April Fools Jokes...

Tomorrow is April Fools Day and it's 9 o'clock at night. So I had to get busy. I planned a few tricks for my kids. One caused an explosion of dye on my hand. My kids fight over the downstairs bathroom in the morning to brush their teeth and such. Mainly because they are too lazy to climb the stairs again! So I cut a sponge, soaked it in food coloring (red to look like blood!) and put the sponge inside the faucet aerator. So when they turn the water on in the morning all the water should come out red. You are supposed to use the egg coloring tabs but I didn't have any and there is no running to Wal-Mart or Walgreens here in Oki, so food coloring it is! I also pre-poured the kids milk for the morning, coloring their milk to look like juice. They usually get juice in a cup so this should mess with their oodle-oop! The third and most boring thing I did was switch the cereal boxes. Nothing fancy, but I am certain this will get them as well. Here's a picture of my hand. Hopefully I can play it off in the morning that I broke my ink pad while scrapbooking last night and they'll be none the wiser!

Happy April Fools' Day!

Dandelions?

It's very interesting that most homes here on the island do not have yards. The only homes that have them are military housing or housing set aside off base for military/Americans

to live. The reason? It's quite simple, they have gardens. Okinawans are very very good

at utilizing every meter (haha inch) of space available. Each home uses whatever green

space they have for gardens: flower, herb, vegetable and fruit gardens. They rotate their crops so something is always in season. It's quite remarkable, very resourceful and

completely self-reliant. I'll explain more on that in a later post.

This being said parks are where the kids go to play, stretch their legs, run and go wild.
And it's spring time in Okinawa and the other weekend while out GeoCaching we discovered a common weed... Ummmm I mean flower? Yep the dandelion. Those pesky little weeds are over here. I was honestly surprised to see them. As I was verbally wondering how these little precious flowers have come to adorn the little bit of grasslands on the island...
my mom said "probably on the combat boots of the Marines invading during the
Battle of Okinawa during WWII". Think of it this way... we've given the children of Okinawa a gift!
I am certain they too pick these flowers and run them to their mama's and grandma's
with pure joy of the gift they bring. It's a beautiful thing no matter what country... a kitchen graced with a jar filled with dandelions given in love by the wee ones of our homes.

200th Post...

I can't believe this is my 200th post, but it is!

Am I that old?

Does this blog make my butt look big? (don't answer that I honestly don't want to know!)

That being said, I bet you are wondering where I've been for the past couple of weeks. I've been enjoying a beautiful visit with my mom. She's flew here from Ohio almost 3 weeks ago and it's been nonstop since she arrived. Here's a brief recap of our visit thus far... with some pictures of course!

The kids and I took Dad and Grandma to their first roller park. This particular park was huge and down by the Japanese Naval Underground Headquarters. Which we visited earlier that day... more pictures below!

This is a picture from Hedo Point the most northern tip of the island of Okinawa.

It's beautiful up there!

This is a sign outside the Underground Headquarters.

Inside the tunnels. Breathe taking, very humbling and sad. What a story it tells.

Mom and I went whale watching. That was AWESOME! The seas were a bit rough but such a great experience.

The kids and I took Grandma Geo Caching for the first time. Actually we've been several times, this is just one of the many caches we've found!

And today mom and I snuck off to the Renaissance Hotel and watched the dolphins. They had a total of 9. There were 3 babies in this area, they were so adorable. Wish we could have gotten closer but we were already pushing the boundaries. They were training and feeding them; sadly we had to leave early to pick up the boys from school. This is definitely a go back to place with the kids. They were sooooooo jealous! It was truly priceless.

Tomorrow we are off to the Harley Davidson dealership for fun, then to the antique shop,

and possibly hit a shrine on the way home.

Only a week left with my mom, gotta make it the best!