Just a little fire

 The girls wanted to burn some stuff.  Dan also had some papers to burn. So they busted out the fire pit and lit it up.  They burned the stuff they wanted to burn and then roasted marshmallows and made some s'mores and had a lovely time.  I do not like fire and flames and smoke-stink, so I huddled safely inside. And I found 500 photos of the event on my phone later.

Ps... the funny thing is that the only kid in the photos is not even my kid!  The neighbor gang ran over to get in on the fun.

An odd place to play!

The girls had a lot of time to hang around the house.  With the virus going on, school was moved to in-home online school.  Suddenly the girls rediscovered the outdoors.  Which I endorse.

Except they also rediscovered they could climb on the roof.

And they brought their friends.

And their Barbies!  Such weirdos! But they had so much fun.

Except the next day I went out and saw this. And I nearly had a heart attack.

I know, they were so responsible, and set it up nice and secure.  Thank goodness no one had tried it out yet!  I took it down and told them no. They are so resourceful, so I was kind of proud.  But ... YIKES!

Touristing

One of my very favorite former Sister Missionaries came to visit me.  I know, you are thinking WHAT? with this Covid 19 virus?   Relax, she and her sweet husband flew over from mainland Japan for a weekend.  WE hung out a little and went to see some of the touristy stuff.  I enjoyed it. Cuz it was cool, and she and her husband are even more cool.

We went to Nakagusku castle and saw the ruins.

Which don't look much like a castle, but are still impressive.

We went to Hacksaw Ridge.

Which looks like this.  Nothing like the movie at all.  But still not something you would want to try to scale and overcome.

We went to the Peace Prayer Park.

This building houses the big Buddha.  We did go see him.

I finally made it to Kokusai Street and wish I had gone earlier!  So awesome!  We had lunch there. Lauren really wanted Okinawa Pork, so we found some for her.  I had this Udon.  It was the best Udon I have ever enjoyed!

A Dog named Oreo

 Oreo is the foster dog.  He came from a hoarding situation and had a very questionable upbringing and background.  What we DO know, is that this little dog is awesome!  Super sweet, content to nap all day and to be manhandled by children, he is just so chill. He will make a great addition to someone's family. In the meantime, we are enjoying his snuggles and gentle personality.

If you give a kid a hammock....

 If you give a kid a hammock.....

She will remember that there is a second one somewhere. 

And everyone will play nicely all afternoon. 

And if you give a kid a hammock and they have two, then they'll need a third one to go with them. 

 And they will hide from pictures and play all day.

 And you will look out your kitchen window to see this.

 And the neighborhood kids will flock to your house to hang out in your cool hammocks.

And they will be so fun that your kids will take your broom, and make it a swing. 

Because, if you give a kid a hammock, your hammocks and swings will be endless hours of entertainment.

Pi Day!!!

We had our 7th (or 8th?) Annual Pi Day this year. March 14 was a Saturday and Marian and I ran our 10k that morning. That means I planned ahead with all the pies. I baked and froze the pies that freeze well, and scheduled out the rest of the pies to maximize the pie making. I had all my pies done by Thursday.... and then the girls decided we needed some more. 

This is the Line Up.  18 varieties, and 31 pies were made.  6 of those pies were delivered elsewhere, which left 25 to be enjoyed at Pi Day.

Marian thought this pie was necessary, so it was a last minute edition.

It came out nice!!  And delicious.

Oreo, the Foster Pup agreed that Callie needed to make a pecan pie and he was glad she did.

Saturday afternoon, the kitchen counter had pies on it.

And there were pies on the table in the dining room.  Rylee made name crds for all the pies.

Pulling the last of my meat pies out of the oven.

We debuted this pie for the first time this year.  Of course everyone wanted to try the pie called "Cock-a-Leekie"!  It was well received and there were no leftovers!

Much pie was consumed, but we had SO MUCH pie, that we did have leftovers. We had a lot more of our neighbors than we have in the past.  But we did go drop off invited to each house on our street.  Despite the caution to avoid large gatherings, we had a good turnout.  The weather was blustery, but people could still go outside to ease the congestion in the house. 

And apparently Delaney now has a tradition of pie-ing someone in the face on Pi Day. Zach was her willing victim this year.

I did make some gluten-free mini oreo caramel pies after Pi Day and delivered them to my gluten-free friend.  And I did make my favorite Double Dark chocolate pie that I don't want to share, but I shared it with my friend Lauren who came to town for the weekend after. So, a record number of pies this year!  I do not think we need to keep topping that!!

St Patrick's Day 10k Race Report

 Kadena holds a St Patrick's Race in Mach.  They do a 5k, 10k and half marathon. Marian and I signed up to do the 10k.  It was held on March 14.... Pie Day!

I was thrilled to pick up my race packet and discover my number was 314!!  How appropriate for Pi Day!  Delaney added the pi symbol for me.

It was a gross and rainy morning.  I would not normally run in that sort of weather- I hate having squishy, wet shoes!  But we had a race, so off we went.  This is our pre-race selfie as we huddled under the trees. 

Official race photographer took this and I swiped it from the FB page.  

The race was awesome for the first half.... because it was pretty much 3 miles of downhill.  That really really stunk when we turned around and had to then run back up the hills.  It was pretty brutal.  But we did not walk and we finished, and it was a good race.  Marian finished about 5-10 seconds faster than me because she ha more sprint left at the end!

We had hoped to be faster, but those awful hills killed us.  Still happy with the time though!

My lovely ladies!

Rylee loves macarons.  The real ones, made with whipped egg whites.  She likes them enough that she found a recipe and now makes them on occasion.  This time she did them all on her own. They were not as fluffy as they should have been, but taste-wise, they were fine.

The High School had a Prom Dress event, where a ton of brand new prom dresses were donated for the kids.  Each girl with a student ID card could come select one dress to take home. I volunteered to help at the event and the girls came with me.

Callie Was so fun!  She had a marvelous time trying on some pretty wild dresses. And some lovely ones as well. I was suppose to be a helper, so I didn't get to take pictures of all their shenanigans. 

Callie and Marian did not find anything they liked.  Delaney liked this dress, so Callie used her free dress pass to get this one for Delaney.

Marian wanted to make something.  She found some recipes and we tried out this no bake Chocolate Cheesecake.

 It was pronounced delicious.

We did blue and purple temp dye on Delaney and Rylee's hair.

Tough to see while it is wet.  And Delaney's hair really does not hold it.

Rylee's hair does!  The blue comes out nice and vibrant, but the purple does not.

Last snuggles with Levi.

Delaney found a face mask pattern and spent a day making a bunch of face masks.  I was impressed- she never follows pattern directions, but she did for this! They came out really cute.

This is what happens when Church is Cancelled indefinitely for Coronados Virus and you have Home Church.

Sometimes things get a little out of control!