A Roman Dinner

In homeschool we are starting "history" which is really just reading books to introduce Miss M to the idea of history. We recently read about Ancient Rome. She enjoyed reading about it and relating the apostle Paul to this place. She currently will tell you her favorite books in the bible are Genesis, Exodus and Romans.:) So after reading about Ancient Rome we decided to have a Roman dinner like they did. Supposedly in Ancient Rome they would sit around on the floor while eating with their hands, lounging around on pillows. I doubt they had onigiri at their dinner, but we enjoyed eating finger foods and lying down while we eat. My husband joked that eating with fingers was no different than normal since our kids try to not use their silverware. :) It was a fun way to end the week.

K man's bike

We bit the bullet and got the K man a bike. Reality is I really need him to be able to bike next to me in the next two months or so because I need to be able to put the J man in the front seat of the bike and use the back seat to carry bags. He is using training wheels right now but is doing really well. He absolutely LOVES his bike! He wakes up every morning asking to practice riding. And he does really well. He's biking further than Miss M did when she started. Today he biked to the local mall and back. I really thought he would need to walk the bike up a hill along the way, but he pushed right through. He wants to go super fast and beat his sister. I think before long he will be riding on his own without the training wheels. It makes me happy that he loves it so much, and I hope he has fond memories of his first bike. The last picture shows why I need him to bike on his own...no room for him in the seat!

J Man's First Yukata

Our pastor's wife has given us yukatas for both the K Man and the J Man when they were baptized. It is such a sweet gesture from an even sweeter lady. We truly love this family that God has brought into our lives and are so grateful for them and their service to the Lord for this city. We would have never made it in this dark city without our church for as long as we have and we think so much of our pastor and his wife. Here is the J Man sporting his summer yukata.

Miss M, First grade, home school

We named our homeschool this year. We decided to call it Sakura Academy, since we love the sakura season here in Japan. We started first grade for Miss M on July 1st. So far we have done really well. I started slow with a few subjects the first week and have added subjects each week. This week was supposed to be our first full week with all subjects but I realized I am missing some things with spelling so we will have to wait on that until my materials get here in a few weeks. The K Man has swimming this week at youchien so we will school five days this week. However, while he is on break, I decided to just do school with Miss M 3 days a week. It works well when he is home to go out in the morning for an outing, and then come back and do school with her in the afternoon when he is a bit more tired and content playing by himself with some toys. I do wish we had more of a community to homeschool together with, but we are enjoying ourselves and learning so that is what counts for now. I decided to start in July because I like the idea of year round school. Plus I would rather take more breaks throughout the year than one long summer break, at least for now. Below are a few pictures of Miss M and her train she created for our math lesson to discuss more and few...more animals getting on the train. :)

K Man - youchien

K Man just finished up his first segment of youchien. He really seems to be enjoying it so far. They had a festival at the end of the week this past week. He told me his favorite thing to do was play the big taiko drum. He has made some friends, had a few scuffles, and his Japanese is really blossoming. He is a lot like his daddy - very observant and can fit in anywhere. It is interesting to see the differences between he and Miss M. At the same age, she did not switch languages near as easily as the K Man does. I think one of my favorite things is to listen to him play by himself and speak Japanese or when he sings praise songs from church in Japanese. Now we are on summer break...let's hope we all survive the heat and are still loving each other at the end of the six weeks! I am proud of the K Man for doing so well at youchien. 

J Man's Baptism/ 4 Month Mark

The J Man was baptized in our church here in Tokyo on June 28th, just the day after his four month birthday. It was such a sweet ceremony for us as a family. Our dear friend who organized all of our help post birth translated the baptism for us which was special for me. It brought such comfort and love to me to hear her voice translate such a special occasion in our story as a family. The J Man is healthy and happy at four months, weighing in at 6.2 kilograms (13.7 pounds) and 62.2 cm tall (24.5 inches). He is starting to roll over from his back to his tummy and occasionally can roll himself back but not always. He has lots of help from his big brother who LOVES him to pieces. However, the K Man is quite big and strong, stronger than he realizes, and I find myself saying "Gentle, gentle!" about 100 times a day! The problem is the K Man makes the J Man laugh when he is rough, so it just encourages the K Man even more. At one point, the J Man was going so fast in the bouncy seat it was hitting the floor behind it. I am glad to see the K Man have such affection and I hope this relationship as brothers only continues to grow and foster. The J Man is so happy, and he smiles all the time. He is finding his voice but as the third child in the house he may have to speak up more to be heard! I am so in love with this sweet baby and am soaking up holding him, singing to him, and having him nestled into me with the carrier as much as I can. We love you J Man!

Scrapbook day, July 15, 2015

Scrapbook day fell on a Wednesday this month. The K man does not go to school on Wednesdays (in fact, this is his last week before summer vacation). It is HOT here so I decided to take the kids to a nearby splash pool in the morning and have a pizza lunch. We were home by 12:15 and enjoyed a quiet afternoon at home in the AC with homeschool for Miss M, a Lego party, and a little Peppa Pig. We may be watching too much Peppa...the K man referred to bandaids as "plasters" today. It was nice to let the J man have an afternoon nap at home for a change. Miss M was super helpful today and kind. Maybe the summer won't be days of fighting after all, ha! Enjoy the pics of today!

Kidzania

We went to Kidzania today and had a blast. It always starts out stressful but once you get your groove it is a lot of fun. The K Man was disappointed he did not get to do the fire truck, but I told him next time. The kids did photography and got to edit their photos and keep one. They also pretended to be a package delivery guy and took sports magazines to the airplane for people to read on their next flight. They made pizza for their lunch, yum, and road the Hato tour bus several times. Miss M also did the JTB travel agency job and planned a trip to Russia. It was fun telling her about my time living in Belarus and how I had been to some of the places on her brochure. She said she would like me to take her there one day. That warmed my heart since that part of the world has a special place in my heart and I would LOVE to take her there one day. We were all exhausted by the end of the day but it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed seeing them do activites together as brother and sister.