T-ball Pizza Party

Saturday was the end of Matthew's T-ball season - their team name was the Incredibles. I think the kids learned a little about T-ball and playing on a team, and had a lot of fun. We had a pizza party to celebrate the end of the season (which was only 6 weeks long).

The kids enjoy their pizza

Matthew ate a bunch of pizza and drank two big glasses of Hi-C fruit punch. He hardly ever has punch or juice, and when he does, we water it down, so by the end of the party (and for the rest of the day) he was bouncing off the walls. He was laughing giddily (and randomly), running around, laughing some more (at nothing), running up and talking to strangers. He was CRAZY! Here he is after a glass or so, already slumping down in his chair.

Here he is getting his certificate and bear from coach.

The kids all got these cool bears that say Kadena first steps T-ball. It was pretty cute, and better than a trophy, at least for their age. Matthew really enjoyed playing T-ball. Next week we start soccer.

Tide Pools

Scott had four days off work this weekend, which is great 'cause he'll be working a lot of long and hard hours for the rest of September.
Friday we took a nice early morning walk. We walked past the steps on the seawall on the way back. When the tide is low you can walk down the steps and check out the tide pools.

It was slippery down there, but the kids were really interested in seeing all the little creatures.

We found a little sea urchin which Matthew thought was cool.

There were these really bright blue fish swimming around in there.
We could see the bright fish from the top of the steps. They were so pretty.

Anna wanted a sea shell to take home, but we couldn't find one without a little critter living inside.

We had a lot of fun looking around in the pools.

The kids didn't want to leave! We'll have to go back again soon.

All Clear Again

Tropical Storm Malou (our second storm of the week) turned out to be pretty minor. I think we got the worst of it Saturday evening when we had some rain and a lot of thunder and lightning. It was no big deal, no damage, didn't turn into a typhoon. So that's good. Now hopefully we can make it through typhoon season with no more big storms. We shall see!

Another Tropical Storm

Are you kidding me? I can't believe another tropical storm is headed right for Okinawa. We are so small in the big pacific! How can two in one week hit us directly. We'll see how this one shakes out. It's supposed to be only a Category 1 and get here about Saturday night/afternoon. More HERE.

Update: Saturday am - the tropical storm never turned into a typhoon, so it was pretty much a non-event for us. It was a little rainy, but not anything unusual for here.

All Clear

The typhoon passed through yesterday evening, directly over Okinawa, as a Category 3 (I think) but there seems to be no damage. Where we were the storm seemed pretty weak. There was no damage and we never lost power. The rain or wind didn't even seem too severe. So everything is good here.
Scott gets to go back to work today and deal with any financial fall out from the storm, so hopefully there wasn't too much damage on base.
Here's a youtube video someone took of Kompasu on Okinawa yesterday. The wind did not seem anywhere near this strong or loud at our house. I think we might be in more of a sheltered location though.

Update: Kadena was ok, but the north part of the island, including our beloved Okuma beach, got hammered. Story HERE.

Typhoon on the way

We might get a typhoon tomorrow or Tuesday morning. It's headed right for us, but only supposed to be a Category 1 (the weakest of typhoons), so hopefully it won't be too bad. Okinawa is right under where it says 3AM Tuesday on this map (or it was, this graphic keeps updating - go HERE to see more). We're all stocked up on water, canned food and batteries, so we should be ok. We'll see what tomorrow is like!

Update - as of our Tuesday morning 7AM, the storm is now a Category 2 Typhoon and expected to be a Cat 3 by the time it gets here (a little after 3pm today).

Update - 10:30am Tuesday - sunny and eerily calm. Scott goes on a McDonalds run.

Update - 10:50am Tuesday - the sky has gotten darker and the rain begins! And we've already lost our TV signal. Bummer. Still have power though. No wind yet. The garbage man picked up all the garbage on our street except ours. So now we have a garbage securing situation. Double Bummer.

Update - 3:40pm Tuesday - pretty much nothing has happened all afternoon. A little rain on and off, but pretty light. Still waiting.

Update - 10:40pm Tuesday - The worst of the storm has past. It seemed very mild, so that was good. We didn't lose power and have no damage. It actually seemed weaker than some non-typhoons that we've had here. I don't know how the rest of island fared, but our little neighborhood is fine.

Interviews

I thought I might interview Anna for her birthday and then repeat the interview in following years to see how her answers change. Now I'm not sure it was the best idea, 'cause it didn't turn out as cute or interesting as I thought. Oh well. Maybe it will be in another year or so. She was only semi-cooperative for the interview, but it worked well enough. She was trying to read a book while I was interviewing her and I think she was a little ticked that I was bugging her with these questions. At one point I ask her what her favorite color is and she just answers that she likes reading her book (like, get the hint mom). She also got up and left in the middle. Matthew, who has never been interviewed in this way, was feeling left out, so we interviewed him too. He also got up and left mid-interview and seemed to be getting a little tired of it by the end. So maybe it wasn't the greatest idea. Oh well.

WARNING: these are both about 2.5 minutes long and probably really boring if you are not Anna or Matthew's mother.

Some possible interview questions

Obon 2010

Last night the kids and I were sitting in the living room when we heard a bunch of loud drumming. We looked out the front window and parade of Eisa dancers and Taiko drummers was making its way down our tiny street. They were led by a big colorful float. We quickly went outside to watch. The dancers and drummers stopped right in front of our house and did a little performance, complete with Okinawan music. It was very cool. The whole neighborhood came out to watch. After they did a few songs, they marched off on their way.
It's Obon right now, so I'm assuming this was an Obon related event. It's been great to live in Okinawa and get to experience some of their beautiful culture.
These are some of the pictures I took. The pics don't really capture how cool the experience was, but you can get an idea.

Here we are watching them from the front step. The dancers were right in front of our house. Cool to see!

From the driveway we could see the dancers and the drummers in front of them. If you look down in front of the drummers you can see the float that was leading them.

The parade was followed by a few trucks with plenty of water and cold towels, and extra drums, so they were prepared. The sad thing is Scott was still at work and didn't get to see it. :( But the kids enjoyed the show. Go here to read about our first Obon.

Okuma Picnic

Friday we had a picnic at Okuma for Scott's office. I wasn't feeling the greatest (sick plus toothache, ouch!) but it was mandatory for Scott and pretty much mandatory for me, so I tried to make the best of it. We had a nice picnic but it was so hot! After eating we headed down to the water to cool off.

The water felt great. I could have stayed in there forever. The kids were getting hot, even being in the water. So we eventually got out, to try and get out of the sun.

Matthew couldn't decide if he wanted to be in the water or playing in the sand, so he kept running back and forth between them.

We took a ride on one of the four person bikes they have there. The kids liked it, except for the speed bumps that we had to go over on the road. Anna wasn't too happy to wear a helmet, but she kept it on for the ride. After the ride we headed home and got out of the heat. It was fun, but hot!

Happy Birthday Anna!!

Anna turned two years old this past weekend. She is getting so grown up. She is quite the little talker and is getting better at telling me what she wants, rather than just melting down. Lately she's been telling me she wants snuggles a lot, which is nice, since she hasn't been the snuggliest little one so far. She is our strong willed little lady. She likes playing with her dolls and her princesses, playing dress up and singing. She also likes drawing and playing cars and trains with Matthew. She especially likes doing things herself!

Anna as a newborn

Anna at one year old

Anna as a big two year old!
Happy Birthday Anna! We love you!

Cowgirl Up!

Today was Anna's friend birthday party. I am not a big party person and this is the first kid party I've ever attempted, so I was a little nervous, but it went well. Anna likes Woody and Jessie from Toy Story, so I thought it would be fun to do a cowboy theme.

Here's Anna's birthday sign. Matthew noticed that is said ANNA on it, so at least one of the party guests appreciated it. I love bandanas so I tried to use them as decorations.

Our food table before the food.
Matthew saw the table and said, "thank you mommy for decorating this room so nice."
Anna saw the table and asked, "Where's Bullseye?" That' Woody's horse. So I guess he was conspicuously absent.

Anna's wanted poster. Oddly enough Anna was also wearing a sheriff's badge at one point, so not sure if she's an outlaw or what.

As a nod to Prospector Pete (from Toy Story 2) we did a little panning for gold - by far the most popular activity of the party. I painted some rocks gold and buried them under a bunch of dry pinto beans in our water table. The kids really liked sifting through to find them and didn't make as big of a mess as I was expecting.

Here's Anna's bucket, with a few beans in there too.

We had the kids dress up like cowboys - well Matthew did, but the little girls didn't want to. Anna put her cowboy hat, bandana and sheriff's badge on and then immediately wanted to take them off. Oh well.

Then we rounded up the horses (Easter egg hunt style). Here's Anna collecting a few horses. They were "hidden" in easy to find places.

The gold nugget table was frequently revisited.

Finally we had lunch, which everyone liked...

...and brought out the cake. The cutest part of the party for me was when Anna saw her cake coming and we sang happy birthday. She lit up and quietly sang happy birthday along with us.

She even knew just how to blow out the candles. Good job Anna!

She loved the cake (BR ice cream cake)

We tried to get her to open presents in the middle of cake, but she was not interested until that cake was gone. Matthew was anxious to help her open her presents.

Here's a horse she got from Grandma and Grandpa Keeler.

And Matthew trying to ride the horse.

Here's Rex - a present from our little friend Halle.
Anna was scared of him at first 'cause he roars, and she would run away from him.
But I think she has gotten more comfortable with him now.
Matthew was happy to take care of him while Anna was running away.

We also threw beanbags into a rope circle, decorated our metal treat buckets with stickers and had a pinata. Matthew liked the beanbags, but it wasn't very popular with the 2 year old girls. The pinata was fun, but we needed help from the big people to get it open. Overall it was fun, and the kids had a good time. Success! Now I'm not so nervous about throwing a kids party. Matthew is already telling me he wants an Army themed birthday party when he turns four (not Air Force, Army). So we'll see how that goes. Happy Birthday Anna!!

Thursday 10AM

Thursday morning, 10:04 AM

I'm working on this (cleaning the dining room floor).

Matthew's doing this (color wonder markers).

Anna's doing this (screaming tantrum).
She's actually getting a bit better...baby steps.

Just another day in the life of us.

Matthew at T-Ball

Matthew had his first T-Ball practice today. It is also his first organized team sport. Very exciting. He is in "first steps" T-ball for 3 and 4 year-olds so its not very competitive. I don't think they even play games. Matthew got a nice orange team shirt (they were huge on all the kids) and he was excited.

Here's Matthew getting ready to field some balls. When we signed up they told us he didn't need a mitt, so we showed up without one, and sure enough, all the other kids had their little mitts. The coach had an extra (it was black with hot pink lacing) so Matthew used that for today. We went to the BX right afterward and bought him his own mitt, which he has since taken with him everywhere, including to bed.

Doing some more fielding. The coach (in the background) was very cute with the kids and told them to act like a monkey with their arms hanging low to get ready to catch the ball and to scoop it up like an alligator when the ball gets to their mitt. They all got a kick out of that.

Here are the kids getting ready to run the bases. Matthew is third in line in this picture. He was the first one to figure out how to run to first base correctly - straight across the baseline rather than taking a detour across the pitcher's mound. He's had a little practice running bases with Grandpa Keeler.

The kids huddled up for a team cheer at the end. The coach asked the kids what the team name should be. A lot of the kids were really pushing for "The Incredible Hulks" but the coach compromised with them and our team name is "The Incredibles." It was blazing hot out there, but Matthew had so much fun and keeps asking when he can go back to T-Ball.