A Short Week

I don't have a lot to report, and I am tempted to put off blogging until next week, but if I share what little I have now, I will be that much faster next week.  So, short post it is!  

Annie picked up a whole host of new skills this week.  She has started saying "Mumumumbaaabaaabaabaaamumumum."  It's very cute.  Her crawling continues to improve, and now when I go in to give her her midnight snack(s), she is often standing, which is both exciting and frightening.

 We have been listening to Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals pretty much every day, by Vivien's request.  I feel somewhat obligated to do fun art projects with them, now that they're not at youchien, so we've been doing one for each movement of the piece.  I was selfish and did The Royal March of the Lion by myself one night after everyone was in bed to unwind (the kids brought home their oil pastels from youchien and it had been so long since I'd used them, I couldn't resist).  I think it's Rafe's favorite movement.  It has really helped him perfect his roar . . . Vivien's favorite is the Hens and Roosters.  I like Aquarium because it's the same as the mysterious music from Beauty and the Beast, but I think the Tortoises might be my favorite, because they do the slowest can-can you've ever heard.

Vivien added all the extra sea life into the aquarium.  She is especially proud of all her different seaweeds.  

 We started "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" with Vivien this week.  100 is so many!!  I am glad I learned the Japanese alphabets recently, because I am much more understanding of how difficult it is to learn to read than I would have been otherwise.  I had forgotten how hard it is to have to sound out words until they sound like something you know.  She's doing well, but it takes a lot of bribery to get through the lessons.  Stickers, chocolates, promises you don't intend to keep . . .

 We took family pictures in the cherry blossoms this week at the Kintai bridge.  It has been a very stressful scheduling process, since the blossoms only stick around for a week at most, depending on weather, and there's no predicting exactly when they'll start to bloom.  Our photographer only shoots at sunrise and sunset, so fitting all those military schedules into a couple hours of a couple days at the last minute is quite an undertaking!  

 We felt a couple raindrops when we got to the park, and by the end of our session it was sprinkling steadily, so I left feeling like our pictures were going to be very gloomy. But she posted a sneak peek for us the next day and they actually look like they're going to be beautiful.  I shall post when I have them!  

 Last thing for this week was Rafe's Birthday Party, Round 2.  When I had to cancel his party last week because he was sick, one of the other mothers in the branch offered to do a joint party (since her son and Rafe were in the same youchien class and have the same friends).  I took the table covers I had purchased for Rafe's blue party (which Vivien had been using as fashion accessories) . . .

 . . . and turned them into a piñata!  The theme of the new party was Pixar's Planes.  I made it a pull piñata instead of one that you hit.  The ribbons are all threaded through the trap door on the bottom, but only one of them has a knot tied on the inside, so when you pull it, it opens the door.  It worked out perfectly, because the winning ribbon was the second to the last one chosen.  The suspense was tangible!  

 The mother of the other birthday boy had checked out a plane shaped cake pan from our library (our library has lots of cool, random stuff).  It was a fun evening and Rafe was very happy to finally have his celebration in the beloved community room. 

And that is all!