Friendly faces

Just a few pictures I've gathered over the month:

Jordan on the piano--must be from all the Baby Einstein he watches!

Our friend Emma--growing up beautifully! She's the same age as Janina and we've known her since they were in kindergarten.

Me and my smallest babe!

Our good friend Patti and Jordan--Patti lives nearby and is part of our foreigners in Hashimoto group!

Emma in her pool--it takes up a good chunk of her garden, but definitely worth it in the hot Japanese summer.

Jordan standing by his new toy boxy--now if he'd just play with the toys and not everything else in the living room!

My two darlings on the computer--probably watching Avril on You Tube!! OH NO--AVRIL AGAIN!!

Our fall cucumber seedlings ready to be replanted

Jordan trying to feed himself somen noodles...not successfully but very entertaining!

Off to the matsuri!

We took a trip to our local river bank for the local matsuri--complete with vendors, crowds, friends and fireworks!! It's a fun yearly event, but never so much fun as when with friends who add to the excitement and enjoyment! For more pictures and information about Japanese matsuri, see my blog A Foreign Mother in Japan

On our way, along with our comfy beach chairs!

A view of the matsuri.

Our little group of friends...

...Jordan in his stroller..

the kids found a place to sit near the banks.

the beginning of the fireworks show!

Happy Birthday Claire!

It was our friend Claire's birthday, we had a little celebration for her--and for our other friend Kaz whom we didn't get pictures of--sorry Kaz!!

Here's the birthday girl in the birthday hat!

And Claire's son Yuji, who loved the mango mousse cake--courtesy of Costco!

Most of the partiers!

..a bit closer..the food was great!!

Keeping up with us--video of the Boogah!

Enjoy this little remix of some camera videos we took of Jordan!

A few family pictures

Just a few pictures of the family, from our day at Nagashima...

Loved this one of Jordan, we left him with Janina while we went on a ride, he wasn't too happy about it!

Art and I took a breather at a nearby cafe, and of course we took the boogah!
Jordan loves sitting on shoulders, something about being up so high?
A lovely family shot one of the ride attendants took of us...you might see this again in your Christmas card.
Another family shot, minus Jason the photographer.

Half a Hamster

By request, here is the story of our 'half a hamster':

Janina finally talked me into letting her get a hamster, after a few hamster-free years. We went to the local home center to choose one out, and 2 hours later the kids were sitting in the car waiting for me, the hamster in its little carry-home box. I got everything else loaded, shut the car up, jumped in to drive the new addition home, Janina says:
"Mom, I can't find the hamster!!"
"What do you mean, 'you can't find the hamster', isn't it in the box?"
"I let her come out to play and she ran under the seat!" (DUH!!)
"What!!?? Why would you let the hamster out of the box in the car?? Of course its going to run away, it's a stupid animal with a small brain and loves trouble!"

I jumped out and started searching the car (we have a 7-seater Toyota Ipsum, a lot of space to hide). Half an hour later I gave up, we couldn't sit in the parking lot forever, for all I knew, the thing had already run out the door and found a new life in the grass. But I gave Janina an earful and scared the crap out of her, that maybe hammy was in the engine and as soon as I turn it on that was going to be the end of hammy, and no way are we going to buy a new one, etc... she was pretty much in tears (though she can be a tough nut!)

The next day we caved and her dad took her down to find another hamster (after all, we had the food, the cage, the wood chips, all of it waiting for a cute hamster!). Brought the hamster home, put it in the cage, went to empty the car and what do we find?? Hamster droppings in the back of the car--damn that creature--it's made a home in our car--and we have 2 cats as well, dangerous living! And so here we are setting out food and water in our car twice a day for the thing, and I'm feeling that my life is being controlled by our pets. So, Art gets tired of having a hamster living in the car, it's really not a proper place for a hamster to live, and he decides to catch it, how hard could it be really--it sneaks out for food, you got it!

Two hours later Art comes back in the house for refreshments--no hamster--it seems we bought ourselves a clever little devil--it pokes its nose out for food--watches Art, dashes out for food and is back under the seats somewhere before he can react! Well, he finally caught the thing, and now we are the proud owners of 2 hamsters--not for long!!

Unfortunately there's a jealousy issue, and hamster number 2 can't handle being the one and only, so poor little hamster number one who survived the car, loses the battle and we make another little grave in the backyard for her (in total, we probably actually have about 12-1/2 hamster graves around Osaka). So, hamster number 2 is now hamster number 1 and I've given up on remembering names. It's just 'the hamster'.

At this point of time our cats still lived in the house (actually, now it's just cat--we had to relocate one of them due to bad behavior). But this cat, who is really good, seems to have absolutely no interest in the hamster. We could leave cat in room with hamster and come back to cat in room with hamster. Cat didn't sit there eying the snack, cat didn't sit there wooing snack out of cage, cat didn't even seem to know snack was right under her nose, so we didn't worry. Hmmm--cats are clever and know how to wait! One day, hamster 2 disappears. Kids searched the rooms, the house, the yard, no hamster whatsoever--but we've gone through disappearing hamster tricks before, and they always manage to find their way home.

Three days later Jason is cleaning under his bed, and comes out yelling--I found some legs!! Ooooh, yuuuck!! Gross fascination--Jason found the latter half of hamster number 2, and we know what happened to the poor little critter. So, with tears and morbid fascination, (and lots of yelling at cat!) we buried half a hamster next to 2 other hamsters.

And that's the story of half a hamster.

Having a Hamster

I finally realized why my parents adamantly refused to get us pets--well, we had a few here and there, a guinea pig once, (or maybe twice), we tried a dog, didn't last long (poor thing got sick) and when we were all considerably older, we got a cat.

The reason my parents didn't want pets was because--

FIVE KIDS IS A LOT OF WORK!! WHY ADD TO THE RESPONSIBILITY??

My kids are pestering me for a hamster (actually, they'd like 3 hamsters, but are willing to settle for one.) I resisted and resisted and resisted, but they eventually wore me down. I have gone down fighting though, and am milking this for all I can get. I said:

"OK, but this is the deal--
1. You will do 90 minutes of study time for 40 days, once everyone completes their time, you can buy a hamster (emphasis on the A).
2. You will buy the hamster, the cage and all accessories with your own money.
3. You will keep the hamster in your rooms, not in the living room, or any other public area.
4. If I find myself taking care of the hamster, the hamster will find itself living in the yard with the cats!"

So far so good. Three days into the deal and they are completing their first 90 minute study period, guess we'll see how it goes in a couple months--hehe. (I secretly hoped the 'deal' would put them off the hamster, it almost did, but they decided to persevere, and so...we may have a hamster soon! Of course, we have 2-1/2 hamsters buried in our backyard from hamsters who've been part of our family over the years--ahhh, the hamster stories we tell..)

Newest Niecelet

Some adorable pictures of my newest niecelet Ami and her family! We can't wait to meet her in person, and are sad to be so far away! (Please see her blog for more great pictures!)

Sleeping like a doll!

Auntie Auty and cousin Trini

Big sis' Marylin

Grandma and Papa Dave

Papa John and cousin Trini

Dinner Out

A family dinner out at the local Joyfull family restaurant..

Ended by a bit of time at the game center where Janina won some stuffed toy in the UFO catcher -- (the elderly woman there gave the kids a few toys she had won. She lives in the city next to us, and comes to our game center frequently, mostly cause she's bored and lonely, and gives the kids her prizes!)

Our Summer Event

Last Monday worked out perfectly for us to visit one of our favorite summer haunts--Nagashima Spa Land in Mie Prefecture. It takes about 2-1/2 hours to drive, so leaving at 7:30 we arrived just at 10 when the park opened, and we stayed until closing at 8pm--phew!! We were lucky to have a perfect day with the sun, a few clouds, and hardly a person at the park, we basically walked onto all the rides! This is the 4th time we've been here in about 6 years, and Julia is finally tall enough to go on almost every ride! This has always been a source of tears for her, being too short for the really fun rides--and a source of tears for Janina--being tall enough for Mom to drag her onto the really fun rides!

Here we are on our way to the entrance..

We opted to use the park's baby buggies, as we saw on their website they had some available for a low fee. This was the ONLY really sucky part of the day--the buggy was more like a cart with a padded seat, no shade, no strap, no place to lay down for a nap, VERY disappointing.

Once upon a time these rides were exciting for the kids--this year Janina didn't even try to get on!

Jordan's very first ride--the Merry Go-Round!

And his second ride--the flying parachute swing--not sure what happened to my face there.

The last of the kiddy-rides before we hit the big-time fun!

One of the kids' favorites--the Viking Swing!

Daddy's favorite--some sort of backward drop-and-twist you ride--
I went on with the kids, and right at the top I got a cramp in my butt! I yelled out "Ouch, ouch, I got a cramp in my butt!!" But the kids heard "I got crap in my butt!" and thought I'd pooped my pants. As soon as we got off they asked me if I needed to go to the toilet, and I realized they'd heard me wrong! Embarrassing!!

Janina the Brave wanted to try out the only ride in the park I vowed not to go on (and of course I did later after I saw Janina had survived), the Giant Frisbee!

You sit in a circle facing outward..

and you swing back and forth...

while the wheel is turning in a circle... you almost go upside down..

...and since she survived, I thought maybe I would too!

Art took the kids on the giant ferris wheel--another ride I'm really not into..

Art, Julia and I went on the White Cyclone, a wooden roller coaster that fairly rattles your brains!

...and Janina took her turn watching Jordan since she really doesn't like most roller coasters.

It was time for another Jordan ride--the kiddy-monorail...

..here are the other three in their own cart.

I joined Janina and Jason on the little Frisbee ride.

We took our turn in the go-carts

Art and the kids went on the FREE-FALL

...which Julia loved and did over 3 times.

It was time for another Jordan-ride--the steam-engine!

Art and I took Jason and Julia on this coaster--Julia loved it so much she came back to ride it alone--and she truly was alone..

When we saw her come around the bend--she was the only one on the coaster, right in the front!

The Space Shot shoots you straight up in the air, then lets you fall almost the whole way down. When you reach the top you hit 0 gravity and float up in your seat!

We slowly made our way over to the Steel Dragon 2000, a monster of a coaster ride that used to hold 5 Guiness world records for speed, length, highest drop, fastest drop. We did it at the very end and wished we'd done it earlier so we could do it a few more times. It's sort of scary when you get to the top of that hill and realize you're up higher than the ferris wheel--but oh the fun of the ride!!

Another Jordan-ride!

Next to the amusement park is a swimming pool/slider park. Next time we go we might get the full pass to both parks, that way you can go from the pool to the rides and back!

And so we came to the end of a really great day! There were many more rides we didn't take pictures of, all in all, it was worth the time, money and effort!