Happy Easter!

March went out like a lion (came in that way, too), but we still had a very nice Easter. The kids searched for eggs in the house, we enjoyed brunch at the O Club, the kids had good naps, and then we all headed out into the cold to have a great egg hunt with our cul-de-sac neighbors. It was so nice to have the kids look out for each other and share their eggs and excitement. We wrapped up our afternoon with a neighborly potluck. We probably all would have stayed out until dark if it wasn't for the cold. Enjoy some pictures from our day...

Saturday Fun

We decided that Kid-O-Kid sounded better than a chaotic Easter egg hunt. Our understanding was that last year, kids got trampled, some kids got no eggs, and it wasn't a whole lot of fun. Thus, a quick trip to Yokohama would surely be better.

We made a good choice! The kids had a great time at Kid-O-Kid!

Ryleigh almost has the climbing wall down--she just needs to learn to tuck that bum in.

As usual, RJ divided his time between the train table...

And the sandbox.

Ryleigh had sandbox time, too.

Ryleigh was doing her best little grown-up impressions while we were there. She checked Facebook for me and tried reading the directions (in Japanese, no less) for a shape-building toy.

Ryleigh enjoyed a "swim" in the ball pit.

We then walked about 1 kilometer to Bubby's. Bubby's originated in Brooklyn and TriBeCa and is known for its burgers and pie. They are still in NY, but have expanded to Japan with two shops in Tokyo and one in Yokohama. Bubby's also serves American-style breakfast items all day, and that is what we had. The kids and Jip enjoyed pancakes while I had Eggs Benedict (well, one egg), home fries, tomato soup, and salad. The kids drank fresh-squeezed orange juice and Jip an I loved our fresh squeezed pink lemonades. The kids were getting punchy/melty by the end of the meal, so we sadly skipped the pie. Next time, we'll definitely indulge!

After we got home, we dyed and decorated some eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide.

It was a fun Saturday!!

Some random musings

There isn't much to write about tonight, so here are a few observations and musings I've had recently:

1.  Sakura season is ending and on my way home tonight, I thought I was riding my bike in the snow.  The ground was covered in what looked like pinkish white flakes, but it was about 60 degrees out.  It turns out that it I was riding through all the cherry blossom leaves that had fallen to the ground.

2.   A coworker was very excited to go see a movie after work tonight.  I've forgotten what it's like to go see a movie.  In the past couple years,  I've seen Winnie the Pooh and Brave...and that's about it.  RJ is in a "I don't like to watch movies because they are scary" kick right now so I hardly even watch DVDs at home.

3.  I had a slice of Pizza Hut pizza today--my first slice in about 2 1/2 years.  We had not sampled the recently added Pizza Hut on base, but my office coworkers brought in a pizza today and I got to have a slice.  It was heavenly.  I craved the rest of the pizza for the rest of the day.

4.  It's good to know that the a Continuing Resolution has been signed.  It doesn't fund all that we need funded, but we should be in a better position the rest of this fiscal year than we had thought we were going to be in prior to it passing.

5.  Reasoning with a three year old continues to challenge my patience and composure.  I'm sure I was just as much of a pain when I was three years old, but RJ can sure be trying at times.  He lost it tonight over some crayon marks that his sister put on a piece of cardboard (part of his cardboard city).  I tried to explain that we could replace that cardboard with one of several other clean pieces of cardboard, but he didn't really want to listen.  He was upset for quite a while until it dawned on him that we could simply replace it.  I'm not sure what language I had been speaking, but obviously it wasn't English.

6.  Speaking of not getting through to our children.  Ryleigh has figured out how to climb up onto the table.  When one of us finds her there, we scold her.  Her response...laughter.  In fact, most of the time when we are trying to be stern with her, she just laughs back at us.  Ugh.

7.  After 452 blog posts, sometimes it's hard to come up with something new to talk about.  It's been a ho-hum sort of day, and now you've been bored to death with this ho-hum post...sorry.  Have a good day/night.

-Jip

Preschool Egg Hunt

The preschool kiddos decorated modified milk cartons and headed out for an egg hunt today. RJ had a great time finding some hardboiled and plastic eggs!

After preschool, we had a very nice lunch with my friend Jeannie. We ate outside while the kids played hard in the backyard. After naps, the kids played outside until Jip came home.

Before I sign off, here's a cute pic of Ryleigh doing her best RJ impression by donning his new helmet. RJ doesn't wear it backwards, though.

Good 8 Lessons

The last swimming lesson for RJ was today. He really had a great set of lessons. It was great fun to watch him improve and gain confidence. If (and that's a big if, thanks to serious budget cuts to our summer recreation programs) we get into lessons this summer, I think he could move into the next level by the end of the summer, or at least master a couple of the skills required to move up.

Here are a few pics and a video from Monday's and today's classes.

On the "boat."

Hi, Mom!

RJ tried to convince Alex that she should hold his hands to jump in. She disagreed.

Alex did comply with holding his hand on the boat.

Dog paddling (RJ is still a little bottom heavy).

And, the video of the kids on the boat.

Who's More Excited? RJ or Mama

RJ and I broke out/broke in our new baseball gloves today. I'm not sure who is more excited about the upcoming t-ball season... Actually, I already know that I am more excited. Don't get me wrong, as RJ is excited. For not playing before, his grasp of how to wear the glove, use it to stop the ball, and throw with the other hand is pretty darn amazing to me. Catching a ball hasn't happened yet, and I find myself struggling with how to explain it. I look forward to Jip being able to be there, too, so we can demonstrate what to do. But, in the meantime, I'm excited just to play with RJ. Today, I decided to work on fielding grounders (the ball rolled into the street less that way), and I amazed myself with how it came back to me, from stepping out to align with the ball to getting the glove near the ground but not on it in case it takes an unexpected bounce. I had so much fun myself, which was on top of the fun I had watching RJ. I could have played catch all afternoon with RJ if Ryleigh wouldn't have kept trying to escape into the street or around the corner.

T-ball starts April 15. I hope I enjoy the t-ball practices as much as I do just getting out there with RJ. And, I hope RJ enjoys it and wants to keep playing all season and beyond.

Sakura Time

Sakura season is a big deal in Japan. Parks put up spotlights on the trees and play hosts to festivals. Our base hosts an open base event, which is when the gates are open to anyone who is not from a country on the debarred list (you know, like North Korea or France--seriously, France is on the list). This year we avoided the open base event. Here's why:

In no way is that crowd fun to us.

We celebrated the Sakura in our own way with a photo shoot in a little park in nearby Zushi. Rebekah probably took somewhere around 100 photos, and she's shared three with us so far:

We can't wait to see the rest!

We also snapped a few of our own pictures:

The Sakura come and go so fast. As we were driving home tonight, we noticed the Sakura "snow" on the road. It was only a light dusting, but it means the beginning of the end of another season of cherry blossoms. We'll enjoy the beauty for another week or so, then it is time to bring on the spring green! Yay!

No fear.

Today was a pretty relaxed day for us.  We played downstairs, played upstairs, slept, played at a playground, played in front of the house, and finally played at the next door neighbor's house.   Well, okay, not all of us had a day like RJ, but Amy, Ryleigh and I did participate in most of the playtime.  We managed to fold in a couple other things such as me going to the uniform shop to pick up some new boots and Amy going to the commissary to get some groceries.  It was an enjoyable day with (mostly) well-behaved kids.

While at the playground I took a few photos with my iPod (so they are not the greatest quality).  Ryleigh keeps proving over and over again that she has no fear.  Today, I watched her climb up these bars about 6 times.  Each time she'd make it to the highest position and then just wait for me to pick her up and put her on the top step.  Never once did she whimper or cry when she couldn't figure out how to go higher.  She's quite the little monkey.

Step One:  Decide to climb the bars vice climbing the steps (too easy!).

Step Two:  Make sure Dad is within sight just in case.

Step Three:  Climb, climb, climb.

Step Four:  Get to a point where my little legs just aren't long enough, and then give a quick glance in Dad's direction.

Step Five:  Patiently wait for Dad to come pick me up and put me on the top step.

Step Six:  Slide down and start all over again.  (Meanwhile, RJ plays underneath and ignores the whole situation)

 No fear.
-Jip