Calvin is eating!

Calvin having his first food at 5 months old

We were all excited to see what he would do....

What is this?

Not quite sure if he like it.

He actually loves eating rice cereal now.
He will eat about 1/3 a cup per meal!
He sure is a growing boy!

A day at the beach - Is that sand black?

We spent a wonderful day at the beach with our Chiba University friends. Yes, the we went to a black sand beach. It was kind of different compared to the white sand that we were used to. At first I thought it was cool, but for the next several days I had trouble getting black sand out of all of our things.

Annabella, Noa, and Olivia

Jon trying to keep Calvin out of the sun

Annabella loved jumping waves with Suguru.
She talked about her time with Suguru for days!

What a dirty looking face!

Our family a the end of the day. We are so blessed to be able to do ministry together as a family. Even a day at the beach can be a ministry opportunity.

Girl's Photo Shoot

Going to the doctor

Even going to the doctor can be a challenge here in Japan. We took the kids to a clinic in Tokyo where they gave shots in American dosages and on the American schedule. This was quite an adventure for us. We took four trains/subways to get there, a big feat for us as a family.

The girls were very excited to ride on all of the trains! They even saw Tokyo Disney Land from the train. Cinderella's castle is always a favorite!

It was fun to bring the kids to the doctor's office that I went to every week at the end of my pregnancy with Calvin. Olivia and Calvin did very well with their shots. We finished our time with victory ice cream from McDonalds!

It took us two hours to get there and two to get home. We were all tired, as you can tell. This is Jon and Calvin sleeping on the train home. It was a fun adventure as a family.

Matsuri - Japanese Festival

We went to a local matsuri with our neighbor and her daughter.
We happened to be babysitting Noa and Martha Noll.
We thought we were crazy to be going to a festival with five children,
but we tried it. Thankfully, kids did really well.
They all had many things to see and do.

It was so interesting to see all of the group songs,
dances and performance the 3-5 year olds did.
Japan is such a group oriented society
and this begins from a very young age.

Many of the girls were dressed up in little yukata (lightweight summer kimonos).
They were so cute!

These kids were beating the drums in a special pattern.
Every child had a chance to beat the drum with the teacher,
but they all beat the drum in the same pattern.


We definitely stood out at the festival.
We were the only foreigners and we had five cute little ones.
Anytime I looked up, I saw multiple eyes upon us
and several people even took pictures of the kids!

At the end the girls brought these water-balloon yo-yos home.
It was such fun to go to this festival and enter into Japanese culture.

Pink Baseball Gloves

Our good friends sent us these pink baseball gloves
along with a pink baseball from the States.
The girls have had so much fun playing baseball with each other.

Who knew that baseball gloves came in pink?

Thank you so much Driskell family!

calvin's first big photo shoot

Calvin is now five months old! Where does the time go?
He smiles so easily and truly brightens up our lives.
We are so very blessed!

Having professional pictures taken in Japan is a little bit different,
and expensive, so we did our own photo shoot at our house.
My good friend, Sara-Beth, came over with her camera
and sweet girls to take pictures.
We were a good team...she took the pictures and I made the babies smile.
Calvin and Martha are only 10 days apart in age and are too cute together!
Enjoy the pictures!

Making Sushi for Eric's Birthday

We had fun celebrating our fellow missionary and friend, Eric.
The girls enjoyed making their own sushi. Yum!

Check out all of the sushi toppings!

We finished the night with a wonderful ice cream tower cake!