June . Slices of Life

June 2, 2011

Emma lost her very first tooth today. For the last two months she has been telling me that her tooth was loose but I kind of shrugged it off because I thought she was just pretending. A couple of weeks ago I decided to check once again to feel if it was loose and I was surprised to feel that she did indeed have a loose tooth. She lost her tooth at her friend Alexa's house while eating a brownie with nuts in it. Emma is definitely the youngest so far in the family to loose her first tooth. She was so excited to put her little tooth under her pillow for the tooth fairy. The tooth fairy did come and brought her 200 yen. Hooray!

June 10, 2011

Abby is really good about just getting on the toilet when she needs to go. Sometimes she will tell me and then go and sometimes she just needs me to turn on the light. Today she wanted me to turn on the light for her. Since she was using the downstairs bathroom I just hung out in the office doing some work so that I could hear her if she needed help. After getting a little distracted I realized that I could still hear her in the bathroom. When I went in to see how she was doing I found the entire roll of toilet paper on the floor with her wrapped up in all of it. I really wasn't that mad because it was so hilarous. But I told her that was a no no and then proceeded to take a few photos before making her help me clean up the mess. What a sneaky little girl she is.

June 13, 2011

Tonight's FHE was given by Mike and it was probably one of the funnest that we have had in a while. He was the grumpy old troll (adapted from Dora the Explorer) and at each station he would ask the kids a question in the grumpy old troll voice. When they got the right answer they moved to the next station. At the second station they had to put together a puzzle which read, "We must show our love by our words and actions." At the final station we had a four square ball and they each had to throw the ball to someone else and tell them something that they loved about that person. The kids just laughed so hard at Mike because he really played the grumpy old troll really well. As they started to show kindness and love to each other the troll started to disappear. It was a blast and a great reminder to treat each other kindly.

June 26, 2011

There have been a lot of new changes happening in our Branch lately. Our Branch President has been getting ready to move to Okinawa and Mike was just called as the new Branch President of our Branch. We are part of a very unique Branch and District in that we are only a Branch and District by name only. We essentially act like a Ward and Stake. We are only 1 of 6 Branches worldwide that is like this. It used to be that both the Military and Expatriate English members in Japan were part of Wards but as the years have passed they have been reorganized into Military and English Branches to separate themselves from the Japanese Stakes. Part of the changes occured to help alleviate any language and culture barries between the Japanese and the Americans. That being said we are still a small Branch but I know that Mike still has his work cut out for him. It has been interesting to see the good changes that have already taken place with a new Presidency. We are excited to support Mike in this new calling and know that we will learn lots of good things along the way!

Abby's 3rd Birthday

Abby has been so excited for her birthday this year. She is finally old enough to know about presents and cupcakes and give her opinion on what she wants. When I asked her what she wanted for a present she said she wanted a pink present. When I asked her what kind of cupcakes she wanted she said she wanted pink cupcakes. So her opinions are still simple and I love it. A pink party was definitely in order. Mike was in charge of the balloons and I was pleasantly surprised when he brought home a huge bundle of pink and white balloons and a pink smiley face balloon with a cute pink stuffed elephant attached to all the balloons. What a sweet daddy to make even the balloons special. I made pink cupcakes and personalized cupcake toppers. We wrapped all of the pink princess gifts and the pink legos in pink wrapping paper. I dressed Abby in her pink party dress and curled her hair and took a few pictures of her twirling around. Abby was so excited by all of the cupcakes that she just sat and admired them before we sang to her. She loved being the center of attention and had no problems blowing out all 3 candles. She actually was able to open all of her gifts pretty much by herself this year. Andrew was sweet to read the card from my mom and dad. It was the best pink party for a cute little 3 year old.

Kamakura Beach

Today was the epitomy of pure relaxation and utter enjoyement as we played at the beach all afternoon.  What is great about this beach is that it is only 15-20 min away from our house and has underground parking so we can park relatively cheap, walk right out to the beach, and come back to a cool car.  Now that it is so deathly humid outside these days, having a cool car to come back to is a total highlight.  It was rather windy today so it took Mike and I a bit longer to get the canopy set up but once it was up it was so great to sit and watch the kids play.  The waves were small for the kids which was fun for them and stress free for us.  The sandbank is so shallow and goes out pretty far so the kids can play in the waves without us worrying too much about them getting into any sort of trouble.  Even Abby had fun playing in the closer waves.  I loved that I could just sit in the shade on my chair, watch the kids having fun, and snap a few photos with my iPhone.  I had my share of time in the water with the girls.  We jumped over the waves and swung around a bunch.  They loved that.  Both of the girls were pretty fearless but they definitely knew their limits which was good.  The only thing we wished we had today was some body boards.  I guess we will have to invest in some before our next beach adventure.  Emma had a blast collecting shells and the boys stayed in the water most of the time.  After enough time in the water all the kids had fun playing in the sand.  The only thing we had were two big shovels and yet they still had so much fun.  Eventually the sun hid behind the clouds but the weather stayed warm so we stayed a bit longer before heading back to our car.   It truly was a fabulous day at the beach with the kids.

Last Day of School

I can't say that the boys were at all disappointed for school to end this year.  Peter had a really great year in Mr. Brown's 2nd grade class and made some good friends in his class.  Although Andrew learned some important things this year and realized how smart he is in math he wasn't real fond of his teacher Mr. Grosshuesch or some of the other kids in his 4th grade class.  I can't say that Mike and I were impressed at all with his teacher either.  It really was kind of a nightmare of a class and the teacher's lack of consistency, discipline and expectation of the students really made it a difficult class to be in.  We are hoping for a better teacher and better environment for Andrew in 5th grade and have talked with the right people to make sure that it does in fact happen for him next year.  I think the number one lesson this year for both boys was the importance of choosing good friends.  All the rest is that much easier when you surround yourself with good influences.  We will continue to make this a huge priority for the following school year.  So without much sadness we say good-bye to the 2010-2011 school year!!!

(Peter and Colton)

(Andrew in his classroom standing where Mr. G taught from)

(Peter next to the computer station in his classroom)

(All the Elementary School teachers and Administrators)

(Peter and his teacher Mr. Brown. Andrew's teacher Mr. G in the background in the blue shirt)