End of the school year awards

YEP! Elijah does it again! I really feel like I am showing off lately ----- let me be clear -- I AM!

Elijah won all 3 awards in his class this year!

Math Whiz w/ division war flash cards attached

Reading Champ w/ a new book attached

and the You are Awesome Award with a Snickers candy bar attached because his teacher said that every time he smiles or laughs it makes her snicker!!! I love his teacher!! I really do!

You just gotta love him!!

Next up: The base's summer reading challenge

Let's make Rock Candy....ohhh Epic F.A.I.L.

So Elijah had his last project of the school year....edible book project. You have to make something that makes you think of the setting of the book!

I was jazzed, so I decided that Elijah was going to read the book How to Eat Fried Worms and we were going to make Dirt with gummy worms hanging out for the class. Then I thought - oh no that would be way too easy....someone else in the class might think of that idea, so I wanted something else. (Moment of honesty: Please remember this is ELIJAH'S project - not mine.......but I kinda got excited and took over).....ooooyee I've become one of those parents:(

So he read Rocky Road Trip (it was all about rocks and the Grand Canyon). So I decided that we were going to make rock candy for the entire class. GO LOVE!! No one is going to think of that idea!

So here we go and we made a family project out of it:

counting out the sticks for his class....getting ready to soak them to coat them with sugar.

pouring in sugar -- 8 cups to be exact!

All for NOT - a week later we had 4 mason jars with 12 sticks in them and NO crystals have formed. It was only supposed to take 24 hours to start forming crystals. What did I do wrong???

Well, just so you don't make the same mistake I did - and waste 8 cups of sugar and a lot of time: crystals won't form when you live in a place with 70% humidity during the summer time. I'm just sayin'!

We ended up mixing soft vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips, placing it into plastic dixie cups and having his class excavate the 'rocks' AKA chocolate chips out of the 'dirt' AKA vanilla ice cream.

P.S. In all fairness, someone DID bring in dirt with gummy worms hanging out!

That's RIGHT ........Elijah is like a math genius!

Elijah was in Soroban. Soroban is an ancient form of Japanese math using a Japanese abacus. The use and mastery of the Soroban instrument has been proven to help with mental calculations in math, recognizing number relationships and the understanding of the place value system. What's NOT to like?

So he went to practice everyday for 1 hour.....he got Japanese treats after, so he was more than happy to go!

Well, there was a competition with the 3 schools here in Misawa.

Elijah worked really hard ...........and...........he won 2nd place in the visual calculations division! WOOOHOOOOO! So this division shows positive and negative integers on a screen at a rapid pace --- 6 numbers in 4 seconds and students have to watch the numbers and write down the correct answer.

Director of all the Pacific DODDS schools....Japan, Korea and Guam

That's right! My boy represented for the math lovers out there (me)!! We are very proud of him!!

Now that's what I call REAL sushi!

We have eaten sushi several times here in Japan...we ate it in America too. WE (yep, all three of us) love it! So we had to try a restaurant I heard about that has the BEST sushi in Misawa! We call it Fear Factor Sushi!

REAL wasabi -- YUM-O!


all different kinds of raw fish...DELISH!!
The course we have been waiting for -- LIVE fish!
Another large variety if fish...this time the shrimp in the middle was still alive! REALLY - it was moving its tentacles and all.......it dies about 8 min later and then the sushi chef pulled the tail off and I ATE IT!! It was sweet tasting :)

It's Rice Planting Time

Here are the pics I promised....
This is what the rice plant looks like when we put it in the wet fields

I LOVE older Japanese ladies! Here is one walking between the rice fields
A rice field after it is all planted
the rice plants before we put them on the machine
Can you believe that MANY people still plant rice by hand! The farmers we went to visit had several rice fields so they had a machine. The machine automatically sticks a few rice plants in the mud
Elijah got the chance to drive the tractor...with a bit of help ...he couldn't reach the peddle
TRUE FOCUS!!

It's time to plant some rice and vegetables

So we had the opportunity to plant rice and vegetables with some local, Japanese farmers. Elijah and I were good to go!! I mean how many times do you get the opportunity to help plant rice in Japanese rice fields??

Cleaning the trays afterwards

This is called an Umbrella Plant (just what Americans call it) Check out below to find out why!

Elijah helping out with transporting the rice from the greenhouse to the rice fields

One of many rice greenhouse - this is where they grow the rice to be planted in the rice fields

This is what we had for a our vegetable for dinner that night - FRESH asparagus!

planting corn

This was the end of the afternoon:)

ARGHH!! I can't stand when my blog limits my pictures I can upload....more rice planting pics tomorrow!

Sunday Brunch at the Organic All You Can Eat Restaurant

YUM-O! This is one of my FAVORITE places to eat here in Misawa! It was a beautiful day here (translation: 60 degrees as the high) so we made an afternoon of it! This area has a farm, farmers market, store, rabbits you can feed, donkeys, goats, a foot onsen and 2 restaurants.

We stopped by the strawberry greenhouse. You can pick strawberries here...without breaking your back by bending down to the ground.....INGENIOUS!

YUMMY! YUMMY! YUMMY! Strawberry puree with our brunch. I am telling you .... you haven't tasted a strawberry until you've tasted a Japanese strawberry! Sweet and delicious!

Organic Strawberry salad and organic curry with nan bread

organic coffee jello with organic creamer you pour on top ..... after dinner delight!

apples chunks marinated with wine, cream puffs and cheesecake...yep all organic..and bite sized so you don't feel guilty afterwards! Oh I almost forgot the tiramisu back there!

I saved the BEST for last.....don't knock it until you have tried it! This is organic vegetarian pizza with thin slices of strawberry on top! Not sure what kind of cheese it was, but it was a strong, white cheese that paired well with the sweetness of the strawberry slice. Really not kidding...all 3 of us liked it A LOT!

There is also a grilled onion slice in the back of the picture with mushrooms on top and baked acorn squash chuck - topped with a cheesy mixture!

Rest assured: There are dishes with meat there, but the vegetables, soups and salads are so good and FRESH -- right from the garden in the back.....even Eddie and Elijah only had tuna on their plates!