Happy birthday Tristan

The first thing that the kids did when they woke up was sing Happy Birthday to Tristan. Then they both drew him a picture and Jamie wrote him a note.

If you sound out the words you can probably tell what he's saying but I'll translate:
To: Tristan, when it's your birthday that's the day that you were born and everyone else celebrates their birthday on the day they were born. And do you know what Tristan? You are the best brother in the world!!! From: Jamie.


The picture is of me holding Tristan and he is blowing out his candle and Abby and Jamie are sitting at the table too.


This is Abby's picture of her and then me standing next to a flower and then Jamie and Tristan and Daddy with her name and some random collection of letters.

Here's the birthday boy at breakfast:


After his nap we headed out to the park:



Abby got Tristan a gift at the 100 yen store and then we stopped by the french bakery and got this cake, they even wrote his name on it! The cake was SO good!




We had a few people over for dinner and dessert and all the kiddos had lots of fun :)

disneyland part 1

Early Sunday Jan 16th, we got on the train heading towards Tokyo. We had spent a great deal of time the day before planning it so we could make only one transfer. The only hitch was that at our point of transfer, we had but 2 minutes to get off train A and get to train B. We could do it! And in fact, we did. But once we arrived at the train B's platform there were red symbols flashing across the reader-board instead of what would normally display the next train. Of course we didn't know what the problem was, seeing that it was in Japanese, but we knew there was a problem and so eventually we had to hop on another train, figure out where that one was going, and then transfer again. All our precise planning down the drain! But alas, only about 30 minutes was wasted. We arrived at the hotel to drop off our bags and then we were off again (on another 3 trains) to Tokyo Disneyland.

With the wind chill it had to be near freezing temperatures, yet Tristan insisted on continuously ripping off his shoes and socks. We eventually had to put him in the ergo just to keep him from doing so.

On our way from the hotel.
View from the train of tokyo (part of it).


Jamie's already stole Chad's hat:
One of the differences between disneyland LA and tokyo is that Main St. is all under cover:
Am I the only one excited to be here?

Mr. excitement himself, come on, you just rode space mountain! (which he loved...)My princess:
Abby and Tristan went on the carousel:



and we also did It's a Small World. No flash photography allowed so this was the best picture I got. For the holidays they had it all decorated with lights and they were singing Jingle Bells...in English.
Jamie wore my coat for awhile but I only had a sweatshirt so I had to take it back,
and him and I went on thunder mountain railroad.
He wore Tristan's hat for awhile:


And even though this isn't in focus, his smile is priceless:

until next time.

December recap

December was very, very busy for us. And just as we were settling into our new house, we had to pack up and move again! Of course with the holidays there was a ton a of stuff going on as well, and the kids had programs going on at school and MOPS, and then there was Jamie birthday, who I feel got a little jipped this year (even more so than other years, with his birthday being right after xmas) and this year being 1 day before we left on our trip too. We promised him that we could go to the Bainbridge Island Aquatic Center and never did, so we may just have to have a Happy Unbirthday for him in the Spring! And Chad also felt that he needed to get in his sailing "fix" before leaving for Japan and so December was also packed with a few boat trips as well.

Blake Island

Chad and Grandpa took Jamie to Blake Island for a night.

Gingerbread Man Play

The spanish kindergarten classes put on a Gingerbread Man Play. Jamie played Superman in el grupo of Super Heroes who tried to eat and chase the Gingerbread Men.

At the end of the play they did a cute macarena dance!

Naval Ave Christmas Program
Later in the month his school did a Christmas singing program at the high school. You probably can't see him in the video because we were so far back but he is on the bottom riser, 3rd from the right wearing a cream sweater. Afterwards there were refreshments and then we headed downtown to the see lights.

Downtown holiday lights
An annual tradition for our family. We ran into my brother Jon too as he getting off the ferry and he took a family portrait for us. We also enjoyed sweet potato fries at Fritz too!

MOPS kids sing
Abby was a bit jealous that her brother got to perform for us, so it was great when the next day we went to MOPS and there was a chance for her to sing for me too!

Sailing with Abby and Jamie

SO hard to get this kid to smile on camera!

Tristan

In December Tristan was still scooting around everywhere (although quite fast). He loves to eat real-people food and feed himself. He sleeps very well these days usually from 7am-7pm with 2 naps during the day. He is a very content kid as long as he is around people!

Jamie's birthday
We celebrated Jamie's birthday a few days early this year. Otto came over to play in the afternoon (and they did not leave the couch or their DS's until dinner). We all went to dinner along with some extended family to China Wok, and then came back to the house for some ice-cream cake and presents! Jamie was so sad when Otto had to go home, he misses him a lot.