Birthdays

Tia's Birthday - October

She was SUPER excited about her cake - can you tell?!

My friend Tricia made the cake...she's AWESOME isn't she!

Tia had been asking for a PURPLE, TINKER BELL cake for months....it COULD NOT have been more perfect!

Shane was in the states for work, so we invited a few friends over to help us eat the yummy cake! Thanks everyone!

Jayden's Birthday - December

Jayden wanted a Mario Brothers b.day this year.

Tricia made another AMAZING cake! It was PERFECT!!!

What am I going to do without her next year???

Jayden didn't want us to cut the cake because he was so excited about it!

After a little convincing he let us dig in and eat :)..SO SO YUMMY!

Shane and I made Lollipop Sugar Cookies for Jayden to take to school.

Found this idea at: http://www.theidearoom.net/2010/01/play-dough-lollipop-cookies.html

Jayden and our neighbor Brinkley share the same birthday, so they did a treat swap after school.

Instead of doing "friend birthday parties" this year...we took the kids to Tokyo Disney Sea & Disney Land.

Tokyo Disney Sea

Jayden's 1st "scary" ride. He DIDN'T like it, but we are proud of him for trying. He and Shane are hiding behind the chipmunks.

Our favorite "apple juice" popsicles.

Us and our Disney shirts :)

Oh how we LOVE popcorn at Disneyland. Strawberry Chocolate & Carmel are our 2 favorites.

Tia's favorite ride (Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster).

DisneyLand

It was SO FUN having the kids tall enough this year to ride EXCITING rides. We had the BEST time we've ever had at Disneyland.

Star Tours

Captain EO...Michael Jackson lives on :)

Grand Circuit Raceway

She's such a serious driver - love it!

Cute boy!

Space Mountain

Not their favorite ride :/

We also took the kids on Thunder Mountain and they actually liked that one.

More YUMMY apple & orange juice popsicles.

I borrowed my friend Shelby's Minnie ears so that I could "fit in" with all the Japanese...he he! All the girls wear them here.

Happy Birthday cutie pies! We sure love you guys!

Grandpa & Grandma gave the kids some money so that they could each buy something while at Disneyland. Tia chose this Tangled barbie doll and Jayden chose to save his money so that he could buy himself a Nintendo DS...which he was finally able to do after 9 months of saving.

Baby #3

I meant to post this in October...ooops!

I'm pregnant!

Due: March 22nd, 2012

It's a ....

The kids couldn't come with us to the ultrasound, so this is how we told them what we were having. It was so fun!

Side profile

Face and arm

Foot

We are really excited to have another little one in our family!

Halloween 2011

I know I'm a little late on this one, but I need to post this for journaling sake. Happy Late Halloween :)!

(Shane was in the States for work-we sure missed him)

Since Shane was gone I opted out and "carved" pumpkins the easy way :)

The kids loved it!

Thanks to the blogging world...for our Culture Club activity in October (with 6 Japanese ladies) we made these fun Halloween jars.

Tia's Preschool - the REAL plan now

So....it turns out that our base canceled their Preschool program....BIG BUMMER! Tia's Preschool back up plan (see last post) ended up being the main plan. There are 4 kids in our class and the 4 moms rotate from week to week. I didn't think I'd like it at first, but I actually REALLY like it and so does Tia!

Why I like it:

* We've kept it super simple

(ABC's, Numbers, Colors, Shapes, & any thing else

that comes up-Holidays, 5 senses, etc.), so it's really fun and easy to plan for.

* I get a 3 week break before I teach again

* It's FREE

* Tia LOVES it!

* I love working with the 3 other moms & the kids

* It's fun to teach again (it's been 6 years since I taught school)

* It makes me feel like a good mom :)

So, even though I'm super bummed that the original Preschool plan was ruined...I'm actually really loving it this way.

Halloween Crafts

Our "Mummy Families"

(Samuel, Tia, & Chloe--Briley was sick this day)

Skeletons (thanks Alisha for the super cute skeleton heads).

Tia's Preschool (back up plan)

The Preschool options here on base are VERY limited. It's quite a bummer. The base does have a program in their Child Development Center (CDC) called Part Day Enrichment that is the closest thing the base offers to preschool. Tia was in it for a few months last year and really liked it, so I figured we would do it again. Here's the next bummer part...they canceled it for a few months because they have no teachers.

While we are waiting for them to find teachers one of the other moms put together a little Preschool Swap. I was in charge of the first week. It was a lot of fun! It actually felt good using some of the skills that I spent years and lots of money learning about in college. It really made me miss teaching! Not enough that I'd go get a job, but enough to realize that I love teaching. The best part about the week was seeing how excited Tia was about having school at her house. I don't know how long we are going to keep doing this swap, but for now it has been a fun experience for Tia & I.

Learning Time (Letter T).

Game Time (shapes & colors).

Snack Time (circles).

And today I dropped her off at my neighbors for Preschool. When I returned home I seriously sat in the front room for 30 minutes trying to figure out what I should do with no kids and a few hours on my hands. I really didn't know what to do...so I ended up at my favorite store...the Daiso ($ store). Oh how I am going to miss Japan's Dollar Stores when we move next year. They are the best!

Kindergarten

We have a Kindergartener! What an exciting week!

Meeting Mrs. Fitzpatrick (his teacher) & Mrs. Heino (his class aide) the week before school started. We are really excited about them...they seem perfect for Jayden.

1st Day of School

If you look closely at his hair you can see that he cut it himself (right in front in a couple of spots). Way to go little dude :/...scissors are now in mom's possession. At least it wasn't worse.

Picking Jayden up after his first day. He had a great day!

The best thing about this week has been listening to Jayden tell us about each day. I love that he is so excited about learning and going to school.

Pudding Slip & Slide

ReAnn, this post is for you :) Thank you for the awesome idea! Love you tons!

The kindergarteners started school 1 week later than everyone else, so while they were home that last week we decided to celebrate with some of the neighbors.

Two years ago my friend ReAnn introduced us to Pudding Slip & Slide and my kids still talk about how fun it was...it was time to do it again.

Taste testing to see if they liked it. I love the choice of finger Tia always uses :)

Two thumbs up from Briley.

Painting the kids with pudding.

Getting started.

Not sure if this is still cool.

Cute girls covered in pudding.

Attacking each other.

I think this is my favorite picture (thanks Austin for taking it). I love the handprint on Tia's forehead.

Poor Jayden started itching because the pudding had milk in it. For some reason I didn't think it would affect him since he hasn't had a skin reaction in over 2 years. I was wrong. He could not stop itching, had red splotches everywhere, and started sneezing like crazy. We had to make an extremely fast run to the shower, wash off, take some benadryl, say a quick prayer, drink lots of water, and keep a close watch on him for a while. Luckily it didn't get worse. I was pretty scared there for a bit. I thought he was getting better with his allergy, but he most definitely is still allergic to milk. I'm obviously Mother of the Year right?...makes a "milk" chocolate pudding slip & slide for my son who has a milk allergy...wow! Thanks ReAnn for the new tip on how to make it with water...we will be doing that next time!

My friend Austin made all the moms their own little glass of pudding to enjoy while the kids were having fun :)

Thanks friends for celebrating the start of Kindergarten with us.

Family Home Evening Activity

This is what we did for our Family Home Evening (FHE) activity last week. It had nothing to do with the lesson, but it was "TOTALLY AWESOME" (from the mouth of our 5 year old) and definitely worth the fun!

Attacking Darth Vader (thanks Grandma Andrews for the life size cardboard cutouts-they are a HUGE hit in our house).

Destroying the DARK SIDE is serious stuff!

Aunt Tera...recognize this? You deserve a big THANK YOU for this Christmas gift (I know it's been 3 or 4 years, but never too late for another thank you)! It has entertained kids for HOURS at a time! They LOVE it!