Karate and Date Night...

Tonight was the boys' sensei's last class. Sensei Mallon is moving back to the States in May. He scheduled a competitive tournament for the kids and here are the photos and video. Just to warn you, the video is 16 minutes long, but well worth the viewing time!

Karate Tournament

Photos of their kata:

The judges scoring the katas:

Getting ready to spar:

Will on the attack:

Will earns his orange belt (along with the Piper sisters who live in our building):

The "older kids" class (the younger kids class is an hour earlier... this split was made earlier this year, it used to be one big chaotic class.)

Last night, our neighbors, the Cruzes, babysat the boys while Rodney took me out for date night. We had dessert first, followed by steak at a nearby Japanese steakhouse (the beef they serve is raised in the Yamaguchi prefecture Iwakuni is in) and then we went to the movies. It was a lot of fun. :) I gave Rodney a month and half to plan something and he did well. My hair and makeup was professionally done... I'll talk about that more in future posts! :)

Rodney can't drink alcohol off base, so we toasted to a good date with coffee and iced tea.

 We had dessert at a little Italian place called Primavera. Peggy and Jill can tell you all about it.

Then we headed to Kin-nan Steakhouse for a 5-course meal.

Information about the restaurant

Pumpkin soup

Really tasty buttered roll

My meal... except I had to trade steaks with Rodney because his wasn't cooked enough for him. Mine was much more tender. :(

A second dessert! :)

Baseball Pics...

Both Will and Xan had games tonight, and of course, Rodney was in Okinawa, so I had to juggle carpooling to both games. Fortunately, another parent brought Will to the field Xan was playing at. This was Xan's first game of the season and Will's second. Good news is that I was able to get photos of both boys playing, although it was getting dark by the time Xan was playing, so the photos are a bit blurry. In all, Will won his game 17-7, scored twice and got three outs at home. Xan got two in park home runs and they don't keep score at his level (insert eye roll here.) But Xan said his coaches tild them that they won, 22-18.

Our lives since the last post...

... have been a bit busy, to say the least., I knew the month of April was going to be a crazy one for us, but looking back at the past 10 days or so, it was quite the whirlwind! I'll try to catch you up...

We headed to Sasebo for a few days during the boys SpringBreak.If you haven;t already, be sure to check out that public blog post. Here are a few pictures that weren't included. First, Wrestlemania was that Tuesday night... here they are watching it. I put in my headphones and watch the Mad Men season premier on my iPad.

The boys have discovered the skate park here on base... and the injuries that come with it.

Xam

Xan

Will

Will

 We didn't do anything too strenuous,but the boys managed to quickly fall in to a dead sleep every night.

The boys have officially started the baseball season. Will has already had his first game, and the Ligers won 8-0. Xan and the Lightning Thieves won't play until Thursday evening. I had my craft sale, so Rodney took these photos of Opening Day.

I spent a few days in Tokyo... Check it out on my public blog.

I also displayed my wares at the Iwakuni Craft and Information Fair, which was organized and hosted by the group I started on base, the Iwakuni Home-based Business Organization. You can see pictures on the group's website and on my Tenaciously Remembered Facebook page.

My Mom went to Pittsfield last month to visit Rodney;s family and got me a shirt... I took this photo and Facebooked it to her... the beauty of modern technology when you live a half a world away. The look on my face is for my spouse, who was being obnoxious as he took the picture.

We went to our first Iwakuni baby shower. It was a coed shower and there were games for everyone, The men had a beer drinking race... with baby bottles.

Rodney won, of course. Then he discovered the chocolate diaper game. It's when candy bars are melted in diapers and you have to guess which brand of bar it is... a classic game at ladies-only baby showers.

Some of Xan's writing... he thinks the word that apply to him include "rank," which, considering how gassy he is, as his family, we agree.

Xan's birthday letter to his brother.

Will got his 11-year-old booster shots Monday. He is good for meningitis, tuberculosis and some other stuff I can't spell or pronounce. He can now enter the 6th grade.