Here We Go Again!

Field Trips, Parties and Scouts, oh my!

Once again, it seems another month has come and gone.  We've been pretty busy the last few weeks.  Seems to have been a field trip every week, lots going on with scouts and then I think someone had a birthday.

First field trip: Nissan Factory.  Back in April, the homeschool group took a trip to the local Nissan factory.  There are three in Japan and one just happens to be down the road!  Amazing how many dads took off that day, including Dale.  The weather wasn't the best, but it was a fantastic trip and very informative.  We saw three parts of the plant including the dock where they were loading some cars for export to the US or Europe.  The best part of the trip is that we were ALL able to hear and understand the guide.  We had a Japanese guide and an English translator.  We were all given little headsets so everyone could hear no matter where you were.  Wish more tours did this.  The kids, and dads, all had a blast!

pictures weren't allowed, so this is all we have 

The following weekend, Dale and Nathan went to the Boy Scout Camporee out at the campgrounds. As part of his work towards Arrow of Light, he needs to start doing activities with the Boy Scouts.  With two local troops, this shouldn't be too difficult.  Although the Boy Scouts were there all weekend, the boys just went for Saturday and took part in all the activities: sports, cooking competitions.  Nathan hated the baseball, but was thrilled to do archery again.

The troop leader here is a master chef so dinner was quite the ordeal.  They cooked whole chickens, had some cobblers and something else.  It was a hit with everyone!

Our next field triptook us to Chiba.  The homeschool group has been busy and this time we went to plant rice.  Chibais just on the other side of the bay and is very rural.  This trip started early as we had to catch the 8AM ferry from Kurihama, about 30-40 minutes from here.  Nathan and I rode with another Ikego family so that was nice.  Nathan loved the ferry ride.  It was cool and windy, but at least it didn't rain.

The drive to the farm was pretty easy and rather straight forward.  It was a gorgeous ride too, although I wouldn't want to be there in traffic!  We saw lots of green, more paddies and LOTS of wisteria--it went into bloom a few weeks ago, so pretty.

We had to walk a bit out to the paddy, but it wasn't too bad.  I think what shocked those who hadn't been before the most, was just how deep the mud was.  From looking at it, it only appears to be a few inches, but that's just the water on the surface, the ground is gooey mud for about a foot below that!  The kids all had fun and really got dirty.  Fortunately, we brought a change of clothes so it wasn't too bad.

Demonstrating how to plant the rice.  We put three to five shoots into the mud below each knot in the rope.

All done!  Took about 40 people 30 minutes to finish the paddy.

After the planting, we washed up and the kids enjoyed the Onsen--foot bath--then we had lunch.  Nathan was impressed that Mommy packed such a good lunch with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, BBQ chips, Gatorade and some cookies.  Nathan then went to hang out with the critters and learned about salamanders and their eggs.  The ride home wasn't too bad and we actually got home before Dale did!  We're looking forward to all going back next year and to maybe go harvest the rice in August.

Jamie took her own field trip on the 8th.  She and a friend went to Tokyo for the Hobby Show.  It was pretty crowded, but lots of fun.  We found some great deals on knitting needles and some fabric.  It was just nice to get out and not have any kids with us.  This is an annual show, so we've already made plans for next year.

Any one need a bedazzled quad?  The show had EVERYTHING.  It took up three halls and had just about every craft represented.

Who's the birthday boy?!?  May has sure been a busy month for birthdays.  I think there were at least four or five in Alex's class around, several friends and some family too--Happy Birthday Mom!  Since last year, Alex has had his birthday planned out.  He decided he wanted to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and Build-A-Bear to add to his panda collection.  (he needs 11 pandas, just a few more to go!)  It just so happened that Dale got paid Friday and ran his PRT so going out to dinner sounded like a great idea, and off to Yokohama we went!  We did open a few presents first.  Since this was a "panda party" we found some black and white papers, he got a big panda, and even a panda movie--thanks Grammy and Grampy!  The book from Oma and Papa was a hit too and that was looked through before moving on to the next present.

card from Nathan

Look!  Hoplites!

Movie for the boys and Pandas to watch--yes, they wall watched Saturday morning.

New buddies.  No panda this time, they were a limited edition so Alex went with a black bear instead.  Maybe we'll find one in the states.  Nathan got a dog with a "traveling" hat, it's a hat with flags from the World Cup.

Dinner!  Can't do this on a Friday night in the states, walked right in and were seated for dinner.  The boys already knew what they wanted and were ready to order.

Surprise!

This made for a very long day.  We had spent all morning outside at the track for Field Day, then an evening on the town.  Thankfully, everything closes pretty early here, so that forced us home just after 8.  After all, we still had a busy Saturday to come!  Crossover.

I'm a scout!

The ceremony went very well and we had a great turn-out.  Unlike other years, we actually had new tigers this before the fall.  The boys have been looking forward to this for some time.  One of them even wore his uniform Sunday too!  We're going to have our first meeting on Wednesday so that should be fun.  Then we have the camp out in June.  Fun, fun!

Wheew!  I think that wraps it up, at least for a little while.  The school year is winding down, just another month to go and then we start summer school--shhhh, don't tell the boys!  Just six weeks to go before we should be heading back to the states too and what should be an amazing vacation.  Our first if a few years and our longest yet. 

 

A Little Funny

I still have to get our last couple field trips up.  (The Nissan tour was amazing!)  But, I thought I'd post this little funny from the kids.  It's re-registration at the schools this week and when the notice went out we were told all the things we needed to bring in for this: orders, shot records, etc.  Word quickly got around that none of this was really needed, so I went in to re-register Alex and actually didn't need a thing.  Everything was up to date, including all his shots--what military child overseas doesn't have their shots up to date?

So, at dinner last night I was relaying this all back to Dale.  Needed nothing, no need to rush and get a new letter of employment, whatever.  The conversation was going back and forth between school and travel, when Nathan asked if we needed to get any shots to go to the states this summer for vacation.  A true sign that our kids are well traveled.  We all had to get shots to go to Korea, had to take anti-malarial medication to go to Cambodia--real nasty stuff that the kids still talk about.  He just assumed that since we were traveling, shots or medication must be in the future.

School is winding down.  Hard to believe there are only about six weeks left!  We'll be back in the states in about two months!  Wow, has it really been two years already?  Have we really been living in Asia these past four years?  It's been such an adventure and so much fun.  It's nice to have some consistency although we both admit that we're getting the itch to move.  Come November, this will be the longest we have EVER lived in the same place!  Many of our friends are getting ready to PCS, new people are coming in, lots of transition taking place.  We have some pretty grand plans for the summer.  Not sure how much we'll get accomplished or what all we'll be doing, but it will be fun.  And, it'll be the first time as a family being tourists in our "own" country.  Can't wait!

Mission Completion!

After two failed attempts, we finally completed a field trip to Flower World in Kurihama, not far from here.  Yes, we still had some rain, but nothing like the typhoon that canceled the trip all together or the down pour that caused us to leave early--after all the kids had reached the far end of the playground.  It actually was a very nice day, not too hot or cold, no sun.  Quite nice.  This is just the first of two field trips this week too, hope the weather holds up for Thursday's trip to the Nissan Factory.

Anyway, the park was very nice and in bloom, unlike last time where it was just an empty field.  The tulips were gorgeous and the it looks like the hydrangea are getting ready to bloom soon--they look great come June.

The highlight of the trip is Godzilla Park, complete with Godzilla slide.  The boys LOVED the park, all the obstacles, roller slide, zip line.  Lots of fun and lots to do.  I serious doubt the park would pass safety in the US, but most of the Japanese parks are this way, LOTS of fun!

 

The park also has a very nice herb garden with an Onsen, a little spa for your feet.  It felt so good!  Nice hot water on worn out feet from walking all those hills.  The boys wouldn't do it though, did they miss out. 

Section of Salad Herbs

The highlight of the trip was the ice cream before getting back on the buses.  The kids had a choice of soft serve: vanilla, lavender or mixed.  The boys chose mixed and really enjoyed the lavender.  We've enjoyed the unique ice cream flavors here.  We need to get out and try the Sakura ice cream that is popular this time of year.  Another popular one is sweet potato which is really good, and purple!

I like how he coordinated his ice cream with his attire

Stay tuned for cars next!   

Standardized Testing or Why I Like Homeschooling

Oh wow!  What a long week we've had.  Monday started the ever dreaded standardized tests here.  Dale coordinated for the middle school this year and what a task that was.  He was leaving by 5AM, working much longer hours and running around like a madman trying to get it all worked out.  The week is over, he survived.  Now to just get through the make-ups this week and all should be well.

Although Nathan doesn't have to take the tests as a homeschooler, since his buddy was and he was being offered a ride out there, we decided to have him take it as well.  I guess we'll see if he's improved from last year if nothing else.  He too had earlier mornings and longer days, although we did cut back just doing math this week.  He was out the door before 7 each morning and came to realize just how nice being homeschooled was and not having to get up before 6AM everyday.  He was also able to enjoy lunch out on base and volunteer at the animal shelter a couple times too.

Jamie, she had nothing to do in the mornings, but get up early and take the little ones to school.  It made her realize how much she missed the structure of the day and doing school with Nathan.  Soooo glad the week is done and we can get back to our regularly scheduled program.  We so need to finish up Ancient Greece, figure out how to get the parts of speech learned and finish up the physical science text so we can start plants or earth science.  Yesterday on the big base there was a curriculum fair that was fun to attend.  It was great to see what other, more "experienced" home-schoolers are doing in their day.  There is SO much out there, so many different philosophies and techniques.  We were able to see a couple texts that we'd been interested in and choose the next course of action for math for next year.  Now if our Amazon order would just arrive so we can dig into all those new goodies.  Lots of geography fun stuff: texts, puzzles, coloring books.

In other news, back in January the elementary school started a running club for the students and families.  We figured this would be a good chance for Nathan to get some PE in.  They did the couch to 5K program.  It was pretty funny because Nathan and his friend had no issues joining the club until the learned that "5K" was more than 3 miles!  Yesterday, they ran their race and did so well.  It was another early day as we had to be out in Yokosuka by 8 to register and meet up with the group.  There were several tachers, parents, and kids running.  Although he was one of the last in the group to finish, and slower than he should have been, he did finish.  What a great accomplishment for him! (he even mentioned the next race in April, but quickly he added he didn't want to run it, we'll see.)  Alex joined them for the final stretch and it was a lot of fun seeing the group and fans cheer them on.

Coming across the finish line!

No, he's not a better runner, he just finished his "fraction" of the race.

This was a St. Patrick's Day run, so there were those who got in the spirit!   

Blue and Gold

It's that time of year again, Blue and Gold Banquets for Cub Scouts.  This year we're celebrating the 100th Anniversary of BSA, so a birthday party was in order.  Although extremely stressful and forgetting the flags, it actually turned out to be a great event and went very well.  The big plus came with having it catered this year.  No one had to worry about food, set up or clean up.  It wasn't a big catering job, we asked the high school culinary club to help us out and they did a fantastic job!  We had spaghetti, garlic bread and salad.  They served us quickly and even got seconds to those who wanted it.  Our boys provided desserts by creating cake with their dads.  We had a whole range of cakes too, from a plate of cupcakes all the way up to a HUGE pine-wood derby car--we're talking super big here.

The evening went well and it seemed that everyone enjoyed themselves.  We heard a lot of compliments and the only complaints were dealing with the sound system.  Makes a big difference when you test it in an empty room and when you use it in a crowded room.

We're still keeping very busy otherwise.  Jamie is almost done helping with the yearbook.  That has been a fun, but challenging and time-consuming project.  Dale is getting ready for the stardardized tests and planning a trip back to the Academy this summer.  He has some training to do there so we'll be heading east instead of up the West Coast.  Not a bad substitute.  The boys are really looking forward to going to DC and all the museums.

Homeschool is going well.  We're having a roller coaster of a ride getting into a schedule, but trying something new this week that we hope will make things run more smoothly.  So far so good, despite some distractions and stalling tactics.  Need to figure out how to stop those.  The spelling we got is working very well and he seems to be catching on.  We hope to finish up Ancient Greece in the next couple of weeks then we'll go back to the start of ancients.  For geography this month he's doing North America and his co-op project is the Midwest.  Alex got Washington DC and is having fun with that.  (It's worked out that the past couple of meetings have been no school days or half days for Alex so he can participate too.  He continues to do well in school too.  Last week, he took a field trip to one of the local science museums and had a great time.  They're studying space and mythology--through the constellations.  Wednesday is the 100th Day of School so that will be quite the celebration.

It never seems like we have a lot to do, but we sure are busy all the time.  We're really looking forward to our trip this summer.  It'll be the first time we explored the US as a family.  Trying to keep it cheap and exciting.  Not too hard when the boys just want to stop at National Parks and Landmarks and visit museums and aquariums!