Mother's activity

On the 17th there was a Mother's activity at Ben's school. We decorated small tissue cases. I wasn't sure how it would turn out but it was a lot of fun and the finished product was pretty cute. Unfortunately Piper had a rough morning at the child development center and I had to leave early but my "break" was fun while it lasted!

All the moms waiting to begin. Check out the small chairs and tables!

Our art teacher.

This is Marina - The English speaking Vice Principal of the school and her mother, the principal! Her family started the school!

Working on my tissue case.

Everybody working hard on their cases.

My finished product.

On my way out Ben was coming in to eat lunch and I caught a picture of him washing his hands.

Caught!

Yesterday I actually caught Nate in the act of getting to food! Ben's school was celebrating their anniversary and he was given bean filled buns as a present. Nate managed to pull the package out of Ben's open backpack and pull a bun out. He is pretty sneaky! This one didn't make it in his mouth though - luckily!!

Every night with the babies' dinner I give them a strawberry in a little mesh bag. Tonight they had a lot of fun with them...

Wowsers!

This morning the doorbell rang and I wondered who it could be.... Flower Delivery!!!

Thank you Grant!!! Happy Valentine's Day!!

I am in soooo much trouble!

The babies are on their way to being mobile....

Yesterday I was putting all of the kids in the car and Nate was the last. When I came in to get him he had made his way over to Ben's plate of waffles and was having a taste! I took this video a little later in the day.

Teeth!

Nate started cutting his teeth awhile back and he now has two teeth!! Piper is slowly cutting her first tooth but there isn't much to take a picture of right now.

Valentine's Cookies!

On Sunday we made Valentine's sugar cookies. I looooovvveee sugar cookies! We made a huge mess but it was worth it!

Ben dressed himself. His shirt is on backwards and he has on his "skinny" jeans. His 3T pants are all too short for him so I have been buying 4T slims. Well I saw these "skinny" jeans in the exchange and immediately assumed they were slims! Opps I guess the pencil thin jeans are even stylish for three year olds!

Almost time to bake!

Messy, messy, messsy!!

Piper thoroughly enjoyed the experience!

Of course Nate was happy in his jumper.

Time to ice!

Ben had to do a little taste test!

All done and ready for Valentine's Day!

Setsubun - Happy end of winter!

Yesterday (Feb. 3rd) was the last day of winter according to the lunar calendar. In Japan it is called Setsubun (Parting of the Season.) It is a very big deal here and on the evening of the day a religious ceremony called Mamemaki (bean throwing) occurs at shrines and temples throughout Japan. You throw beans at O-NE (devils or goblins) who symbolize evil spirits to get them to go away and then FUKU appear who symbolize happiness. Although this is a religious rite it has become more of an event for children. On Tuesday Ben threw beans at his school at the "grumpy monster." He brought a package of the beans home and they were quite tasty! Last night we actually went to a shrine to observe a Setsubun event.

Ben right after he got off the bus with his hat on from the art show.

The kids with their package of beans and their basket from the bean throwing at school.

At the shrine before the Setsubun ceremony.

Our tour guide Erico explaining the event.

You can see the monster in the background.

O-NE!!

Another O-NE!

The O-NE playing the drums during the ceremony.

This lady played with Jo the entire time! It was so cute!

Ben loves to play with Jo too!

So the ceremony got a little long and the kids were getting restless so we had to leave...

On the way back to the car we saw this group practicing their dragon dance.

Sk8ter Boy

Ben must have seen something on tv this morning dealing with skateboarding because he was very insistent on skating this morning. Luckily he does have a mini skateboard so I let him use it for a bit before school. I think he has been watching our neighbor Caleb skate because he actually kind of knew what to do. Of course he never really rode the board but he did a few tricks and chased it around.

New pillow!

This cruise has not been the easiest for Ben and I have been brainstorming ways to make it better for him. He still doesn't seem to grasp that daddy is on the ship and won't be home for awhile. I was searching around on different sites and noticed a photo pillowcase. I looked through my pics of Ben and Grant and found this cool one of the day Grant came home last time. They are standing in front of the ship with the welcome home sign. I ordered the pillowcase and it came yesterday. Very cool!!

Of course I had to wash it so he could sleep on it last night. He also has been wanting to sleep on my floor so I pulled out his Lightening McQueen sleeping bag and let him sleep there. I don't know if he enjoys sleeping on the floor since that is where they take naps at school or what but he actually did really well!

Getting ready to have his "kisses" from daddy before bedtime.

The family portrait

Ben received window crayons from Grandee and Grandpa awhile back and I pulled them out for the first time yesterday. I wasn't sure what they would be like. They were a ton of fun but very messy. Imagine using large eyeliner pencils on a window.

He started out by drawing a dragon and then went on to draw me and eventually the whole family.

The green circle with a mohawk is me. I was impressed because this was the first time I have seen him draw anything with arms and legs. The orange in the upper right is him.

So if you look right to left you have an orange Ben, a green dragon, a green Sallie, a black Piper, white Nate and brown Grant. You can tell that after me he started to fizzle out on the actual people drawing. Piper did have legs but noone else had any recognizable features.