If it Fits, it Ships

Sorry, Gran, we just don't fit!  :)

Good Food, Good Friends, Good Fun!

Since our downstairs is almost all set up, we decided to invite some friends over to have a movie night. 

It was so much fun!  The kids had a blast watching Astro Boy and eating pizza.  The adults had fun sitting in the dining room talking.  We can't wait to do it again.  Thanks again, Cannon Family! 

All Smiles :)

Claire is not a big fan of our baby swing.  She will swing for a few minutes and then start to scream.  While we were unpacking, we discovered our play saucer.  We decided to see if she liked being in there any better.  It was a hit!  She loves to be in there. 

All smiles, even the parents! 

Papa Mints

We left some stuff at my parents' house when we moved to Tokyo.  Lucky for us, my Dad was happy to ship it to us. He also included a box of Papa Mints (Andes Mints) for the boys.  Evan loves them!  Whenever my Dad visits, he always brings a box, and Evan knows this.  He will ask for them if my Dad doesn't get them out of his suitcase fast enough.  When Evan saw the box my Dad had sent, he started looking around the room, trying to find Papa.  I had to explain to him that Papa had mailed the mints.  He was sad not to have Papa, but he sure was happy to have the mints!

  

Thanks, Papa!  We love you!

How We Spent the First Day of Spring

This past Tuesday was the Vernal Equinox, a holiday here in Japan.  We decided to take advantage of Brett's day off and set off to explore the city.  We decided to visit some of our favorite places from the last time we were here.  We walked up to Meguro Station and headed off to Harajuku. 

Once we were in Harajuku, we headed straight for Takeshita Dori.  

Brett said the best way to describe this street is to call it the center of Japan's punk universe.  It is packed with clothing stores selling some of the craziest things I have ever seen.  I am sure my brother Trey would love it!  One of the best things on this street are the crepe stands. 

The lines are always really long, but that just gave the boys time to look at the display and decide what they wanted.  We all changed our minds a few times, they all looked so good.  In the end we decided to get three of them.  

Colin and Ian decided on strawberries with whipped cream and ice cream on top.  Brett chose strawberries and bananas with whipped cream and chocolate sauce.  I got cheesecake with whipped cream, caramel, and nuts.  They were delicious!  Evan tried all of them, but mostly ate the strawberries.  Even after sharing with Evan, Brett ended up having to help everyone finish theirs.  :) 

 After the crepes, we headed down the street.  We walked slowly to look at all the stores and were excited to find lots of fun stuff.  Our favorite was a store called Pet Parade.  It was a boutique full of dog clothes.  They were pretty nice, and, I am sure, expensive.  We had just been introduced to Trey and Hope's new dog on Skype a few days before, so it was really fun to imagine their little Beru in one of the outfits. 

When we finished looking at all the stores on Takeshita Dori, we headed over to Omotesando to check out a few more stores.  When we were here for the summer a few years ago, the kids fell in love with a toy store called Kiddie Land.  They are currently rebuilding it, so we just looked at the building for a few minutes.  Then we headed up the street to Oriental Bazaar.  I love that store!  It is full of great souvenirs.  When we were done shopping, we headed back the same way we came.  A few blocks away, I noticed a sign that said Kiddie Land was down a side street.  So we took a detour to check it out.  The kids were so excited to see it again and immediately wanted every toy in the place.  I told them we were just looking that day and we would be back.  Outside Kiddie Land were lots of people in funny costumes.  They were there to introduce a new flavor of Pretz.  They were so funny, and it didn't make any sense.  I asked the kids if they would stand with them so I could take a picture.  Ian said he would be happy to.  So I sent Brett and Ian in for a picture. 

Everyone in Japan does the peace sign when they get their picture taken, so Brett and Ian decided to do it as well.  When we were done looking at all the craziness, we headed back to the train station and headed off for Shinjuku.  Shinjuku Station is the busiest train station in the world.  (On average, 3,600,000 people pass through it every single day.  That is 5 times as many people as pass through Grand Central Station in New York.)  It was crazy.  Our favorite book store is just down the street from the station, so we headed there first.  Brett said it was better to go one way, but I told him it was better to go another way because of the stroller.  He said he didn't believe me, but agreed to go the way I wanted to go anyway.  In the end, he agreed that I was right.  Pretty good for not having been there in 4 years. :)  When we got to the book store, we let the kids pick out a book.   They were so excited!  When we were done with that, we headed over to a McDonald's for lunch.  We sat on the street, since there was no room in the dining room.  In Japan, you can't really special order at a fast food restaurant.  Ian doesn't like anything on his hamburgers.  Occasionally he will dip them in ketchup.  Today, he decided to just eat it the way it came.  He ate the whole thing and actually enjoyed it.  :)

After lunch, we let Brett shop a little at a couple of music stores.  His birthday money was burning a hole in his pocket.  The kids and I just waited outside and watched all the people going by.  When Brett was done, we headed back to the station.  From there, we headed to Ebisu Station to switch from the train to the subway to go out to Hiroo.  The Hiroo Subway Station does not have an elevator, so Brett and I carried the double stroller, with both kids strapped in, up about three flights of stairs.  Not an easy task.  Especially when Brett's legs are so much longer than mine.  :)  There is a grocery store in Hiroo called National Azabu.  When we were here last time, I found a lot of good American food there.  They are currently rebuilding the store, so they are in a tiny store across the street.  I got a couple bags of marshmallows to make Rice Krispies Treats with.  When we were done with the store, we headed off to the park across the street to let the boys run around a little.  The kids had fun running around on all the paths.  They kept getting lost and would have to retrace their steps.  The Tokyo Temple is just up the street from the park.  We could see the angel Moroni.  It has a bunch of scaffolding around it, since they are fixing it, because it was damaged in an earthquake. 

We headed up to the Temple Annex building for a few minutes.  Inside was a vending machine that let you pay so you could stay the night there.  The next time I am there, I will take a picture.  It was getting close to kids' bed times, so we decided to hop on a bus that would take us back to Meguro Station.   

  

The kids really liked the bus.  Once we were at Meguro Station, we changed buses so we wouldn't have to walk the 3/4 of a mile home.  One quick stop at the grocery store near our house, and we were home.  We were all exhausted from our day, but it sure was worth it.   



Picture Perfect

My little girl!  

 

Isn't she adorable!

Green Day

On St. Patrick's Day we planned to go over to the Melaleuca Offices with Kent to pick up some cleaning supplies.  When he showed up at the house, he was dressed in green from head to toe.  He even had green jeans on.  We were all so impressed with his spirit, the kids headed straight up to change their clothes to be more like Grandpa.  They don't celebrate St. Partrick's Day in Japan, so no one at Melaleuca could understand why he was in all green.  Kent tried to explain it to them, even pinching one guy because he didn't have green on.  They kind of caught on, but still couldn't understand why Kent would celebrate it, since he is not Irish.  It was so much fun to watch.  I decided I had to take a picture of Kent all decked out in green, so I did.  As soon as I did that, other people wanted their picture with the man in green.  :) 

Since Kent had to stay for a day of meetings, he graciously let us take his car so we didn't have to walk in the rain.  We headed to the Outback in Shibuya to celebrate Brett's birthday, since they were open for lunch.  They still let you smoke in restaurants here, so Brett asked them to put us as far away from the smoking section as they could.  We ended up in the back corner with no one near us, which was perfect for a family with 4 kids.

   

The food was fantastic, and we had so much fun! 

They really go all out for birthdays at the Outback in Shibuya!

HAPPY 32nd BIRTHDAY, BRETT!!!!



The Big Cheese!

On Saturday, Colin competed in his first Pinewood Derby. We were very lucky to find out about it when we did, and we were even luckier that they happened to have an extra car kit. We got the car kit on Thursday, but Brett worked till really late on both Thursday and Friday, so Brett and Colin started working on the car the morning of the race. Since the car starts out as a big block of wood, they decided to make it into a big block of swiss cheese. They drilled out some swiss cheese holes and painted the car bright yellow. When we got to the race, and submitted the cheese to be weighed, it was only a few grams shy of the weight limit.

 

Since there were not that many cars racing, they had 12 rounds with 4 races each.  Brett thought that was really nice, giving each boy so many chances to race.

   

Each car had a number.  Colin (with a little help from Brett) decided to have his car be number 3215, because the number 5 is Go in Japanese.  3..2..1..Go!    Pretty Clever if you ask me.  Every time "The Cheese" was up, they would count down, "3..2..1..Go!"  It made Colin smile.

 

Brett helped out at the finish line, sending the cars back down after each race.  When Colin was up, we would all go sit near Brett and cheer for "The Cheese."

Colin had a blast watching all the cars race.  His favortie thing was to watch as the cars crossed the finish line and announce which lane had won before the computer posted the results.  Sometimes the computer wouldn't record the result, and the race had to be redone.  But, if you asked Colin, he could tell you who won.

   

"The Cheese" was a respectable race car, even winning one of the races.  When all was said and done, Colin took 8th place.  Not bad for having started the car that morning.  When the awards were handed out, Colin was given the award "Most Delicious Car."

Colin had so much fun!  He has already started planning what his car will look like for next year's Pinewood Derby!   

Trevor

One of the best things about our new house is that it has covered parking for two cars—something that is rare in Tokyo. Two spaces is great, because that means that we can have a car and still have enough space for someone else to come visit (like Brett’s dad or someone coming over for a play date). The fact that it is covered is especially great, because if it’s raining (which it does a lot in Tokyo), we can unload groceries and tired kids without having to worry about hauling everything in the rain. Also, since getting around Tokyo is not as easy with four kids as it was when we only had two kids, we had assumed from the start that we would need a car, so we are thrilled to have somewhere to put one.

We had done some research in the States before we left, and we had narrowed things down to few models. So Brett and Brett’s dad went to look at them and do the preliminary research (which would have been impossible if all of the kids had tagged along). After Brett looked at Hondas, Toyotas, and Nissans, and after he brought home a million brochures, we talked about the pros and cons of each car. Eventually, we settled on the Nissan Serena, which will be coming in a few weeks. It is being made to order (with such features as an English-speaking GPS—hooray!).

We both thought it would be fun to get a color that was super Japanese-ey (other than white or black, which is the ultimate in Japanese-ey-ness) and that you could never get in the States. Brett took our boys aside, one by one, and showed each of them a chart which had a picture of the car in each color available. Brett didn’t prompt any of the kids and didn’t even say why he was showing them the chart. But each of the kids decided on the same color, which is called “natural herb.” Luckily for Brett, the kids agreed with his color choice!

Because space is such a premium in Tokyo, car companies don’t keep large stocks available at individual dealerships. The cars are kept at the factories, and unless you get really lucky and the dealership has exactly what you want, you have to wait a couple of weeks for your car. And that’s if your car is already built. If it isn’t, then it takes another week or so beyond that.

Our car is still being built, and it will arrive in a couple of weeks. We are really excited for it. We have even begun to consider names, since a minivan has, for many years now, been its own character in the Gilbert story. Since it’s a green minivan, we thought perhaps the name Trevor would be appropriate. (This is the name of Neville Longbottom’s greet toad in Harry Potter, and Colin has most recently become engrossed in Harry Potter.)

So, as if waiting for a child to be born, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new minivan. The time can’t pass fast enough, and we have already started a list of faraway places we plan to go!