Space Night

Thursday was Space Night for the second graders at Andrew's school.  You'll remember I had worked on a couple of projects in preparation for this big event.  The night started off around 5:30 with a pizza dinner.  Then, so the kids wouldn't get caught in that post-dinner slump, the teachers had them line dance.  Seriously.  These 7/8 year olds were hokie-pokeying and macarena-ing and electric slide-ing for about 45 minutes!  Andrew, who is not much of a public dancer, was not thrilled about this turn of events.  "Mom, this has nothing to do with Space!"  he complained.  "This is just like the Hoedown!"  Finally, the line dancing portion of the evening ended and the actual space night events began.  Apparently the teacher's plan worked because those kids were WOUND UP. 

The kids were broken up into two groups.  Group One would go make rockets while Group Two rotated through to four space related stations.  Group Two was further broken up into smaller groups so that each station would only have about 3 kids at a time.  After all the kids in Group Two had visited each station, everyone would switch and Group One would tour the stations while Group Two made rockets.  Make sense?  Don't worry....basically all you need to know is that the kids were making rockets and visiting different space stations.  I was in charge of taking a small group of kids around to the stations.  My first group consisted of Andrew and a couple of other boys, and our first stop was the Moon Shoes.  (Remember how I made them during our black out last week?)  The kids bounced up and down the hall for about 15 minutes to get the feel of what it's like to walk around on the moon.  (I tried on these moon shoes while I was making them, and I highly doubt this is what moon walking feels like....but what do I know, right) 

After the moon shoes, I took my little group over to see this guy (I think he was some kid's dad) with a big telescope.  Originally we were supposed to be outside looking at the night sky through the telescope, but they should have known better than to hope for a clear night on Okinawa.  The guy should have also known better than let a bunch of second graders get that close to his fancy schmancy telescope.  As he was talking about mirrors and lenses, one of the kids kept sticking his head into the barrel of the telescope, and if that wasn't enough, he had his sticky, drippy juice bag dangerously close.  I thought Telescope Guy was going to explode if the had to tell the kid one more time to get that juice bag away from his very expensive telescope. 

The next station was a computer station where the facilitators (some middle schoolers) used a projector to shoot some images onto a screen and they asked the kids what they knew about it (as in, "Here's a picture of the sun....tell me what you know about the sun." )  To be honest, is wasn't all that exciting and held the second graders' attention for about 8 seconds.  The last (and best) station was a mini planetarium in the library.  I can't really even explain this....basically we sat in a large dome-like thing held up by a big fan (like what they use for those bounce houses.)  Inside it was a machine with a computer and the teacher would click some things on the computer and a space-related image (like the moon or stars) would be projected onto the ceiling of the dome.  The image would also move or rotate so it felt like you were looking up into the night sky.  The only bad thing about the planetarium is that after a while of looking up at those moving objects I got a little queasy, but that could have also been because the kid next to me took off his shoes and his feet stunk.  After the we went through all the stations,  I dropped the kids off in the rocket-making classroom, where they turned a water bottle into a rocket that they would launch the next afternoon.

(Quick observation about space night....as much as I complain about my kids being a little, um....rambunctious....it takes being around other people's children to realize I don't have it so bad.  Enough said.) 

The space activities didn't end with space night.  The next day the kids had the opportunity to test-fly their rockets.  I'm using the word "rocket" loosely here.  Basically it was a large water bottle decorated with construction paper and cardboard wings (made to look like a rocket.)   The water bottled is filled with water and placed on top of a rocket launcher.  Someone's dad then uses an air pump to pump air into the bottle rocket, and after a very exciting countdown the Rocket-Maker pulls a cord and the rocket flies way high in the air.  Really, really high.   I know I'm not explaining it very well, and maybe some of my physics/engineering type readers can further elaborate on how this whole thing works (you know who you are!) 

Here are a couple of videos of the whole operation.  The first one is the rocket launch preparation, and the second is the actual launch. 

All in all, space night (and day) were quite a success. I think the kids did learn a lot about space.  These teachers have made the kids really excited about learning, and it makes us more comfortable with our decision to send them back to school. 

The rest of the week was rather uneventful.  The older kids had standardized testing in their classes.  One child was rather annoyed with the testing process (because it's just "so boring") while the other child was a stress-case the entire week.  You can guess which is which.   I'm glad this is only a once-a-year event. 

Nothing much on the horizon for this coming week.  Today is St. Patrick's Day over here and there's a parade nearby that we're thinking of attending (mainly because I'm curious about the kind of St. Patrick's Day parade the Okinawans can put on.  They don't really seem like a St. Patrick's Day kind of crowd.)  Whatever happens, I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.  Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

Lights Out

Well, we've reached the end of another busy/challenging week.  We celebrated Emma's birthday on Thursday, but I'll get to that in a minute. 

Last Thursday (10 days ago), as we were watching our new favorite show, The Middle,  the lights went out.....

Unfortunately, it seemed only our side of the street was affected.  As we looked across the yard, we could see our neighbors enjoying their modern day conveniences of lighting and electricity.  We chalked it up to bad luck and went off to bed, certain that the power would be restored by morning. 

Well, as we awoke Friday morning....still no power.  I drove down to the Burger King to get some coffee and then we went on with our day--Bill to work, kids to school, and Mary and I for a tour of Okinawan grocery stores (which was very interesting and has me rethinking the local cuisine...and not in a good way)  We went out to lunch, certain the electricity would be restored by the time we got home.  No such luck.  Since I had nothing better to do, I worked on a project Andrew's teacher had asked me to do which involved cutting about 40 sets of triangles (which will eventually be rocket wings) out of corrugated cardboard.  I had been warned that this project would be quite cumbersome, but with my handy box cutter and cutting board, I whipped out those wings in record time.  I proudly returned my completed project when I picked up Andrew from school that afternoon, sure that this would clinch my "Class Parent of the Year" Award  (or at least make her forget all those late permission slips and forgotten homework folder signatures.)  "Wow!  I can't believe you finished that already!" the teacher said. "It was nothing," I smugly replied. "What was I going to do without any electricity anyway?" Luckily, the power was restored by the time I got home (18 hours after it went off), and things went back to business as usual. 

Fast forward to this Thursday (3 days ago).  Andrew forgot his lunchbox at school so we had to go back that afternoon to pick it up.  His teacher was so impressed with my rocket-wing cutting skills that she gave me another project--this time I was tasked with attaching some rubber bands to sets of moon shoes. (Apparently they're working on a space unit.)  As we left the classroom I warned her, "Last time I didn't have electric conveniences to keep me busy....I can't guarantee such fast service this time!"

That day was also Emma's tenth birthday.  (I still can't believe she's 10!) We celebrated in our usual way--singing and muffins in the morning, birthday person picks dinner, then cake and presents after that.  Emma chose to have dinner at Coco's Curry.  (You'll remember that's where Mary had her birthday dinner .)  She had also planned a pizza making/movie-watching birthday party at our house on Saturday night with 13 of her closest friends. 

 

After the birthday festivities and the kids went to off bed, Bill and I sat down to watch our favorite show again.   Like clockwork, this happened....

(Actually it was more like.....)

It was exactly like the first time...the across-the-street neighbors had lights on, but we were left in the dark.  We were a little optimistic that since the Electric People had so recently practiced their electricity-restoring skills, this time the power would return sooner.  No such luck.  We woke up in the dark.  Back to Burger King for coffee, and I sent the kids off to school, but not before writing this note to the teacher...

I don't know the technical terms, but apparently they had really blown some important electricity-generating fuse and by Friday afternoon we received notice that the power should return around midnight.  Using my iphone to communicate, Bill and I decided that we'd go out to dinner but we hadn't determined if we would meet there or if he'd pick us up at home. Meanwhile, the kids and I tried to keep busy without the joys of TV, computers and any other electronic forms of entertainment.  It wasn't easy.  Around 5:15 Bill received this email

He arrived home around an hour later to a more relaxed wife, and we all went off for an evening of Cap'n D's and glow bowling.  By this time, we were pros at the whole non-electricity thing, so when we returned home we got our candles and flashlights and made our way to bed.  I was slightly worried about Emma's birthday party planned for the next evening, but Bill kept saying the power would surely return by then.  In this age of ultra-privacy, I didn't even have the kids' phone numbers--Emma had passed out the invitations at school, so canceling was not an option.  Around 2am I woke up...still no power, and the worried feeling grew bigger.  Around 5:30am I woke up again to no power.  My feelings ranged from irritated  (What's wrong with these people!  Can't they fix anything! They're probably sleeping in their warm, cozy beds while we're stuck in the dark ages!) to panic (How the hell are we going to have a pizza making/movie-watching party with out electricity?) to creative (Maybe we can just order pizza and string a really long extension cord from the neighbors' across the street so the kids can watch the movie)  Luckily, at around 5:50 the dehumidifier roared back to life.  Yes!  I had never heard a more wonderful sound!  We were back to civilization.  I was so excited I even woke Bill up to share the good news, but he was less thrilled than I was and just rolled over and went back to sleep.  By that point I was wide awake so I went to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee from my now-functioning coffee maker.  The joys of modern technology! 

That evening we opened our home to a gaggle of fourth grade girls.  Emma was so excited and the girls were very cute.  They're at that starting-to-like-boys age, but still like to play Barbies and Hide & Seek.  In fact, they spent the first 15 minutes of the party looking out the front windows at the boys who were playing across the street (who also happen to be in their class.)  Once I reined them in, they got to work making pizzas.  After that we started the movie (Spy Kids) and popcorn, and after that cake and presents. 

They ended the party with a game of indoor hide and seek while they waited for their parents to arrive.  The party was a success and the girls seemed to have a fun time.  I, however was wiped out from the events of the last few days.  I crashed even before the kids went to bed. 

This week I'll get to see my the kids' rocket wings and moon boots in action as Andrew's class takes part in "Space Night" at school.  It's sure to be "Out Of This World"  (I know, that was corny, but I couldn't help myself.) 

Mom Clones, Zip-Lines, and Bingo

I didn't really have big plans for last Saturday.  It started off when I woke up next to a new roommate at 6:32.  Michael was spending the weekend at a scout camp out, and Andrew was scared in his room all by himself so at 3:14am he decided to crawl into our bed.  After trying to get myself back to sleep in a very crowded bed, I finally gave up and decided it was time for coffee.   

Bill woke up a little while later and suggested we go out to breakfast.  After getting ourselves (and the kids) dressed and ready to go, we set off for the Tee House--a small restaurant here on base near the golf course.  The best thing about this place is that it sits up high on a hill and the diners enjoy their meals with a panoramic view of Okinawa and the East China Sea.  About halfway through breakfast, Andrew said, "Hey....there's Abuela!"  (That's what the kids call my Mom.)  I turned out to look and saw Mom's Okinawan clone at the window.   This woman had the same shortish stature, wore the same quilted-style vest (even though it was 75 degrees outside) and accessorized with the same glasses and big purse.   

Since I didn't want Clone-Mom to think I was stalking her, I also took a picture of the gorgeous view.....

After breakfast (and the shock of seeing Clone Mom), we decided to take advantage of the sunny day and we headed over to Pirate Ship Park.  I'm not sure what the locals call this place, but this is what all the Americans call it because, well....it's a park shaped like a Pirate Ship.  I love it because it sits on the beach, so if you can filter out the sounds of kids screaming you can actually relax as you stare out onto the sea.  The kids love this park because it has a zip line.  That's what Mary was doing when she came close to causing an international incident. 

 Apparently, she was so excited about her turn that she neglected to see the two-year-old Japanese boy playing dangerously close to her flight path.  After (or maybe before) she took off,  the kid toddled right in front of her and she plowed into him.  That's when all Hell broke loose.  The little guy was crying because he'd just been knocked over, and Mary was mad because this kid had interrupted her flight.   The other Mom and Bill and I all ran over to the kids, and then proceeded to embark on a very awkward exchange of apologies.   I said "I'm sorry" several times, and she said "Gomenasai" (the Japanese word for I'm sorry)  over and over again.  Then we switched and I said Gomenasai, and she said I'm sorry, then we each bowed about 15 times, then I made Mary reluctantly apologize and the other mom made her little guy bow.  It was all very uncomfortable for everyone involved.  When we couldn't take it anymore, we each parted ways, and I led Mary over to a different part of the park known as Pirate Ship Jail.   

Afterward, Andrew entertained himself by launching his paper airplane onto innocent park dwellers....

while Emma and Bill were involved in a deep conversation.  She was probably trying to convince him (again) that she really does deserve an ipod for her birthday. 

(Side note....after I took the above picture, I turned around and saw this sign....

So much for relaxing at the beach!  My favorite part is how the big wave is grabbing the kid's shirt...these people don't sugar coat things)

Our last stop after the beach was our monthly family BINGO game.  The last few months it's been too rainy or cold for most outside activities, so we've spent one Saturday afternoon a month playing BINGO at the community center with a bunch of other families who have nothing better to do.   We've always been slightly disappointed in the BINGO games because we had never won, and we were starting to think the game was rigged.  Well, this time they proved us wrong when Emma won a $30 gift card.  I don't think there's ever been a more excited BINGO winner.  She was like one of those crazy contestants on the Price is Right. 

Our weekends are usually not this exciting, so we'll really need to take it easy this week....especially since I'll be hosting 15 ten-year-old girls for Emma's birthday this Saturday.  Wish me luck!