Checking Classes

Friday before school started, the High School had an open house where the students found out their seminar class, and where to go first thing on Monday morning. There was also a pep talk meeting in the auditorium where the principal, and the sport coaches were talking about the upcoming year and the school spirit. Followed by a small tour around Campus from Juniors/Seniors and then BBQ lunch in the cafeteria.

We all went for this event, and it was nice to walk around the Campus, but very confusing, so many different buildings, and numbers, and classes upstairs, downstairs, on different days. Atleast we fond her seminar room, so she would know where to first go on Monday, and there the kids would get their schedule for the year. We also found out that tryouts for volleyball would be first thing on Monday after school!! Good thing we already had her physical taken care of, as they can't take part in the tryouts without one!

Checking out class lists for seminars...

The day before, we had found out the class lists from Benjamin and Isabella, and what teacher they would have this year. These lists get posted on the school doors/windows on an announced day. On Friday afternoon, we went there for a first hello and to drop off school supplies.

On the way to school finding out what class they would be in and most exciting for them - if any of their friends from last year would be in the same class..

Awning

Due to the very hot and long summer season here in Okinawa, most people that get one of the houses that we have, put up a so called "awning" over the patio. For shade and for rain protection.

Picture of the patio before, moving some of the chairs etc away for the installation.

 By typhoons, this is how we have to roll it down, detach the metal parts from the connection on the little roof and then put sand sacks over the tarp tightly tucked against the wall.

All done - shade!!

As it was late afternoon, we still get some sun coming through, but when we have a gate put up, that will take away any of the extra sun shining in on the patio. Then we can close/lock it from the inside and have our outdoor space, and that's what we want to do. It's very expensive to get the gates up, the guy who does it here, wants to charge around $500 for material and installation, and that's just a bit too much for a simple wooden gate. It's not easy either to build it yourself as we don't have the tools for it and it does have to be sturdy materials to hold up in typhoon or just very windy days!

So for now, there is no gate, I hope that we will have one up when it gets a bit cooler, that will be wonderful for Rusty to be able to hop around outside!!

Appointments Before Schoolstart

The last weeks before school started, there were a lot of appointments to get through. Dentists for all the kids, not having to take them out of school for those kind of appointments. The same for Cassandra's physical, that she needed to have in hand to be able to try out for any sport, and the last stop was haircuts for all the kids to look great in the start of the school year. Especially haircuts, as the sunny and sandy beach days with saltwater in the hair, and the chlorine from the pool days had taken it's toll on everyone's hair.

 So much shorter, but so much healthier!

 Manicure for Cassandra..

...pedicure for me!

New Outdoor Furniture & Grill

About a week or so after we moved in, we bought outdoor furniture. Chris put it all together one afternoon, and we were able to grill out with the new charcoal grill and enjoy the meal with sitting outside enjoying both meal and new furniture.

The hamburgers tastes amazing from the charcoal grill. Living in the tower we were only allowed to have gas grill on the balcony. Chris has missed charcoal grilling very much! 

(We still have the gas grill too, for fast grilling...)

An outdoor rug is still missing!

Storytime In Pajama

We really love our local library on our base. Or, I should say, our previous base. The one we live on now doesn't have a library, but we still go to the one on Camp Courtney ofcourse.

The kids love it and they have so many different activities going on all the time. The pictures below were from an evening in summer when they had "Story time in Pajama" where all the kids got to show up in pajama and listen to stories. Then, they all got their own little teddy bear to keep, and could decorate it any way they wanted.

I think that their teddy bears came out very very cute!

Olympic Spirits

Going through the pictures from summer, and looking for the ones from our move, I came across these from our End of Summer Reading Party. The theme was the, at the time, ongoing olympic games. We didn't get to follow much of it, as the time difference made it very difficult to catch the interesting parts. But, that doesn't mean that we can't celebrate and cheer for our favorites. 

A plus with being a multi cultural family, is that there is almost always a country to cheer for, and if they happen to play against each other, we are always winners anyway. We are always cheering for Sweden, USA and Switzerland. 

At the party, there was a photo booth with lots of props perfect for Olympics. We all love photo booths, and had some fun there for awhile, taking pictures and playing around! The pictures are so cute that I need to share!!