Easter

This year we made a concerted effort to talk about the Holy Week during, well, the Holy Week. I got a lot of our ideas from this post. I think it went pretty well because Eleanor especially seems to understand more about who Jesus is and what He has done for us.
 The most touching was on Easter Sunday when we watched this video that recaps the highlights of the Holy Week, particularly the Atonement and Resurrection. As we watched the portrayal of the soldiers whipping Christ, Ellie exlaimed, "What are they doing?! I don't like this part!" I held her and replied, "I don't like this part either. But Jesus us loved us so much He was willing to suffer and die for us. And after he died for, what happened?" She beamed and said, "He was resurrected!" It was a nice moment to share my testimony of Christ's love with my daughter and to see it reflected in her.

But of course we also did some traditional fun things like dye eggs and go to an Easter egg hunt party.
Here's the photographic evidence.

Our ombre eggs turned out lovely, except purple which was unceremoniously dumped into the dye cup.

 Here we are post egg hunt with our friend Robert.

His mother is in our ward and his father passed away last November. Ben has been their home teacher almost since we moved here, and we have been giving them a ride to church for close to 2 years now and Ellie and Robert love playing together, despite their one year age difference and the fact that Robert speaks considerably more Japanese than English. Kazuko, Robert's mother, is such a wonderful woman and I am so grateful to know her! We feel that this special family is one reason we are here in Japan and why we will be here for some time.

Hello Blog!

Things have been busy at the Lewis house. In February Ben went to Korea with the Drama Club for the Far East Festival in Seoul Korea. It's the "drama competition" for all of the DoDEA high schools in the pacific area. He had a great time, and brought back these awesome cat ears for the girls. They LOVE them!

We did fun things like make brownies while he was gone. And we ate them all, I think...At least I have the cutest little helpers.

We went ice skating again as a special treat since Ellie kept her pull up dry all through the night for a week! She is now fully potty trained! She also has become quite adapt at skating around the rink by herself!

 Clara and I enjoyed eating our favorite Japanese convenience store ice cream treat while Ellie and Ben skated. It's basically a waffle filled with ice cream and a layer of chocolate.

In February we also cast the spring musical! We will be doing Roger and Hammerstein's Cinderella. We're very excited, and the girls love to run around the house now singing bits of the songs. My favorite is when Ellie sings the Stepsister's Lament "Why would a fellow want a girl like her, a frail and fluffy beauty? Why can't a fellow ever once prefer a solid girl like me!?"
Unfortunately, Ellie got a little to exuberant during rehearsals and fell off a platform backstage and split open her chin. Of course this was a week before a modeling job, but it healed up okay and they said it wasn't a big deal. Here is Ellie proudly showing off her war wounds:

She also achieved another first in her life-falling asleep at the table. She was supposed to be finishing her lunch. She had been wrapped in a blanket because she said she was cold. Luckily it also served well as a pillow.

Ice Skating in Yokohama

Sometime in the last month or so Ellie has gotten it into her head that she wanted to go ice skating; I think it was from reading "Angelina Ballerina Ice Skating" (or something like that). At any rate, she's been asking and asking, and we know that there is a small outdoor rink in nearby Yokohama. We thought about going during Christmas Break, but the girls were sick nearly the whole time.

Suiting up

Finally, this Saturday we were able to go. Eleanor was ecstatic. I was a little worried that she would get out there and be afraid that that would be the end of our adventure.  But she LOVED it! They had skates small enough for her (though not for Clara) that were double bladed, so balancing on them was much easier. And she even got to wear a helmet (she kind of loves wearing helmets). Ben took her around the first few times, hold her hands and helping her figure it out.

Clara standing on the ice admiring the twinkly lights.

 Then Ben sat out with Clara, who just enjoyed being out and about and admired by all the Japanese girls there. I took Ellie around and she was a riot!

She even started wanting to do it alone and she did pretty good, more or less walking on the ice. When Ben went back out with her she did a full lap all on her own.
We had great fun, that was almost spoiled by a miscalculation of Yen on my part, but miraculously I found another 1000Y in my bag (which is about $8, just as an FYI). Anyway, we completed the evening by getting dinner, at least for the girls, at a "kombini" or convenience store. They are everywhere in Japan! Ellie and Clara both thought it was the greatest treat. Sure made us feel like good parents instead of like a mom that can't count.

My girls are getting bigger

Eleanor is a Sunbeam and Clara and go to nursery now (hallelujah!). As Ellie reminds me, they are both "getting bigger and bigger everyday!"

Here are some funny things my girls have been up to lately.

Eleanor likes to practice writing her name on her chalkboard.

Clara likes to be my big helper.

Here she is helping make chili.

And they like to play in giant boxes we bring home.

Little Artists

I saw this idea on Pinterest and I thought it would be a perfect project for my girls.

I didn't take any in process pictures because I was "supervising" Clara, who has a tendency to color/paint anything but paper. But this was so much fun!

The set up was a little labor intensive. I put masking tape on the heavy paper in the form of their names. Getting the spacing right was tricky. And figuring out curvy letters. Admittedly, this would be easier with a short, angular name (like Lily or Ava, my new cute nieces!).  But the result was totally worth it.

 The girls love painting so I just let them at it (mostly). At first Eleanor just painted the tape because she is a little obsessed with spelling her name. Then I told her she needed to paint the white around it. It helped that Clara finished first and Ellie could see what was going on when I started pulling off her letters. That got Ellie super excited and she then become obsessed with filling in all the white spots.

The end result was fantastic! Eleanor was very proud and immediately wanted to hang it up on her door. I don't know where she got the idea, but she's been dying to hang up her name on her door.

First Dance Recital

Holy hysterical! When we got there Ellie freaked out at the idea of putting on her costume (which consisted of a carrot pinned on her leotard and two tufts of tulle pinned in her hair), and then just generally didn't want  to do it. But we found her friend Zohie, who held her hand so she walked out with her-sans costume. So the best way to spot her in the following pictures, and requisite video, is to look for the blondie without any pink in her hair.  They danced to some Japanese song the teacher referred to simply as "The bunny dance" and then Winter Wonderland. This was all at the bases' Festival of Trees celebration (at which our ward had a tree that I was in charge of and it turned out quite lovely if I do say so myself).
In the end, she really enjoyed herself. She loves going to her ballet class, even if she has a hard time focusing half the time. And she loves to come home and dance around the house.  She's my girl!

 Find the earless bunny

 

 

 

 

 

Now try and follow the earless bunny around the stage...

A Very Little Randomness

We have been busy being silly at our house. Here is the proof.

Silly with markers. Another reminder that silence always means trouble.

Silly fish poses

FISH!

Silly dress up

Awesome autumn leaves crowns...

...with silly faces.

Not so silly, but ridiculously awesome. Eleanor wrote her name all by herself.

Silly sleeping sweetheart