Volcano Series

You know how you go to Monet exhibits, and it's his water lily series, the Giverny garden's bridge series, the north coast of France, Westminster Palace series, or his lesser-known willow series?

Well, William gets to draw every day in class, and this is what he's bringing home.
He calls things 'Cozy.' Like 'Cozy Home' and the like.
"Uh oh. Hey, I'm standing on lava"
You'll notice he's put the speed of the lava on it!
The is supposed to be Mt. Krakatoa. His date of the event is near perfect.
Unknown when this mountain erupted,but it looks like there's a ski lift!
I like to think the scribbled out portion is 'What the hey!"
The elevation is pretty impressive on this volcano.
Some explosions are just huge. We think this might be Pompei and Mt. Vesuvius. Thank PBS for William being afraid we live too close to Mt. Fuji.

Boeing Museum of Flight

Back in June, while we were back in the states, William and I had a day to do whatever we wanted. I'd suggested the Seattle Aquarium or the Seattle Science Center, but he countered with, "Isn't there a museum with airplanes in it?" I guess it should have been obvious from all the toy planes that were zooming around the apartment, that I should have just planned to go to the Boeing Museum of Flight, but Dad's are slow some times...William cracks me up. I asked him to pose under the 747 engine and he reluctantly inched under it obviously concerned that it might fall on him. Glad that kid is thinking ORM...

One of my favorites. The F-14. I should break out "Top Gun" one of these days.

Caproni Ca 20. The worlds first fighter plane! This one was apparently stored in someone's attic and is therefore in original condition. Cool! Most all the other planes here are beautifully restored, but it's nice to see one that looks a bit more like the antique that it is.

Papa Bill had a friend that I met that was a P-38 pilot in WWII. He said it was an incredible plane to fly. It was just a bitch to bail out with the double tail booms and that back stabilizer. I guess that is more motivation to win the fight.?

Thought this was a cool bridge from the museum building to their park where they keep the big planes.

Does he look at home in Airforce-1? Had to take the picture in the off chance he does become President...

William's Papa Bill used to work for Boeing and helped design the 727. I told William that and he puffed up with pride.... then started to tell everyone that his Papa Bill built this plane...

In an SR-71 cockpit. William has been keeping track of airplane specs and statistics. Hard to not like the SR-71 for all it could do...

Moult Taylor built these flying cars in Longview, Washington in the 50's. Papa Bill used to talk about it, and we kids assumed he was pulling our leg. Hmmm, turns out this one was true... :-)

Apparently the SR-12 lets a bit of the titanium body show through compared to an SR-71. Sexy.

William loves clam chowder, so it seemed appropriate to cap off the day with a bowl of Ivar's clam chowder on the ferry back home. It was a very nice day.

First Day of School First Grade

William is ready for his first day of school! The camera was having problems fogging up because it came from the air conditioning out into the real world at 6:35 a.m. William's bus arrives at 6:42. That's a pretty early start for all of us!
He catches the bus to school. It is easier than trying to drive on base when ALL of the daily workers are trying to get on at the same time. He's still sporting that CARS backpack! I tried to get him to get a new one, but he insists it works just fine.

He is in Ms. Bailey's class. We lucked out, and he is in a class with a friend! Pierce and he get along really well. I wish they'd keep the kids together more here, just like in our small schools back home, but they get re-arranged every year.
After 4:00 homework is done, William gets TV time. He is sporting his favorite position on our new couch. I love it that Tim and I can sprawl out in the 'loungers.'

We were going to buy a hide-a-bed. But then, nobody comes to visit. So, we elected for our own comfort instead! Ha!

BUTTERFLY WEATHER

The first August I was here in Japan, it rained a lot. Heavy rains. It was muggy, but it kept it cooler. This year has been very sunny! One sprinkle day, and a few rains during the night. It is so hot, that even the bugs are being brave to get water!
It's in the shade, on the lip. This 'chyo-chyo' (butterfly in Japanese) is hangin' by the pool!
Now, I don't know if there's some cosmic humor in the fact that William is wearing his 'spiderman' shirt and shorts for swimming this last day of freedom before school starts next week! -August 27,2010

Star Wars Movie Marathon

There probably aren't many people who brag about 'laying around, watching movies all day,' but that what this blog is all about!

Tim and 2 co-workers decided that they were Star Wars fans enough to do all 6 episodes in one day. They would do it in story chronological order, not the order the movies were made in. The date was decided, and the food purchased. This is the before picture, early in the morning.

People said they'd drop by for a while, and a lot stayed for a large portion of it! We had so much fun. The only problem was, our air conditioner wasn't ready to support that many hot people in the small space. We had to get out the fans! The kind that blow air, not the ones watching the movie...
William had a blast. The kids had their own playtimes going on. I bought glow sticks and bracelets. They had to 'choose' which side they were on. The empire (red), or the resistance (blue). The boys just used them as small light sabers and for sword play.

One little boy came dressed as Han Solo. Too fun! This is William and Elysa playing with his lego robot.

I had fun doing the food. We had Ewok Eggs, Bantha Bacon and Empire Strikes Flapjacks for breakfast. First break, Gungan Water World fruits. Lunch was Separatist Sandwiches, Droid Doritoes, and Clone Doritoes (the ranch flavor). Snack was Wookie Cookies (chocolate no bake drop cookies with oatmeal and coconut). Dinner was Han burgers, last break had Yoda Soda floats (melon soda and icecream). I joked, 'May the FORK be with you!'
This is the after picture. Did I tell you about the drinking game? Can you tell who played it? I know, I know, -hic- the picture is fuzzy...

Rules: Any time C3P0 lost a body part, The Wookie yelled, Hans bragged about the Millennium Falcon, or Luke yelled, "Artoo..." you were supposed to take a drink. I think next time, we'll just go for losing the body parts. It was pointed out to me that when everyone is in the trash compactor, you'll get trashed. :)

Tim did an excellent job of keeping the movies on schedule. We started at 7 (breakfast), first movie at 7:30 a.m. and wrapped about about 10:30 p.m. The breaks were only 10 minutes long.

I teased Tim, since he fell asleep the last few minutes of the last movie, that it doesn't count... we've got to do it AGAIN!

Maybe when it comes out on Bluray...

Lizard Hunt

Yesterday I needed to do some shopping and William wanted to go swimming. Thankfully, Erin (our babysitter who needs money for school clothes) was available, and she took him to the local Japanese pool.

When I came home, the house smelled like bug spray. They'd gone out into our mosquito infested world, and hunted these -not so rare- lizards.

I was sooooo happy! William needs exposure to this type of thing. I'm thinking scouts in the future, but what a creative thing to do with a babysitting charge! How cool is that? And I didn't even have to touch it! Woo hoo!

Since we live on a walking path, we have lots of plants and bugs. This provides a lot of food and shelter for these creatures. We rarely go outside without seeing some.

Earlier this spring there were 2 large ones (one wasn't camera shy). Now I see lots of smaller ones.

Occasionally you'll see a dead one on the walking path, where someone has ridden over it on their bike.

I guess the lizard they captured in the hunt escaped, and in the melee, got stepped on. So, the lizard hunt doesn't have a happy ending. I suppose karma should be to send them out without bug spray next time...

William's Swim Test

Caroline has struggled trying to get William into swim lessons on the Yokosuka base. He had been plodding along in 2nd level, where they really start to swim, before summer. We spent July in Bremerton, and when we returned, she couldn't seem to get him into the classes on base. So, she signed him up for lessons in Ikego, which is a military housing base that is 40 minutes and $7.00 in tolls away. It was more than worth while. The instructors are really good, and the classes are small. In Yokosuka, the class size is 6 to 8 students, so each kid doesn't get a whole lot of attention. In Ikego, William had two other students in his class, and neither of them showed up for most of the classes, so he essentially got private lessons!

It was just what he needed to evolve from "thrashing in a forward manner" to "swimming." Our goal was to empower him to not drown while playing in or near water. HIS goal was to pass the swim test that would qualify him to play on the slides and swim alone in the deep end. He needed to swim two laps of the pool without touching the sides or stopping and then tread water for 30 seconds. Today was his first class in level 3 after graduating from level 2 and he successfully passed the dreaded swimming test! Yes!