Time at the park with my new camera

We felt like we just had to take Chris and Leanne to this park
about 20 minutes from our house. This spider web looking climbing structure
would never be found in America, yet our girls just love it!

This slide is seriously the longest slide I have ever seen!
It is hard to really show you how long it really is.
The first time we went with the kids, Annabella,
ended up having a burn from the rollers. It was that long!

The rest are fun pictures that I took with my new camera.
I am just having too much fun! I had to share them....enjoy!

A day at the beach (actually 45 minutes at the beach)

We decided to all go to the beach before a typhoon that was coming.

Bad idea! The wind was blowing sand in our faces
and it was very cool out (not a good combination with the cold water).
Oh, well. We ended up spending more time cleaning up
from the beach than actually on the beach.
The kids still had fun splashing in the waves and playing a little bit in the sand.
Some pictures from our adventures...

Mark's first time in an ocean and it was the Pacific!

Annabella and Calvin loved splashing in the waves. Olivia preferred the sand.

I loved this picture of Mark's sweet baby toes with the sand all in between them.
So sweet!!!

Meeting cousin Mark

We were so blessed to have Uncle Chris, Aunt Leanne
and baby Mark come for a visit at the end of August.

Chris and Leanne were so brave to travel across the world with their new baby.
Such a great blessing to us!!!
This is them after 24 hours of travel.

Our girls were so very excited to meet Mark.
Mark is also interested in checking out the girls!
He seems like he did very well considering all of the travel!

Calvin enjoyed being the "Big" cousin and showing Mark how to work the exersaucer.

Annabella seems especially interested in playing with Mark.
She was always trying to get him to smile.

Uncle Jon and Mark

Mark is such a sweet baby.
He didn't seem fussy even with all of the jet lag!

Calvin checking him out

So sweet!!!

Annabella with her live baby doll!

Another big cousin

An attempt at a Harrington cousins picture! The first!!!

Homeschooling

Some of the fun things the kids are doing at home these days:Annabella LOVES coloring, and spends hours a day in her coloring books. :)
Here, Olivia shows off her architectural potential.
Olivia made this diorama after reading Charlotte's Web with Momma. Wilbur is "Some Pig"!

Here is Calvin showing off his particularly impressive animal sounds. Check it the excellent elephant noises (plus a few bonus noises if you watch 'till the end!)

Hotcakes (A mom's and kid's class) Matsuri (festival)

Once a month we enjoy going to Hotcakes,
a mom's and kid's class at our community center.
I use this time as a good chance for me to use my Japanese,
and for the kid's to learn Japanese from native speakers. In July,
we had a matsuri, a Japanese festival
(similar in my mind to 4th of July in America).
Here are some pictures of our time...

Olivia and Annabella with their friend, Akari-chan.

These were some of the treats we got to take home from the festival.
The box on the right is a traditional obento box (lunch box).
These things are all made of paper and string!
A tomato, some pasta salad and a
onigiri (rice triangle with seaweed wrapped around it). So cute!

This was Calvin's favorite.
Catching fish and squid with magnets.
Can you spot my child?

Calvin getting a paper ice cream cone from his friend, Ryu-kun.

All of the children together. Most of them are dressed up in
yukatas for the girls (traditional summer kimonos)
and jinbeis for the boys. We went out later that day to
buy yukatas for the girls and a jinbei for Calvin.

Our three kids loving dressing up in traditional Japanese clothing!

Olivia - 5 1/2 years old

Annabella - 4 years old

Calvin - still the baby at 1 1/2 years old

Aunt Molly's Birthday

Aunt Molly turned 17 while she was visiting us.

It was such a joy to celebrate her birthday with her in person!

The kids all have really enjoyed their time with her this summer.

This was our attempt at making party hats for the celebration.

The party - Molly made many friends while she was here and
they all wanted to celebrate her birthday with her.

We played a lot of the game Settlers while she was here,
so it was only appropriate that we have Settlers cupcakes for her birthday!

And after we ate the Settlers cupcakes we
finished off the night with a game of Settlers.
Happy Birthday, Molly! We love you and miss you!