As an elementary school kid, the end of the school year is a complete blast. There's less work, more movies, additional parties, extra-curricular activities are winding down, and you have the whole summer ahead of you. It's a special time.
For parents, as I've discovered, it's absolute crunch time. Mother's Day, Mimi's birthday, Japanese school sports day, preschool graduation performance, and parties, parties, parties. Our schedule was already busy, and while it didn't get all that much busier, everything was out of whack. And to top it all off, we started a very major project here at the house, but more on that later.
Mother's Day was a relatively quiet affair, but definitely required a cake from Schubert's Bakery in the city.
The kids each prepared a gift for their Mama. Mimi's was particularly telling. It says, "I know you love me when you tell me you love me more than Mari and Kuri." Yup, she's definitely an oldest child.
Kuri's preschool had a special Mimi performance for all the moms. Here, Kuri and his friends are getting ready to sing.
And here's Kuri beaming after he gave Sumie, who ran up from work just to be there for him, a bouquet of paper flowers he put together just for her.
Mimi had waited patiently all year to be the "Star of the Week" in her class. She was the last one of all, thanks to her late birthday. Throughout the week the star is allowed to bring in interesting things to share. Most kids bring in toys, books, or special awards. Not Mimi. She's a big sister, first and foremost. She wanted to bring in Mari - who, come to think of it, actually is Mimi's favorite toy. Kuri came too, but as all the kids already know him, he just hung back and wanted to play with the Legos.
Mimi also performed in her first ukulele concert. We were very proud as she started the class a bit late, but was soon playing songs with the 5th graders. This girl definitely takes after her mother in the music department.
Mimi's actual birthday posed us with a bit of a conundrum. I'd secured an ice cream cake (a nice change from Schubert's given the heat) and I swear that at some point there was a number 8 candle in our junk drawer (every kitchen has one). Well, turns out I was wrong. So, given that we had a 9, a 1, a green clothes pin, and a tooth pick, I turned Mimi's cake candles into a math lesson.
A few days later we continued the birthday celebrations with cousins and grandparents in Pleasanton. Mimi was obsessed with the whipped cream.
As school started winding down and the days started heating up, the kids started to demand more park time.
Snacks at the playground in Marinwood park provided energy for...
...catching fish down at the creek. This is a fabulous park - great play structures, a pool, huge grassy areas, and tennis courts - but the favorite section, by far, is the natural creek down below the playground. It's just a creek, like the ones I frequented as a kid, but it's a total world of wonder for all three of them. Well, at least until Mari kneels down one too many times and her diaper absorbs 50% of the creek water.
Memorial Park in San Anselmo is a favorite of ours as well. It's chock full of wooden houses, forts, and castles the kids can explore.
Mari has her own special hideout in this park. It's perfectly sized for her. And, thanks to some massive weight loss on her father's part, he can actually join her.
The weekends have been quite busy. With school coming to a close for both Mimi and Kuri, there were a bunch of activities. One weekend found us having to divide and conquer. On Saturday, Sumie and Mimi headed down to San Francisco for Mimi's Japanese School Undokai (sports day)...
...while I took Mari and Kuri to a beach birthday party for one of Kuri's friends.
The next day was not a day of rest, despite what the Bible might recommend. Instead, I had to leave the house early to help prepare for the graduation ceremony and performance at Kuri's preschool. He's not graduating this year, but he did play an important role in the performance as "The Sun" in "The Hungry Caterpillar."
With it being so close to Father's Day, the teachers had the kids present each of the dads with a little gift. I was very proud of the keychain Kuri made me.
While Kuri didn't graduate from preschool this time around, he did have a kind of graduation a few weeks early. One day a week for the past 6 months or so he has been enrolled in a Hiragana class, where he learns to read and write the basic characters of the Japanese alphabet. Like his sister on ukulele, he started a bit late, but worked hard and managed to learn all of the hiragana characters. He's not always the best behaved, but he's definitely the best studier in this family.
With a warm spring in full bloom we enjoyed backyard parties, where Kuri learned that he has an affinity for soccer...
...and pool parties celebrating the end of the school year. This was a special one as Mimi is finally water safe and Mari, while not yet able to swim independently, let us know just how much she loves being in the water. She simply would not get out. And with her swim buddy on, she wouldn't even let us hold her. She just wanted to swim! That's a huge change from Mimi and Kuri.
Of course, when your wife is a doctor, there are call weekends built into all that's going on. This last one fell on Father's Day, so the kids and did something special for me on our own. We ran errands in the Porsche. It was especially fun being able to make Mari giggle as she sat across from me.
With Mimi out of American school, it was time to start her intensive week of Japanese school. Normally she'd be taking two full weeks, but she'll have to miss the second because she's flying to Japan to attend school there with her cousins for a full month. She was a bit apprehensive about it at first, but now can't wait to get there.
And, of course, despite everything going on, Kuri and I made time for Cars and Coffee. This time around he got to sit in a beautiful Porsche 356 (my dream Porsche).
It's been a crazy, but rewarding couple of months. I've slacked on my writing, both with this blog and my Keto 50 blog, but that's not entirely just because we've been running all over the place. As I mentioned before, we have a bit of a project going on. Here's our back yard right now.
It's a total redo. And it will be front and back. It's going to be awesome when it's finished, but right now we have people here at the house six days a week, lots of noise, and a construction zone that keeps the kids inside all. day. long. The house basically explodes with kid stuff every couple days. Having gradually moved to bigger and bigger places with the addition of children, I hadn't realized just how vital a role outdoor space played in our lives. And our sanity. Another month or two and we'll have a new play area, and hopefully a more consistently clean home.
Hope to write more often in the weeks to come. Thanks for your patience!
