Endless Winter....

 
Happy Last Day of March! (Check the blog, the first day of March also looked a lot like this!)

It is starting to seem like Winter will never end here....

Love,

4Vs 

Bazaar weekend

 
This past weekend was the Spring Bazaar at Misawa. Twice a year vendors from all over come to Misawa to sell fabric, furniture, clothing, junk and art. It is always a good time!

I volunteer for the Bazaar by helping the vendors. We help them bring their goods on base at the beginning of the weekend. Then, throughout the weekend we drive them on and off base to their hotels.

On Saturday morning, the kids went with me in a borrowed van to pick up the vendors at 6:30 in the morning. (Mike was out of town). Gracie and Brock sat in the very back row of the van in a cramped seat with little leg room.

At the first hotel, there were lots of folks waiting to go on base. I explained that I could only fit four people in the van as there was not much room in the very back with my kids. Before I knew it, Mr. Kunimoto, pictured above, jumped into the van and snuggled in right next to Grace.

Of course, Miss Gracie was quite worried. She is already not that excited about meeting strangers. Mr. Kunimoto is quite distinct looking but is a very, very nice man who loves children. We were only five minutes from base so everyone else just piled in and we took off. Poor G scooted herself almost into Brock's lap in order to put more space between her and her new friend. Brock, of course, loved him!

We made it to base without incident. Gracie survived and talks about him constantly. From that morning on, whenever Mr. Kunimoto-san saw Miss Gracie he was sure to wave and try to get her to speak! None of this worked for him at all- she completely shunned him.... Princess Grace.....

Still waiting for a little more snow this week but it probably won't stick!

Take Care,

4Vs 

Choose Your Heroes Wisely

Yep, this is Magic Johnson made of pipe cleaners. He is one of the final pieces of Brock's second grade report on a "Hero". (Do teachers stay up late thinking of projects like this to punish parents? Hmmmm.. I know... Let's make them create models of people out of pipe cleaners! Ha!)

If you are already cringing about Brock's hero choice, then you are a better sports fan than I am! He started out with Michael Jordan as his first choice. Sadly, another child in his class got Jordan first. Shaq was also taken. Brock went thru a myriad of other possibilities... football players and basketball players I had never heard of. The kid has a lot of sports trivia and names stored up there in that brain of his. Finally, he came home and said Magic Johnson was his choice. At this point, I was fine. I knew Magic played basketball and vaguely I recalled that he was a Laker.

Later in the week, Brock starting brining home books about Magic. He started his research and asked for a little help. He was trying to find the date of Magic's college graduation. (Ends up Magic left college early for the NBA draft). I started flipping thru the books to help him. That is when I discovered the 1990s.

I can now remember 1991 when Magic Johnson was diagnosed with AIDS. He retired early because of his HIV status. There was a fair amount of press about it and even some controversy when he went back to play with the Dream Team at the Olympics. Players were scared that he could transmit the virus during the course of the game and so on... Brock's elementary school books even hinted at the fact that Magic acquired AIDS because he had so many woman partners when he traveled for road games. Pretty mature stuff for second grade!

Of course, I started to flip. Although Magic went on to form a foundation to support AIDS research and education, Mike and I were not ready to cover topics such as HIV, promiscuity and AIDS with Brock. I was sure that Mrs. Schwartz did not want to review them in class! After talking with Mike and his teacher, we decided to let Brock keep Magic for the project but we focused him on his basketball career and left out everything from 1991 on.

For the next week I learned all about Magic's various basketball awards, his great passing and his rivalry with Larry Byrd. I also had a heart to heart talk with Brock about the fact that Magic was a hero on the court, but made some bad choices in his personal life. We would talk about those choices later, but he should be careful about thinking that Magic was an all around hero for him. Tough parenting this week for Mike and I!

Brock took pipe cleaner Magic to school yesterday. So our project is wrapping up. Next time I will pay more attention as Brock is scrolling thru all those names of potential heroes. My lesson is for him to Choose his heroes wisely!

Mike is in Hawaii this week and the 3Vs are watching a little snow fall in Misawa. Nothing else exciting to report!

Take care!

Love,

4Vs

Is it Spring???

 
This sad picture is the last picture of the great snow fort of Winter 2005! I am glad we said good bye this morning because as of lunchtime, the big snow fort is gone.

I am almost whispering it, but it feels a little like Spring here. Our temperatures have reached the forties almost every day for a week or so. We have had several snow flurries this week, but it is getting too warm for the snow to stick anymore. The neighborhood kids, including Gracie, have dug out their bikes and have started riding laps around the building again. We are optimistic for Spring even though history will tell us that we still may have a foot of snowfall waiting for us later in the month....probably while Mike is at his conference in Hawaii!!!

Gracie is finally getting over her cold. She had a good birthday party last weekend despite the fact that she wasn't feeling great. Brock only has one more basketball game left in his season. He has really been playing well. The season has really been too short this year. We will have to make sure he has plenty of chances to play ball with us or his friends throughout the year.

Another sure sign of Spring... Mike was planning on hitting some balls at the driving range today. That is actually pretty optimistic of him and the golf course folks 'cause I know there is still plenty of snow out there today. We will see....

The Spring shopping Bazaar is scheduled for the end of this month. If you are looking for something in particular, send us a note and we will see if we can find it!

Nothing else too exciting for Mid March in rural Japan! Just waiting on the warmer weather to come!

Here's wishing you warm Spring thoughts!

Love,

4Vs 

Hina Matsuri- Japanese Doll Festival

March 3rd is Hina Matsuri, the Japanese Doll Festival. It is also known as Girl's Day. At the end of February, families with young daughters decorate a set of miniature dolls in their house and leave the display for about ten days. The purpose is to wish young girls good health and happiness.

On Friday, March 3rd, Gracie and I visited the Hahcinohe City Museum to see the Hina Matsuri display. They had several large displays of dolls. We were surprised to see a set of dolls made entirely of Peanuts characters.

The Hina Matsuri displays are usually made of 15 dolls dressed in formal Japanese costumes. The two dolls on the top shelf are the emperor and empress. The next shelf has three court ladies. Shelf three has five court musicians and the next shelf has two court advisors (usually old man dolls). The bottom shelves are covered with miniature versions of colored rice cakes, little treat and fish dishes.

Gracie enjoyed seeing all the different dolls. We also had the chance to sit down with the museum staff and learn to make origami cherry blossoms and little paper dolls. We need lots more practice with this!

At the end of the day on March 3rd, the doll displays must be put away. If they are left up, it is believed that the daughers in the house will never marry.

Have a great weekend and a Happy Hina Matsuri!

Love,

4Vs

Birthday Snow

 
Gracie got ten inches of snow on her birthday. She was thrilled. The rest of us were not so excited...... One more month of snow in Misawa..... We can't wait for Spring!