Last Day of Summer School

Koji in his classroom on his last day of summer school, with Izumi as his special guest.



For lunch that day, parents were invited to barbeque and picnic with the kids (the kids only did the latter). Izumi-san, Shiho-san and Miwa-san made some great grilled onigiri.



Izumi made herself right at home in the shade for the picnic, sprawling out in the shade. This is the one and only dress I've made her so I must shamelessly solicit your admiration, if "you" are in fact still out there. I feel relatively sure that after these months of silence here, there's no one left to read what I'm writing. It's my own fault but I still feel a bit sad. Maybe I can catch up now. Maybe.

Another Day at the Beach

This time we were at the beach in Evanston (guess I didn't say that the previous post was about the beach in Wilmette, better say that or I definitely won't remember later) with our great friends, Jenny, Calli and Mari. This summer I ended up feeling like our beach token investment was well worth it. Please don't ask how I feel about our pool passes though.

The Rest of July

This is what happens when I wait for three months to try and post on what we did: I can't remember much at all. I think we actually had lots of fun in July after Fumi left--though we missed her. But apparently I didn't take pictures of it, which means that I don't have any recollection of what occurred. I don't know why I can only remember some things, like random phone numbers and birthdays. Not helpful in this situation.

I can tell you for sure that we got some sushi to wrap up summer housegroup meetings.



Poor Koji was sent off to bed before we dished up the sushi. I won't do that next time! Many people didn't show up that night, so it would have been better if he had been awake to help us eat it all.



Rich, Jeff and Aogu did their best though. Jeff's efforts were particularly admirable, since I'm thinking this was one of his first exposures to sushi. Be assured he wasn't as stupified by the experience as he may appear here...



We went to the beach with Koji's school friend Myu and her family. Myu's dad helped the kids dig out some elaborate tunnels; all the kids but Izumi, that is. She literally sat right where you see her pictured and dug in the sand and water in front of her the entire time we were there. I'm not complaining about this! I have plenty of friends who had to chase their little ones around the beach all summer and didn't find the experience restful. So if she wants to dig, that's just fine with me!



Koji at this point in the summer had been in swimming lessons for about six weeks and was feeling much more confident in the water, especially with his life jacket on. He had a great time paddling around the lake.



Last but not least, my pictorial records tell me that a little later in July, I decided (or was asked, can't even remember that!) to take some pictures of Izumi so she could possibly model this outfit as for sale on Aliyah's Hope Chest. She was suprisingly cooperative, though whether the photos resulted in more sales for my sister is a different question.