Brock's First Day of School

Summer has ended and Third Grade has begun! Today was Brock's first day back at school. He was a tiny bit nervous and a little excited this morning, but he tried to play it cool.

 

Each year it seems to get tougher for me to get pictures and such. He is getting big and too cool to have his mom hovering about. His good friend Grant is in his new third grade class. They are trying to look miserable about school starting, but I think they were excited.
 
I managed to get one shot of his class as they headed toward the building. The blond haired girl at the end is Emma. She is the closest thing Brock has to competition on the "Tallest Kid in the Grade". Emma is a sweet girl and is almost as tall as Brock. We like to tease him and tell him that she is taller. Brock says she just looks that way because of her poofy hair! I am glad she is in Brock's class. A nice girl who is probably glad to not be the tallest!
 

I am happy to report that Brock came home all excited about his new class. As luck would have it, according to Brock, he has the best teacher in third grade. Ms. Rzeznik has taught at Sollars Elementary for 18(!) years. She gave her students a calendar to keep up with their own assignments, she loves sports and has a Major League Baseball trashcan! She gets extra points for calling him Brock instead of "Michael" (he hates that!) and Brock is thrilled to be in her class. All of this is music to my ears! I get to meet her later on in the week at Open House. More picts to follow!

Gracie is enjoying her last week of summer and will start Kinder on Wednesday, September 6th. Lots of pictures of this to follow!

Much love,

4Vs 

Super Grace goes to the Rescue

 
This is super Grace. She is feeling spunky after eating some cake and has just saved a beagle pup from running away. Don't ask why she is wearing wrist sweatbands on her calves. In a moment's notice she can throw on some fashion alligator sun shades and wear her purple silky as a cape to be the crusader for Misawa Air Base fashion.
 
My super power is magical laser sunglasses. They can spot a fashion faux pas on the streets of Japan at any moment's notice.
 
Do you like the updside down glasses look? 

There's no hugging in Baseball!

 
Our friends the Kafkas' daughter Meagan played on the Angels T-ball team this summer. Meagan got a hit and made it to first base. While playing on First Grace gave her friend Meagan a big hug. I was coaching and told them there was no hugging in baseball but they just laughed.
 
Here is Grace now who made it to first base with Meagan. Note: no hugging this time. 

Misawa Cheer

 
Grace V pactices her new Cheerleader moves. MB might be in trouble with the other neighbor moms around us because she did not tell anyone she was going to sign Grace up for cheerleading. Now many of the girls in the pack want to be a cheerleader too. She has a cheer play book with about a dozen cheers to practice on but Mike has not had time to find his pom poms due to a base exercise this week. Stay tuned for more cute pics of the cheerleader as she practices 3 times this week and has a game on Friday/Saturday to cheer at. 

The Bluffs- Kitayamazaki!

 
On our second leg of the tour for the day we went to the edge of some bluffs along the Pacific Ocean. You could admire the view from the top or take a bunch of steps down to the ocean's edge. 753 steps down at 130 meters elevation to be exact- our engineering friend explained that it was the equivalent of a 60 story building!

The sea fog was rolling in at the top.
 
This is what not to wear when you are climbing many steep steps on the side of a bluff.
 
One, two, three....751, 752, 753!
 
Here's the bottom view with some gigantic rocks and swelling water. 

Caves are cool

 
Inside the cave it was a cool 16.4 Celcius. We thought it might be nice to live in one here at Misawa for the month of August.
 
Stalagmite or Stalagtite? Seems like the guy who invented them could have made up an easier word to remember.
 
I discovered that Brock and Jacob had X-Ray vision. Note the red eyes like superman
 
Here is a misc cave shot where it started getting smaller. 

Cave water

 
There was a mysterious waterfall at the entrance to the Ryusendo cave. The day was sunny and warm at about 85 degrees F with some humidty. Grace liked to drink the cool water with the community wooden ladle.  
Still drinking water...
 
Grace, Jacob, Brock & Jonothan look over the bridge into the river pondering where the water starts and ends up. 

Mooshoo the Dragon

 
We went on a tour to the Ryusendo caves. The Dragon statue Mooshoo was at the entrance to the cave.
 
Grace E V was happy to go along on the cave tour
 
Here's the end of the long dragon. 

Daddy and Grace

 
Mike and Grace got to snuggle on the bus on Saturday! They are crazy about each other.

Love,

4Vs 

MBs Dumpster Dive Find of the Summer

 
MB scoured the neighborhood and found a neat do it yourself project for her new home-school program. She found a set of four lockers. Each one of us gets to use one but I will have to cut one of the locks off first.
 
Look who in the family still fits in the locker. Yes that's right, little Ms G.
 
Brock actually wanted to try and stuff himself in but his head would not even fit. 

Smiley Dog

 
Here's one of my sweet old dog Abby. She did not like getting her picture taken and it almost looked like she would smile when you tried to take her photo. This was actually shot in the Nanny dog era in Ohio when Brock was a baby and used to poker her in the eyes and try and ride on her. She used to be the top dog but soon learned that having a baby brother meant that she was low on the food chain. She did thouroughly enjoy cleaning up food that landed under the highchair and licking his fingers. 

Hungry Hungry Hippos

 
If you are ever at the San Antonio Zoo then stop by the Hippo cage. They look well fed but seem very hungry. If one has a quarter then a handfull of fish food will get them to open up wide for a few fish food pellets. 

Ms Burke the Burthday Gurl

 
Burke had hur 7th Burthday yesturday. She had a sleep ovur with lots of little fairy gurls to include Leilaunnie, Connie & Ms G. Max did not want to be in the Fairy picture but he can be spotted on the bottom left. In addition to the sleep ovur, there was face painting, dinnur out at cheese roll, cake, & presents; I'm voting Janet Mom of the year.
 
Dad Schrammel was glad his sun chose Spidurman over Tinkurbell face paint. Way to go Max!
 
Princess Grace and Fairy Burke give each othur the bunny sign
 
Max is purfecting his spidurweb ejection technique on his way to Cheese roll. 

Japanese Hydrangeas!

It is the time of year for the beautiful hydrangeas on base! There are purple ones, blue ones, pink ones and every shade in between! We have a blue and white bush in the yard as well as a pink one!
 
 
 
 
Last night we were driving thru an area of the base where they are tearing down some old housing. A lady was out there with her two sons and husband digging up a huge hydrangea. I would have thought they would need a small tractor to get a bush this size... apparently you only need a couple of hours, a couple of half grown sons, a husband who is crazy about you and a pick up truck! I hope they grow well for her...Lucky girl!

Love, 4Vs