take home).

They washed

They made their onigiri fancy - Ian had to think about it for a bit (and yes, those are knives they get to use!  Useable plastic ones so it cuts food, not fingers).

Ian decided he may as well use the knife - after all, they did give him one!  Once done, they have the kids clean up.  What great habits to teach!

After lunch, they went to put out some fires

They get their bunker gear on, load up the firetruck - two kids in the front get to announce and the kids in the back ring the bell.

Once they get to the burning building, they line up, grab their firehouses and

Put out the fire!  You can see how the fire changes as they hose the building down.

 Good job, crew!  On the way back, Lindsey and Dougie got to announce to make way...

We finished their day by going to the Morinaga Milk Shop to decorate cheesecakes.  We convinced them it was better than the ice cream because they got PAID to decorate the cheesecake and still got to eat the treat rather than PAY for decorating the ice cream...

They put on their uniforms and looked ready for a modeling audition.

The interactions on this bench alone says so much about these kids.

When the girl sitting next to Dougie realized his pose....

She moved over a couple of feet!

This is the most raw and candid photo of these four.  It is my favorite picture of the whole day.  Their expressions and body language say so much...  And it speaks volumes.  It was the end of the day - a decently long day.   And it was priceless!

Play Day

Today was the last day of the Japanese Holiday called Golden Week (a string of holidays, lasting approximately a week...).  It was also swim registration, so it became a "lets go to base" day...

We met Gina & Gavin for a picnic and then went over to Sullivan's to pick up Lindsey (I picked up William).  Dougal and Lindsey are like an old married couple.  Sweet on each other when they are bossing each other around and not listening/hearing a word the other one says.

The kids all played on the playground for a good long time and did me the honor of allowing me some fun pics.

The real reason Gavin got lopped out of that pic was because I caught him mid blink - you know the one where you look like you should really back off the dope...

Right as we were about to leave, and it was clearly time, we had to pry Ian and Gavin apart.  It took two grown women and a whole lot of force!  And it was all over getting to throw out a stray plastic bottle.  Needless to say, I threw it out, no excuses were made (they were both out of line ridiculous and beyond overstimulated).  Gina took Gavin to the bathroom and we gathered bikes and kids and headed to the car.  At the car, apologies were made, wounds were forgotten and friends were reunited.  I am so grateful these two take it out on each other and not other "unknowns"...  These two are as thick as thieves - absolute best frenemies! (Thank you, Carol, for that one!)

As we were walking across the field, Dougie and Lindsey randomly walked a different way.  And I caught Dougie in the act!

The act of being sweet.  He kissed her head while they walked with their arms around one another.

He and Lindsey were inseparable pals.  It was a beautiful sight to see.  There is hope...

Roller Slide Fun - Kanazawa Zoo

The zoo was... a zoo!  It was all part of Golden Week (a huge weeklong Japanese Holiday).  The kids all had friday off, so Carlyn and her kids joined us to go the the Kanazawa Zoo/Roller Slides.  Eaton, Carlyn's 4 year old, also goes to Hayama (thus, had the day off).  I thought it would be fun to see if they were interested in going with us...  this was on her calendar:

Funny!  After our adventure, she may rethink saying yes to our invitations in the future...

After taking the wrong exit (Blast You Asahina Exit!  BLAST YOU!!!!), we decided to take the back route there.  All good and fine, except that we were on the wrong side of the tollway...  We DID find a great hiking area, however...

Take two:  we found the back entrance to the zoo.  Mostly because the parking lot line was three blocks long.  In the end, Eric dropped all of us off, bid us farewell and went to work! (Swing shift).  We decided to take the train back - which was a very good and non-crowded choice!

The kids had a blast going down the big roller slide, up the obstacle course, down the new red slide, up the obstacle course...

Eaton is a regular mountain goat.  Emi is right on his tail!  She is 2-1/2 and readily kept up.  Right until someone would pull the rope up on her and upend her!  She kept going and going like the Energizer Bunny.  Ian would have melted...

Stefan was a sweet big brother and would hold the rope down for Ian so the same fate did not become him!  He also stood in line and trained down the slides with Ian.  They came up with a new way to go down the slide together - Stefan as the engine, Ian as caboose holding the coupling together.  They seemed to enjoy themselves!

Dougie started off as a psych-case, the kind where you believe (know) you should turn right around and go straight to the mental-health department of the hospital...  In the end, he decided to keep things together and treat others decently when he realized his privilege of going with the Mansons the next day was hanging by a very, very, VERY thin string...

As always, it was a great day getting to catch up with Carlyn.  The kids all did really well (with the exception of Dougie's initial break from reality...)

Next time, we will attempt the correct exit on a non-holiday!

Beach Season

Beach Season "officially" begins on July 1 and goes through the end of August.  It is a true season in Japan - the beach shacks go up and people come out in droves.

If you happen to be part of the "pastey-white-gaijin" crowd, Beach Season begins the moment you pull off the wool socks and your tuque!

Last Saturday, the woolens were put away and sand buckets were packed.  William and Pierce joined us at Miura Beach for some digging

and kite flying.  Dwayne brought the kite to the boys (pre-PCS closet cleaning).  Stefan could make the beetle's pincers "pinch"!

One of the only other beach-goers that was NOT fishing was also of the pale-skin-gaijin crowd.  He and his daughter walked by.  He stopped, gawked at the bustle of the boys and asked, in disbelief, "Do you really have FIVE BOYS?!?"  I really should have told him, "No.  I have six..."  But, I only claimed my three and that the other two were friends.  We added Matthew to the mix later that night.  As Eric put it - it was only a 20% increase!

It was the first time in a VERY long time that Eric and I just SAT AROUND!  We even played some frisbee.  And THAT is why we had five boys at the beach - they entertain each other!  When they aren't eating, that is...

A security guard came and told us... something.

We had to enlist the help of an interpreter.  Dougie told us that we needed to leave by 5 because they were bringing cars down to setup for the Yabusame.  That explained the horses!

I think we came here on the same weekend three years ago.  When we were here TDY, we came to this particular beach and saw the horses running then to.  Fast forward three years and its the same thing...

We had a great day that was turned into a great night with FIVE BOYS lined up on our living room floor (Ian was put in his own bed...).  We watched The Love Bug, ate popcorn and prayed a silent prayer (PLEA, really) that the five boys would be exhausted and just fall asleep.

20%...  Matthew, our 20% addition, was the 20% that fell asleep...  40% coughed (the Anthony boys) and the other two quietly wiggled.  And schemed... I lurked.  Stefan ran into me as he rounded a dark corner.  He started to cry...

Well, sheesh!  If I couldn't have guessed he was up to something rotten before...  He drew the short straw and was going to try the "sleepers-hand-in-warm-water-so-they-wet-the-bed" trick.  He did not want Matthew to wet the bed, so his plan was to wake Matthew up.

Both he and Dougie got sent up to their beds under the guise that they were coughing too much (they were - no joke) and needed sleep (they did!).  I reminded Stefan how much pranks like that violate someone's trust.  And can ruin friendships.  Stefan continued to cry and actually thanked me for catching him!  Priceless!  I sure hope he maintains this sentiment through the years!

I went stalking downstairs again.  And ran into Pierce.  Scared him!  He told me he was going to the bathroom...

And was putting a bowl away...

ha HA ha HA ha!  Rats!  Foiled again!!!

Matthew was the first to fall asleep, the last to wake up (I was envious!)...  No one was up before 6 - so it was really like sleeping in!