me and my baby.....

one yummy sugar!

Picnic....

Aika (a friend from church) and her four lovely girls invited us for a picnic today....it was hotter than hot but with the shade and small creek running by our picnic spot it made for the perfect day. Loving friends and days spent in the sun....

The cicadas here are deafening at the moment but their discarded skins made for fun collecting....and Noa loved her toes being tickled by the passing water....

Friends....

I find it very interesting that out of all my chicks Lili seems to collect the most friends. Her name meaning 'fragrant friend' sure has lived up to her life so far.... This is Grace. Grace and her family are from New Zealand. We met them 'by chance' (aka God orchestrated) at a train station. If you see foreigners with kiddos the same age as yours you step up and make friends fast. They joined us for Mia's birthday at the zoo and since have come up to our place for swimming, lunch, and dress up..... Loving the friends God brings into our lives.

Sleeping Beauty.....

We do a lot of this lately. Summer has set in with a vengence and we are now paying for our longish winter weather. Our Japanese neighbor is wonderful. They have an inflatable baby pool and table and chairs with an umbrella. Yesterday she broke out sandwiches, french fries and kids 'coffee' (sweet sweet sweet and I hope lacking in caffeine) for the herd of small fish we have around here. - And, yes Nykolas and Diaki need a few french fries!

Curious Nykolas and the emergency flare.....

If there is a button or lever Nykolas MUST touch it and figure out why it is there and what does it do....drives me batty.....elevators, cars, toilets (which here in Japan have loads of buttons), etc... Well, the other Sunday after church I was standing outside our van chatting with a friend and holding Noa, Rickie was still with us and had the kids in the van working on getting them buckled in. Nykolas spied the emergency flare that the previous safety conscience owner had under the seat. Of course a red stick with writing on it just begs to be explored....off comes the top and out comes smoke and sparks. Scared us all to death....Nykolas was a pale as a sheet, he had burned his fingers pretty bad but did not say a word. We managed to pop everyone out of the car pretty quick and thankfully one of the men from the church was there and brushed the flare out of the front seat before it did too much damage. Never a dull moment.....

Big girl....

The kids are big enough now that they are beginning to take trips with Chad. Nykolas has a week long trip scheduled to the Philippines at the beginning of August. Chad had an overnite trip this past weekend to Kyoto. So off we bundled my package of Joy with her daddy. She looked so old and mature with her suitcase on wheels.....wasn't she just a newborn yesterday? Chad said she was amazing....so big. I am not so sure I am ready for all this.....

I am so thankful to have a husband who longs to be with our little people. He ate this past weekend up and is looking forward to more.....

The curly one in this pic LOVES her little sister....she cannot seem to keep her hands off of her....sometimes she sings and is so gentle but other times not so much so.....today I wanted to tie her up in a closet for a not so gentle day.....I resisted the temptation, barely.....

cutest coos in the WORLD!

Swimming pool!

First Food! Rice Cereal....

Not so sure about this food thing......

OH YEAH!!!