Who does he look like now??

Oh well, it was only a matter of time I suppose. Tysei fell into a chair and split his skin open just beside his eye. He is looking more and more like a Conlin every day!

Happy 4th birthday Tysei

I am not sure if its considered jet-lag, vacation hangover, or just the effects of over-night flights....but here is Tysei making his own birthday cake at 1 am, the day (night) we got back to Japan.



....and after a few hours sleep, its his birthday!

Vacation in Thailand

For our spring break we headed to an island in Thailand for some much needed R and R. We most certainly had bad timing with our vacation as it rained every single day...some days it rained all day, other days only in the afternoon. It is actually supposed to be their dry/hot season?! It is the wettest March in history for Thailand! Glad we were part of that record breaking history!

The kids were happy to be on the move again. Here they are at the Bangkok airport at about 4am Japan time. They learned young to just roll with it. (and pull your own bag too)



Loved the transportation....never a dull moment


The waves were as fun as ever.....



Kianah's choice of activities was to go elephant trekking. It was great fun! Althugh, even I was a little nervous when the guide hopped off and walked WAY up ahead of us on the trail. I was really contemplating what my first move was going to be if the elephant decided to bolt (he had been misbehaving the entire trip, venturing off the path into swamps and down cliffs).





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Tysei's choice was dinosaur mini-golf



But most of the trip was wet.........



But...it didn't keep us out of the pool.....




...and the food alone, made it all worth it!




A little fish spa therapy before heading home...and Shunsuke's feet were as smooth as a baby's bottom....



One last sandcastle before we head to the airport...

Added challenges

This is why I don't have much symapthy for teachers that complain about the amount of time they spend doing lesson prep at home...that don't have children;)

Refugees

We hosted our good friends Elaine, Fred, Kai and Kieran when they fleed to our house from Tokyo. The kids were so excited to have sleepovers on school nights!

Night out

We had a late night out with friends in Osaka. It started with a Jack Johnson concert, and snow-balled from there....

Kianah singing

Here is a little performance that Kianah did with some other kids from school. The song is "The Scientist" by Coldplay.