No! It wasn’t the zoo! Good guess though. I was brave and took the kids by myself to the aquarium today.

I packed the night before, so we were out the door at 8. When we got to the park Sean and Catie played on the nets for nearly an hour,

then we moved into the aquarium. After torturing the starfish in the touch tank (Catie loves to pick the big cushion starfish out of the water then drop them, no matter how many times you tell her not to), we moved on to the big tanks. I promptly lost Catie, so grabbed Sean and worked our way all the way around the coral reef tank

before we found her. Later I asked her where she had gone, and figured out she had gone to a spot where fish shadows are projected on the floor, where she and Sean love to dance around them. She didn’t travel too far away after that. After making it through the aquarium, a rain storm was just ending as we went out to the snack bar to eat lunch, so it was much emptier than usual. Then we visited dolphins,

turtles,

one of the dolphin shows,

manatees, and then headed home, with much protesting.
I really have to say, Sean has been a trooper and pretty well behaved. He gets himself into trouble by not listening and not doing things like getting dressed when I need him to,but overall he has been doing great while Jeff has been gone. Catie is doing really good too. She is trying to be a big girl, which sometimes gets frustrating when she has to do everything herself, but I really shouldn’t complain.

Jeff’s battalion had a family day, a chance for the families to get together while dads were away. Sean had a great time. One of his friends from school was there, Shinoska, so they went from one activity to another together. Catie didn’t have so great a time. That morning she was very excited that a firetruck and firefighters were going to be there. But when they arrived, she panicked, and started to cry. After awhile I got her calmed down, and she was able to sit next to me on a chair while I helped set up. But then the clown arrived, and as he walked across the field towards our table, she was terrified. Unless we were at the bouncy houses which were away from everything, she was often in my arms, including a little nap there. My arm is so sore now! Sean had a great time spraying the fire hose

They also had a kids tug of war, Sean’s first experience with this, and his team won!

Here are Sean and Shinoska congratulating each other after their team won.

I probably shouldn’t have done this, as the rainy season is over without much rain to speak of, but I did. I got the kids a hose with little water spraying tubes attached, and they had a blast. I know the pool is just down the street, but we’d been there in the morning, and I get tired of negotiating with Sean and Catie how long we spend in the big pool and how long we spend in the little pool. Playing at home kept everyone happy. And I love my new lens, thank you Rebecca for getting it to me so fast. Now for lots and lots of pictures!

I’m so glad they love each other, and most of the time, have fun playing together

Sean’s school had their Father’s Day party at a local beach Saturday. Sean and Catie held up well until the end, when Sean didn’t want to participate in the dancing, which was supposed to be done with Dad, and have the class picture taken with Dad’s. So here are some pictures. This is the school doing ‘Sensai, Ohio’

And I swear if you go back to the sports day pictures I have this same pose

This is the Sensai’s line up to demonstrate a race. At the whistle they have to get up, turn around and race to capture a flag. There are 2 flags for 5 people.

And there is Sean lined up ready to go, they did scooch him back a bit.

Look at those long legs go!

And he managed to grab the flag.
Here is Catie playing in the sand. She was popped in the shower as soon as we got home

And here is Sean playing with his pair, Akari.

Food is Love, isn’t that what Emeril says?

This is the spread that Sean and Catie requested for obento(lunchbox) at the school Father’s day party. They are LOVED! After putting the kids to bed and washing the dishes, it was time to mess up the kitchen again. That’s three rolls of tamagoyaki, rice balls which Catie requested for her pink lunchbox, and a cheese quesadilla.

Because you never know when watering plants might get dangerous!

It’s been a quiet week so far. Sean and Catie have been signed up for swim lessons, so for the next month we will be at the pool every morning, then rush to school. I’m negotiating a schedule for volunteering at the hospital and Sean has been asking for piano lessons. We’ll have to investigate that at school. Apparently his pair and one of his friends takes lessons, so he wants to also.
Here is the pink girl, you can’t see but she also has her pink rainboots on

and the purple girl

And here is Sean working on a block tower that is almost as tall as he is!

Kitten has been busy, read down her kill page!

I just can’t get enough of Catie and her curls, especially when she is acting cute. So here they are…

I took her to the beauty shop on base today. She was very excited to get her bangs cut. We walked Sean to school since it wasn’t raining and I told her we would go for a run, Mama would shower and then we’d get our haircut. She kept telling me ‘Haircut first! No run, no shower!” We did run, I did shower, then we went for our haircut. Catie climbed right up in the chair without any hesitation, and was tickled pink when she was covered in a pink drape. I forgot to bring my camera. Now we should have a few weeks without the complaint of “hair in me eyes”.

Not to leave Sean out his haircut was last week with Gisuji-san. She is a frail looking old Okinawan lady at the barber shop on base. She is the only one allowed to cut his hair even if other barbers come open before she does. He’s told me that after we move, we have to come back to Okinawa to get his hair cut with Gisuji-san. And people thought John Edwards paid alot for his hair!

Sean recieved some nice compliments from his sensei when I picked him up from school yesterday. His listening to Japanese is very good, he’s starting to explain to other american children what sensei is saying. And they made Father’s day gifts at school yesterday, and the sensei had to help every child with their craft, except for Sean. So he’s doing quite well.

Sean was playing with letters on the fridge today, and wanted to spell a word with the letter x. He had the x in the 3rd letter slot, so I told him we could spell fox. We picked out the letters he would need, then he put the f in the middle slot. I sounded out and explained that the f was the first letter, so he would have to move it. So he took out the x and put the f in the 3rd slot. Then I remembered that I needed to remind him that it’s an english word, so we start on the left.

Things are pretty quiet here. Sean had a bug over the weekend, so we didn’t do much. He’s feeling better and back in school. Catie is her two year old ‘me do it by self!’ self. Jeff is getting ready to leave for a few weeks and the cat remains pretty active. Although she seems to prefer sleeping with Sean to hunting when it’s raining. And since it’s the rainy season, we are getting a bit of rain. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be, at least not yet. But it is hot and humid. If you click on the pictures below, you can see the raindrops. Then click ‘back to blog in the upper right corner to get back to here.

It was sunny and hot a few days ago, so I set up a new pool for the kids. Sean didn’t appreciate being splashed, but Catie had a great time.