The Dog Days of Summer

It's the end of August, and the dog days of summer are in full effect here in Okinawa and we won't feel any sort of relief until at least mid-October.... I think I might go crazy by then!!  It is HARD keeping the kiddos busy inside when it is too hot/humid (and dangerous) to take them outside!  The pools are closed now and the beach water feels like bath water. :) Although - I am very much aware that the benefit is the 7-8 months of beautiful weather we have and I am thankful for that!


Anyway, I digress again.  As I was reviewing my pictures from August I noticed that 90% of the pictures were taken INSIDE!  I have gotten very creative keeping the little ones busy.  During the typhoon, when we were stuck inside for 3 days straight, we played tons and tons of board games, and when those ran out I made up a photo scavenger hunt for Wyatt.  I made a list of clipart pictures on a Word document and had him go on a treasure hunt around the house to photograph them.  He loves taking pics with my camera so it kept him busy for about 30 minutes!  And the pictures were very funny :) Here is the picture he took of one of the cats (who was trying to run away!)


Legos, dancing, board games, and games of all kind are a part of every day around here - which is fine with me, I LOVE board games!  Here's a pic of the kids playing the Elephant game, which is a favorite of theirs.

A few days ago I made up a menu with pictures on it of main dishes, side dishes, and drinks and we played restaurant.  In the morning, I pretend ordered from the menu and Wyatt and Olivia made me the meals in their toy kitchen.  For lunch, I let the kids choose their own food off the menu and I made "for real" food for them to eat.  It was fun!  Let me know if you want a copy of the menu and I'll email it to you!


Of course there have been lots of arts and crafts... here are my and Wyatt's creations!  Olivia made one too, and as she was using the glitter tube she went and got her baby. 

I thought she wanted to decorate it, but Wyatt soon said, "Aww, look mom, she's feeding her baby!!"  The glitter tube looked like a bottle, and she was so cute!   You can see it in the background up there.



Cooking and baking has taken up a lot of our time as the kids love to help!  We made sugar cookies this weekend at Wyatt's request and this is Olivia putting the frosting on hers. Mmmm!

Wyatt loves Moon Sand.  I let him get it out ONLY when Livy is napping though.  It gets everywhere and makes a huge mess, but I don't care because he is a great helper cleaning up with his own little vacuum!



















Speaking of vacuums, I killed almost an hour by letting Wyatt play with the attachments to our Dyson.  All I had to do was tell him what area to vacuum and give him a different attachment and he was happy as punch!  He vacummed the whole down stairs and did a pretty good job too!  This is him doing the couch cushions!

Yesterday I took the kids to the Zoo and they have an amazing children's museum there that I have blogged about before.  We have an annual pass and the kids love it.  We spent almost 3 hours at the museum (inside, air conditioned) and one hour outside looking at the animals before we almost literally passed out from the heat.  The kids had so much fun with the Japanese kiddos!

This past week I broke out the masking tape and helped Wyatt make roads and parking lots with the tape on our carpet.  We then built houses and buildings out of the Lincoln Logs, blocks, and Trio blocks and, finally, gave each and every Hot Wheels car and bigger car/truck/what have you a home or a road to drive on.  That took up the better part of a day!  I am sad I didn't get any pictures of it, though.  I will be sure to during the sequel... the sequel being masking tape outlines of our bodies!

We've only got about a week and a half left until Preschool starts on MWF mornings, but what ideas do you have to help us beat the heat? I would love any and all ideas/comments!

Another "Wild" Night of Bunco!

Oh Bunco.... where have you been all my life???  I just love Bunco.  It's such an easy, fun game that requires absolutely no skill.  Throw in some amazing food and good friends and you've got yourself a great party!  One girls' night out at Bunco each month and I am a new person!


This time my neighbor Ivette hosted Bunco.... if you know Ivette or have met her you know that she is a crazy fun girl, so we all knew we'd be in for quite the night.  She hosted Jungle Boogie Bunco and as you can see from the pictures we went all out with the theme.  Keep in mind that the decorations are all stuff that Ivette has in her actual house.  The table coverings were rugs and shower curtains... she also has an animal print ironing board...and the clothes that Antonia and I are wearing (above) are Ivette's too!  Of course I do not own any jungle print outfits myself...but this has me thinking that maybe I should! :)


The food was mostly Nicaraguan/Cambodian/what have you and it was DELISH!  And then there were the drinks...let's just say that there is a reason the "Jungle Juice" is seldom served anywhere outside the college circuit!  And a bunch of 30 year old women really have no business drinking something that's primary ingredient is Everclear at 190 proof.  Thankfully I quit while I was ahead but some of the other ladies did not fare so well!

There were lots of laughs all around that night. Sometimes you just need a good night of laugh-til-your-sides hurt fun.  It was all fun and games until people started falling off their chairs, texting each other's husbands, and spilling their jungle juice...and that was our cue to call it a night!

Xystus Playland

With only 3 weeks left until preschool starts, I'm on a mission to cross off all those summer fun places on my list with the kids!  We've got a fun week planned!  Yesterday we started with a visit to the new Xystus Kids Playland.  I went with a group of new friends and the kids had a great time!  It is too hot here now to be outside unless it involves water, so this is a great new indoor option.  It is a bit far from our house but it was worth the drive. It is new and clean and safe (by Japan standards!). The kids crawled through the tunnels, went down the slides and ziplines, played in the ball pits, climbed the rock wall, and pretend-played for nearly 3 hours! 

The great thing about this place compared to the others here on island is that it is great for Olivia's age.  The other places are geared more towards the 3 and older crowd but there was lots to keep her entertained here.  She still wanted to do the big kid stuff, but I spent much less time chasing and pulling her off of things than usual!

Her favorite was the trampoline with the balls on it.  She played on this thing forever and loved every minute of it.  Soon some Japanese kids came and started bouncing her around - they would jump while she was sitting there and it would bounce her all over the place with the balls. She loved it and it was funny watching them!

Wyatt had a blast - most of the time I didn't even know where he was, but the place is self-contained so I knew he couldn't go far.  It's just hard to see them up in the tunnels!  He ran and played with his little buddies and had a grand old time.  But he took time out to make sure he buried me in the ball pit!

Lookee Here!

Lookee what I won!  My friend Marianne (the one who is coming to see me in February!) has a blog about their baby (Finn, the golden retriever) and has passed me the "Versatile Blogger" award!  I am honored to receive it!  Marianne and I met in grad school when we were hall directors together at the infamous Arizona State University and she was a reader in our wedding!

The award requires me to share seven things about myself, so here goes:
1. My kids crack me up.  Olivia insists on having all doors closed at all times.  No door shall remain open!  If a door is opened, it must be closed immediately!  This morning Wyatt told me that he wants to move back to Iowa NOW because it is way too hot here. When I reminded him that there is a lot of snow and ice in Iowa, he said "that's okay because I can make a hole in the ice and we can have a swimming pool.  But only for kids who are three, four, and five years old."

2. I am really, really, really afraid of driving over long bridges over water.  So living in DC was not a good choice for me.  My father-in-law used to take the "long" way and find a bridge to drive over (or under, through the water tunnel as is the case in DC sometimes) just to see me freak out!

3. That reminds me...I miss my father-in-law more than I ever thought, and think about him every day.  I especially hurt for my husband's loss and am so sad that my kids won't know their Papa!

4. Staying at home with my kids is waaaay better than I ever thought it would be. It is also way harder!  But they amaze me every day. I am so proud of the (usually) well-mannered little people they are becoming!

5. Being a military wife has been a huge blessing in my life.  It has forced me to become more flexible, adaptable, and patient - many things I still need to work on!  I love the friendships I have made, the places I have traveled, and most of all I am so proud of my husband and his service to our country!

6. I consider it a good day if I have not been pooped on, peed on, thrown up or spit-upped on.  However, I know that while the days may seem long, the years are definitely short and I am enjoying this crazy ride I am on called motherhood!

7.  I cannot wait to go to Taipei in a few weeks!!!! I am going with two friends on a girls' weekend and this will be my first weekend (first night, actually) away from Olivia ever.  I am super duper excited to get to travel and not have to plan around nap times and Mickey Mouse!!

And now, I am happy to pass the award on to my friend Nerissa, whose blog about her little ones never fails to bring a smile to my face.  She is full of great mommy ideas, fun family time, yummy recipes, and is the most thoughtful friend I have. She has sent us care packages for absolutely no reason since we first arrived on this island and they are always chock full of great surprises for me and the kids.  She just recently sent me a deployment care package and this is just one of the many reasons I love her!

Time Flies!

....and we are now more than halfway through August and it's been a long time since I've posted!  We have been BUSY.  Mostly busy having fun but with a few "work" things thrown in there too!  I am sad that there are only 4 weeks left until preschool starts so I have been trying to cram things in to soak up the summer fun!

We have been spending some time at the pool.  Wyatt has really increased the length he can swim unassisted and is doing so well!  Olivia is just amazing.  She can "swim" (dog paddle) about a foot and a half from the side railing to the ladder by herself!  She also went off the diving board by herself!!  This is not some small toddler diving board... it is the for real bouncy diving board in the deep end!  The girl is fearless!

We had a typhoon that kept us on lock-down for three days and delayed Christy's departure for four days.  We watched movies, played a lot of board games, ate a ton of food, and had some good old fashioned quality family time!!  The typhoon pretty much stalled out over the top of us and dropped anywhere from 41-46" of rain on us!  We were very lucky that Historic Lester has a drainage ditch right behind us because many of my friends were bailing water and/or had rain coming under doors, window cracks, or leaks in their ceilings. Many also lost power so we considered ourselves very fortunate to come out unscathed!  The island is still cleaning up the tree damage.

I have had a busy couple of weeks with my two volunteer positions.  We had a clothing swap on Saturday and it was our second biggest ever!  I got a ton of great clothing for the kids.  I have also stepped up to be the craft coordinator for the Mothers of PreSchoolers group that I belong to.  So I am on the steering team for that and we've been busy planning for the year that starts in September.  We had registration yesterday and signed up about 65 women and all their children!

It has been so great having Tommy around this summer.  I realized the other day that by the time he leaves in September, this will be the longest stretch (2 1/2 months) that he has been home in the two years we have been here!  And his hours have actually been very normal.... I am getting spoiled and this deployment is going to be a rude awakening! :)

We are on our "one-year countdown" here in Okinawa.  This time next summer we will be back home in the States...somewhere!  It is hard to believe we've been here this long and the time is going so fast!  I have my Okinawa bucket list of things we must do before we leave this little island paradise.  I already know I am going to miss Japan so much - but I also think I'll be glad to be Stateside again too.

What's been going on in your neck of the woods?

Recycling Tour!

As many of you know (because I wrote another post about it a few months ago), Wyatt loves all things associated with trash trucks and recycling.  Loves, loves, loves it to the point where that is what he says he is going to be when he grows up and makes me pull over and/or stalk the trash truck from our car.  So when the opportunity came up to take a tour at a Japanese recycling plant and I let him choose between that and his swimming party, it was a no-brainer choice for him.  This is so funny to me...what 4-year old chooses a trash tour over a swimming party?!
 
Thankfully, the trash tour did not disappoint!  It was so much fun.  On the way there we saw a 7-story mound of TRASH with three bulldozers on top of it (above).  We would later learn that it was an illegal dumping ground and that the recycling plant was working diligently to sort and separate it all. The current estimated timeframe was 8 years until completion.  8 years!!
 
The recycling plant is practically brand new - only three years old - and absolutely, positively immaculate!  It was downright beautiful and had state-of-the-art computers, techonology,solar panels,  and "smart" features like self-closing blinds.  The entire plant is run on electricity that they create themselves from the items they recycle!  Our tour guide (right) and translator (left) are pictured above.

First they let us watch a children's video (in English, no less!) about the recycling plant and how it works.  Then they took us around the plant, showing us the control rooms full of computers, and then that's when Wyatt saw it.  The CLAW!!!

He was absolutely fascinated by The Claw.  He watched it for at least 15 minutes and I could barely tear him away long enough without a tantrum to stand by this replica of the claw that shows its real-life size. 


I had to promise him we would come back to the Claw at the end of the tour before we could move on.  He could have stood there all day watching the trucks back up, dump their trash, and The Claw crushing it and moving it to the shredder bins!

Next up we saw the glass sorting line.  All the glass comes in on a conveyor belt and the workers sort it into green, brown, and clear bins.  After the guide and translator explained it, they asked if there were any questions.  The group of about 20 Marines was silent, but my 4-year old piped right up.  "Me! I have a question!!!" he yelled, as the group started to walk away.  "What is the rope for?" he asked.  There is a line of rope that runs about the workers' heads and it is an emergency line in case someone gets injured or the machine stops working.  Such a smart little guy!!


 
After that we got to see the huge garage where they sort paper, cardboard, and plastics.  Wyatt watched the trucks coming and going and was in little boy heaven.  After that we had to return to The Claw as promised, and then the tour was finished.  Of course he was sad to leave the recylcling plant but he had such a blast!  It was so fun seeing how excited he was. It is times like these that I love staying home with my kids!