We are in Hawaii

And I'm finally updating my blog!  It has been a crazy couple of months.  Once we finally got settled in Wisconsin, we came on an extended vacation to Hawaii.  We're loving our time here with friends and family.  The kids love Pounders.  Miriam has made two trips to Wailele already.  We had so much fun with Kaity and family.  And we stopped by to see the turtles at Lani's.


I had an exciting week applying to grad school.  I've been thinking about it for a couple of years but this trip cemented the deal.  I'm going to library school (if they accept me!).  I'm hoping to study academic librarianship and music librarianship.  Did you know they even existed?  I'm planning on studying full time.  It should make life totally crazy, but in a good way.  I'm pretty lucky to have such an awesome supportive husband.

It's good to be back in blogland!  More updates to come...

The First Week of School

Recycled some folders from previous years.  A little washi goes a long way.

School started on Tuesday!  Oh, the thrills of a new school year!  First grade is dreamy perfect, complete with  teepee, hermit crab, and teeny tiny desks for each little pupil.  Fourth grade appears to be just right.  An in class library, dreamy!  

The beauty of a neighborhood school is at 8:05 am.  Little legs pumping bicycles, scooters whizzing by, groups of three and four walking by.  Four crossing guards situated around the school helping the little ones get there safely.  I love it.  

Here's to months more of educational bliss.

Nutcracker, featuring my head as the nut

Mim and I are going to the Nutcracker this Friday.  With 178 other kids.  On three buses.  Three to a seat.  For over an hour, each way.  I can't wait.  I'm going to bring a whole lot of Advil.  Remind me to check on the logistics before I jump to chaperone the next field trip. 

If only this article in the NYTimes had come out 4 weeks ago. 

(It will probably be great.  But my tendency to migraines and nausea on buses has me a little concerned.)

Congrats Grad!

Yay Monkey for making it through Pre-K. She had two wonderful teachers this year. Hopefully next year is just as great.
She was a great Mary. So serious.

Wacky Wednesday

I love the days that reaffirm the my decision to stay at home with the kids. I mean, they really don't care that I cook most of their meals from scratch, chauffeur them to school and activities, go to the pta meetings, and scour the internet for apartments, schools, dance and gymnastics classes in the city we may move to.

But here's what they do care about.

The Mermaid's school celebrated Dr. Suess's birthday this week with pajama day, class color day, and Wacky Wednesday. She specified that her hair-do on such a special occasion include a bun, braids, and ponytails. I am proud to say that I accomplished all three. We tried to get her to go a little wackier on her clothing choices, but she was cool with just the hair. Problem is, her little sister didn't get in on the fun this year and keeps asking me if it's Wednesday and can I do her hair like Mermaid's?

Polar Performance

The Mermaid had a great 2nd grade production of Polar animals. Her report was on the snowshoe hare. Actually quite interesting. And such super cute kids! Don't you love M's cast? She would have gotten just pink, but the school secretaries told her that their kids got two colors.

Reading For Pleasure

This weekend Jesse and I did a little job swap. He watched the kids and I worked on his dissertation. It was surprisingly relaxing. J got to some sewing he's been wanting me to do, and I proofread all 295 pages, including footnotes. It was fun to use my little red pen crossing out superfluous articles and inserting missing prepositions. It took me back to my Reading Writing Center days in college when I had the MLA handbook memorized. Unfortunately, Jesse used Chicago, so I was of little citing help. But I am now able to say that I have read Jesse's dissertation from start to finish. And I've learned a lot about Ennin, the Hui Chang persecution, the history of journals in Japan, and what the heck my husband has been doing the last three years or so.

Work

I know this may sound odd, but I just want you all to know that Jesse works (maybe this is just in case his advisers read my blog). Until the diss is done, he's working Saturdays. He works nights. He reads evenings. We get him from 6-8, most days. I get him an hour more than the kids because he comes home for lunch. Most Tuesdays we have a lunch date from 12-1. He's contemplating leaving earlier in the morning.

Weirdly enough, this is working. He's so awesome from 6-8. Dinner is a blast. PScouts is a hit (more on that to come). And he still washes dishes and puts the kids to bed. Not bad. Not bad at all.

First Day of Pre-K

We were lucky enough to win the pre-k lottery. Monkey had her first day where she painted and made a new friend. She was a little disappointed with all the rules: no going up the slide, can't use the swings until they take out the baby swings, no holding hands with your new friend when you're in line. She and her new friend almost switched moms because they traded nametags on the bus ride home. They wanted to be able to remember their new friend's name (they can't read), but the driver doesn't know them yet, so he almost dropped Monkey off somewhere else. Glad we got her home safely.

Do you love the shoes? 2.98 at Goodwill. Sweet.

Sandwich bags

I finally made some sandwich bags. We took them to the park filled with cheezits, so the bags are already greasy. Oh well. They're meant to be used. I'll make some snack size ones soon. I'm excited to have another reusable bag for school, park days, and random snacking. Less plastic= good. And it's fun to see my kawaii fabric in use, not just in a drawer.
I lined it with yellow quilting fabric and used velcro to fasten it. Which turtle is your favorite?

Picture Day

Here's my girl. First grade mug shot. I love how she looks so much like Jesse when he was a kid. Of course, she's way cuter. I don't have a picture of little J, but here's one of me in 2nd grade.

Everything I need to know I learned in 1st grade

Mermaid's school gives out little tickets for good deeds. At the end of the week, someone from each grade gets their ticket pulled and receives some sort of prize.

"I saw Mrs. R give a girl a ticket for picking up trash, so I decided to pick up trash the next chance I got. So I picked up trash at recess, and I got a ticket too! And then I saw more trash, but I had already gotten my ticket, so I didn't pick it up."

And today I got a call that she had a fever and should come home. I asked her how the teacher knew she was sick and she said "I was groaning a lot and I tried to put my head down." The nurse said she shouldn't come back to school tomorrow, but she's been fit as a fiddle since she got home. But I'd probably die of embarrassment if we had a repeat groaning performance tomorrow. So she's coming to playgroup with G. Whee.

First Grade

Guess who I'm making friends with at school. Guess. The Japanese moms. There are four Japanese kids in Mermaid's class, not counting M. She's the only one with a randoseru. It's causing jealous fits amongst the Nihonjin kids. Mermaid was also glad that Izumi-chan has an obento, too. Seeing as lunch costs $3.00 a day, I'm not sure why everyone isn't making an obento.

Also, Danny will be happy to know that my car is a hit with the primary age children. I got lots of "oooh, pretty car!" when I went to pick Mermaid up the first day. Some people appreciate turquoise.

jyu, ni jyu, san jyu, yon jyu, go jyu...Hyaku!

Here's the Mermaid. We thought she was being difficult, not trying very hard to count by 10's. She can't count to 20, let alone 100. Could be a problem, seeing as she's going to be in first grade. Turns out, she can do all of it. Count to 20, count by tens, probably count to 100. All in Japanese. She adds and subtracts in Japanese as well.

School Matsuri

Today was the last day of school for Mermaid. The PTA had a matsuri to celebrate the end of the semester. There was the traditional watermelon whack, kiddie pool for younger siblings, fishing for balloons, water gun fight, and the fire hose. That's right, the fire department comes and hoses the kids down for a good twenty minutes. What a way to end the semester. Since school started in April, this is only the first semester. I wish I could be here to see what they do in March. It's got to be AMAZING!Mermaid with her teacher and asagao (morning glory plant).

The Mermaid is pretty sad to be leaving. She thinks we should go back to the states, pack up, and move back here permanently. Dad's not interested, but I could be persuaded.

Check out the video from the Matsuri below. FUN!

Fire Hose

Watermelon Whack

Pooltime

Yesterday was observation day at M's school. G and I biked over to her school to watch her in swimming class. We're lucky that the school has a pool. The teachers keep the kids on a tight leash, not much actual swimming going on. Mostly kicking and gliding, with a little kicking thrown in. But the kids love it, so it's all good.

Her school is quite small, so the first three grades combine for swimming. They're very cute with their goggles and swim caps.

Class of 2008

No, it's not Jesse. It's M's youchien class. I tried to get choked up about this important milestone, but I couldn't. I'm so excited that I don't have to wake up at 6:30 to put rice on for her obento. Shogakko (elementary school) has hot lunches for the kids every day! And they're super healthy. No fish sticks, french fries, hamburger surprise here. M's eaten at two different schools and she LOVED lunch! She's still talking about the noodles she had in Takao.

J thought M was a little overdressed for the occasion, but she felt special. A friend from church gave us the jacket (bless her). It goes with a dress that she'll wear to the first day of elementary school. Another huge day in a mom's life here. Can't wait.

Bento IV

It's December and at M's Youchien that means we've switched to the two tiered obento box. The teachers heat up the rice for the kids. Of course I got it at the 100 yen store. They're about 1000 at Akachan Honpo for the cute Miffy double bento box. I love Miffy, but not that much. Today's obento looks good, but as I suspected, M didn't eat the cherry tomato or the dumpling. For some reason she doesn't like them, though they add variety and color in my opinion. Theh quail eggs are a recent addition that Uta's mom told me about. She only ate half of the rice, but she says it's because she prefers her rice cold. Umm, how do I explain that to her teachers? Do I even bother? G insisted we take a picture of her lunch today. She usually eats it around 10 because she doesn't eat enough of a breakfast. The picture of her obento is fuzzy, so I'm not going to post it.