It turned out so different...

Here I am in the garden with the kids, Lena trying out a new pose, Amy with her usual grin. Drinking a beer in the sunshine on the grass, which was an idea I could not resist, since the weather is unusually perfect today, the ugly summer humidity has gone, and the chill of winter has yet to settle in. Kanji went out for lunch and came home and went outside and played with the kids, so I went to. Then we decided to invite some friends over for a barbecue, only they have to bring the barbecue, cos we don't have one...Kanji is off to buy beer and beef, the essentials, and I am going to cook rice and clean the toilet. We know how to party!

A busy day ahead

Now is the calm before the storm! At 10 I have a one-hour lesson - the kids are here, and I will put them upstairs with the computer and Reader Rabbit, which they have fallen in love with lately. Then as soon as that finishes, I have to take Amy to the doctor to get the gauze pulled out. Then home for lunch with Daddy and we will decide then whether to go to art class. I start work at 3:30 (looks like I will have to skip my swim today, the hour is 1-2 today, which looks impossible). After my lesson, I have to go to Mie's house, where the kids will be. They are having a festival in that area today, but with Amy's ear and my evening lesson from 8:30, I don't think we will stay long. Long enough to get some dinner!

Earrache

Lena bumped Amy's ear yesterday afternoon, and she reacted with great pain, which developed overnight, so I took her to the ENT today. She has a middle ear infection.

What to do on a Sunday afternoon

We had a project today - figuring out how to turn Amy into a pineapple for Halloween. We even have a pineapple - she made Baachan buy one when they went to the supermarket yesterday, just so we could refer to it. We went to a few kids' clothing stores to look for brown or yellow or green tights and tops to wear underneath, as well as a brown or green or yellow big top that we might be able to use to make the pineapple. We settled on a pair of Winnie the Pooh pyjamas, in 'Winnie the Pooh' yellowy-brown, the perfect shade for a pineapple. And in another store I found some maternity smocks for 10 yen. (Yes, no zeros missing, TEN yen, nobody wanted them. I bought three). I imagine I will either paint it or stick paper to it, sew (get the shop to do it) the hem with elastic and stuff it with newspaper.

We also went to the 100yen shop today, which is always a lifesaver for a boring afternoon. I spent 1000yen. We got: a jester's hat in three colours with bells, a peacock mask, a fairy wand (Lena spent the rest of the day as Cinderella's fairy Godmother), a rubber snake (Amy wanted to find a spider to scare Aunty Jo!), a slinky, a math puzzle, a set of coloured pen, glitter paints, water paints, and a sketch book.

Amy in the picture above is making use of her new water colour palette. She's naked so she won't get paint on her. She first used an easel a few weeks ago in her art class, and it looks like she likes the idea. She made it herself. Last week she took off with a couple of polystyrene trays and a mirror and asked me for selotape. It was right on bedtime so I said no, and that I wanted to throw the trays out. She got quite upset and her Dad felt sorry for her and let her hide the trays by his chair. Next day, she asked for the selotape again, and taped the mirror to one tray and that tray upright to the second tray as a base, to make a standing mirror, which she then put in 'her' room (which she doesn't sleep in yet because we need to re-do the walls first, they are earth walls and they crumble and are not good for her asthma).

So when she started asking me for something to use as an easel, I remembered about this creation of hers. She got 'that' look on her face (WOW) took off without a word upstairs and soon had herself installed in the kitchen painting.

dum de do

Well, not much going on around here. Autumn is here, so finally I can kiss goodbye to that awful sweating, god I hate it!!! But the seasons change so quickly, I know I only have a few more weeks left to wear my autumn clothes before it gets too cold. Every year I get to the end of September and wonder why it was that I wore winter clothing to the first OIT university lesson, which falls on the first Thursday after the 10th of October - but the way the chill is settling in at night now, I won't be surprised if I'm in long sleeves this time next week.

The girls are playing with the puzzles today. Or rather were - Amy is already back to drawing. She draws mountains of pictures, dozens every day. Usually with a pen, though I am trying to convince her to try a pencil. She declares she hates kindy, and I think at the moment it's the endless practices for the school sports day this Saturday. Lena continues on in her much calmer manner. The puzzle she chose today was a Japanese writing one, and she said she was practicing Japanese for 'my boys' - the six Japanese boys in her kindy class. She is the only girl.

Higashi university classes started today. sigh. They weren't too bad actually, but I attribute that to post-holiday freshness, no doubt I will be despairing about them in a month or two's time.

I am feeling exhausted but virtuous. I swam 1200m in 35 minutes today. I would like to do more, but the time is limited, and I had to get out of the pool.

Kanji is coming home early tonight, so I think I will get the girls bathed and ready for bed, so we don't end up going to sleep too late again. Maybe I'll post some photos later