Log Cabin Fever

Last week-end the Martyniak family, dogs included, headed to the Hills... Tama Hills Rec. Center, that is! We opted for the log cabins this time (we did check out the camp sites for next time). It only took making reservations in March in order to get this week-end in May .... but well worth the wait. And as a bonus our friends Nicole, Jake and Larry stayed in the cabin next door on Saturday night. It was a great week-end that included hiking in the woods, grilling out, and roasting marshmallows for s'mores. Quinn's favorites were playing mini-golf & horse shoes, sleeping in the loft, and getting a double pony ride. Scarlett wanted nothing to do with riding the pony. Scarlett's favorite was eating the chocolate out of the s'mores (check out the photo of her handing the graham cracker to me because she doesn't want it) and eating her breakfast cereal on the futon. Her least favorite was getting half her body stuck down the hole between the wall and the futon she slept on. Mommy and Daddy's favorites were the yummy gyoza and cold beverages served a la fresco with no where to drive to get home.

Family Picnic Day at Showa Park

Yesterday was family picnic day for the yochien. Neal took a half day off and we headed to Showa park. We met up with all the other yochien families and had a fun filled day of playing games and eating. The day started off with class pictures with the parents and a morning exercise routine involving being wild animals. Scarlett was right in the mix acting out all the moves. Neal and Quinn then played a rock, paper scissor game in which you pretend to be a horse and challenge another team. If you lose the game you have to go behind the winning team and join their train. The rest of the day the kids ran around chasing each other, running/rolling down the hill, blowing bubbles and playing games. The day was hot and sunny so our whole group gathered under the shade of a big ole' tree. As one Mom said as we watched the sensei run down the hill with the kids over and over, "Everything about yochien is magical!".

School Lunch... Japanese Style

Last week at yochien, the parents were invited in to sample an "obento" Japanese school lunch. It was yummy!

They Call It "Puppy Love"

Scarlett loves her some Ramses!

Fun at the Kato House

On Monday night, we visited our favorite Japanese home, the Kato House. It is always a night filled with so much food, drink, and laughter. Quinn loves playing with Shintaro and Scarlett slowly warmed up to everyone. The only reason the night ended was Scarlett got tired and picked up her shoes and began waving and saying bye bye to everyone and finally got in Quinn's face and said "come" while motioning with her hand. Great night with great friends!

Our "FTF"s

That's "First To Find" to you non geocachers. So last week was the 10th anniversary of geocaching. So the local guys put out over 50 new caches/treasures in honor of the anniversary. Well Neal just about lost his mind that we needed to hit the road immediately (5:30pm) after being out all day and get us some FTF. We loaded up the kiddos, stopped at"Old McDonald's" as Quinn calls it and started racking up our first FTFs. We found 3 that night. I wished I had filmed Neal doing the happy dance.

The next day the fun continued but this time we were up against a whole crew of guys racing for the FTFs. We ran into the group at many sites.

It's official, we are a part of the Japanese Geocache "In" crowd as they all greeted us "Hello Deadhead Japan". The Japanese continue to demonstrate their unlimited ability to be gracious... they would find the cache but always wait to allow Quinn-kun to discover it. It's no wonder we want to stay here for another year.

Kabokuen Park

On Monday during Golden Week, the kids and I went to the park with our friends Nicole and Jake. It's a great park with a long roller slide, playground and a zip line. The weather was perfect for a short picnic and lots of playtime. Needless to say, fun was had by all. We ended the day with shaved ice and ice cream.

Quinn's Level 2 Swimming April 2010

We have seen a lot of improvement in Quinn's swimming over the past month. Check out the video of the beginnings of the crawl stroke and the back stroke. Go Quinn Go!

Mother's Day Celebration at Yochien

Today at the yochien, the kids invited us mothers into their classroom and sang songs for us. They also drew a flower with our face in the middle as well as make a cookie to look like us. Quinn did a pretty awesome job with the cookie face. I guess he is hoping my eyes will change to blue like his Daddy's and Sakie the cat. I was very impressed with his Japanese singing too. I overheard a few moms talking about how they were surprised at how well Quinn-kun was singing along to the Japanese song.