Citizens of California

To everyone reading this blog who is a citizen of California, please consider voting YES on Prop 8. It supports marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Stuff my mom gave them

The kids have been playing with some things my parents bought for them. I just wanted to show my mom that the kids do play with the stuff they send!

This is a balancing game made of bamboo that my mom sent for Noah's 5th birthday. We babysat 9 kids (including ours) throughout the day on Saturday. Noah wanted to play this game with his friends.

These wooden, rainbow blocks were given to the kids for either Christmas or a birthday...I can't remember which. We've had them since Cleveland though. The kids play with them in spurts and it's been a favorite toy over the past few days. They pretend they are an animal or a tunnel or an obstacle course. They put all their figurines in them and turn it into a city for all their Star Wars guys. Thanks Mom and Dad!

2008 Presidental Campaign

The Jib Jab they had last year was so funny that I had to post this one too. It stars my dog at the end as the voter. The one good thing about not having American TV is that I don't have to watch all the political commercials this time of year. Yeah!

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Random stuff this week

I'm so glad I married a guy who is thrilled with whatever food I fix him. This was dinner for him the other day. It's just a sandwich (although I will admit I make a mean sandwich). He's elated. He was so excited that I made him such a stellar sandwich that he wanted me to take his picture. It was also huge. The bread is from Jusco and it's just so big.

For family home evening the other night we walked down to Big Dip (an ice cream shop). The kids were so excited and so was Otis.

Japanese tourists LOVE the blond kids. The local Okinawan's don't pay much attention, but people visiting from the Mainland love them. While at the beach yesterday these 4 girls (aka "The Paparazzi") starting taking pictures of the kids and practising their broken English. They must have taken 20 pics of them. Then as we were leaving the beach a group of teenage girls bombarded us in the parking lot begging us to "take picture". They had like 8 cameras and starting shooting away. It was quite comical. I was proud of Noah who answered how old he was in Japanese. It's fun to see them picking up the language more than I am.

Shuri Castle

Since Ben liked the castle ruins we went to a couple of weeks ago, we thought we'd take him to the real thing this time. Shuri Castle is the only standing castle on Okinawa. However, after we got there I realized that the American's destroyed the castle during WWII and this has all been rebuilt since then. I was pretty bummed that this was all a replica, but it was nice nonetheless. We paid to go into the castle and see the throne, crown, and living quarters. Our friends the Wilson's and Stinchfield's came with us. Eight kids and six adults make for some noisy American's. Here we are parking 3 cars deep in the garage. EVERYONE backs into parking spots here. I don't think I've seen a single person drive in front first.

The typical peace sign that EVERY Japanese person flashes in a picture.

Rob said, "Give me Kung-Fu Panda" and this is what he got from Noah and Ben.


A really cute picture of Noah and his buddy Hayden.

Outside the castle, but within the grounds.

The coolest thing to me...this foundation (under the castle) was the only "original" thing. It dates back to the 1300's.

This was the room where the king would reign from and make important decisions. Notice those big, round, wooden poles with ropes to keep people from walking past them. Issy decided it would be a grand idea to swing from them. They all toppled over and crushed the reverent silence in the room. So embarrassing.

The throne behind me is where the kind would make a regal entrance and entertain important people who came to visit.


The boys got a kick out the faucets in the bathroom


Chillin' outside the castle feeding the kiddos. The other cool thing that I didn't take a picture of was a display of a G8 Summit that happened here in 2000. The leader of Japan had Pres Clinton and other heads of state over for dinner and the Summit. There were pics of them eating at the castle. I thought that was pretty cool. Shuri Castle was a neat place to visit, but I probably won't go back.

Noah's birthday party

Noah had a combined birthday party with Max who was turning 6 two days before Noah. Since they are the best of friends and have the same friends we decided to not make all our friends come to two parties. It worked out really well. Aside from the unexpected downpour the kids had a blast. We had an Olympic theme and made torches and marched into the stadium. We had planned to do all these relay races, but with the rain we didn't do any of that. There was a dance off, but with a million people inside our tiny houses we couldn't do much physical stuff. We handed out waterbottles filled with stopwatches, wristbands, energy bars, whistles and M&M's (official sponsor of the Olympics) as the goody bag. It was a lot of fun to plan, but exhausting. Ben's counting down the days until he turns 4 and that's not until after Christmas. Happy birthday Noah!
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Noah is FIVE!

My little boy turned five this week. Holy cow! I can't believe it's been five years since he was born. He is the perfect first child usually setting a great example for his younger brother and sister. He has a sweet giggle and loves running around the cul-de-sac with his friends. His favorite thing in the world is to "play" or climb...anything. He just likes being social. His newest thing is Pokemon trading cards. There is some sort of game you can play with them and he always has those cards in his hands. He even sleeps with them. He is such a joy to have in our lives. He's always telling me how much he loves me and that I'm a beautiful princess. What's not to love about this kid? He has a good heart and surprises me everyday at how much older he seems. We love you, Noah! Happy Birthday!