The Japanese school year begins in April, so Claire moved up a class to the Tulip class! Opening Ceremonies are a big deal and I knew this year to dress up a bit more...last year I am not sure if I remembered to brush my hair! :-0
Here is Claire's class with Moms (and some siblings...Gigi was in our picture last year!). :)
My friend Sheila, front row left, is the English teacher and the Sensei, whose name is Shiho, is front row right. Claire is the tallest kid in her class!
We received this fabulous newsletter from Shiho Sensei.
How lucky are we to have Claire's Sensei so sweet and motivated? Love that this is her dream an love that she wants to make a difference with each child every day! WOW!!!!!!!!
Our first baby girl, Audrey LeighAnn, turned thirteen last Sunday!!! (And that is not an April Fool's Joke!)
I had suggested that we have a kareoke party (the Japanese have Kareoke "bars" where you get your own private room and it's super fun), but she said no. Then I suggested a Scavenger Hunt and she didn't protest. One of her favorite shows is "The Amazing Race" and one early morning in December when Mick got up with Gigi and couldn't get back to sleep he had a brainstorm to have an "Amazing Race" birthday party and e-mailed me a bunch of ideas.
We tried to keep it a secret from her, but darn Google and it's auto-fill feature...she was googling one day and it suggested "Amazing Race Printables." Oh well! No surprise needed to make this a super fun party!!!!!!! :)
The day of the party arrived and we had 4 teams of two.
Um, yes...I did have t-shirts made with Audrey's picture on it....overboard?
We had a staggered start and this was the first clue.
Audrey had already taken off because it was suggested by Mason (holding the clue) that she go first because she was the birthday girl (followed closely by "Don't you think I should go second since I suggested Audrey go first?"). :)
This was their mission once they got to the basketball court.
Michael and Max Coletta were nice enough to accept their fate of being volunteered (Thanks Megan!) to be the judges at this event. They liked using the stopwatch! The shots (lay-up, then where the dots are, then a free throw) had to be done in one minute and if they didn't get it accomplished, they had to start again!
Once they completed that mission, they received their next directional clue.
And then this was their mission.
Mick was the official judge on this one.
Their next direction was
and they had a choice to do one of two missions.
Two teams chose the soccer/socks mission and two chose the mailbox mission. The soccer/socks one was faster. I didn't even get a picture of it in progress, but caught up with them at the post office.
Way to go Jenae and Kyle!
They were super tired though from the extra biking!
Brad Goode was our judge here! Julia and Olivia handed out the clue at the Torii! Thank you!
In case you were wondering, there are 2,544 boxes at the Mainside post office. :)
Then their next clue was
They were told that if they weren't safe on their bikes (not using a helmet, crossing somewhere other than a crosswalk) or being rowdy or loud where they shouldn't, etc...they would get a penalty.
And all judges had four of these in their possession but they are such GREAT KIDS that no one received one!!!! :)
The library one was the funniest because only two of the teams had a clue on what they were doing. Really? They don't teach the Dewey Decimal System anymore?
Haille and Ariele smoked through this round, and had already made up time on the soccer/socks round, so (spoiler alert!) they were the winners! Mason and Lucas ended up using Lucas' iPhone to find out what the Dewey Decimal system was and came in second!
Then they had a LONG bike ride ahead of them which was straight into the wind!!!!
The kids were EXHAUSTED when they got to Penny Lake and were not fired up about having to put a tent together in the wind!
Mason and Lucas finished this first and received this last clue.
See, we have this amazing benefit from our Outdoor Recreation Department where we can check out all sorts of equipment for free. Tents/kayaks/jumpees/skis/snow boards/snow gear clothing/coolers/basketballs/sumo suits/etc/etc/etc. So we had to use it! :)
There's my birthday girl and her friend Becky running to the finish line!
I asked Audrey at this moment, "Did you have fun?" and she said, "Not really. I'm tired." :-D
Mason provided some good commentary for me though when they finished!
Such a character!!!
We went back to our house for pizza/cake/presents (only the second birthday party for Audrey where presents were allowed!) and announced the big winners!
(I think I deleted the correct video. Sorry folks. But I already told you who won and were the runners-up!)
Everybody had a fun time and it was satisfying to have it over. (Read: It was a LOT of work to prepare for it! Mick said, "Kind of puts a sleepover into perspective, doesn't it?)
Little sisters Gigi and Claire stayed with my friend Kathy (thank you!) and Gigi came home and fell asleep on a chair. Even Dora couldn't keep her awake.
And yes...she HAD been in her pajamas all day. :) It was a busy day for Mommy and that was one step I skipped! :)
A few last pictures of her amazing day!
That's a t-shirt quilt made from t-shirts from kindergarten to present! My friend Kristen Razvillas did this for me and it is loved! Post a comment or e-mail me if you would like her contact information. Seems like her site is down.
The high school had a talent contest called, Perry (the name of the high school) Idol. Olivia tried out and made the "Mini Idol" whose artists performed during the counting of the votes of the full Idol.
She performed her piano recital piece (recital is in April) and did a great job! I was very proud of Olivia (as always!)
See for yourself. :)
The assistant principal at the high school came up to me afterwards and told me how great Olivia did and how it reminded him of his daughter and her early piano recitals and reminded me to "Cherish these moments. They go too fast."
A friend sent me this picture and that's Dr Funk, our assistant principal, back right with his leg crossed, listening to her. I like this picture because every time I look at it, I think of his words and how he must have been feeling (Both daughters graduated from college, Kansas University, ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK, GO BIG 12!, several years ago and now he has grandsons who is he hoping to see play in piano recitals!) and how you have people tell you "It goes fast" ad nauseam. You think, "Yes. I know. I've heard it. But right now I'm not sure I'm going to make it until bedtime. It would be okay if time went a little faster for today." But it really does go fast....and I need to cherish these girls.
Another successful basketball season is about wrapped up!
Claire towered above her teammates in the 3-4 year old group and really learned some skills this year! I scoffed at the idea of weekly practices for her age group, but that was where they really had a chance to shoot! Claire would shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot and she made baskets all of the time! The first time I took her to practice (when Mick was out of town) she wore what she had been playing in that day....a tutu...and I sat in awe, watching my prissy girly girl shoot and score time after time!
The games were hilarious and tiring for the little ones. They would run to the end of the court (one kid carrying the ball, no dribbling involved) and all the kids who didn't have the ball would congregate under the basket with their hands up. I mean, right under the basket. It was adorable! Then the kid would shoot, the coaches would hand it to a kid on the other team and down the court they would go. They probably ran up and down the court 40 times a game!
When it was Claire's turn, she would run down with the ball, but before she shot, she would dribble a few times. Such a natural!
This was truly the best shot. It was a like herding cats and then making the cats smile. Mick asked, "Is this their silly picture?" ;-)
Love her piggies!
And such a pose! Love the feet, the self confidence, the adorableness of it all! This is actually why I put her in basketball....for the pictures! :)
Mick coached Olivia's team for the second year in a row! The Mavericks improved so much throughout the season! Mick has a system where he numbers the kids at the beginning of the game (1-13) and he sends in 5 players by their numbers, every two minutes. 1-5, then 6-10, then 11,12,13,1,2...You get the idea. I think it's pure genius and such a fair way to make sure all the kids not only get equal playing time, but they're not always playing with the same kids. He also makes sure to split up the best players, although there were quite a few good players this year, so that the groups of five will be about on the same level, no matter what. Such a great Daddy and coach!!!!!!
Olivia scored her first basket in a game this season and I think she floated home from the gym while Mick drove beside her! :) The boys don't always pass to the girls, but this one game, she got the ball and Mick shouted, "OLIVIA! SHOOT!" and it went in! She turned around to Mick and said his expression on his face was sooooooooooooooooooo happy!!!!!!!!
Olivia is a great defensive player and is always running around the lane with her hands up! Go Olivia!
Mick and his assistant coach, Jay, dressed up in suits for this last Thursday's game! :)
We're so lucky to get such professional pictures for our sports by the amazing Danielle Caceres!
Mick got to pick the uniform color and he picked blue because he thought that would go with the most shoes. Is he a great girl Daddy or what?????
Love this one! Such a sassy look on Olivia and such a proud look from Daddy!
Thank you Mick for coaching our girls when they play sports!
I had another Space Available adventure a few weeks ago!
My friend Megan and I hopped to Osan, Korea for the day!!!!
FANCY!
We rode a C-12 which was exceedingly more posh than the C-130 we took to Guam!
We pulled out of the hangar and circled and came back in because some database hadn't uploaded. We sat in the "Ready Room" while they got everything updated.
Megan's husband is the CO of H&HS Squadron and has one of the front row seats in the ready room with his squadron's patch and his call sign "Joey" embroidered on it.
We then got back on the plane and got the thumbs up from our friends, "Grunt"and "Hal."
When we were sitting on the runway the second time, waiting to take off, three hornets from VMFA(AW)-242 took off right in front of us. ZOOM! ZOOM! ZOOM! It was soooooooooooo (big long dramatic pause!) COOL!!!!!!!!
There was even a beverage service.
I bet my flight attendant is tougher than any flight attendant you have ever had! :)
We landed a short 90 minutes later.
Megan and I took a taxi to Chili's (of course!) and then walked off base and "CHECK!" Another country is marked off of my list! (Didn't count until we walked off base!)
We even stayed in Korea because the Lodge on base was full.
There are a bunch of contracted hotels off base and they even had a free shuttle in the morning back to base.
We walked around and shopped. I brought home lots of treasures for the girls and Mick.
But I left the ceramic penis at the store.
Instead I bought more family acceptable things like blankets, pirated (assuming) DVD's, and various chachkes.
This is toward the end of the day when I frantically said to Megan, "I've hardly taken any pictures!"and we went back to the blanket shop where I bought Mick a Texas blanket and asked the owner to pose with me.
The Korean people were very friendly!
What struck me as the most different from Japan is that more people spoke English than in Japan and they accepted dollars, not just the Korean won (pronounced Juan) off base. Some places gave change in dollars, some in won. I'm presuming it's because the won/dollar have a one/one exchange rate, but since I have never seen a place in Japan that accepts dollars...it felt really weird!
One man at a different blanket store (where I bought Gigi a Dora blanket) talked with us about Iwakuni and our bazaar and it make me realize that I should have been looking for one more butterfly cabinet while I was there. So this man actually left his store and walked us a few blocks to this store
which was closed. But wasn't that nice of him? (Also, picture is for reference for anybody else who is shopping in Osan for the day!)
One funny sign.
After all of that shopping we were thirsty and planned to stop here at "Friends Bar" because it sold "Kilkenny" beer, which is Megan's maiden name! :)
But when we walked into it and looked around, we were worried that it might be a place that is off-limits to service members and quickly exited and ended up next door at a pool bar.
Then we went to a Thai restaurant for dinner
Which was delicious although I totally went too spicy!
and then we went back to our hotel room and played games on her iPad!
This was on top of the closet.
We had to get up early for a 7 a.m. "show time" and got some McDonald's before we left.
EggMcMuffin means "delicious" in all languages!
McDonald's even delivers!
We were the only passengers on the plane back to Iwakuni and were greeted with a little care package from our friend Major Elizabeth "Uma" Pham who knew were were going to be on the flight.
Thanks Liz!
Our pilots were "Muddy" and "Nanners."
They weren't flying when they took this picture, I promise! :)
We hit really bad turbulence on our descent, but I wanted to do Mick proud and refrained from praying the Lord's prayer at the top of my lungs (like I did when I was in labor with Olivia...I'll never live that one down!) and truly felt safe because I knew that my pilots were hard-charging, exceptionally trained Marine Corps jet pilot officers! How lucky was I? I told them that the Nick Jr show "Fresh Beat Band" has a song called "Just Like a Rock Star!" (I sure know how to woo those pilots, don't I?) and I was singing it in my head the whole trip! :)
This is right after the turbulence ended.
What a day!!!!
Thanks to Mike ("Joey" who is Megan's husband) and Mick for making it happen for us to get away!!!
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