Month of the Military Child

 I have some amazing children.  They are resilient and roll with the changes and do it with a great attitude.  April has been Month of the Military Child, and the schools did some stuff honoring them.  I have discovered that not everyone rejoices in the blessings of being a Military Brat. Some people find it sad and depressing and overwhelming.  Some people harp about how hard it is.  I say poopy.  It is what it is. And it is whatever you make of it.  Parents set the tone for how their children react and we treat it as a blessing and an adventure. And I think my kids are Rock Stars!

The girls had eye appointments at 8:10 in the morning and we arrived in the parking lot at 7:59.  I told the girls we could just wait in the car, since Colors would play at 8:00.  Nope.  They were really excited because across the parking lot and field is Building One, where the official flag goes up and they had never seen it go up during Colors.  So they hopped out to stand at attention to watch it.  You can barely se the flag waving in front of the far building there.

And Delaney made this vest herself!  I got some old camies donated for my came/flag project, and these exceedingly old ones were in the bag.  Delaney was thrilled and immediately made this vest.  And wore it all day/.

Delaney's picture and haiku about being in the military.  I kind of love her a lot.

Sewing Aspirations

My amazing friend Codi made a fantastic flag out of old camies for her dad (maybe her husband?).  I loved it!  And I want to make one.  I'm working on collecting old uniforms but people are surprisingly reluctant to give them to me.  Ah, well.  I shall persevere!  And hopefully I will still have enthusiasm for the project once I have acquired the materials.  In the meantime, I thought it might be a good end-of-year teacher gift to some of the kid's teachers to make one out of kimonos!

So I have been trying that out.  It is good because I can see if the size of the strips I'm cutting is working out.  

Don't be too impressed with me.  This is my friend's!  But I intend to do one. 

But this one I did.  I did the strips 1.75" wide, but would do 2" next time.  The long strips are around 22" long, but I'll probably try 24" next time.  For the top half, the blue strips are ... um, 9"? long and the red/white are 12-15" long. It did come together pretty quickly.  but now I need to figure out how to display it. (Codi mounted her's in a frame.)

 For future reference,  I will try it with:

7 blue strips 2"x10"
3 light /white strips 2"x15"
4 dark/red 2"x15"
3 light/white 2"x24"
3 dark/red 2"x24"

Playing in the Storm

 We get a bit of rain over here.  Japan does have a "Rainy Season", after all.  But rarely do we get storms.  Okay, fine, if you count typhoons, we do get occasional storms.  But thunder and lightening.... nope.  I could count on one hand the times we have had thunder or lightening.

But last Saturday..... ohhhh, it was insane weather.  It was sunny and raining at the same time.  Then it poured rain,  then the sun came out.  Then it hailed.  There was rolling thunder.

Callie felt the need to dance in the rain, so I snuck in some photos.  Trust me that the rain and hail were dumping down, even though it doesn't look like it.  You can see the hail in the grass.

Best Easter Treat!

 I needed to make something for the PTO bake sale last week.  Something that looked good and that people would want to buy.  I do make a lot of yummy things, but a lot of them need to be refrigerated, and not a lot of them have the visual "wow factor".  So I looked online and found these "Peeps S'mores".  Winner!

No, they don't look fabulous, but they look bright and fun and have Peeps in them, so folks buy them for their kids.  And they actually were tasty. Super easy to make, too!

You melt chocolate chips, dip the bottom of the Peep in it, stick it to the graham cracker, and put it in the fridge for 15 minutes or so to help the chocolate harden. Then drizzle the rest of the chocolate over them.

Graham cracker, chocolate chips, and Peeps!  Awesome!

Stuff you see at Daiso

I love Daiso!  So much great stuff to see and find.  I needed a few items so I went over there with the girls and saw some intriguing things. 

These were SO cute!  Perfect for Easter baskets. 

And I was perplexed by this.  What are "Men's" Pocky sticks?!  I almost bought them, but they were only half the size of regular ones, and I didn't want to waste money.  In hindsight, I should have gotten them, just to see if they were special.

And this little guy scuttled right pat me and made me jump. Not really what I was hoping to see that day!