"I want to ride my bee-a-coe" and "I want to kick"

We finally broke down and got Jason his own vehicle... He named is Green Machine.  Since it's been so warm lately, he asks to ride his "bee-a-coe" as soon as he wakes up in the morning.

Now all of the kids can ride together, which is pretty fun... But Kara and Ben don't know that because Jason's is a newer model, it goes one mile an hour faster.  Kara thinks her battery just needs more charge.

Everyone got new goggles and we're ready to swim!

We weren't sure how eager Jason would be to swim, but so far, he loves kicking and doesn't mind putting his face in the water and holding his breath.  After he lifts his head up he says, "I did it!  I did it!"

Kara and Ben pretty much picked up where they left off last year... but the fear of having to take formal lessons kicked in for Ben and today, he was cruising with big arms and breaths to the side.  Nice.  

I think we'll be spending many happy hours in the pool this summer... and with the huge bags of sugar we purchased today, it looks like a lot of shave ice is also in our future.  Very nice!

So Much to Celebrate

We started the week by doing a simple celebration for Boy's Day on May 5th... With help from all of the boys, we enjoyed gyoza for dinner.  

The kids colored  pictures of Japanese carp and hopefully soon, we'll be able to fly the real carp shaped flags at our house, just as we did when we were growing up.

Grandma made her famous strawberry pie and I think the kids each had two pieces, it was so delicious!

At a church service last weekend, the speaker asked about special days in the month and Pampa was proud that Ben announced that Pampa's birthday was coming up.  Uncle Todd came into town and we all celebrated Pampa's birthday with dinner out followed by blackberry & blueberry pie and a sleepover at Grandma and Pampa's house. 

On Mother's Day, we were lucky to have three mothers in the house!!  We started off with a delicious brunch...

We had finger-licking good ribs for dinner and Kara and Ben could not get enough!

And isn't it a sign of a great day when you don't have to change out of your pajamas?  We decided that even though Grandma and Pampa's house isn't too far away, it feels like vacation when we're there.  We lounged and had family game time... Uncle Todd found the vintage Life game, which Kara and Ben played for the first time.  And for me, the favorite part of the day was having four generations of our family siting together playing the Disney version of Apples to Apples... It was our turn to be the judge and Ben read the descriptive word of "Best" on the card... There were many great cards thrown into the pile for consideration.  "A Nap" and "The Beach" were two... but Ben's choice as the winner was "Family".  I could not agree more.