Wareware wa sore o yatta!

I just googled a Japanese translation for "We did it!" so I hope that title is right!

We successfully finished our 2 week Medaka no Gakko session!  Kara was a good sport to come early each day and help me open up the church and all of the rooms and make sure everything was ready to go every morning.

Kara had a great time with all of her classmates, teachers and the fantastic alumni aides.  I enjoyed working together with parents who are truly committed to making Gakko an enriching experience for the kids.  

Saturday was the Undokai and everyone had fun participating in the various races and the water relay finale is always fun... especially on a hot day!

 
Since Sho is out of town for a conference and Grandma and Pampa had to be out of town for a memorial service, I called in the reinforcements!!  Thankfully, Tantie and Uncle Todd were available to come and help watch the boys while Kara and I finished up Gakko.  We all enjoyed a fast food picnic post-Undokai because in the last two weeks, I have not mopped the floor and I think I've gone grocery shopping twice.

In the spirit of community, we made it out to the Visalia Obon on Saturday night.  The kids did well; I guess they really have been paying attention at practice.  And Tantie and Uncle Todd picked up the dances quickly, so Parlier represented!

On Saturday morning (after a long day, then Open House where we got home around 11pm), Kara asked, "when do I get to sleep in?"  Today Kara slept until 7:45am and our floors are clean.

On the Potty Train!

When Jason left preschool for the summer, I casually asked, "so if he's still not potty trained in August, I guess he stays in the Bloomers room?"  And the reply was that if he had turned 3 (which he will in the beginning of August), he had to be potty trained because they don't have 3 year olds in the Bloomers room... And I was a little stressed because Jason had shown no interest in potty training and I told Sho, this was now our summer project.

So though we're still a little crazy busy, Jason woke up with dry "chonies" as he calls them, for the third day in a row and that seems like reason enough to celebrate with a blog post!

As he's been potty training for the last few weeks, he'll say "Mommy, I'm on the potty train" and we talk about it like it's Amtrak saying, "You're doing so well on the potty train, Jason!"

After all of these years (or so it seems), I think I have officially purchased my last box of diapers!  Now we have to plan a trip to see Mickey Mouse to really celebrate!

Is it Friday yet?

It's been quite a week!  Last weekend was the Fresno Cobra's annual basketball tournament.  It was Kara's first year playing in the instructional division.  She had two games on Saturday and one game on Sunday.  They decided to split the team up into two teams of five, so with only five players on the team, she got lots of playing time!

Sho helped Coach Danny with practices and coaching during the tournament.  What better way is there to spend Father's Day...

Monday started the beginning of a two week session of Medaka no Gakko, the Japanese cultural school that Grandma started back in 1980.  Our family all went through gakko back in the day and it was always fun to be with our friends.

Kara has a small class, but I think it's really cool that two of the kids in her class are the children of kids that were in my gakko class...

With warmer weather and a really busy week, it was great to end with shave ice as our gakko snack. 

Though there has been a lot of reminiscing this week about the old days, one thing we do not miss is the hand-crank shave ice machine.  How did our super-dads do it back then??

What is becoming more and more apparent to me is that Grandma has always been a super-mom.  Being more involved in gakko this year, I have a better appreciation of what she did during our gakko years and maybe you notice there are no pictures of Ben and Jason from this week... as we've been busy, Grandma has saved the day (or week to be more accurate) by watching the boys day after day.  I don't know how we'd survive if it wasn't for our BF.  One more week to go!

Happy Birthday to my BF!

For awhile now, Jason has referred to Grandma as "BF" because she is his best friend.  Recently he said to Grandma, "You are a good BF."

Grandma's birthday started out with a very energetic and exuberant happy birthday song from all the kids... and then Grandma was kind enough to come with us to watch "How To Train Your Dragon 2," which was Jason's first movie in a theater.

Grandma's birthday celebration could not be complete without a little ice cream!!  Fortunately Jason stayed awake long enough to enjoy his mint chip cone.  I think he didn't want to disappoint his BF because nothing is sweeter for Grandma than ice cream with the grandkids! 

Water Day, Swimming and Movie Night on Wednesday... It's Summer!

It is Clay tradition to have a water day to mark the end of the school year... Kara and her friends had a lot of fun running through sprinklers, going down the slide, doing the obstacle course and jumping in the bounce house. 

Ben went to Water Day and had fun with his friend, Chase, who will also start kindergarten at Clay in August.

Kara's showed me her 1st grade report card and was pleased to find out she would be moving on to 2nd grade.  She's had a great year and Kiara is still her BFF, which makes us very happy because Kiara is so kind and such a great friend to Kara... and we love having family play dates with the Zarates!

Ben is so excited that he'll finally be going to school with Kara next year... Though Kara tries to tell him everything to expect in kindergarten, I think Ben will be just fine and learn to love school all on his own. 

The kids all had a great swim at Grandma and Pampa's house this afternoon.  Ben swam the length of the pool unassisted (four times), Kara's dive is progressing and Jason cannot be stopped.  He is eager to put his face in and swim!  He takes a breath and says, "Again!"  I'm glad he's taking to swimming so well... I wish the same could be said for potty training.

It's now 8pm and they are in the living room for movie night and a sleep out... Hello, Summer!

Ben's Graduation!

Tonight was Ben's graduation from preschool and both boys participated in the end of the year program.   

As part of graduation, the graduates had to decide what they want to be when they grow up.  Initially, Ben had a hard time deciding what he wants to be because there are so many choices and because he wants to help people.  Ben's teacher, Miss Kristi, was worried that Ben was going to develop an ulcer from the stress and then quickly he asks, "what's an ulcer?"  So we came home and talked about his top choices...

Ben decided that he wants to be a Lego Creator so that he can design Legos for kids and adults to play with and enjoy.  Apparently, he will still be living at home with us when this happens.

Yesterday, on the way to Pampa and Grandma's house to swim, I asked Ben what he wanted to work on during swimming... side breaths, backstroke or diving.  He replied, "Mom, it's not like I'm going to be a professional swimmer.  I'm already going to be a Lego Creator and a Daddy.  If I'm a professional swimmer, my kids will be mad because I'll come home so late and I won't have time to see them."  As a preschool graduate, he's already got life all figured out.

Quick Trip

We made a very quick trip to northern California over the weekend, but in a short amount of time, we managed to have a lot of fun!

We visited Anna, Marc, Evan and Justin in El Cerrito.  It's great to see the kids grow up together and enjoy playing with each other.  And since both of the Daddy's love shoes, I think it's inevitable that they'll also end up doing more shoe shopping and admiring of each others' shoes in the future.

We headed to San Jose on Saturday evening for a surprise celebration of Jichan's 90th birthday!  Everyone had a great time and we are still enjoying the birthday cake we were able to bring home.

With a fun filled day and full tummies, everyone slept peacefully all the way back to our little town.