And the best mom ever award goes to.........me!

Luckily, the kids had a half day of school on Friday the 30th. So, I let Kenzie have a few of her friends over (along with Christian and one other little guy) to have a little Halloween Party. The kids had a Costume Contest (the Vampire Devil Princess was the winer), they decorated pumpkin cookies, turned the backyard into a spider web, and created some sweet pumpkins!
They used all of this......

And a little hard work........

To create these......the sweetest pumpkins ever!

A Star is Born!

Carson had a little modeling job this past week. He had a cameo appearance on a Japanese Quiz Show that is on Fuji Television here in Japan. It is called "Nepu Leagu". He was paid to play at "Robot Park" in Roppongi, a newer nicer area of Tokyo, for an hour and a half. Then he had to slide down the yellow slide and ask another little American girl "When do you play in the park?" He had so much fun playing and did a really great job.....sooooo great that I took him for ice cream a the "Cow Place'. We don't really know the name, we just know it is the place with a big cow out front.

Carson wasn't camera shy at all!

This is the robot totem pole at the entrance to the park......hence the name "Robot Park"The Cow Place

Boo!

The kids had so many chances to dress up in their costumes this year. Halloween parties, Costume Birthday Parties, the big Halloween Bash at the Purdy Gym, and so many more! Good thing though, because poor little Carson had a fever on Halloween and wasn't able to go trick or treeting. He was pretty content to sit home and eat candy....poor little guy.

Calvin was a Michigan football player......bet you wouldn't have guessed that!

Carson was a Detroit Lion....I don't know what is worse.....that his daddy let him dress up like a Lion (they are a terrible team lately) or that he didn't feel well....

Christian dressed up like a jail-bird.....we told him to get it out of his system now!

And Kenzie used her imagination and dressed up like "Twilight".....the princess of the night.Gosh....looking at this picture you would think that they are all just miserable.......
But, all in all, they had a great Halloween.

Seriously....he climbs the walls.....

I know that many of you don't believe me when I tell you how active Carson is. He goes 90 miles and hour.....all day long......from the time he wakes up.....until he goes to bed at night. I am pretty convinced he moves in his sleep too. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that when I say Carson is climbing the walls........he really is.

Happy Fall Ya'll

We had a great time picking out our pumpkins at the local........commissary. Unfortunately, there is no pumpkin patch here in Japan, but we made the best of it and had a great time pretending at the commissary. The kids each got to pick out their very own pumpkin and carve it with the help of mommy and daddy. Thanks to Aunt Donna, Uncle Mark and our really cool cousins we had some really cool shirts to wear when we went to the pumpkin patch...oops, I mean the commissary.

Let the Carving begin!
This one is perfect!
How about this one?

Can you take me out of the pumpkin box now?

Googly Eyes!

Daddy is hungry!

The wierdos come out at night!

Sissy is hungry!

The finished products.......

Carson's Pumpkin

Kenzie's Pumpkin

Christian's Pumpkin

2009 Mikoshi Parade

Each year the base sponsors a Mikoshi parade. Many of the small towns around Yokosuka brink their Mikoshi's to the base and parade them around. A Mikoshi is a shrine that is very ornately decorated. The tradition is that each village carries it through the streets of their village at the end of the summer....the harder they shake it, the louder they chant, and the higher they raise it the more luck they are said to bring to their village. So, once a year they all bring them to the base and parade through the streets to bring the base luck and good fortune. It is quite an event. It is an open base event and there are generally about 60,000 visitors on the base during the day. As you can see, many of the Japanese are dressed in traditional Japanese attire. Some of them have on more than others.....some of them have on hardly anything at all. I am not sure why, but modesty goes out the window during the Mikoshi parade.....men prance around in nothing but a sheet like g string.........mmmmm...mmmmm!

Carson has giant leaf ears as we walk to the Mikoshi Parade. You just gotta love the FAll!

This was the CFAY (Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka) mikoshi. This one is sponsered by the Navy Base and is carried mostly by Americans.
I am not sure what Calvin was taking a picture of......The beautifully dressed Japanese woman with her kimono and slippers or the two men in front of her baring their bottoms!
You can see some of the Mikoshi's in the background.

This guy forgot his pants

The Nix's Visit Japan

In October, we had an excellent time when our friends Jamie and Colleen visited us from South Carolina. We had so many adventures I don't even know where to begin. We spent several days in Tokyo and were able to visit Tokyo Disney Sea, The Meiji Shrine, and Odaiba. The kids really enjoyed swimming at the New Sanno....one of our favorite Tokyo hotels. While at the Meiji Shrine we witnessed a traditional Japanese wedding ceremony, the bride was absolutely beautiful and it was neat to see how the ceremony progressed. We made several trips to Odaiba and got lost several times getting there. Driving in Tokyo is sort of like drving in downtown New York City......but all of of the signs are in Japanese. During our adventures we were able to meet some very friendly Japolice when we were pulled over. We still aren't sure why we were pulled over! They didn't speak any English, and when they realized that we were a van full of Americans who spoke little to no Japanese they just smiled, rambled something in Japanese, and let us go on our way. They did point us in the right direction though. There is one advantage to getting lost in Tokyo......we had many many many opportunities to drive over the Rainbow Bridge where we had wonderful views of the Tokyo Bay. We took a day trip to the Yokohama Ramen Museum but found that we all prefer our cheap ramen that we find near the Navy Base. Then, we ended that day by watching the movie "Ramen Girl". I highly recommend watching it if you want to see the museum and learn a little about Japanese culture. We also visited the Mt. Fuji area while the Nix's were in town. We drove on some pretty curvy mountainous roads that were barely wide enough for one car.....let alone two! We visited Yunessun, a natural hot spring water park. Everyone enjoyed basking in giant baths of Green Tea, Coffee, Sake, Honey water, Sea Salt, Potato water, and so many more. The Japanese believe that each bath has different healing properties. We also went to the bath of "foot fish". It is a giant hot tub that you place your feet in and there are hundreds of tiny fish that nibble on the dead skin on your feet........YUCK! This is very popular here in Japan.....for both hands and feet! One of my favorite things that we did with the Nix's was taking a sightseeing boat ride on Lake Ashi. This is a giant crater formed by Mt. Fuji's volcanic activity hundreds of years ago. The area was absolutely beautiful! Unfortunately, even though we were at the base of Mt. Fuji, we weren't able to see it because of all of the clouds. The Nix's stayed for 2 weeks. We ate at all of our favorite restaurants and visited lots of our favorite spots. It was so fun to have visitors! You are all welcome.....just let us know when YOU are up for a visit!

Which way do we go......which way do we go........if only we could read the sign....

Japan really knows children's entertainment....these furry little pandas were all over the place.....you pop in 200 yen and get a 2 minute ride on the giant furry panda!

We look like the locals right?????? NOT! I'm not sure how.....but they all knew that we weren't from Japan!

Our sightseeing boat wasn't quite this cool....who knew there were Pirates in Japan?

Curvy roads ahead! We tried to get some pictures of the Monkey Crossing signs but we were too distracted by the narrow curvy roads........seriously!

Tori gates on the edge of Lake Ashi.....so pretty!

Jamie and Colleen on our tour boat.

This is the entrance to the "Onsen" (hot springs) water park.

We were eathing at Pepper Lunch. This is Jamie's favorite restaurant. They bring your raw meat and rice to you on a hot hot hot cast iron skillet. It finishes cooking at your seat while you stir it. It is really "Oishe" (delicious!)

Look at Colleen's face......she was not diggin' the Ramen. It was very fishy! You pay to try different bowls of ramen in different ramen restaurants. Some were ok, and some were really really bad. I think it would helped if we could have read some of the signs to know what we were actually eating!

Me and Calvin at the entrance to the Ramen Museum. It was set up like a small Japanese town in the 1940's.

A Japanese Bride and Groom at a traditional wedding ceremony at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo.