Updates

Things are going well here. One of the reasons I haven't been posting as often is because I started  crocheting hats again. It's been great working on them at night while Steve and I watch a movie. It took Noah some getting used to. For the first few days I left yarn out and would find him like this after taking my eye off him for a minute:

 No fun going trying to fix tangled yarn. After awhile the it lost it's appeal, so he doesn't play with it much anymore. You can't leave that kid for long. He entertains himself well, but he loves to get into everything at least once. Normally just once or twice  unless it's something super exciting like our dehumidifier (we can't get him to stop pushing the buttons on that thing!)

Steve just found out he'll be going to Fuji again in October/November for 5 weeks (he'll miss Thanksgiving...blah!), along with the planned trip in March/April for 7 weeks. That's when I'm hoping to head to Ohio. I can't remember where he's going. I try not to treat these trips as a big deal because they happen all the time, and I'm just so thankful he doesn't have a planned deployment to Afganahstan. Although, that could all change tomorrow. That's how they roll in the Marine Corp. It sure is hard on everyone when he's gone, that's for sure. 

On a happier note, I think after I finish painting Noah's room I'll finally be finished with the house. I would love to do more, but it's just not worth it for 2 more years when we don't own the house. Now we want to liven up our yard and upstairs patio. The spaces have SO much potential, and i really want to make them a nice place for the kids to place. Sort of like having extra rooms. I've started decorating the upstairs patio some, but we need to do a major clearing out of the jungle that is our yard....I know nothing about this stuff, so it could be interesting. We may just be whipping out some spray to kill the weeds. That is if we can find it considering we can't read the Japanese labels at their home improvement store! 

In the meantime we've been bringing the outdoors inside with our plants everywhere! Such an easy way to decorate:

The kids picked all those yellow flowers from our yard and made me a little bouquet of them in the cup. So sweet!

My Week with the Kids

Steve went out to the field for about a week and a half, so it was just the kids and I. We managed to do quite a lot.

The usually things....Avery loves writing letters and pictures in her notebooks. She especially likes to write "Mom." and give it to me.

I love how we were able to sneak in a little kids table behind the couch and alongside a big window. It's Japanese style so it's super low. I put a floor pillow down on each side for each kid and it works great.

One morning we hiked up to the treehouse across the street. Avery has been so helpful. She loves helping Noah put on his shoes (although Noah can consistently do it himself now!). Those croks of theirs have been worn almost every single day for the past year. I don't think I'll ever switch them to another brand! I do need to order them new ones soon.

We had a picnic, then played "school." Avery loves using a stick as her pointer and a tree as the chalboard with the letters on it. Noah and I also got a turn to be the teacher.

Later that day, I took the kids to see Madagascar 3. It was very action oriented and stimulating so of course it entertained the kids. When we got home from the movie Avery and I hung out on our patio upstairs while Noah took a nap. The owners of Cafe Pipineo (the restaurant next to us) came over and invited us to their summer party.  It was a lot of fun, and they were so nice! They wouldn't let me pay the $40.00 a pice to get in. They put out about 5 different rounds of food. It was a great variety. Cafe Pipineo has always been our favorite restuarnt here, and I sort of think it's because the food is NOT your typical Japanese food. lol

It's more medaterrainan I think. Fresh salads, fish, soup, potato cakes....This was our first plate, but their was new food put out the whole night.

Any cocktail you wanted and beer.

The kids wanted to play in the water for a bit.

Then they had African dancing. It was no surprise that Avery got right up there. She loves to sing and dance. And she can talk to and understand the Japanese people far better than me and Steve (sorry about the terrible picture...I forgot to turn off the flash..).

Their semi famous cinnamon rolls for dessert.

 We were about ready to leave when a fire magician guy started a show. I took a really good video, but I can't ever get videos to load on this blog. Our internet is SLOW...
Here's one of us after the show. Noah did NOT want to hold a torch. lol

They were so happy when Steve got home.

They pretended they were on an airplane on Steve's bag.