what a week!

I haven't written much this week because we've been pretty busy. I'd like to say it was because we were having Valentine's Day fun but that would be untrue. Since we've come home from our Christmas vacation I've been completely caught offguard by how busy we've become. I thought for sure I'd have a few months of relative calm before April came and Emi started elementary school but I was wrong (I'm noticing an alarming trend).



Monday was a national holiday and the girls were home from school so I decided to have a little birthday party for Misaki whose birthday is actually February 14th. Two girls from the neighbourhood who are friends with Emi & Misaki came over around 1:30 for cake and fun. The girls had a lovely time and after a couple hours they moved the party outside and played together for a few more hours. Since we didn't have lunch I didn't have to put in a lot of effort but Misaki still had a good time. We let her open one of her presents and she looks forward to coming home everyday to put it on!








Yep. We're party animals.

On Tuesday we went to our pastor's house and talked with them for about four hours. We are taking over the leadership of the music ministry of the church this month. Chikara and I have been brainstorming for months about what we'd like to do so we thought it would be a good idea to talk with the pastor before we started anything. We had a great conversation and now we're excited about what's going to happen next.

As energizing as the morning had been we were quickly brought back to reality after we picked up the girls from school. Emi was running a temperature and complaining about her ear hurting. We needed to get a calendar (we have no idea what day it is and we have so many events coming up - scary) so we did that and then took Emi to the hospital. By the time that was done it was dinnertime and I wasn't going to have time to cook anything so we bought McDonald's and took it home. None of the kids had had a nap so I didn't feel like taking them into a restaurant even if it was just McDonald's. Needless to say I was glad when everyone went to sleep. Emi responded well to the medicine so she slept through the night and was able to go to school the next day.

On Wednesday a new friend that I met at church came with her daughter to our home. Her daughter is the same age as Sakura so I had invited her over for a playdate and also so I could get to know her better. Her husband is from Denmark and she is Japanese so I figured that we would have some things in common. We really enjoyed the time together and our daughters played well. At first they were very quiet but as the day wore on they stopped being shy and began to talk as they played. It was very cute. She left after I picked up the girls from school so I put them down for a nap. All four girls were napping so I thought I would take a little power nap myself. As soon as I laid down, Natsuki started to cry. Of course! So again I was glad when the day was over and the girls went to bed. On a funny note, on the way home from the bus stop the wind was really strong and this happened to Misaki!

When Thursday came I decided to do nothing. Well not really *nothing* but as close to it as I could get. One project I did have for the day was to put together a page for a photo album about Emi for her preschool teacher. Every child in the class makes a page and then one of the mothers puts it together into a photo album which the class gives to the teacher at the graduation. Emi has done so much stuff this year and I had tons of pictures so I picked out my favorites, arranged them on the page and had Emi write some stuff to add to it. It turned out really well and I enjoyed working on it. It's been awhile since I did crafting type of stuff.

Today I woke Emi up early because she had a field trip to the Aquarium. I made a bento for her (American-style! Yes!) and drove her to the school on my bike. At the school I handed over my page to the mom who's organizing all the stuff for our class. I'm not really sure what I thought would happen but she just nodded at me and put it in a bag. I think I made her nervous. Then I went home and got Misaki up and ready for school and took her to the bus stop. When Sakura woke up I could tell right away that she was sick. Her breath has that weird "sick smell". Do your kids get this? I gave her some medicine right away. I'm hoping that she won't develop an ear infection too.



My goal for today was to give Natsuki a bath. I'm in that transition stage where she's not sitting up well enough for a regular bath but too big for her baby bath so giving her a bath is a challenge and I need to have total concentration. If the timing doesn't work out between her awake times and her sister's then she doesn't get a bath. Also I've been noticing lately that her cradle cap is starting to come off. I thought it would be a good idea to work on this and then give her a bath. I put baby oil on her scalp and rubbed it in and then took a comb and started to comb it off. Man, was it gross. Fortunately she didn't mind having her head combed so it was relatively easy as far as squirming and screaming goes. Now she has a lovely clean scalp that I can be proud of!


My husband came home early from work so he helped me tidy up the house and then I made dinner. Again the older two didn't have a nap and Sakura was already cranky because of being sick so they all went to sleep before 8. I've said it a lot this week but I love bedtime!! So now here I am finally able to write about our week.


I can't imagine what tomorrow will bring since it's Saturday - the day I dread the most.