Busy Moving Into MY NEW HOUSE!!!

I've been away for a while, mostly due to the fact that I've been moving, but partly because I have no internet at my new house (don't even get me started on that one).

Over the past seven months, since we found out we were moving home from Japan and decided to build a house to move into, my life has been kind of crazy, kind of.  If you follow my blog, you've read some of my posts along the way about moving, but here, in one post, I'd like to sum up the past eight months of my life.

First of all, I'd like to say THANK YOU to all of my family and friends who have helped me along the way, it would have been impossible without you.  It started in Japan, when we were packing up to leave, and I was seven months pregnant, countless friends helped me clean, pack, organize (probably thought I was being too particular, but now that I'm unpacking, that organization is paying off), helped with the kids, dishes, food, you name it.

Here is the first part of our move, the truck came to pick up 16 of our 19, yes, 19 suitcases.

We had to say good bye to some really great friends:

Here we are at the airport.

Phase two, unpacking, cleaning, organizing, settling in at my parent's house.  If it weren't for the help of my sister and my dad being home sick, I never would have gotten unpacked before this:

Four days before this beautiful girl arrived, my husband made his way back the the US, just one day before the big earthquake in northern Japan.  Fortunately, our friends were unaffected and our stuff was not at sea yet.

There were many decisions to be made for the house, so the kids and I drove 1,000 miles to stay with Dave for a month.  We got to stop and visit some old friends along the way, and I even took them to Niagara Falls:

Once again, it was time to pack up to get ready to move once again, this time to our new house.  For the past five years, my parents let us keep our stuff and car at their house, like our home away from home.  It was time to get all of my stuff out and let my parent's have their house back again.  I tried my hardest to get everything out. My dad even gave my two oldest sons the bunk beds we had when we were kids that he built himself- how cool is that?  We painted them red (because Mario's red of course).

We had to say goodbye to ALL of our cousins:

Conveniently, the weekend we moved my cousin was getting married in Ohio, so we made a pitstop.  This is when the kids had to say bye to Nana and Grampa.

This trip, we were driving with a 6x12 UHaul and I didn't want to travel alone, so my brother and nephew joined us.  I couldn't have done it without them!  They are my official moving buddies because they also came to Japan (with my sister-in-law too) for my last week and helped us move home, so I didn't have to lug all the suitcases and kids through customs 7.5 months pregnant alone.

We got to Illinois, and the house wasn't ready for closing, so we stayed in the tiny one bedroom apartment Dave had been renting since March.

My mom flew in to help us when our shipment arrived.  Luckily she's staying for two weeks.

The closing got delayed by two days, so we were all crammed into the tiny apartment on one king and one twin bed.

Finally, we closed on our house and are together again as one big happy family!  This was the first night in six months that I slept in a room without sharing it with four or five of my kids!  Home sweet home!

The following Monday, the stuff arrived, in not one, but two trucks!!! Here they are driving down the street, I was so excited I had butterflies in my stomach!

Holy cow, this is a LOT of stuff:

This is what my basement and closet look like now:

You'll be hearing from me slowly for the next few weeks as I attempt to become box free ;)

So, if you know someone moving, may I challenge you to do a random act of kindness for them, whether it be help pack, help clean post packing, make them a meal, clean the new place, help unpack, take the kids, bring over a snack, cut open boxes, help break down boxes- do you get the point?  I have had so much help, and I couldn't have done it without every last one of my wonderful family and friends, so thank you for everything that helped to get us here, we love you!

Busy Travelling: License Plates and learning States

This week, my kids and I have been reading "If I were Alive During the American Revoution".  We have been talking about wars, the pledge of allegiance, the thirteen original colonies, and more.  Given that we are driving across the country to Massachusetts, I thought it would be fun to do a license plate game.  On the way here, we tried to remember the plates we saw, but kept losing track.  I wanted to print out little license plates for the kids to fill in, but my printer is still at my parent's house.

We have been chosing paint colors for our house and one day, I was staring at the color strip and was like these are perfect sized for a license plate game.  I took 7 color shade strips for each of my kids' favorite colors, cut them in half horizontally, and glued them to the back of a CEREAL BOX!

For the big kids, I wrote the full names of the states:

For the little kids, I just wrote the two letter state abbreviation.  Each of the thirteen colonies has a star over the top, we are trying to see if we can see each one.  Also, I attached a pen to each board so they can check them off:



I hope this makes the 17+ hours in the car more fun for the kids- wish me luck!

**POST EDIT on July 11, 2011- I was rushing to post this because of course, I was finishing the project last minute before the drive, and I wanted to post photos of the before product, because after the drive, they would be all colored and crossed out.  I realized that the two letter abbreviations for Kansas (should be KS) and Kentucky (should be KY) were written incorrectly on the two letter abbreviation charts.  I corrected them for my kids- corrected photo unavailable because the kids HAD A BLAST with these in the car.  I apologize, and yes, I AM quite certain I am smarter than a fifth grade, just busier and more scatterbrained.  This was such an awesome thing to have in the car, the kids didn't want to go to bed because they were afraid they'd miss something, in fact, they are still in the car, and we have been able to cross off a few more since our trip.  This is HIGHLY recommended for a trip in the car if you are taking one!!!

Busy Travelling: Travelling Halfway across the USA alone with 5 kids

And why I'd rather travel halfway across the world with kids in a plane any day over a car.

My new house is approximately 1049 miles from my parent's house, but who is counting?  It is about 300 miles further than from my old house.  It just enough extra distance that the drive is too long to do in one day.  I've been fretting about my move from Japan for this reason for a long time now- it's almost impossible for me to travel to visit my family alone now- and I'm afraid that even though I'll be living in the same country, I'll see them less because the trip is just too far of a drive.  As if the drive wasn't long enough, add in the factor of travelling with a baby who needs to eat every three hours.  So, I've been making a list for those of you that thought I was crazy travelling 24 hours door to door from Japan to Massachusetts of why I'd rather do that trip over this drive.

1) I have to be the pilot. (enough said)

2) Tendency to overpack when you take the car, cramming stuff in everywhere, especially under your feet, which makes for an even more uncomfortable ride.

3) No one is coming around to pick up your trash.

4) No one coming around serving food and drinks.

5) You cannot get up and walk around.

6) Getting lost.

7) Unexpected delays due to traffic, really bad drivers on the road, weather, or frequent stops for various kid related reasons.

8) Stress from other people trying to convince you not to do it alone when you have no choice.

9) You cannot close your eyes to rest even when the kids are awake.

10) You cannot pick up the baby that decides to scream as you are getting off one highway and needing to merge through three others for a ten mile stretch outside a major city where there is tons of traffic and no shoulder, so you are forced to listen to ear piercing screaming for a half hour on top of the bickering.

11) There is only one tv for everyone, thus lots of bickering about which show to watch.

12) One of my kids gets car sick.

13) There are no tray tables.

14) No bathroom on board.

15) Travel time (Japan- Boston 8,000 miles, time=24 hours), (Boston- Illinois 1,049 miles time=3 days)

Moving Halfway around the World

I haven't been around much lately because the past month I've been busy packing up all of these:

And this week, I've been busily unpacking them.  I only have about five more to go, not bad for battling a cold, jet lag, awesome pregnancy onset heartburn, and taking care of four kids.

Thank you to everyone who helped me pack, clean up, and try to organize my house and for those who are currently helping me try to put my life back in order- Thank you too.

Travelling with Kids- A Visit from the Backpack Fairy

A few years ago, at the Osaka airport, I let my kids get their first Happy Meals from McDonald's.  The toy that came with the meal proved to be a gem on the flight.  The kids must have played with them for at least two hours each.  The next time I flew with them after that, I put a few toys that I had secretly hidden from Happy Meals in their suitcases and a few toys from the "gumball" machines that are EVERYWHERE in Japan.  The next thing I knew, they started talking about their visit from the backpack fairy, and the tradition was born.

The night before we travel on a big international trip, the kids leave their carry-on bags open next to their beds and when they wake up, they are closed and filled with new goodies for the trip.  It is in a way more exciting to them than Christmas.  It makes the night before traveling a joy for me because they want to go to bed so the fairy can come sooner.  However, the next morning can be a bit chaotic as they excitedly unpack their bags to see what treasures they received and I have to try to make them keep it in the bag and not lose it before the trip.

As we haven't travelled back home in a while and we were moving, this was a BIG visit from the backpack fairy.  Here is a picture of the goodies lined up on the table before I went to fill the bags.  Normally, there is not this much stuff, but since we were moving from our home and all the fun goodies that are available in Japan, I couldn't resist the extra stuff.

Some items that I have put in the bags in the past are:
the plastic bubble toys you get at the outside of the grocery store (I never usually let my kids buy them, so they are a real treat for them to open)
scratch and sketch books
invisible ink books
coloring books
new markers or crayons
a glo stick
a book to read
a magazine
a small stuffed animal
new toy matchbox car
sticker book with stickers
lollipop
pez dispenser with refill
new Nintendo DS game (if they are REALLY lucky)
new DVD
travel game
mad libs
book of puzzles

Here is a bag open at the airport, while we were waiting to check in:

Thank you backpack fairy for making this move as stress free as I hoped you would!

Travel Play mat for Babies

If you have a young child, you will know how much they love buckles.  When my kids were babies, they would always head straight for an empty car seat or high chair to do the buckles.  I always wanted to make some kind of buckle toy to keep them busy.  With my recent "obsession" of making travel play mats, I had the idea to make this buckle one for my nephew, who will be turning one soon.

I bought 3 buckles at a craft store here and used one set from an old high chair we were throwing away.  I used leftover strapping from the library bags I made for my kids to anchor them to the fabric.  I also decided to throw in a zipper for fun.

In the zipper pouch, baby can keep all their favorite things, like a picture of mom and dad and of course, their toy cars!

All rolled up and ready to go in the diaper bag:

Travel Felt Play mat for Cars

As if I would only make play mats for three of my kids.  You know the fourth one is a car lover.  I've actually had it in my head to make him a travel car carrier for a while, but even better, it's a play road too.

I made it the same way as the other mats.

All cars in their lots:

Driving around:

Rolled up and ready to go, police car button closure and all:

This one was the easiest to make, the hardest part was deciding how to lay out the roads.  Happy driving!

Travel Felt Play Mat for Super Mario

So, I couldn't just work on one travel play mat, given that I have four kids.  As I was making Hazel's Kittyland, I saw poor little Addison playing with the homemade Super Mario dolls I made him for Christmas.  Those dolls that I spent hours painting, only to have the kids store them in cheap ziploc bags.  Surely,  I care more about my hard work, than to let it get ruined in a ziploc bag.  Of course, I always have Mario fabric on hand for crazy ideas like this.  

I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do.  I let the kids choose a background felt color and at the time, I had some precut felt shapes on the table that I bought at the 100 yen store.  Next thing I knew, the two older boys were arranging them as they saw fit on their felt backgrounds.  I went with it, and just pinned them and sewed them into place.  Then, I sewed a piece of Mario fabric on the bottom edge of the felt, and sewed lines down to provide little spots to slide the dolls into.

All snug in their beds:

I cut out a thin piece of quilt batting and  a matching Mario fabric the same size as the felt and sewed them together like the Kittyland.  I flipped it around, stitched around the edges, and sewed on a button for easy closing when it's rolled up (of course it HAD to be a star):

These I actually finished before our house hunting trip and let me tell you- WOW!  They played with these on the plane, they were perfect sized for the tray.  They played with them in the car and at the hotel.  

They fly, they flip, they jump, they sing, they get bad guys:

Travel Felt Play mat

Before Christmas, when I actually thought I'd make my kids mostly homemade gifts, I came across this idea to make roll up play mats.  Coincidentally, Hazel was getting 7 plastic Hello Kitty dolls for Christmas and she already had two.  The two came in a plastic travel case/play house (which broke days before I got this idea).  I didn't have enough time to make it for Christmas, but I decided it would be worth it to make one before our big trip home to give her something to do on the plane.

First, I cut out six squares of fabric measuring 11" by 11" (3 pieces of felt, 3 pieces of cotton fabric). I sewed three pieces together to make the back (between two of them, I added a piece of bag strap to make a handle).  I sewed on a Hello Kitty button of course to keep it closed when she's not using it.

The remaining three pieces were for the front play area.  I decided to make a bedroom, a playground, and an eating area for her kitties to play in.  I alternated between fabric and felt on the front and then the opposite for the backside.  First, I cut out squares of fabric and sewed them on to make the beds (perfect use for cute scraps you just can't bear to part with).  Then, I used felt for the table and playground.  Once all the "accessories" were sewn onto the pieces, I sewed them together:

Then, since her original plastic box had a few pieces of kitty furniture that we couldn't part with, on the backing pieces, I made a pocket.  First, on the back of the felt, I sewed on a zipper, with its front facing the back of the felt backing:

Then, I cut out another piece of felt and sewed it on over the zipper, it was a rectangle shape and not even edges, who cares, felt doesn't fray and Hazel will never know.

I turned it over and just cut out a tiny rectangle of fabric between the stitches, to expose the zipper:

Look inside:

Then, I cut out a piece of scrap very thin quilt batting the size of the three squares sewn together and laid it down.  I put the front piece on top of it, facing up, then I put the backing on, with it facing the front of the top:

I pinned a hair tie in the center of one of the side edges (to use as a latch to close it).  I pinned all the edges down and sewed around the whole thing, leaving a four inch opening.

After sewing, I pulled the whole thing right side out through the opening, then pinned it closed, and sewed around the edges to give it a more finished look.

Nine little kitties all snug in their beds:

Waiting for their dinner:

Swinging on the swing:

Hanging out at the park, we have a slide, hopscotch, a bench to hang out, a pond, a trampoline, a tree for picnicking under, and a swing.

And, maybe the zipper pocket is her favorite part of "Kittyland".

It all folds up nicely, holds the toys, and is a great size for a small suitcase, or for bringing with you when you need to go somewhere where you need something to keep a little person busy.

All rolled up and ready to go:

New Zealand

Now that I'm finally feeling better and Halloween is past us, I am finally getting around to organizing our pictures from our trip to New Zealand (two weeks ago).  We knew that our time here in Japan is quickly coming to an end, so we started making a list of places we'd like to visit from here that would be very difficult for us to get to once we leave.  Being pregnant, and sick, I opted to choose New Zealand for this trip, as it is an English speaking country and I knew there'd be food I'd enjoy- Thailand will just have to wait.

WARNING- this is a long post.

We arrived in New Zealand at 5:45 am, after an 11 hour "overnight" flight.  The kids barely slept on the flight and I think I slept maybe 20 minutes. The agenda for our first day consisted of getting to the hotel as fast as possible to shower, change clothes, and brush our teeth.  We went to eat breakfast in downtown Auckland, walked around a bit, and headed straight back to the hotel for a NAP.

A first view of the city from the highway:

Here's the bakery selection:

Dave sipping a "flat white"- New Zealand latte- our friend raved about them, so we had them almost everyday:

After the nap, we went to a grocery store, it was so fun to be in a big grocery store again, and we walked up and down every single aisle looking at all the items they sold.  We finished off the day with pizza at a restaurant across from the grocery store and were in bed by 6 pm.

For our second day, we had quite a drive, I believe it was over 3 hours to get to our next destination.  One of the things we wanted to do while we were there was see dolphins and orcas (mainly orcas).  Also, something unique is that in New Zealand, you can swim with the dolphins (in the US you can't).  Our hotel for that night was in a beach town in the Northeast part of the country.  It was a pretty drive, but with four overtired kids in the car, we were sure glad to find our hotel that night.  There are tons of cafes along the roads, the highways were not big, many were one lane, so you could stop and visit a lot of local places along the route.  And, unlike what I'm used to in the US, almost all of the shops we stopped at had highly decent cups of coffee.

Here's the one we stopped at our first day:

We also stopped in a park to look at the ocean, here are the kids in front of a cool tree:

Here I am on the back of the dophin boat with Owen and Hazel:

Here's a cool rock, they call the shark fin rock:

We did see dolphins, but no orcas- disappointment.  People went in to swim, but Nathaniel and Addison were too scared of killer whales to get in:

The area we took the boat ride was called Bay of Islands, I think there are something like 140 islands here.  We stopped on one for lunch, there was a nice cafeteria there.  You can actually arrange to stay overnight there in some cabins.  It would have been fun to do that, wish we knew (next time ;)).

Look how blue the water is from the beach:

After our boat ride, it was off to our third hotel, a beach front apartment.  We only had a 2 hour drive this day across the country, it was nice, and we got to see some cool sand dunes.  If we came back again and I was't pregnant, I'd like to try the sand surfing down the dunes.  These dunes were across from our hotel, they were the location of the filming of Lawrence of Arabia.

The kids were excited to see a pool (they became quite the fish over the summer)- so of course, I called their bluff and let them go in.  It was cold like I said, but I challenged them to be "polar bears" and they all dunked in order to get an ice cream for dessert the next day.

They are all geared up to get in:

An initial reaction to the water temperature:

This is how we were dressed (to give you an indication of the temperature):

And, our fish didn't care:

The next morning, we were off to go stay on a farm.  This drive was long, about 3 to 4 hours.  We stopped at a cool cafe along the way that sold all homemade arts and crafts items.  While we were sitting in the cafe, there was a hail storm, the kids had never seen one before.  Before the day was over, we experienced two more hail storms, even one while we were outside, so that was fun.

We stopped along the way to look at some kauri trees. They are among the largest trees in the world.  We went to see the biggest one in New Zealand.  This picture does not do it justice, but our reaction was "HOLY #$%#" when we turned the corner and caught our first glimpse of it.

Here is a sign explaining the tree:

Try to compare the trunk size to Hazel:

Here it is, this totally doesn't do it justice:

At the farm, we arrived in time for the kids to help feed the sheep.  Then they played some tennis with Dave- now they all want lessons.   This was a nice break for us because the kids were able to run around and play, instead of sit and fight in the car.

We had to get up early and leave because we were booked on a tour of the Lord of the Rings film set for Hobbit town.  Lucky for us, they are getting ready to film two new movies, so they are actually rebuilding the set to its original form and our tour was going on during the construction.   The kids didn't necessarily appreciate it, but we did.  There are some crazy fans out there!  Unfortunately because of the fact that the movies haven't been filmed yet, we had to sign an agreement that we would not post any pictures we took of the set.  The only one I thought I could post, is this cute one of the kids because it doesn't show any of the set, but yes, it was taken on grass that will be in a famous movie!

We still had another two hour drive to get to our hotel for that night, in a city of Rotorua, which is famous for its hot springs and lava pools.  We were warned it would stink like sulfur, but it actually wasn't bad at all.  We stayed in a small two bedroom house for two nights, so it was a treat, a whole day without driving.  We went and saw some colorful lava pools and mudbaths, which were very cool.

It was VERY stinky here.  Check out her face:

Champagne pools, these were my favorite, the gas from underground makes the water look like it's fizzing:

Being very sensitive to smells, I ended up deciding to rush through, Addison joined me, guess we know who has a sensitive nose in our family.  This was our favorite pool, the Devil's Bath- loved the color:

Here is the bubbling mud, we could have sat here for hours:

And this is why we couldn't (the smell):

We ended the day by going to a geothermal spring and Dave and the kids all went in for a few hours.

Here are the kids on the lawn of our cottage, it was right on the lake, very nice spot:

Our next to last day, we were in the car again, this time heading to Waitomo to see some glo-worm caves.  This was one of the kids' favorite days.  We went on a long drive through someone's farm on narrow twisty roads and ended up at the cave.  We all got to wear hard hats:

Then, we walked into the cave, got into a rubber raft and floated in to see the tens of thousands of glo-worms lighting up the ceiling like stars in the night sky.  Below, you will see the strings of the glo-worms (silk)- but the guide didn't want us taking pictures once all our lamps were off, so I could not get  a good shot in the dark of the glo-worm lights because I didn't have a tripod.

That night, we stayed at the coolest motel ever, it was called Woodlyn Park!  You had your choice of sleeping in an airplane, a train, a boat, or a hobbit house.  The lady who helped us book the trip booked us in the hobbit house, I think she thought we were diehard fans since we went on the set tour.  Even though we didn't get to stay in the airplane or train, the kids were not disappointed.

Here's some views of our hobbit house:

On the way back to the airport for our 12 am flight, we stopped at a bird sanctuary and saw Kiwi birds.  They are nocturnal birds, which evidently dig holes in the ground during the day to sleep.  We couldn't take a picture of the bird because the room was dark to keep it awake and trick it that it was nighttime.  Of course, for a New Zealand souvenir, each kid got a stuffed kiwi.  It's confusing, the word kiwi can be used to refer to a New Zealander, the bird, or the fruit.  You can see a statue of the bird in the picture below:

All in all, thumbs up, but word of advice if you ever go, go during the warmer months and rent a camper van and don't schedule too many specific activities so if you want to stop you don't feel rushed.  There were camper vans everywhere there, all shapes and sizes, it was interesting.  We saw more than I've ever seen in my life from mini-van size, all the way up to the huge ones you would see driving up to Mt. Rushmore in the month of July.