What we've been up to these past few months...

This half-finished blog post has been sitting in my Drafts folder for far too long, so finally, here it is.  Probably not worth the wait, but thanks for waiting anyway.

Ryan's 5th Birthday

We had a mini-birthday celebration on his actual birthday the day before I left for Bangladesh, but the crazy-cake-making-and-Kidzania-birthday-adventure happened after I returned.  

He wanted a Pikachu birthday cake, and we easily convinced him that a "rice-krispie-treat" cake would be far better, as I had zero confidence in our abilities to bake a pikachu-shaped birthday cake in our little toaster oven or our fancy-dancy rice cooker.  Of course, I then had to make my second trek to the international grocery store in search of Rice Krispies.  No dice on the Rice Krispies, but I thought I found a suitable replacement - it was a South African puffed rice cereal and the picture on the box looked similar to Rice Krispies.  Truth be told, they weren't nearly as tasty as real Rice Krispies, but it got the job done.

Credit goes to Kevin on crafting the Pikachu shape... thanks, Kevin!

And yet another birthday-Kidzania trip... this time, Ryan got to invite a friend since it was his birthday.

Working at the Kidzania Ice Cream Shop...

Ryan as an EMT...

Ethan doing eye surgery...

... and working at the pizza parlor... that's Ethan wearing the mask

Ryan was quite the ham during the yochien January birthday celebration.

Our One-Year Anniversary in Japan

On February 3, we celebrated our one year anniversary of arriving in Japan.  It is incredibly hard to believe that we've been year for a whole year already.  The time has flown by.  We have learned so much, but still have sooooo much more to learn.  

Work Trip to Mozambique

After 2 very frustrating months of an "on-again-off-again" work trip to Mozambique, it was finally confirmed ten days before I left for a 2 week trip to Maputo.  And did I mention that our babysitter had to cancel a week before I was to leave?  Naaah, that wasn't stressful, not one tiny bit.  I had to dig deep into this Buddhist culture to stay sane, that's for sure.  But it all worked out just fine.  Found a fabulous babysitter for the kids.  I was very happy to get back to East Africa (and though Mozambique borders Malawi, it just wasn't feasible to make a trip back to my much-loved Peace Corps country).  I got to eat nsima and drink orange Fanta every day for lunch (a staple of my Peace Corps years).  The 2 week training went very well.  And.... after 2 weeks away, I was soooo happy to get home to Kevin and the kids.

I didn't have an opportunity to explore beyond Maputo, but I was amazed at how much I liked Maputo.  It is the calmest African city I've ever been in - wide, tree-lined streets, delicious food (tiger prawns, crab, fish, cashews, homemade bread), incredibly friendly people.  The Portugese influence seems to have been a good one... Below is a random assortment of photos - nothing too extraordinary, I'm afraid.  In retrospect, I should have taken pictures of all the food I ate!

The Indian Ocean...

Fishing boats...

Basket display...

Batik display...

... and shoe display... I was quite amused by this one!

I found a community food festival and spent a fun evening sampling
several Mozambican treats...

Spent a morning doing an architectural tour of Maputo, mostly designs by
Pancho Guedes (who I had never heard of until I went on the tour).

A cool church that I happened upon...

My drive to and from work each day in Maputo...

A lightning storm over the Indian Ocean

A Whole Lot of Just Normal Life Stuff

• We went to see "Lion King," the play.  Amazing.  Kevin and I have seen it in both LA and San Francisco and it was just as spectacular, seeing it in Japanese.  The kids were mesmerized, as well.

• Ryan's school play

• Play dates and such

• Ethan's school play for the international class

He was Momotaro as a small boy, a famous Japanese folk tale about a boy who emerges from a peach and then grows up to be a strong warrior who fights the evil monsters of the village.

• We still miss our dog, Jas, A LOT.  I thought it would get easier after the first year, but that does not seem to be the case.

Showing off their new "Jas" stuffed animals!

End of the School Year

Ethan is now a second-grader and Ryan is in the "senior" class in yochien.  

No more first-grade "ichinensei" yellow hat for Ethan.  It's the end of an era, and I'm gonna miss that cute yellow hat!

Ethan's last day of ichinensei...