Birthdays, Onis, and Bears--Oh, My!

After downloading these pictures, I realized I haven't posted in awhile.  We've been busy with life -Ryan is working hard, Leyton is doing well in school (finally), and Ellis is being a giant pain.  (Un)Fortunately, I recall a span of a couple of months when Leyton was three-years-old, where she was basically a jerk and a not-very-fun person to be around.  I believe Ellis is in the same stage.  Don't get me wrong, she is certainly capable of being the sweetest, cutest kid you've ever seen.  She's also capable of senseless fits of rage, very loud kicking and screaming, and peeing her pants every day at school for more than three weeks straight (sometimes more than once or twice a day - but only at school- still completely dry at home and all night).  

It's definitely winter here, but we have the occasional nice weather and I am careful to make sure the kids get outside.

I bought the girls an Oni mask from Sanwa.

We woke up one morning to a surprise snowfall.  We wasted no time in bundling up to head outside.

The snow was very wet, so it made wonderful snowballs and snowmen.

We warmed up with hot chocolate.

We enjoyed playing in the leftovers for about a week.

E waiting for Daddy to come home.

Hopefully this is the last deployment.  Of course, he is gone all this week on a quick business trip back to America.

The ramen here is amazing.

Skillz

One of many fits of rage

My birthday was on Setsubun again this year.

The kids dress like Oni (monster's) and you throw beans at them for good luck.  Other than some bean-throwing, we kept my birthday low-key.  I did get a massage :-)  And new pajamas (I'm so old!).

A random picture of a random day taken by a random Japanese gentleman as we were leaving a restaurant.  Some of the 'fans' of the military and the squadron are very nice and very strange.  They treat the pilots like celebrities.  The gentleman framed this picture and delivered it to Ryan at work.  So nice... so strange...