Awesome moment

Emiko was in the bedroom this morning pointing to all the pictures of her daddy.
This is her thing now Dru is HER daddy, and she'll go around telling anyone who wants to listen.
She was going around saying who her daddy was, pointing at all of the pictures then there was the wolverine poster in our bedroom Dru got me for last years anniversary present..................I pointed at it and asked "Is this your daddy?"
She looked at it, smiled and said "Yep, that's my daddy"
Enough said......................

Cute Emi....

 Here's Emiko swimming in our livingroom.
She has a little obsession with goggles and will wear them at random times during the day.
This is the first time she's pretended to swim with them on though, I figured she was just wearing them for glasses, but it's nice to know she's relating the one to the other.

Emiko cracks us up all the time actually.  She's so cute and so crazy she has us saying 'awwwww' and then giggling the next minute.
Yesterday she goes up to Dru and says 'Daddy.........hold me'
I said "How can you say no to that?"
He's like "I can't" and then held her.  Isn't that what a Daddy's job is........to hold the women in his life?
Too cute.
The two older children really enjoy her.  Takeshi is kind to her most of the time, but every now and then he gets sick of her and they fight.  She can be a brat too, but for the most part Emiko is an essential part of our family.  She makes us all happy and helps us to be more charitable as she still needs so much help and we all pitch in.
She's still super clingy and won't go too far from mum or dad's arms.  I'm basically used to it and it's good for me right?  Last child and all...........................

One more about school starting

So this is the only picture I got of school starting yesterday.  It wasn't even me who took it.  It was Nat.  I was too busy crying yesterday to take any pictures.  Don't they look so cute?

The kids woke up, got dressed, were way pumped and ready to go super early.  It was pretty funny.  They're so cute.
They were all so happy to be going to school.

 We went and picked up our next door neighbours kid and his mother told me that she was told NOT to walk him to school today. 
That got me thinking about Masaru and when will he be too old to have his mother walk him to school and so that started an emotional roller coaster inside.....................
Fortunately Masaru is showing ZERO signs of caring about me kissing/hugging/ OR walking him to school, and for that..................I'm truly grateful.  I don't know how much I could emotionally handle at this point.
We dropped Masaru off first and I give him multiple hugs and kisses.  I'm sure the kids were thinking their mother was mental.  Emiko started bawling saying goodbye to Masaru.

Then we took Yuki to her class. She got up that morning and told me she initially forgot it was school this day, then realized it was a school day and was excited.  She was doing fine and then once we got closer to school she came back and held my hand.  I think she was a little nervous, which was surprising to me.  We got her to her seat and said our goodbye's.  Emiko started bawling again.

Then we walked Takeshi to his class and he didn't even wait for us.  I couldn't find him for a second.  He'd hung up his bag and raced in and sat on the mat by a friend, just like a pro.  I had to go over and beg him for a hug and a kiss.  He happily ran over and gave one to me then went back to the mat and didn't even look twice at me.  He couldn't stop grinning and so I just backed away. 
Emiko went and gave him a hug and was bawling as well.  I think she was crying saying goodbye and realizing she wasn't going to school as well.  Poor thing.  I'm sure it's tough to see all your siblings leave you and you not be able to go with them.  They're also way more fun than me.

I saw a couple of mates who's kids are in the class and they talked to me a little but I wasn't chatty cause I was holding it together for the public forum.  I was on the verge of tears the whole time but kept it together infront of people.
I thought I was free when I walked out of the door but then saw some mates, so almost lost it but kept it together for another minute until I was SURE that there was no one around and started sobbing while I walked home.
It wasn't the best for Emiko because she never likes seeing me cry.  So both her and I cried on our walk home.  I like that walk home from the initial drop off.  It's almost healing to have that quiet walk home to think, cry, and contemplate the future for a little while.

So it's just Emi and I for a couple of hours each day now.

Her hair's done, she's in a MATCHING outfit, I'm blogging and things are ok.  No tears today.

The kids came home and said they had THE BEST DAY and LOVE their teachers.  So that's good right?
It's only day one though, so we'll see how things really are after a couple of months.
For  now though, school has started, it's getting cooler and things are changing whether I like it or not.  But that's just the way life is, so I need to embrace it and roll with it, and I'm pretty good at that.

It's over...............

So I'm sitting here in 15 minutes of quiet time before the troops get up feeling sorry for myself.
I know, everyone's rolling their eyes in a 'get over it Melissa' mode, but too bad man, I have feelings and I'm gonna share them.
Today is the first day of school and I'm not very happy about it.
The kids are pretty pumped so that's awesome at least right?
But for me it means that I'm subject to someone else's schedule and have to succumb to the fact that I don't have my kids, when and how I want them anymore.
This is always super hard for me. 
Now before you yell 'homeschool' it's not gonna happen and I'm 'fine' with the public school system for my children and if I did homeschool I'd have to find some kinda routine as well and I guess I just like the freedom of summer, that only summer can bring.
It makes me sad to go back to some kinda forced schedule which takes away from our 'fun' days.
I know man, doom and gloom right?
It won't last too much longer I'm sure, I've just got the 'summer's over' blues I guess.
I've loved this summer with the kids.  We've had a good time.
I also can't believe Takeshi is starting school.  Isn't he still my baby?  When did this all happen?  Why am I being punished like this?  Hahahaha
I have a tough time with my kids growing up and maybe need some counseling.
He's so ready for this and knows words and basic reading and his numbers and adding etc.  So this is a great time for him to start but I'm over here in the corner rocking like some mental patient.
Then there's Yuki who's in FULL TIME school. 
I love Yuki.  What am I gonna do without her around?  She's such a huge help to me around the house, I'm like a mess.  She's a better mother to Emiko than me in a lot of ways.  I watch her swoop in and help out and am in awe of how wonderful she really is.  She's only 6 and already is a better mother than me with her sister.
That's the way to have it though I guess, your kids being good DESPITE you right?
Then Masaru's in FOURTH grade.  What the.........................o_0
So today I'm going to drop the kids off...........cry...........figure out what to do..........then get used to my new schedule forced on me by 'the man' hahahaha
If anyone would like to look after Emiko I'll cry my eyes out on the foothills with my my bike ;)

Sometimes your just tired

I think we all know how this feels. 

Thanks for summing it up in one picture Emi. 

Hahahaha so cute.  Must be a great summer. 

Millions of peaches...................

So this weekend was full of peaches from beginning to end.
Saturday morning Dru and I went for a mt bike ride.  Lots of things went wrong and it was quite the 'ride'.  I'm grateful Dru knows so much about bikes and could get me back on the bike and down the trails.  I have 2 favourite people to ride with and Dru's one of them.
There's something 'safe' about going with your husband you know?  Plus I think knows and can do everything, no pressure Dru.
We finally got home safe and sound then flipped switches to 'peach' mode.
Dru had gotten some peaches out in Caldwell close to his work.  We did the math and figured we'd do half our peaches before we went to Lake Powell.
We'd managed to scrounge up 125 bottles from places, people, and every nook and crannie which is more than we'd hoped for.  We were wanting 100.  I may just have to do 25 jars of pears............................hate doing pears but love eating them.  We'll see.

So Dru and I worked for roughly 3 hours on these bad boys.  We make a great team.  We worked seamlessly around each other, making sure things were all being taken care of.  It was nice.  Doing peaches by yourself is never a good idea.  The kids, the amazing children they are, took care of themselves wonderfully and we didn't hear boo from them.  They played outside and the whole 3 hours was quite miraculous really now I think about it.
We'd gotten the peaches on Thursday and sat them out to ripen up.  We thought most of them would be ready Saturday, but only half of them were.  So we did those half.

We then had our yearly date with our (used to be) neighbours, Shannon and Bo, for the boys birthdays.  Dru's and Bo's birthday's are a week apart and so we take our cruiser bikes into town and get ourselves some dinner and have a good time.
We decided to go to a place called 'The Reef'.  OH MY GOODNESS...............................I've found my most favourite restaurant in Boise, BAR NONE. 
Everyone needs to go there.  ALL the food that I tried was AMAZING.  Holy moly I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it.  It was amazing.  Their desserts weren't anything to scream about, at least the ones we tried, but the mains....................................oh yeah baby.  That's all I gotta say about that.

We love these guys.  It makes me sad they're not our neighbours.  So I'm really glad we get to do this with them.  We miss them tons.  Nothing like good neighbours man. 

So once we rolled out of the restaurant and hopped back on our bikes Bo ended up busting his back break a little and so we went back to look for the bolt and tried to fix it.  This is what Shannon and I did {above} that's right, nothing.

This is what the boys did.  Gotta love Boise man.  This is a 'pitt stop' place on the side of the green belt.  It has a pump, tools and this stand to put your bike on.  I mean how cool is that.  Boise is a bike friendly city, that's for sure and we love it that way. 
They got it all fixed up and we headed home. 
The kids had a great time and put on a show for us once we arrived home.  It was pretty cute.

So after church on Sunday Dru and I came home and finished off the last half of the peaches.  It went faster this time cause I think we'd learned from the day before and were more efficient this time.
We'd gotten 14 more bottles than we thought we'd get so were really pleased with ourselves.  We'd also only gotten 3 casualties.  So I think that's pretty good stats.
I don't know how people stand for hours on a daily basis in one spot.  My back was hurting after the 3 hours hunched over the sink.
I mean I'm up and going all day as a stay at home mother, but not just standing in one spot you know.  I guess you start getting used to it.
It was quite the productive weekend.  Now I just need to make some more jam, finish the rest of the peaches and pull up my socks and just get some pears done.  I love the outcome of bottling fruit but the work part is tough, but I'm glad Dru tackles it with me and we have this time together.  I'm also glad the kids get to see their father in the kitchen doing this kind of thing.  I think it's good.
Dru said we're not allowed to give any of the peaches away................so don't ask I guess, or run it by Dru, if you can convince him........................come and get a bottle ;)
He's gonna kill me for saying that......................love you babe.

The Caldwell Rodeo

So Simplot had 25 VIP passes to the Rodeo and started up at the executives and asked them if they wanted them and slowly went down the list until eventually it went to the lawyers.
Dru responded and told them he'd like 6 of them if they had that to spare, since there's 6 in his family.
He wasn't expecting much, but the next day the lady came into his office with 6 VIP passes to the Caldwell Rodeo. He was shocked and rang me straight away with the news.
I was SO excited and grateful.
These tickets meant we got dinner and drinks beforehand and the skybox seats at the rodeo.
I couldn't believe it.  We were so pumped it wasn't even funny.
The kids were totally thrilled to be going to the rodeo for the first time and couldn't believe their luck.
I'd only been once and that was BEFORE children and I remember loving it.
So I had high expectations of this day and knew it was gonna be so much fun.
We'd be having our mate Tashi around a bit.  Him and his sisters family are our good friends and she was out of town.  Tashi was on his own this week and our kids love him.  He's so good to them.
They're from Napal originally and just talking to them is a wonderful, rich history lesson in life, love and sacrifice.  It's an honor to be called their friends.
We decided to invite him to the rodeo as well.  Turns out Emiko was young enough to be just carried around and so we gave our 6th ticket to him.
He'd never been to a rodeo before and so we were glad we'd invited him.  He WAS going to go with some friends, but soon ditched them for the VIP passes we'd had hahahaha.  Good choice.

I gave Emiko a long late nap cause the rodeo didn't start until 8pm.  I knew it was going to be a late night full of fun and food.
We picked Dru and Tashi up and headed out there.
Thank goodness we found a decent park.  We'd showed up pretty early because dinner was served from 5:30 till 8pm.  We made it there a little after 6 I think.
We were escorted into the VIP dinner section and it was pretty nice.
The dinner was AMAZING.  We were all so hungry because we're not used to waiting till 6:30pm to eat.
They had three different kinds of meats and other, wonderful, choices for the rest of our plates to be filled.
Takeshi got prime rib and ATE THE WHOLE PIECE!!!  Say what you want about Takeshi man, but when that boy wants to, he can pack it down.
We then headed down to the rodeo to watch the children's part of the programme.

We didn't know what the sky box was and saw this taped off section at the rodeo and so just sat here for the first part.  They were good seats, but after a little bit we slowly were realizing that the sky box that Simplot reserved was up in the corner over on the other side.
Masaru wouldn't let up until we went over and tried to sit over there.
So here are some video's and pictures of what we saw first before we moved to the VIP SKYBOX seating.

Singing the anthem so we can remember where we're from and what we're proud of.....................................sorry that was a mocking tone.
Nah I think it's good they start it off this way, the national anthem always pumps people up right?  And the rodeo is a fun place.

 These cowboys are so impressive.
I can't believe they stayed on these bucking bronco's.  I loved it.

 There were always other men on foot and horse around to support the cowboy once he'd been riding the amount of time to qualify.

Honestly, I don't know how they stay on and not rip their shoulders out.  It's amazing.




Now this guy has to ride in on a horse, jump off, catch this calf and flip it over ALL WITH HIS BARE HANDS!!!!

Honestly............................crazy.

 So we wandered up to the skybox and showed our passes and went and sat down.  We should've went there right from the start.  There were snacks and drinks and it was a great view, we were certainly spoilt.
We loved it.

We put curlers in Yuki's hair the day before and for the first time her curls stayed in.  She looked beautiful and loved it.
They also had saddled bronco riding and barrel racing as well as catching the calf and tying it's legs together and then a paired catching the calf around the horns and back legs.  I'm not too sure what these are REALLY called but that's what it was.
We saw one calf get hurt and it wasn't very nice.  The kids were concerned and I wasn't happy.  That cowboy was a little rough with that poor calf and so they took it out on a stretcher.  I hope it was alright.
They kept the bull riding until last and it was amazing.
The bulls were on fire and only 2 bull riders could stay on for the allotted 8 seconds.  The rest were thrown off and a couple trodden on.  It was rough.
Here's some bull riding video's below


We had the best night.
We were all tired and worn out and didn't get home until 11:30pm but it was totally worth it.
What a great time.  I wonder if we could do this every year?
The next day the kids were playing rodeo.  It was pretty cute.
Thanks Simplot.

Rugby

So Masaru played rugby this summer and loved it.
We discovered 'Idaho Rugby' and put him in a summer programme that lasted for a couple of months.
They didn't teach them tackle rugby, just touch rugby, or flag football type rugby.
He enjoyed it though and in my totally unbiased opinion, shows good potential ;)
It was nice watching him for the times I went and he seemed to like the coaches and made some friends.
There is a guy there who's a kiwi and one of the coaches.  Dru had a talk to him.  He married a girl here so has been living here for a little while. 
It was nice to hear him talk and to know there was a kiwi amongst the coaches.  I dunno, it just seemed more authentic.  I'm totally judging I know but whatever man.
They're gonna start more rugby in the spring so as to not compete against american football, lame but makes sense, and so Masaru will then have to make a decision.......soccer or rugby.
I guess we'll see what he chooses.
For now he's playing soccer for September and a little of October so that should keep him fit enough to keep up with whatever he chooses when the spring comes and he makes his decision.
It was cheap and they got a rugby ball (real nice one) and a t-shirt, so it was totally worth the money.
Soccer is a rip off compared to rugby, so personally I won't miss soccer if he chooses rugby, but I make a promise the the blogging world that I'll have myself under complete control when he makes his decision.
Cause we all know I want him to choose rugby, but I don't believe in pushing my kids into a sport they don't like.
I'm glad he played and I'm glad he liked it.  My fear was that he wouldn't like it, so at least that fear is gone.
I need to chill.

Happy 36 years

So Sunday was Dru's 36th birthday. I know man I know, lots going on in one week right?  But it is what it is man.
He wanted my pina colada cake that I make.  It's his ultimate favourite and whenever I give him an option, this cake is it.
The trouble is is that any 'good' cake takes time to make and various steps.  This is that cake.  I mean don't get me wrong it's freak'n amazing, but baking on a fast Sunday is a true sacrifice.  That's all I'm saying.
He also wanted home made pizza from scratch.  Also a great choice, but also time consuming to juggle with the cake when all I really wanted to do what take a nap and stop thinking about how I'm not eating till dinner time.
I'm not gonna lie.  It took all of my energy not to moan a little about the whole thing.
Bad right?  But when your used to eating every 2 hours  and taking naps after church as well if anything gets in the way of that it semi cramps my style hahaha
I know man 'cry me a river'
That's why I didn't moan.......................hardly at all........and just got to work and baked and cooked and baked and cooked all day until dinner time for Dru.
Masaru did the candles.  See how from a birds eye view it looks like a 36?  Pretty awesome right?

So after we had a great feed of salad and home made pizza we sat down to the cake part of the night.  I captured a video of singing to Dru and blowing out the candles etc.
We also watched a movie together as a family, inbetween the chaos, called 'Is Heaven Real?'
It was super cute and really nice.  I'd recommend it for a Sunday family movie time movie.  Super sweet, spiritual and just a great family movie.  It's not too often you get one of those right?

Family shot with Dad. These kids love their father that's for sure.  He's good to them.  I'm glad he's their father.

So I got Dru this frame for Christmas for a picture his friend took in Japan.  But when we put that picture in there the frame looked too beautiful for the picture, even though the picture is amazing.  So Dru thought and thought about which picture would look good in this frame.  He then saw this picture of his grandfather, at his sisters place and it's like a light bulb came on.  He told me he thought this picture of his grandpa and his family would be perfect for this frame.  But the picture is only a 5x8 size and he didn't think it'd blow up well enough so just kinda talked a little about it but didn't do anything.
The original picture was at his grandma's place with his Uncle and the chances of us getting out there, taking a picture of a picture and it blowing up a decent way was slim to none.
So I got thinking, and put the word out to his sister who lives out those ways and she and her husband hooked me up with a sweet shot of the photo, I ordered it at costco and crossed my fingers, toes and eyes that it'd work out.
What do you think?  Pretty good right?
Dru's grandpa is the little cute boy beside his sister and mother. 
Dru was TOTALLY surprized and amazed.  He couldn't believe it.
It's not often, actually hardly ever, that I surprize Dru with a gift like this.  He's hard for me to buy for.  But this was perfect and he loves it.  Shout out to Kristin and Chris for hooking a sistah up man.
The kids were looking at it and love it.  I told them that that's their great grandpa and their great great grandparents.  They're pretty amazed and it's truly special to us and looks amazing right?
I love it, Dru loves it, the kids love it, now we just have to get a mat and it'll look even more amazing.
So happy birthday to Dru.  He's also going to get himself a new seat for his mountain bike as well.  The picture only cost $3 so I figured if he REALLY wanted a seat, he could get one ;)

Low key day, nothing too special but I tried hard and worked hard for him and hope he had a good day.
We went out to dinner and a movie the night before as well, which was really nice.  We saw this movie called 'Lucy'  It was weird.

Love you babe
Milz xx

13 years with Dru

To the outside world we always try to put our best faces forward.  I mean our business is our business right?  As far as anyone knows things are going 'just fine' and that's the way we like it.  So we go into 'pose mode' like this picture above hahahaha

But sometimes life with this guy has been anything but 'just fine'  It's been way more than that.
It's been a little crazy like when we had our first child and didn't know the first thing about being parents!!

But between the crazy times we still managed to to just sit and 'smile' with each other.

Sure, sometimes I did a lot of the talking/yelling and Dru would have to put up with it, like the stellar man he is.  Like when I first moved over to USA and I loathed all American's and all things American.  Best 4 months of Dru's life, right babe?

But he'd always find a way to make me laugh, even though I tried I 'fight it' and keep being serious.  Works every time.....................

Sometimes Dru knew exactly what was going on and I didn't and he'd be relaxed and I'd be still trying to figure it out.  Like when we had a 4 month old and decided to completely re-do the basement of our house.

But then sometimes he'd realize that he'd bitten off more than he could chew and I'd have to tell him 'I told you so' in a nice way. Like when he was in law school and started turning into a vampire because he'd never get any sun or exersize.

And then sometimes both of us would be nothing but scared about the life we were living, both not knowing what we were doing, when things would work out or how.
Like when we'd finished law school and had HUGE debt 4 kids and no prospects of a job in the near future.

Sometimes Dru knew things would work out though and I had to do my best to trust that, him and the Lord.
Like when we decided to sell our house in Utah.

Dru's always needed kisses, hugs and affection and I've always tried my best to give that to him as well as laughter.

Sometimes I think he's disgusting.  Like when we'd just finished walking the milford track in NZ for 4 days with no showers and we jumped into the car and started driving and it was raining and we couldn't open the windows and he decided to take his shoes off...........................................o_0

Sometimes both of us have laughed and laughed and laughed until we couldn't laugh anymore.  I love Dru's laugh and he also has this giggle like a highschool girl that he'll kill me for writing on this blog but it's one of my most favourite sounds of all time.

I know sometimes he finds me a little scary, but tries to smile through it.
Like in the last month of all of my pregnancies.

Sometimes we don't see eye to eye.  Like when he wanted to name Yuki, Yuki and I wanted to name Yuki, Mei

Sometimes Dru's gotten stressed out, doesn't know how he's going to cope and all I can do is give him a kiss and let him know he's my most favourite person in the world and if anyone can do it, it's him.
Like his first week at Simplot when they handed him a 3 million dollar contract and expected him to let them know if they should sign it or not.

We've seen the best and worst of each other and still love each other to the moon and back despite it all.

Because no matter what happens, we never give up on each other, we always talk things through and always remember to laugh and kiss.

I respect Dru as the 'man' of the house and his divine role in our family and his visions for us and what we need.

We've both seen a lot of crazy things together over the 13 years, both good and bad, which has bonded us forever.

But at the end of the day, no matter what's gone on, we only have eyes for each other.  There's no better match for us, no better person, no better life than the life we have with each other.  I mean I've yet to see any man better looking than this one...................and yes that INCLUDES Hugh!!  Sorry Hugh you know it's true.  

The best 13 years of my life have been with this man.  He's everything to me and every day is a gift with him that I treasure with all of my heart.  Soppy yes but true.
The best gift is to love and to be loved in return.  Thanks for loving me Dru.

Takeshi's birthday

So Takeshi started celebrating his birthday early.  He got a package from his Grandma in NZ and I couldn't very well tell him he couldn't open it.  That's just mean.  So he opened it.

Some of the loot.

Cute video {above} of him opening his gift.  Love it.

When then went to Utah where his other Grandma and two Aunties gave him a little something to open.

 From Auntie Brooke.

 Yessssss, flip flops, now we can give the ones we were borrowing from a mate back ;)

 Next gift from Auntie Brooke..........................................

 Yuusssssssssssss Lego's, every boys favourite.  Awesome!!!

 Opening Auntie Les gift.  I'd like to add that Auntie Les was on a USA trip with her family at the time and had left this gift so Takeshi could have it on time.  That's the kind of commitment we're talking about here people, pretty amazing organization skillz, right down to the fine details of 5 year old's birthday's.
Soccer PJ's, much needed.

 Awesome wooden truck......................elated hahahaha
Takeshi cracks me up man.

Grandma took him shopping and got him 2 remote control cars, which he's played with daily when we've been in Boise.  Thanks Grandma.

 Then in Stanley Auntie Kristin got this cake for the birthday kids Ella and Takeshi.  Great thinking, cause I figured I'd do something when we got back, but then the Johnson's never came back..............................talk about your all time backfire's.  All Ella's presents were back in Boise as well.  Sorry Ella!!!

 We sang as well as got some ice cream that same night.

 Sweet back pack from Auntie Kristin.
All ready to start school now.  Awesome gift.

 The Sunday we came home from Stanley it was Takeshi's REAL birthday and Dru and my REAL 13th anniversary.  We each got ourselves a T-shirt from the 'river company' as a gift to ourselves plus we needed dinner so stopped off at Red Robin on the way home to celebrate.
They sung to Takeshi and he wasn't really too sure what to think about that.  But he liked the ice cream they gave him.

Then when we got back to Boise and checked the mail and we'd gotten a letter, picture, card, note, stickers and tattoo's from Auntie Jessie.  She always does well to remember our birthdays.
Thanks Auntie Jessie.  Your the best.

Then because turning 5 is one of the few ages I actually celebrate with a party, and Takeshi hadn't had one yet, I threw him one.
So here's the decor.

 And here's the cake.
I had to do this on my own without Dru's help.  I can't remember what was going on but we were super busy the night before and didn't get a chance to start the cake at all.
So I had to make it just me, myself and I.  Not as fun, but it still worked out pretty well.
Do you think this makes up for Emiko's disaster 2nd cake?  Hahahahaha

He said he wanted a penguin cake and a penguin pinata.  So that's what I did/got him.

 He invited 5 friends.  3 boys and two girls.  The girls didn't show, but the boys did.
When I asked him what he wanted for dinner he told me orange chicken, rice and broccoli.  So that's what I made him.  Here they are eating their dinner.
I did the party from 5 till 8pm.
It didn't need to be that long.  5 till 7 would've been perfect.  But the last 45 mins we simply watched a movie and that turned out alright.  He wanted to watch Turbo.  So we did.

 Dad and the kids also did this for 'pin the beak on the penguin' game.  It was a hit.  Thanks guys.

 After we ate we did the pinata.  It was a 'hit' get it?  Good one Milz ;)

 

 Here they are going crazy after the pinata had cracked open.   It was pretty crazy.

 

Then we played pin the beak on the penguin.  I think there was some cheating going on, but they did well nonetheless.

Then we sung him Happy birthday and had the cake and candles.  Here's a video below.

Then it was present opening time.
Has anyone else noticed that when it's someones birthday the siblings have a really hard time with it all.  I think Emiko cried pretty constant and Masaru was trying to take over everything and Yuki was trying to tell Takeshi what to do with all his decisions.  I was reigning them in the whole night.

Before and after every gift he said thanks. Then he'd put the gift down and go give that person a hug.  I didn't ask him to do this, he just did it.  It was the cutest thing and I was really proud of him. 

Takeshi has always been really grateful for whatever he's gotten.  I love that about him.

Trying out one of the gifts.
And here's the last video {above}. Takeshi cracks me up man......................'wait for it, wait for it'  hahahaha
Love that kid.

We love Takeshi and are glad he's in our family.  He makes me laugh.
He's got a short fiery temper, but gets over things fast.  He's very kind, sweet, forgiving and giving.  He's my only 'dark' child and I love that about him.
He's fearless and I worry a little about that, but for the most part it makes me happy that he's always willing to try new things and new foods.  He's my one child that, willingly, will eat salad and new slightly strange things.
He'll often be drawing pictures as gifts to people, whether it's me and dru or his teachers at church.  He's thoughtful and mindful of others.
He's tough to keep still, but maybe he doesn't need to be still.  Hopefully his kindergarten teacher will be great with him.  I wonder how he'll do.
He's doing great with his sight words (all 6 of them) and his writing and reading.  He seems like he's a quick learn, but we'll see.
He's a perfectionist on a small scale and I still have to tell him it doesn't matter if he makes a mistake.  Hopefully he'll be alright with that.
I'm not ready for him to start school.  I always have a tough time with my kids starting school.  It breaks my heart, every time.
I think it's a combination of things really, not thinking I did enough, not ready to be left alone, missing them, time going by too quick, not willing to pass them onto the world just yet.
I'm a mess with the whole thing really.
But time keeps ticking by, my kids keep growing up, and no matter what I try to do I can't seem to figure out how to stop that and it disturbs me.   Maybe I need counseling about the whole thing.
At any rate I'm proud of Takeshi and wish him the best 5th year this year.  I'm sure he'll do great things like the other years.
Love you bub and happy birthday
Mum xox