Eli learning to ride his bike....

Fred is trying to raise the next generation of professional Cyclists .....If only we could get him out of his pajamas first!

Abe on Two feet....

It's official! Abraham is now a walker, wobbly at first, but now turning corners with more confidence and getting in to even more trouble....how is that possible! I love that Abe's first order of business was to take care of this poor starving baby doll! He walked over, said "Mama" and proceeded to feed and nurture this poor starving creature. Kids just have to stick together!

Walking on my own is SO MUCH FUN!

Where to go and what to do!

Fourth of July Fun!

Boys just want to BLOW STUFF UP!

This is only what was left after an evening at our friends party. It was a "Bring your own Explosives!" party. What could be better! We were the little fish compared to everyone else! It was a lot of fun, but Abe wasn't sure he like all the loud noises. Bottle rockets are NOT his favorite!

DAD training a daughter to be a PYRO!

Mom has to get in on the action too! Got to love a country where you celebrate liberty via fire and flames!

Lobster Quadrille

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

Amelia stars as a Lobster! She looks amazing!

We had a fun week of practices and worked hard to perfect Amelia's role. She danced, she sang and she had a blast! Eli and Abe even enjoyed the daily practices by watching, singing along and cheering her on. What a bunch of cutie pies!

Do we make some awesome lobsters or what! GET those claws ready! We loved the costumes and the songs. What a great opportunity for the kids to learn and participate. They included as many as they could and still put on a great performance.

Abraham's First Birthday

Kodomo-no-hi
Children's Day
For centuries Japan celebrated Boy's Day but recently the festival became known as Children's Day or Kodom-no-hi which celebrates the healthy growth of all children. Families with a son fly fish-shaped windsocks outside their homes on a long pole. The Koi nobori represent carp swimming upstream. Parents hope their sons will overcome obstacles as they grow up and become men. I thought this would be a great theme for Abraham's first birthday. I'm so glad he's reached his first birthday with health and strength. We wish him well in the trials he is sure to face.
This is one of my favorite times in Japan. I love seeing all the flags big and small flying. Eli's school Fuji yochien would have these absolutely huge ones that would fly in their courtyard that must have been easily 12 to 15 feet long.

Abraham had a wonderful yet seemingly unexpected first birthday. He was constantly amazed that we were all singing and clapping for him and whilst smiling and clapping he joined in all the fun and merriment. I'm sure he's still wondering why everyone was soooo nice to him yesterday!
What a beautiful cake! It was the centerpiece to our celebrations. I'm so glad we decided to go in to the Covered in Cake lady. I was telling her a little about Abe and she came up with the idea of having waves around the bottom of the cake and I decide to add in the fish flag and "rising sun" a nod to the Japanese flag.

We put everyone to work creating those fish flags. It took a lot of love to color each scale a slightly different and unique color. Abraham even got in on the action.

He sure loves them!

Abraham has such a sweet warm spirit. He's always "flirting" with everyone by waving, smiling and wanting to make others happy. He's curious and adventurous in all that he does. He never goes half way. Timid is not in his vocabulary. If he wants something he doesn't just look, he'll go up and pounce on it!


We went to Abe's first Baseball game! It was a lot of fun. I had forgotten the first time Abe had seen fireworks. It was the Fourth of July in Japan and we had a flash flood that knocked out our power making it hot, muggy and basically miserable with a new born. (No food, no air conditioner, no communications etc.) Well, I didn't feel like even getting in the car to drive down to the fireworks so Dad and the kids jumped in the car and went to watch them. I was left holding a fussy Abe. He usually calmed down if I brought him outside so I was walking around the front of our house with him when the fireworks started exploding in the air. I thought this would startle him, but he started looking around and amazingly stopped being fussy. We sat out front snuggled together watching the fireworks in the warm summer evening. It all came back to me as I held him last night, as we snuggled together while he was barely holding his eyes open (since it was almost 11pm). It almost brought me to tears.


To complete our theme we brought Abe to this great pool so he could splash to his hearts content. We also HAD to bring him to the "Flying Fish" a place downtown that has the best fish...which he loves! OH, and there are cute "stuffed" fish all over the walls.


Abaraham your family loves you so much and we know that you will grow up to be your namesake....Strong, faithful, honest, a leader and a beacon to many generations to come. Ok, so we just hope to have lots of grandkids that are as cute as you! WE all LOVE YOU so much sweetheart!

Fun in the Garden

How many carrots do we have?

This is a summer crop harvest. We pulled 2 squares at once of our carrots, one was of purple and one was of orange carrots. The kids had a blast pulling them out. I had a fun time watching the kids marvel at the bounty they had created. We have plans to add them to a stew! Yummy!

it's a carrot face off... Purple vs. Orange

This is Amelia counting the carrots we had, a total of 21.

This is the two headed carrot monster. Eli was our carrot wrangler who rounded this one up.

...and Mom taking the carrots in to give them a bath and get them ready for the fridge..however Mom was with out a shower of course.... that's Dad's favorite way to take a picture of me! Maybe they'll hose me down afterwards too!

Tour de Rock 2011

Amelia's first "long ride"!
She rode a 12 mile bike ride through the Big Dam Bridge trail on Saturday in just over an hour. We stopped to get a quick drink twice, but she pushed on and didn't even walk her bike up the steep area on the bridge. She did so wonderful. We are all so proud of her!

She rocked the ride and is hungry for more! This is us at the finish line after we went through, posing for a quick picture.

The boys seemed the hardest hit by the heat. Oh poor Eli, he worked up such a sweat. He's so exhausted!

This was our water break on the way back. Mom took a hard hit when Amelia tried to get out of the way from on oncoming family but ran me off the road instead. I stopped to clean out some road rash and get a water. Mom is fine, except maybe a few cracked ribs! But we all finished the race with smiles on our faces.

Dad is getting the bikes ready for our domination in the race!

We had a great time at the after party, especially Abe with the huge giant fans. How do we get one of those in the living room? We were glad to enjoy in the fun of the day and help out CARTI with cancer research and rehabilitation. We all hope to do it again next year.