Spring Break and Easter Updates

Holidays are meant for family and when you don’t have any nearby (or even in this hemisphere) you have to find a temporary family. We have been tremendously blessed to form a group of friends here we lovingly call our “Okinawa family.” We can count on them for anything, the kids run wild like they are cousins and we truly have a great time when we get together. The group is large, as a good family should be, and we love it. Last week we had the first family move away, it was sad but we are excited for them and their new adventure. We all enjoyed a fun Easter gathering before they left. We enjoyed a delicious lunch together after church, broke up for nap time and then the kids had a good time searching for eggs. I long for the days when we can go to grandma’s house on Easter but in the meantime, I am thankful we could go to the Ball’s and the Peterson’s.
The Group, our Oki FamilyAlyssa was so excited to run around finding eggs!
Yes, that is her Easter basket on her head.

The week before Easter was spring break and we had tons of fun exploring the island while Hayden was home from the school.
Monday was rainy so we went to the indoor Discovery Museum at the zoo. I think the kids could stay their all day exploring and playing with everything oblivious to the fact that everything was in Japanese.
Above: this display really made you feel small, Hayden is making a face to pretend he's a mouse. Below: this was Alyssa's favorite attraction. You dip the cup in the water and pick up these digital images floating on the water, Japanese characters, and once they are "in" your cup they turn into the object the character stands for like an animal. It was amazing and Alyssa would just say "wow!" and get so excited! I don't know how it worked!

Above: Hayden's favorite thing was this center where you made a design with the blocks in a little box, then you put the box in the drawer of the tower behind Hayden. When you close the drawer a video of the tower appears on the screen on the wall, in the video the drawer opens and your design comes to life and moves around the screen. He could have done it all day. Below: they had a fun toddler climbing and playing area.

Tuesday we went to a place called Bios on Hill, it was a beautiful garden area with farm animals to feed, unique slides and climbing areas, stilts to walk on, grounds to explore and a boat ride to look at lilies and other plants and water buffalo.
It was all very enjoyable except for the drama on the boat ride when one of Hayden’s friends dropped Hayden’s lego Star Wars character into the water and Hayden started screaming. I couldn’t quite reach the toy without climbing off the side of the boat and I had taken my friends three small children with me that day because she just had a baby and her husband is deployed so I was already struggling to keep them from jumping off the boat. To say I had my hands full is an understatement. It was only possible because I had help from some of the other friends who had come to the gardens. Anyway, I was trying to figure out how to get the toy as Hayden is wailing and I try to talk to the guy driving the boat but he speaks no English and I speak no Japanese. I try to ask if I can climb off and get it he says something that makes me think he means no and he begins to move the boat away...yes it was just a toy, but to Hayden is was so much more and I still get a sick feeling watching us drive away from it while I was frantically thinking of what I should have done...needless to say, we survived the day, luckily no children were left floating in the river (given that I had taken 6 children, 5 of which were 4 and under, that says a lot) and after spending way too much on an Ebay auction and we managed to replace the precious Star Wars guy, so all is well.4 of the 6 kids, with Alicia, our most beloved babysitter. My girls adore her and she was nice enough to hold Alyssa on the boat while I held the other little toddler. We've never before had a regular babysitter and it's great. I look for excuses to hire her to watch the kids. Hooray for Alicia!
Wednesday Hayden was supposed to have golf lessons all day at the local course but it was cancelled due to rain. So instead we had over two of his best friends from church that were moving soon. They had a blast playing together all day.
Thursday we went to our favorite beach, Maeda Flatts and enjoyed a day of digging and exploring. It ended up raining and we got a bit cold but still had a fun morning. That afternoon we went to see Monsters vs. Aliens at the theater. It was the first time I have taken the kids to a movie since Danica was 2 weeks old. Hayden has been and Danica was so cute about it, on the way she turned to Hayden in the car and asked very seriously “Hayden, is the movie theater far away?” It’s right next to the Exchange, post office and the food court that we go to nearly every day. We walked in and she said “Mom, what is that smell?” The popcorn. During the previews she kept turning to me and saying “This isn’t the movie, mom.” She enjoyed her trip to the theater, Hayden loved the movie and I learned that having Alyssa skip her nap in hopes that she’ll fall asleep during the movie doesn’t work, she was so wiggly and crazy I missed half the movie...we won’t do it again until she’s older... and by then there will be another wiggly little baby... hmmm... I suppose that is why I didn’t go to movies much as a kid either!
Friday we left on our trip to IE Island and the half marathon that I already wrote about. It was a really fun spring break and it was hard to have Hayden go back to school and go back to our mundane routine... :)