Literacy Parade

Jessica's school had a literacy parade where all of the kids were to dress up like a character in a book. The kindergarten got together and decided to do 100 Hungry Ants.

Jessica was ant number one, because she was student of the week that week.

The teachers were the picnic food.

Mister Donut

Our friends are always telling us how yummy Japanese donuts are, so for Family Home Evening snack one Monday night, we decided to head down to Mister Donut and try it out. Each of us picked one donut and took them home to try it out.

Carston got a chocolate cake-like donut with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles. You can't go wrong with chocolate. Japanese chocolate is not as sweet as we're used to, but still very good, and the donut was yummy.

Jessica settled on chocolate with chocolate frosting, as well, but hers had more flair. It was also very good.

Cassie chose an old fashioned donut with chocolate frosting on one side with sprinkles and powdered sugar around the rest. Turns out the inside was filled with banana cream filling. Way good.

Jason chose a sugar sprinkled donut. Despite his silly face, he really did enjoy it.

I decided to try something that looked a little different. This one had a fried crust and looked like it had chocolate inside. But, when they packaged up our donuts, we noticed that they wrapped mine up plastic before putting it in the bag with the others. Hmmm, what did that mean? Oh, it meant that it wasn't filled with chocolate. It was filled with curry. (Sorry this picture is a little out of focus.) Who puts curry in a donut? I bet the lady at the register thought how weird it was that I was ordering dinner and everyone else was ordering dessert. So, my lesson for my kids about taking a chance and tasting something great fell on it's face. Instead, I hope my kids learn that if they take a chance and it's yucky, I'll let them throw it away. That's what I did. I didn't need the calories anyway.

Nursery Balloons

Jason and I have been working in the nursery pretty much since we've been in the branch. It was pretty overwhelming at first. Now, we have two extra sets of hands, and we sent about ten regular nursery attenders up to Sunbeams at the first of the year, so it's gotten a lot better. A few weeks ago, Jason had this inspired idea to bring balloons for the kids for the last 15 minutes of class. They had a blast. I just had to share the pictures from that day.

Yakiniku

We decided to try out a Japanese favorite in March (yes, I'm still behind), Yakiniku. Jason has gone with his work to yakiniku restaurants, but the kids and I haven't had a chance to try it, yet. There's a building near the bus stop that I have often wondered if it was a restaurant. One of the moms at the bus stop is from Mainland Japan, and she told us it was a restaurant. She said it was one of her favorites. My bus stop friend, Tammy Rudd, and I were excited to give it a try. Here are the girls with their melon soda and the hibachi grill. This is what makes the food yakiniku- we cook it on the hibachi at our table. To the Japanese, this is a novelty and very popular.

Carston took this picture of John and Natalya Rudd, who went with us and sat at the next table.

Here's the food we ordered. At the top is some cubed beef and chicken chunks. At the bottom left some thin cut beef and thin cut pork at the bottom right. We also ordered a plate of vegetables that aren't in this picture. The yakiniku restaurants that Jason has gone to have been all-you-can-eat and buffet style. So, you go to the buffet table and pick up the raw meat that you want to cook. Here, they have either all-you-can-eat, or pay by the plate that you order. Either way, they bring your order out on plates. Jason says that the meat at this restaurant was flavored better than the places the guys at work go.

Jason, who is the master griller in our house, was in charge of cooking.

Meat on the grill.

Carston didn't want his picture taken, he just wanted to take pictures.

Tammy, John and Natalya opted for the all-you-can-eat option, so that they could try a bunch of different meats. Here they are cooking up some squid. They said that it was good, but they like it in sashimi better.

So, because this is a novelty type of dining experience, it can be rather expensive. All-you-can-eat for dinner at yakiniku restaurants is usually 1900 yen per person (or $23.75 at 80 yen to the US Dollar, which is where it was hanging about the time that we went). Lunch is usually half the price, but this particular restaurant doesn't offer lunch. Ordering by the plate, we ordered five plates and five drinks and got out of there for 4500 yen ($56). It's not a cheap meal, especially considering that you are cooking it yourself. But, it was delicious, worth the experience, and for once, my kids actually liked Japanese food. I'm not sure that our whole family will be able to go again, but Jason and I might have to go back for date night sometime.

Silly Bands

I came upstairs the other day to find Cassie and Jessie had looped their silly band bracelets into a long string reaching from their bedroom door all the way down the hall to our bedroom door. Their next goal is to work them from my bedroom, to their bedroom, and down the stairs.

Jason's 38th Birthday

Jason's birthday was on a Friday this year. He had to get up early to get a quiz done for his on-line class before everyone else got in at work. The kids weren't able to sing to him and give him their gift; he was gone before they got out of bed.

When he got home, he opened his present from my Mom. Or rather, he allowed Carston to open his present. When Mom sent us the present over a month before, Carston insisted it was his, and after we caught him on his stool, reaching for it in the kitchen, we had to move it on top of the pantry. At various times throughout the month, he'd point at it and say it was his. Everything in this house is Carston's. So, when he got it opened, he said, "Oh. My tie." "I" bought him a PS3 for the bedroom so that he can play no matter where the kids are watching and so that we can watch Blue Rays in our bedroom. (By "I", I mean he.) The kids and I also got him a shirt, which isn't pictured here.

We had a yummy steak and shrimp dinner and invited our friends up for pineapple upside down cake. I didn't have an 8 so I had to actually put 38 candles in this cake. Our friends brought some Japanese Yukimi Daifuku mochi (rice cake) ice cream to go with our cake. It's ice cream wrapped in a rice dough layer. I need to take a better picture. Can you see the dough pulling away from the ball of ice cream? It was good, but the texture was a little strange for me. I'm going to give it a try when my stomach isn't so full from dinner. So, Jason's biggest project these last few weeks is an on-line HVAC course. The homework has been very intense, and since he hasn't worked with HVAC in years, he's had to relearn a lot of material. Still, he's doing well in the class. In addition to the class, work has picked up for Jason. He's had some projects that have kept him hopping. Being busy all day sure makes his day go by faster. With the cold weather, Jason hasn't been diving recently. He's itching to go soon, and he's hoping to get his work group back into the weekly diving routine. He hopes to acquire his master diver certificate before we leave Okinawa. In addition to diving, the engineers in his group have been going to the bowling alley for sobe (Japanese noodles) on Thursdays and bowling a few games. The ball I bought him for Valentines Day is a hook, so he's been learning how to throw a hook ball. Jason also loves to play video games. Lately, he's been playing Call of Duty Black Ops online. His favorite is when he can play online with my cousin, Kamron, on Saturdays (Kamron's Friday night).