Okuma

I have more to show you on Okuma, but I wanted to share this video with you first. Here is Olivia, enjoying the beach & waves.

Note: We missed days 10-16, partly because we were in Okuma, partly because we had to have an urgent procedure to put tubes in Olivia's ears. Day 4 was A Special Island Trip Day, and I'd say we took care of that in Okuma. Enjoy the video!

Month of the Military Child - Days 7, 8, & 9

Day 7: Make a Friend Day.
I was told by her teachers that Olivia made a ton of friends on this day. Of course, I couldn't be there to take a picture of each friend she made. So, instead I got a picture of her and one of her favorite teachers - Miss Krystal.


Day 8: Favorite Music Day.
On this day Olivia got to bring in her favorite music. Mommy wanted her to bring in Lady GaGa, but daddy said it would be a tad inappropriate. So, instead Olivia brought in her favorite car music. Aka - the childhood songs from Aunt Bonnie. "Wheels on the Bus" is her jam. Next to Poker Face that is...
I wasn't there for the dancing, but instead got a shot of Olivia chowing down on some breakfast with her friends. I love the little tables they eat at!


Day 9: Favorite Games & Sports Day.
On this day, Olivia got to wear her fav sports garb. And since it's baseball season, it's only natural that she'd decide to wear her Mets jersey. We brought her in thinking she'd be a hit - only to find her favorite teachers (Miss Liz & Miss Krystal sporting the Yankees - Grr! It was all in fun though, so we got a great picture out of it! They were really sad Mommy picked her up from school, because they wanted to rag on daddy about dressing her in Mets.

Month of the Military Child - Days 5 & 6

Day 5 was Fun in the Sun-Splash Day. I'm not sure if she splashed around at daycare or not. I'm assuming she did, but they didn't tell us anything special. What I can tell you is that we went to the doctor's early that morning. Again. And she has an ear infection. Again. She has been off of the antibiotic for one week. When she started that antibiotic she hadn't even been off the previous one for one full day. She has had three ear infections back to back to back...in March! Not counting all the previous ones she has had. What does all this mean? She gets a ticket to go see the audiologist and the ENT. The audiologist to make sure the infections are not interfering with her speech and test for fluid, the ENT to consult for tubes. Her ENT appt is April 20th...we shall see. It also meant they gave up on oral antibiotics and just gave her 2 shots, and she had to go back today to get two more. She wasn't pleased, and was not in a very good mood.

As for Day 6: Can you guess what it was?

One the way to get the shots and go to school:


At home - giving a show:

No, it wasn't be a model day...it was Mix-Match Day! Her teachers said if it was a contest, Olivia would have won. She was the most mix-matched baby there! Today she donned her fav green flannel elmo pajamma pants, coupled with her purple island flower t-shirt, complete with her fav pink kicks (yes they are converse, the child has chuck taylor's). And FYI- she had on blue socks and her pig-tail ties were different colors too. So the idea is not only did she not match, she was wearing pajammas with a regular shirt. And if you look closely her pants have snowflakes on them and her shirt is summer-like beachy. So, that doesn't match either. Daddy said she looked awful, I say she looked awesome!

P.S. She had a blast showing off and modeling for me after school. She was too much, smiling and all. I guess it's safe to say those shots really make a difference!

Month of the Military Child - Days 1-3

April is the Month of the Military Child. Olivia's daycare is doing a special thing this month where every day they have something special. My goal was to take a picture each day and blog about the special thing. Well, you know how goals go...sometimes they have to get modified. So, I will at least try to take a picture, and then blog about it to share with you. For now, I have a few days to catch up on.

April 1st was "Share Breakfast with me Day." Daddy, Mommy, and Olivia all went to daycare together and ate breakfast. It was a fun, yummy day.

April 2nd was "Real Messy Art Day." Now, I didn't pick up Olivia from school, so I don't have a picture for you. But I can tell you that I dressed her in a gray shirt and gray pants, but she came home in a gray shirt and brown pants. No, she didn't paint the pants brown, she just needed to be changed after participating in a paint slip-n-slide. Daddy said her favorite teacher "Miss Liz" was covered in paint from head to toe. She said all the kids tackled her. Apparently, Real Messy Art Day included putting paint in little spray bottles. That was one of Olivia's favorite.

April 3rd was "Let's Have Fun in the Park Day." And we did. The day started out with Mike's work Children's Easter Party at one of the parks on base. Olivia was very good at finding the eggs and putting them in her basket. She hardly needed any help. Although, her friend Abby helped her out a little bit. Then after the Easter Party, we showed some new friends around Okinawa, stopping at Comprehensive Park - a huge park off base.

We started the morning off with Olivia helping Mommy make some cookies for the Easter Party...(Jill helped by sniffing around for any dropped peanut butter)

At the Egg hunt:

Her friend Abby helping out:

A "High five" with Abby:

The loot:

No fear at all. I caught her climbing this almost all the way up!

Doesn't even care that she has a dress on...still wants to play:

Later that day at Comprehensive Park- We played with big bubbles!

She liked chasing them:

And running around:

Hmmm - what's this look?

Oh that's a sneaky little (big) smile:

As for Easter, we didn't do much. The Easter Bunny did stop by and leave Olivia a basket, and mommy and daddy some candy, but that was about it. It was a yucky rainy day, so we just stayed in all day and cleaned up a little here and there. As for the day, it was suppose to be "A Special Island Trip Day." Since it was raining, we didn't do that today. But we are going to go to Okuma next weekend, so maybe that will count for something! Happy Easter to all! Stay tuned...

Oh Mr. Sun!

Rain, Rain, Go Away... That is what we had been singing for the last few weeks. Nothing but rain and wind and cold here in Oki. Yesterday, the sun finally came out, but we had plans all day, so we couldn't enjoy it very much. Today, as we were enjoying our morning pancakes, I noticed the sun was out, and it was warm! So, I grabbed Olivia, some sand toys, snacks, and of course the camera, and headed to the beach! We haven't had a chance to walk around the beach in a while. So we took a couple hours before nap time to walk the beach, enjoy the sun, and look for treasures...

And since there has been more than one comment on how far behind I am with my blog...I've decided to share with you! Enjoy!

Just getting there and getting settled:

Scoping the place out:

Found something:

Moving on...

Swings!

Giving a whirl at the tripod...Need a remote now...

Every now and then, she'll smile for me :)

Getting ready to go down the slide:

Going down!

My Favorite from the day:

"Lucky" - At least I think that is what this treasure reads...

A couple other favs...I plopped her in a tree (she was perfectly safe):

This is what I get for saying "Cheeeeessseee"

Oh and if you are wondering about her boots...those are her awesomely cool pink rain boots...that she MUST wear everywhere she goes (unless we hide them on her - Even still, sometimes she finds them anyway...) So, although we don't normally wear rain boots to the beach, we did today!

Chocolate Chip Pancakes & Cherry Blossoms

Daddy has become quite the pro at making pancakes. A few weeks ago, we dug out the waffle iron and Daddy whipped us up some waffles. They were a hit with Olivia. The next week, Daddy tried his hand at pancakes. They were delicious! And an even bigger hit with Olivia. The next week, Mommy bought blueberries (made of gold apparently, because they are so expensive here), and Daddy made blueberry pancakes. Yummy delicious! And then last week Olivia and I were grocery shopping and she grabbed a bag of chocolate chips. I'm pretty sure she meant she wanted Daddy to make chocolate chip pancakes. Which he did this morning. And they were the best ever. And Olivia thought so too! Take a look:

Chocolate Monster:

So, Daddy has become the King of Breakfast! And we look forward to the weekends when he cooks yummy pancakes for us! :)

Remember the cherry blossoms from last year? Well, it is that time again. They've started blooming some on Kadena. Apparently, Okinawa is the first place to get them in all of Japan, and they are sign that Spring is on its way. (Sorry to those of you dealing with cold, cold, cold weather) I'm going to try and take pictures of the stages of the trees growing the cherry blossoms. They are very pretty all pink and blooming, but they come and go so quickly, only staying on the trees for a few weeks before turning into leaves. So I want to try and get the different stages...we'll see if I can keep up on it and do it.

So here are some pictures of the cherry blossoms first growing on Kadena.

From the road, you can barely see the blossoms popping out, but wait, soon it will be all pink:

Christmas Day!

Just wanted to share some pictures of Christmas Day with everyone!
Rise and Shine: First look at all the presents after Santa came:

And Jill got her stocking filled too:

Our Tree:

Tried to get them both to sit in front of the tree. It didn't really work out well, even after conning Jill with a Beggin' Strip:

Olivia checking out her stocking from Haruka:

It was the year of kitchen stuff- A kitchen, an Elmo microwave, and a rice cooker for mommy!

And a new lens for mommy too!

Olivia couldn't wait for daddy to put together her new car...

Daddy...had...a little...trouble with the car:

After presents we relaxed all day, then went to dinner at the Christmas Restaurant. It is these people's house in town, they decorate it from head to toe in Christmas decorations and they open for dinner for 6 weeks around Christmas time. They have a small menu you can chose from. It was pretty cool and Olivia enjoyed running around looking at all the "Ho-Ho's."

Take a look at how nicely decorated it was:

The host/home owner was nice enough to take our picture.

Christmas Day 2009