Friends and Chocolate—Life is Good!

We’ve had a couple of celebrations in the past week: first there was a very small “shower” for my friend Sue.  She’s pregnant with her 4th child so we just got her a bunch of diapers and had a very low-key party at the park after our workout.  Then there was Logan’s birthday celebration on Saturday, also very low-key.  It was basically just a playdate with cake and balloons, and it was perfect!  (Well, perfect except for Jake having duty and only being able to come to about a half-hour of the party.) 

First up, at the park, we have Melissa reading a story to Lincoln, Logan and Max.  Isabella (3) and Max (1) are Melissa’s.

Here’s Max, chowing down on . . . something, possibly a chocolate-covered graham cracker.  (Yikes, those things were good and simple to make!)

Next, there’s Amy who, unfortunately (and unexpectedly), is PCS-ing soon.

And Amy’s daughters, Allie (3) and Madison (1).  That would be Madison covered in the chocolate frosting!

And Sue, of course, the guest of honor at this particular fete.

Here are two of her kids—Buddy (4) and chocolate-covered Lincoln (almost 2).  Her daughter, Leslie, is 3.

Moving on to the birthday party . . .

The scene.

  The cake.  (More or less a large ice cream sandwich.  The outer layers are brownie with M&M’s sprinkled on top.  Delicious!)

Completing the cast of characters: Here’s Izzy (with the soap; she’s Melissa’s) and Leslie (with the blanket; she’s Sue’s).

Finally, Scott and Crystal, our neighbors.  Crystal was taking diving lessons on Saturday, so Scott brought the boys over, but when Crystal’s lessons finished and she came over Scott decided he’d had enough of being the only man at the party and he took off.

Scott and Crystal’s boys: Connor (4) and Vincent (2).  You’ve seen them before at Kurashiki Dam.

Missing from the pictures are Casey, Jennifer and Grayson (almost 3)—they came for a little while but had to leave early before I’d gotten the camera out.  Also MIA are Carol and Daniel (2), and Katie and Jack (2).  If you can keep all those names and faces straight, then you’ve got about 75% of my life here figured out!  Throw in a few more people from the neighborhood and from church, and you’re set!  Now that you know who’s who, I’ll give you the rest of the party pics without interruption!

     

 

Happy birthday to my awesome little boy!  He makes me smile :)

Maybe I’ll update while we’re in the States (so that the Wildes can see pictures of the Sharps and vice versa) or maybe not—we’ll see.  But we will definitely be seeing you (or almost all of you) soon! 

Skipping Ahead

We did visit the Japanese Naval Underground Headquarters this weekend, and I’ll probably come back to that but it feels too somber for tonight, so I’m skipping over that for now and giving you some of our beach pictures from today instead.

First, this one for Holly and Drew: it’s the Toyota Noah!

We got out to White Beach this afternoon, a new beach for us.  We arrived at low tide and you could wade (ankle deep for Jake and I) out to these mini-islands to explore!

We found funky sea anemones,

spiny sea urchins,

spectacular seashells (this one was at least six inches long but, unfortunately for me, it was occupied),

lots of crabs,

tide pools full of . . .

electric blue fish,

  and a couple of pretty cool caves.  We also met a Filipina lady who was collecting seaweed for her dinner and got a quick lesson in how to choose the tastiest bunches!

Check out the fabulous new swimsuit I found—I was pretty excited about it!

They even had a small park for Logan to play at!  (The beach is on a Navy base on the Pacific side of the island, and has a camping area and cabins to rent as well.)

He played so hard, he completely konked out on the ride home.

And that was our day in a nutshell, or, more appropriately, in a seashell!  Hope yours was equally good.

Going More Places

A portion of the playground at Comprehensive Park.  I meant to find out when the water slides would be open, but we got too busy playing and I forgot to check.

Logan is capable and confident; these playground elements are a good eight feet off the ground and not exactly designed for toddlers!

(As I look back at that I realize it makes me look like a bad mom—he’s not even technically two yet and look what I’m letting him do!—but obviously I was right behind him the whole time and, just as obviously, he really was doing a great job with it all.)

Something a bit more tame . . .  We also had a grand time watching the fish, turtles, and ducks swimming in the pond.  In Logan-speak, ducks (actually, all birds) say “ka-wa, ka-wa” and water is “la-oo”.

Jake’s homemade hammock hangs nicely between the concrete clothesline posts in the backyard.  It’s one of my favorite new spots.

Another day (Friday, maybe?), we took the new neighbors to Kurashiki Dam with us.  The boys are Connor, 4, and Vincent, 2.  They get along fabulously with Logan, and their mom, Crystal, and I have hit it off as well.

The boys react to a plane flying over.  Logan is saying “zoom”!

Logan, my intrepid explorer, shows them the way to the waterfall.  (That’s Crystal in the back with the hat.)

I’m going to stop there--we did some historical sight-seeing on Saturday, so that’ll be coming up next.  Until then, have a good one!

Going Places

Another rainy day, another trip to the Wonder Museum. 

The little boards are for pushing the pegs back in from the front side.  Apparently that’s a lot more fun than doing it the way you are supposed to.

Hey Mom, look what I made!

Roar!                                       (How do you spell an elephant noise?)

Yumm, giraffe puppet!

It’s the swirly-ball-thing.  Another of Logan’s favorites.

“Eggs” is one of Logan’s new words.  I was pretty excited that he made the connection between what’s in the carton in our fridge and these giant ones.

This caught my eye for the first time.  I’m actually quite pleased that the room is there, even if they could really use a new sign.

Peek-a-boo belly.                        This is 24 weeks.

See, Logan and I are both eligible to take the elevator now!

That’s all for now, but we’ve been busy so more will be coming soon!  Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend.

Dunked

Jake has already posted his reflections on getting baptized and particularly, why it took him this long to do it.  His experience is best left in his own words, so in case you don’t already know, his blog is at http://jhwilde.xanga.com/  I’m just giving you the picture version.  (By the way, this is the Sunday at the beach that I mentioned in the last post.)

On the left is Pastor Rick, center Jake (obviously), and on the right is Glenn--the church administrator/coordinator/general go-to guy.  The baptisms took place at Araha Beach; that’s the one with the pirate ship park, if you remember.

   Hold your nose, here it comes!

  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit . . . (splash)

  Now it’s official . . . he’s wet :)

Logan was great until he saw Jake go under, then he flipped out!

Congrats to Jake.  I’m proud of you; love you hun!