A Spooktacular Halloween 2013

I just love Halloween.  It’s spooky, and fun, and full of candy.  (Boy do I love the candy.)  I love dressing up, carving pumpkins, and toasty pumpkin seeds.  Candles in jack-o-lanterns, little tiny monster trick-or-treaters, and did I mention the candy?

The Three Girlies have grown past the I-just-want-candy stage this year, and Halloween 2013 was all about hanging out with their friends.  All three of them got creative and made their own costumes….which turned out very cool.

Amber and her best friend decided to be Patty Schwab and Penelope Brown, best friend nerds. (Amber was Patty.)  My picture does not portray how hilariously “nerdy” they were.  You just had to be here!

Allie and her three friends were Barbie dolls.  I think it was really just an excuse to dress sassy (I made them take off the stilettos) and STILL get candy, but it worked.

Abbey threw together some blood and stuff, and turned herself into a Zombie Cheerleader.  Super cute!

For the seventh straight year, my husband was the ever-popular Super Chicken. (Fuzzy pictures...sorry!)

Super Chicken and his side-kick Nugget, made a 30 minute appearance outside and the Japanese kids ALL wanted pictures with him. 

And finally, my last minute masks that I found at the store for my friend Bri and I, were AWESOME!

Turns out they were VERY creepy.  Like serial killer creepy. 

But despite our murderous façade, we did get a picture with the band One Direction.

We also got one with Super Chicken.

See what I mean?  A lot of fun!  A little creepy!  And now....... it’s time for me to go eat some candy!  Happy Halloween!

Halloween Recap....2012

We survived.  No, not a zombie apocalypse…..we survived Halloween!

We estimate about 1000 trick-or-treaters came to our front porch.  Good thing Super Chicken was there with his bowl of candy to save the day!

The girls came in with LOADS of candy and had TONS of fun.  Allie was a princess with her best friend Kaylie.  Those two are inseparable.  The only way they could have matched even more is if Kaylie broke her arm and got a pink cast like Allie's blue one!

Amber was Red Riding Hood….vampire style! 

Abbey was off with her friends right after school and for the first year ever, I don’t have any Halloween pics of her.  Sigh.  I stole this from her Facebook page though.  This is totally what I do......

Hope you all had fun this Halloween!  We love you!

4th of July and Cooler Stuff

I am love, love, LOVIN’,  my camera phone.  Just having it with me all the time and being able to take pictures of whatever is soooo fun!  My girls tell me, “Mom, that’s so random.”  It doesn’t matter.  I totally fascinate myself.  For instance, I found a butt chair at a thrift shop.  Who could resist a picture like this?

Then I found some aliens outside of a gift shop.  I think they have been married for a long time.  Aren’t they sweet?

Seriously though, I am just having fun documenting our family during day to day life.  Abbey and Amber finished two weeks of dance camp.  I think my baby Amber looks so grown up in this picture it makes me want to hyperventilate.

All three girls finished their golf clinic with Kyoko…..the most fabulous coach!

We had great 4^th of July…..complete with patriotic crackle nails.

Amber and Allie each entered a contest that had them building boats out of cardboard and racing across the pool.  Amber and her friend Audrey, made it safely across!

Allie’s team…. didn't fare quiet as well!

Brian and I took Abbey to the golf course for some Goofy golf…

You could only use two clubs and had to tee off with only a putter.   I think we all know who was the goofiest.

We ended the day with a fun barbeque with friends and fireworks.  We love that we can celebrate America even though we are so far away!  Amber said it best and wrote it on her cardboard boat….. “God bless America the beautiful!”

Baked French Toast - Breakfast for Swimming Champions

It’s no secret that I am SUPER proud of my two oldest girlies and the fantastically awesome effort they put forth for the Yokota Stingrays swim team.  But I am also SUPER excited to announce that my youngest girlie had the chance to swim this past weekend at our home swim meet.  Yay Amber!!!!

She swam the 50 meter back stroke in one minute and twenty-two seconds, and although she didn’t win any medals or ribbons, she was just excited to swim……

Just like her big sisters do.

And since the girls burn about a zillion calories during a swim meet, I have to carb load them with something yummy for breakfast.  It is fast and easy and you can make A LOT if you need to.

 This recipe works well with any kind of bread, but a nice French bread or sourdough is perfect if you want to be fancy.  I am not feeling that fancy at 5:30am, making sure everyone has swim caps and goggles, so this time I just used a left over baguette from dinner the night before.  It made perfect little dippers.  (Normally though, I use Wonder Bread…like a bad mom…who doesn’t make her kids eat whole wheat bread like I should.)

Baked French Toast

(recipe adapted from http://www.cooks.com/)

Ingredients:

·        1/4 cup butter

·        4 eggs

·        2/3 cup milk

·        1/3 cup sugar

·        1 tsp cinnamon

·        8 slices of bread (more or less depending on the kind of bread)

Turn oven to 400 degrees.  Melt butter in a 10 x 15 pan while the oven is pre-heating.  Mix sugar and cinnamon.  Remove pan from the oven and sprinkle sugar cinnamon mixture evenly into the pan.  Mix the eggs and milk.  Dip the bread into the liquid mixture and then lay it on top of the buttery sugar.  Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until bread begins to brown. (I usually go about 15.)  Lift out sugar side up onto a serving platter.  Serve with warm maple syrup and powdered sugar…or whatever French toast toppings you love!

Then, you better go swimming to work those calories off!

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Typhoon Roke...Sept. 21, 2011

Dad, this post is for you.  Because I know you called to see how we are doing, but by the time I got the message, you would have been sound asleep. 

This Japan/US time zone thing makes me crazy!

So we are in a typhoon…..again.  Typhoon Roke is the name, and wind and rain is his game.  I let the girls go outside for just a few minutes.  Again Dad, this especially for you!

It is dark now, so I can’t really see the damage yet, but as you saw in the video the screen came off of my dryer exhaust, so now giant roaches can easily get into my house.  Yay.

Oh yeah, and there is a little tiny tree blocking our street.