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Today was Ben's first day back to school and Jason's first day at Chapter One!  It seems like Jason has always liked being there to pick Ben up at lunchtime and whenever we ask if he wants to go to big-boy school with Ben, Jason nods his head.

I know he already loves the playground and the drinking fountain... hopefully he'll like everything else just as much.

I asked Ben to stay close to Jason on his first morning and help him feel comfortable at school.  Ben asked if on the second day Jason would have enough friends that he could then run around by himself.  Gotta love Ben.

How did that happen?

A few weeks ago, we realized that Kara's permanent teeth on the bottom were coming in right behind her baby teeth in the front.  One tooth started to wiggle and get loose and we were watching it closely... waiting and waiting.

I pick Kara up from school on Friday and she tells me her tooth fell out at school.  But not the one that was wiggling, the one right next to it!

She told me the story of how it happened... she was wiggling her tooth, a boy accidentally ran into her and then her tooth popped out.  She didn't hit her chin or head or anything, the tooth just fell out and then her friends had to help her find it on the floor... Hmm...

So she wrote this note for me at school, just in case she forgot about this milestone when I picked her up.  In any case, she was happy to have her first tooth out and very excited about the tooth fairy's first visit.  And we're still watching the original loose tooth.  It's a stubborn little Kozuki tooth.

The cutest was Ben's reaction: "I don't want Kara to lose her teeth and get adult teeth.  I don't want her to be an adult yet."

First Grader

We woke up this morning to thunder, lightning and a little bit of rain... but the sun quickly came up for Kara's first day back to school!  When Kara woke up, she came in and announced, "I'm a first grader now."

First grade means a new backpack, new lunch box and a longer school day! 

When the morning bell rings and the kids all line up, Kara and her friends are no longer in the first row.  This morning those kindergarteners looked so small and Kara seems to have grown up so much in the past year.  

Since preschool doesn't start until next week, it was trains and Legos for Ben and Jason.  This week is also the start of soccer practice for Kara and Ben and ballet for Kara.  Let the fun begin!!

Two-wah!

For the last few weeks, we've been prepping Jason for his second birthday.  For about a minute, when you asked him how old he was going to be, he replied "two."  And then very quickly, he decided that he was going to turn ten instead.  So a few days back, I told him if he wanted presents, he had to turn two.  So now his reply is "two-wah."  That counts.

We started the celebration a little early when WE were so excited to give him the garbage truck that we could not wait until we got home to even wrap it... it went straight from the bag into his happy little hands and sat on his lap the whole ride home.

The day before his birthday, to his delight, he got a new bubble gun (because the over-priced one from Sea World died once we got home)!

And he was so excited to try out the bubble-making lawnmower that he went out in his pajamas to start on his new chore.

Jason has a fascination with garbage trucks and trains... and since we were not going to visit the sanitation department, we decided to take Jason on his first train ride. 

The 45 minute trip was just long enough to see the sights and have a snack.  Jason was choo-choo-ing the whole ride.  After we got off the train, he stood and waved good-bye and didn't really want to go, but I reminded him that his lawnmower was waiting for him in the car (which it really was because he insisted on bringing it with us). 

Thank goodness we will not be celebrating "ten" in our family any time soon.  Let's just keep them little!

"The car is not for a egg"

We've been enjoying the summer, but I told Kara and Ben that school will be starting soon and we have to get ready.  Kara's been practicing her addition flashcards and seems to have addition up to ten pretty well mastered.  Ben has been working on his sight words and he's becoming quite the reader!

Usually he just goes through the cards and reads the words... but today we put all the cards out and made sentences, which, for me, was super fun and exciting to see. 

Granted, there were some interesting sentences, but Ben could read them all!



What a week!!

We promised the kids that once swimming lessons and meets were all done, we'd go to San Diego for a little vacation.  Bachan, Jichan and Uncle Ross met us there and our first stop was Sea World.

We enjoyed great, cool weather and the kids loved watching all of the shows.

Jason liked the shows and exhibits too, but the big hit was the bubble gun!  With a big smile and all of those bubbles, who wouldn't want to buy one of these after seeing such a happy customer?

Next stop was Legoland... where we got to see and do a lot of our favorites...

Jason was so content to sit in the stationary Lego cars... it gave us ample time for Kara and Ben to drive the other Lego cars around the course.  And yes, we were "those people" with a child harness (a.k.a. leash), but Jason loves his friend Leo and he did not get lost.  Woo hoo! 

We were surprised that the Timmons family was able to meet us at Legoland and the kids had fun getting soaked on some rides that were new to them.

Everyone loved the water park... Kara could have floated on that lazy river all afternoon... I fear that in the not-too-distant future, Kara will be wanting to float down our local Kings River.  It's just what happens when you live in the Central Valley.

On our way back home, we stopped in Los Angeles to visit the Christians, who were kind enough to let us spend the night.  It was fun to catch up and so amazing at how quickly everyone has grown!

We made sure to get home in time for the last obons of the season.  Bachan Hiyama joined us for the Reedley Obon...

And even Pampa made it out to the Visalia Obon!

It's always great to travel and be on vacation, but it's also really nice to come home.  Ben said, "I missed our little town, Mom."  And now that we're back in the summer heat, it's pool time followed by shave ice... not bad. 



The Obon Circuit

Since we attended all of the obon dance practices, we decided we should try to participate in as many obons as possible.  The season started with the Fresno obon...

And then there was Fowler...

Kara was lucky to get a new yukata from Auntie Betty in Japan and she didn't want to "waste it" at the other obons, so she patiently held out to wear it for Parlier's obon.

And since Grandma got a new yukata too...

The Parlier obon means shave ice duty for Daddy.  Even though it was hot (again), Daddy kept everyone happy and cool with his yummy shave ice.

In preparation for obon season, Ben drew our family dancing under the lanterns... Only two more to go!