i was going to post on monday, honestly, i was! but...i guess i got tired and it just didn't happen. kuri and the pinglet came over on sunday to play. yoshi had some kind of cooking class and getting together to play just came about. first it was going to be lunch here, but then i thought of the karaoke place with the wicked kiddie room. sadly, it was already booked when we got there and there was no way my kidlets were going to be ok with just sitting in a karaoke room, even with food involved. so, we drove across the street to go to babyface (a kind of omurice place) or MOS burger, but hiro saw the sign for udon and announced that was what he wanted and that was that. i am not a fan of noodles and udon is not real high on *that* list, so we decided we'd get something for the kids there and then go somewhere else for lunch. royal host was nearby and so we went there. kuri and i had lunch and the kids had dessert.

after lunch we went to a local park for thirty minutes, but then had to get back to the house because we were having a kotatsu delivered. yay. surprisingly, the delivery arrived not long after four (they were due to come between four and six) and we had a new kotatsu! the kids played while kuri and i enjoyed the new warm kotatsu!

i also wanted to write about how fabulous the weather was last week. it was AWESOME! nearly 18 or 19C every day, lots of sun and just a lovely preview of spring. unusual for february, that's for sure. we usually get our preview in march. of course, this week has been mostly rainy (yesterday was nice--sunny) but cold again. at least it's not freezing!

and now i am getting it all together. i mean for school, of course. hiro will finish on the 17th (graduating! from kindergarten!) and sasha will finish on the 18th. yay. three kids at home for three weeks (or so). but then, my baby will be starting kindy and hiro will be starting elementary school and before you know it, i'll be home by myself! oh happy day! (the real question is, will i actually do any serious housework? i've been putting it off for about seven years now. even though we've moved twice in that time and kinda started over, i just have not been doing everything. like, ever.)

the kotatsu is a tall one, basically a dining room table with a heater and futon. since we already have two dining room tables, we didn't get another one for that purpose. it's for the kids to have a place a study. we don't have the room for each of them to have a desk, and so hopefully this will work out for everyone. at least for now.

we got a gift from yoshi's parents and so i have got hiro's school bag (randoseru), a suit for the opening ceremony/first day of school, and rain gear for the kids. they LOVE umbrellas but the ones i got them last year were all broken within a month. i told them then that i wouldn't buy them new ones until, well, now. they are pretty excited about it but i have made them promise not to play with them. we'll see. hiro will especially need his (even though i also got him a rain poncho and boots) since he will be walking to school every day. i only got umbrellas for sasha and tommy because the bus stop is no longer in front of our house. they won't be taking the umbrellas on the bus, though, so i'll have to carry them back home.

i still need to get sasha's school supplies (next monday) and tommy's school supplies and uniform bits and bobs (we'll be using hiro's blazer and shorts but i got a new shirt and hat for tommy, plus a new sports combo; hiro's is pretty stained. we'll use the old ones for back up.) then the boys need professional hair cuts (yeah, i still cut their hair) because i want to get professional photos done of the kids. since hiro will be starting elementary and tommy will be starting kindy. SO, portrait of hiro in his suit, portraits of sasha and tommy in their uniform and a picture of the three of them together. depending on cost i may get hiro in the kindy uniform, too, but that probably won't happen.

other than that, i need to figure out how to survive spring vacation. i think i'll have them at home for three weeks and yes, we'll go to uminonakamich and definitely be meeting up with kuri a few times but otherwise....i really really hope the weather cooperates so we can go to the park as often as possible!