Easter Joy

Being able to spend a Holiday in our home was the real joy about this Easter. While the timing itself was a little cramped up and I had several tings going on at the same time, it was fabulous to spend the day as a Family. I even christened Saige with her first Pretty in Pink viewing...joy.

Thankfully the Easter Bunny realized we had moved and dropped off some baskets for the kids. He even manged to recruit George into scoping out some good hiding spots in our backyard for candy-filled eggs. The best was that apparently the Easter Bunny is part German because he managed to squeeze tons of Haribo and Kinder eggs into their baskets. YUM!

Happy Happy Joy Joy was experienced by all Fam Bam members :o)

All the days trying to be in charge...

...but what can I say, he listens to her :o)

Happy Easter All!!

After we concluded our morning events, Geo and the boys headed outside to sort through some outdoor boxes...and they found the best present of all. The trampoline is BAAAACK! I didn't even realize we had one still. It came via our Georgia shipment and talk about excitement. Teage hopped up on there like nobody's business. Of course Daddy & Saige wanted in on the action, too.

In the meantime, I finalized my Humanities project and sent that off which ended this term. I have never been so happy to finish a class. I think with everything that was happening while I was in school, I lost sight of being motivated early on with these two. Oh well...it's over and I did well, so that's what matters. Plus, my next term (which starts today) I am only taking one class and it is Photography...so that should be actually a fun class (my syllabus has me only taking photos and submitting them as assignments all term, I am ALL over that).

Next weekend we hit Euro Disney Paris and I cannot wait. I love all things Disney (who doesn't) and I feel like this will be the first of many trips there (it's like we live in FL again with it being so close by...only a 4 hour drive). It makes me smile just thinking about it. I can tell there will be a major post in my future...

In other news, last week I started writing for another blog (www.DebtHelper.com). Some friends of mine are contributors and employees and asked if I would write about being a Military Family and the ways we save money and such. While I am NO financial guru, I do have some thrift sense and have definitely stretched a dollar before. I am just glad that I am able to share my blogging with different people...how exciting. I will probably make it a weekly thing...so if you are ever in the neighborhood...check it out.

In Sports, Saige played her first softball games this past weekend as a Varsity Lady Raider. She did really good. Geo is so proud of her...it's obvious how excited he is to see her follow in his footsteps. And she is thrilled to have her dad come see her and they share that in common. She even asked the coach on new uniform day if she could have 6...her dad's number all the days. So now they are both 6's. How cute!! There's already a net and batting tee set up in the backyard for some quality father/daughter bonding time :o)

She has the cutest running stance...and she's the only one who does it, so it looks really unique

Playing second base

Where's Waldo??....err, Saige!!

The Lady Raiders did us proud...they came out victorious in all four games this weekend. They played the two high schools from England in double headers. 4-0 so far...

I hope everyone had just as fab a weekend as we did. 2010 is shaping up to be a spectacular year...thank goodness :o)

Talk soon and as always, thanks for looking!!

Kinser Fest, Ryuku Mura, a Beatdown, & a VP!

OK so I have a lot to update everyone on...I have been super busy and so I have slipped on the blogging thing. So here it goes:

Starting with last week, I got a call from the nurse at JD's school saying he'd come into her office after recess shaken and injured with what could only be described as a "beatdown". I got over there with the quickness and saw my boy laid up with a cold pack on his head, his knee and scrapes all on his face. I was mortified because all I could think was some 5th grader's gonna get their a$$ handed to them by a grown woman. But before I could really follow through with that thought, he told me that he was beat down alright...by the playground equipment. It seems he was playing tag with his buds on the play structure and ran into a pole. The shock from the pole collision caused him to topple over...right onto the ground. He got banged up pretty dang good. Cause and effect....what'd he learn? Not to run on the darn play equipment. So here's the visual...poor kid!

Of course he's all better now and only has a nasty bruise on his knee and a leftover scar next to his eye. What a tough guy!

This past weekend was the Kinser Fest (it's another base and basically a money pit o' fun). So I ventured out with them and a friend of Saige's . Let me first say...IT WAS SCORCHY!! I mean I was sweating in places nobody needs to sweat. AND, the stroller was in the other car which is parked at the airoprt still, thanks George! So there was mild chasing of a runaway two year old and nothing to cart the obscene amount of blow-up prizes the kids won. Saige was the first to get her hands on a game...

Teage got in on the action, too!

This was his winnings...

All JD cared about was the bungee trampoline. That boy had so much fun, he kept saying "I'm flying Mom...look at me". The bungee worker guy came over and catapulted his little butt even higher a couple of times. He eventually started doing flips.

By the end of it, I was ready to get on that thing, but I had THIS looking at me...so we moved on to the next thing.

Once we were done with all the game action and a little lunch, Teage wanted to go check out the military vehicles and copters. This is where the chasing began...

He did manage a pose for me with his Stitch doll that JD won for him. Cutie!!

Finally, I did my good parent volunteering for the week by chaperoning a field trip to Ryuku Mura. Here I am with my group of seven...

You pretty much walk around and they have little areas set up where you can see authentic scenarios of the Japanese culture. Inside this building is the replica of a rope used in the annual "tug of war" they do in the streets here, where thousands of people come out to play an old fashioned game. It was so huge!

We started following the path guided by these weird looking pink elves. One of the kids in my group (who is Japanese American) told me that there's a legend that if you play on these statues, they come and kill you at night. NICE!! I'm just wondering why they're cross-eyed.

Then we came upon a vending machine that had a fish on the box...a few steps later I see what was really going on. Freaky...there were like hundreds of fish up in there.

Why was this thing right next to where we stopped for a snack break?? We quickly left. The boys wanted to "capture it and pet it". Uh NO!

There was a pottery factory that you could walk through and see them actually making the shisa dogs. It was pretty neat. Check this guy out..hard at work!

And the finished product...

JD wanted to get the coconut drink and I was about to buy one...until I got closer and noticed it had gnats all over it. It was still cool-looking though.

Oh and I think I will do this whenever the whole fam can come back...for $10 your whole group can dress up in kimonos and get a picture taken just like these chicks did.

Next we headed inside and waited for the first show. They performed traditional Ryuku dancing...it was neat!

These guys were funny. Were they making fun of us all taking pictures of them I wonder...

Next thing I knew, some white-face painted dancer came up to me and tried to pull me on the floor. I told everybody around me they better get up with me. They did and had us doing this...again, were they clowning us??

After the show was over, JD wanted to go up there and throw some yen in the moat looking thing and make a wish for an Indiana Jones adventure...and yes I bought that hat there because he said it was an Indy hat and he needed it for his cub scouts camping adventures coming up soon. (He is officially going to be a boy scout now, more on that later).

So we continued to walk around and saw these makeshift Japanese homes. It was cool to see how the traditional homes would look inside. I wish someone would invite me over to their Japanese home so I could experience a traditional sit-down ritual. That would be awesome!

We had a little more time to kill before we saw the last performance...so JD found this little fountain to sit next to...and then he screams out loud "Mom, look, that dog is peeing...ewww gross!". The kids started cracking up!

He also came across this throne and decided it was meant for meditation...whatever works!

And lastly, we watched the Eisa dancers and Taiko drummers. They were a perfect finale to a long day. Great times!

One last Isla info...Saige is running for Vice President of her school. I am so proud of her taking the initiative and stepping out of her comfort zone. I know she would do an ab fab job. I can see myself already making buttons and posters for her in the very near future. You never know...she could be the next....uh Sarah Palin????

Uh no...she's got nothing on my baby girl!!! Vote for SAIGE!!!