Ice Skating

The day after Christmas was a youth activity to go ice skating.  I know, ice skating on a tropical island?  Yep!  There is!  And we went.  I paid the exorbitant fee for myself and the 2 non-YW girls, and the YW paid for the older two.  Since I paid a lot,  I put on skates and made a few wobbly circuits around the rink myself.  And I did not even fall! I even enjoyed myself.

The girls had an absolute blast and keep asking when we can go back.

Delaney and her friend, Allie.

Callie and her friend Sofia.

Callie did great!  I don't think she fell at all.

Delaney loved it! And she may or may not have slipped a time or two.

The lighting was dreadful for photos.  But Callie blew me a kiss, so I had to include this!

Rylee did a great job.  I was impressed.

And she posed for me outside the rink as well.

Marian was too speedy and active for me to get a photo of while she was skating!  She had a good time and laughed at all the boys who cling to the wall and inched around while she skimmed by them.

Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas! It was nice and quiet and comfortable and fun.  The kids did a great job shopping for each other and were excited to see their gifts received.  It was a good time.

The tree, in all it's glory.

Dan was happy with his Dive Oki shirt.

Marian had asked for footie pajamas and was pleased to receive these.

Rylee and her stuffies!

Callie did a good job as the loot-passer-outer.

New sheets!  Pro tip- make sure you love a fabric of sheets that your husband hates, and the bedsheets will get changed twice as often!

A squishy dig pillow.

And another animal stuffie.  Ryle was in love with them all!

Josh felt so clever with his gift to Marian.  She appreciated it properly and many giggles were had.

I made Delaney a new blanket and she immediately snuggled in it.

Marian made this for me! Isn't it AMAZING?!! Marian stayed after school for wood shop club and secretly created this cutting board for me.  

Dan opened Levi's gift of doggie treats. Levi was thrilled.

Marian's Christmas list was a fun.  She had written "something ridiculous" and so I got her the most ridiculous thing I could find! Chicken feet socks.

Callie and Dan brought this back from Cambodia for me. I do love art from the places we have visited!

Callie loved Just Dance and got more than one.  She was delighted (and there have been many afternoons with all the girls playing it!).

Hee hee hee!  Who doesn't need a Zombies coloring book?!

Josh got a good haul of electronic parts and has had a marvelous time putting them together in different ways.

Giant banana pillow?  Uh, doesn't EVERYONE need one?

After all the loot-opening, I think we all felt like Levi - in need of a nap!

A Bunny?!!

Ha ha, no, we didn't lose our minds!  My friend asked if we would be willing to hide a bunny for a few days.  They decided to buy their 6 year old a bunny fr Christmas and needed a hiding place until then.  Of course we were delighted to assist!  But it also reminded me why a bunny would not be a good idea for us.  (Namely, Levi was fascinated and didn't know what to do with it and really really wanted to lay with it.  And, we have no room to keep one.)

The bunny spent most of it's time like this.  Callie was in heaven.

There were a LOT of selfies like this on my phone! Rylee was in love.

It was a very sweet little bunny.  Very mellow and content to be carted around.

And many many photos were taken of it.  I have spared you the majority.

The kids very much enjoyed the experience, and I'm glad they got to do it.  But no.  I will not be getting a rabbit any time soon, no matter how darling it is.

PS.... Tyler, the little boy who received the bunny, named it "Fluffy", much to the girls' disgust.

Parenting Error #46

Over Christmas Break, Delaney wanted to have a friend spend the night.  Since Dan and Callie were gone, and the house was a little less crowded, I said yes.  Somehow that morphed into putting up the tent for a camp out in the yard with not one, but TWO friends.  The noise and chaos level may have gotten a wee bit out of hand.

Just put up the tent and she is excited!

This is a new tent, purchased on Amazon.  I bought it a few months ago, hoping it would arrive in time for Josh's camping trip with his dad, but it did not.  This is a great tent!  Nice and big.  The downside is that the top is mesh on two sides so you need the rain cover on all the time unless you want the breeze and sun to come in.  But it is a spacious tent!

I let them light up the fire pit, but no one wanted to go collect wood, so it was a sort lived fire, since we ran out of sticks pretty quickly!

They roasted hot dogs for dinner.

I was surprised how happy they were to eat hot dogs that were charred on the outside and cold in the middle.

And then there were s'mores.

Lots of s'mores!

And lots of fun.

Delaney had a marvelous time with her friends.  

They only made it outside till 9:30.  It was the coldest night we had had so far (like 65 degrees cold), so they said they were cold.  So they all slept on the living room floor.  On the plus side, they were asleep around 11pm, and they slept in past 7am.  IThe house and tent were a mess, but the kids had a good time and no one cried.

A Dog and his Bone

 When Dan went to visit Iwakuni, he stopped by to visit our old neighbor- the one who LOVED Levi.  She asked him to return in a few hours to get something.  Dan did so and was a bit surprised to bring home a giant bone for Levi. He was also a bit surprised that he had no issue bringing it on the plane home!

We got it out for Levi and he was baffled as to what to do with it. He was too cute!

It smelled interesting.

But he couldn't get to it! 

Unveiled at last!

 "Are you SURE it is all for me?!"

He is still the coolest dog I know!