The New Park

... is finally open and the kids are thrilled.   Every day for the last 6 months I have had to drive by the new park surrounded by barriers to keep us out.  Scarlett would say each time, "Not open yet".  Finally on Friday, we drove by and the barriers were down.  Scarlett was so happy and singing, "it's open! it's open!"
Scarlett, Quinn and I stopped and played that afternoon after picking Quinn up at school.  No going home to change or nothing.

Tama River Cook-Out

We spent a Saturday afternoon at the Tama River.  The kids loved playing in the water. Quinn jumped off the big rock and caught some little fish/tadpoles in the stillwater.  Scarlett threw rocks in the water and built rock castles.

4th of July Week-End 2011

I had hoped to take a trip to Shimoda, Japan but Neal somehow volunteered to be the First Sergeant and there went our trip.  Instead on Saturday, we went to the base "Celebrate America" festival, which is always a big hit with the kids... rides, food, games, and fireworks = FUN!

On Sunday we finally got back to geocaching but were very unsuccessful.  We only found 1 out of 4 caches.  But we discovered a great park not far from Sunmerries, a great bakery.  The kids got nice and dirty and had lots of fun.  Quinn had a rough start at the park as he bumped into Neal while riding the zip line.  Check out the picture of his fat lip (no pictures of the bloody nose).

On Monday we headed to "Round 1" with the Cooper Clan.  Round 1 is a building with 5 floors filled with fun and games.   I mean anything you can imagine, bowling, curling, soccer, golf, batting cages, fishing, video games galor, slides and nerf ball shooting area.  The list goes on and on.  It's a lot of fun for kids and adults.  Plus it has the best massage chair that is free.

Here's another great "Only in Japan" story:  the bottom of the Round 1 is filled with "The Claw" games. Scarlett saw a Winnie the Pooh pillow she wanted so I tried 2 times to get it but didn't line the claw up quite right.  So the Japanese man working was watching us and came over and moved the Pooh pillow on the edge so we could easily win it.  And we did on the next try.  How awesome is that?!  Love this country.

Shaved Ice

one successful geocache of the day

Bird watching.

Fat Lip

Fishing Fun

Scarlett's Pooh prize

Nerf shooting area

More Nerf ball play area

Quinn, Charlie, & Neal 

Scarlett's Last Day at Ushihama Daycare

Scarlett loves her 2 main teachers, Ogawa Sensei and Ishikawa Sensei.  She will miss them.  The teachers made a book for Scarlett and wrote how much they love Scarlett's smile, her shy nature, and how much she loves to dance and sing at school.  It was hard to say good-bye.   I had tried my hand at making Hello Kitty cake pops for Scarlett's classmates but was only able to save a few as edible.  So the kids got Teddy Grahams and Quinn & Scarlett got cake pops.

Ishikawa Sensei, Scarlett, Ogawa Sensei (L to R)

One of the surviving cake pops.

 

The Elephant Song aka Zou-san

Scarlett has begun to sing many Japanese songs she has learned at her school.  This version is not quite Japanese but not quite English, but very kawaii/cute!

Ready for the 101 Critical Days of Summer

Quinn's Obento

When in Japan do as the Japanese"   or something like that.  So I finally decided to try my hand at making "Charaben" or Japanese character bento lunches.  Lost my job and got tired of Quinn asking me to make him fun lunches and telling me about his friends having Mario, Yoshi, and other characters.    So I have 2 lunches under my belt and may actually try a Mario next week.  Quinn is thrilled with the results.  I just wish I was better at making the whole box look full and fun.  More lessons needed.

3 Little Pigs

Waving Penguin