Friday, October 29, 2010

Meet Saori and Fuko

This afternoon Sean and I went to his school to pick up our Japanese students who will be joining our family for the next 4 days (they leave early Wednesday morning).

They had a brief Welcome Ceremony and then divided the schools up into different parts of the school and did the student/host family matching in smaller chunks. There are 255 Japanese girls in this tour. So we were in the gym and watching all the Kichijo students sitting on the bleachers, and then they would come down and meet their host family when their names were called. It was really cute...the girls bounce down the bleachers, bounce across the floor, and give their hosts a big hug. These Japanese aren't reserved like I thought they were. So when our names were called, we walk over and I give both girls a hug, and then Sean hugs them and all the girls in the bleachers giggle.

We came home and the girls got a very exuberant welcome from the rest of the family. They settled in, plied us with gifts...very yummy candy like Lee used to bring home from his trips to Japan, origami paper which the girls have been trying to learn all evening long, chop sticks, and more. We had an easy dinner of broccoli soup and make-yer-own deli sandwiches and then the girls played with the Littles while I cleaned up.

Right now the Littles are asleep, and Fuko and Saori are watching a scary movie with Dylan and Haley. Dylan and Haley decided to stay around home tonight instead of driving into Vancouver to go to Fright Night which has worked out very well for the Japanese girls. Tomorrow we'll do some shopping and then Sean is going to escort them to a musical performance at Poppy in the evening.

They're both lovely, pleasant girls. Don and I agree that if we could have one of them, or someone like them for a long-term international student we'd be tickled pink.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Ice Skates from Nathan!

Nathan, as you might know, is a hockey fan. He has visions of his young siblings (especially Nick) growing up playing hockey, eventually dominating the NHL. The first step in realizing his dream is getting the kids out on the ice. So Nathan, being the very generous big brother that he is, purchased the girls ice skates, helmets, and ice skating lesson which start on Nov. 1. He wants the girls to be able to go ice skating with him when he comes home for Christmas...in fact, he wants them to "skate circles around me" (his words).


Nick didn't get skates, but he thought wearing his sisters' skates was a hoot! We did get skates that would be appropriate to hand down to Nick so he can start lessons when he is three.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Happy birthday, Haley!

This was a far cry from Haley's last birthday, where Dylan wouldn't even let us sing to her, to hardly talk to her, for fear of us scaring her away. Can you imagine? This year we sang (off key, I'm sure), the kids crawled all over her, we teased her, she's not going anywhere : )





Haley's photoshoot

I took Haley and Dylan outside for a quick photoshoot in honor of her 17th birthday. Here are a few good ones : )





















Monday, October 11, 2010

The Red Hat parade










Waneta, who is a member of the Red Hat Society in Merritt, has a plethora of fun dress up stuff: hats, clothes, shoes, jewelry, and more, all in red and purple. The girls had a great time getting dressed up in Grandma's room and then showing us how beautiful and mature they were : )

Outdoor fun in Merritt

Besides the great food everyone had fun riding Grandpa's quad around...



Jordyn, aka Vanna White, showing off Grandpa's treasures!