Guess who arrived from Okinawa this week?

Yes, that is my favorite (and only) nephew Little Hawk!  He brought his parents and sisters with him, too, but I didn’t get pictures of them yet.  Ressis and Oddball, my sister and brother-in-law, have been living overseas for the last couple of years.  Due to some abrupt changes by the government, they are now back stateside, living a couple of hours away.  Today was the first time the cousins have seen each other in two and a half years.

We have missed them so much!

Thanks to Ane’s early morning swim practice, our household gets an early start in the mornings.  The little boys, though, have the luxury of getting to sleep in.  They sometimes take advantage of that, but often, they’ll get up and come find me.

And I’ll still be in bed, because I’m not stupid enough to get up when I don’t have to.

Thumper, though, likes my side of the bed best.  And if he climbs in with me, he starts pushing.

Kid, sleep in your OWN BED and stop stealing mine!

This actually came home last week, but that’s okay.  Tad has joined art club at school – which means that he stays after for the club meeting once a week, and then we pick him up when club is over.  Ms. A, his former art teacher of the last two years, runs art club, and keeps a watchful eye on him.  Since Tad couldn’t fit an art class into his school schedule this year, joining art club was a great alternative.

He brought home a copy of his own making, in watercolor and colored pencil, of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.”

That’s…. pretty impressive.

And happy birthday to my favorite (only) nephew, Little Hawk!  Love you!!!

Who says the teenagers get all the fun?  While Ane and Tad were at youth group, the Webmaster and I took the little boys out for pizza.

Now, lest you think I was a total slacker who just didn’t want to make dinner on a Sunday night (though I’m not denying that), the MOD Pizza closest to us was doing a fundraiser for Ane’s high school.  So we were being supportive!  And eating pizza.

Thumper was meh on MOD.  Their tomato sauce is a little spicier than he likes, so it was a struggle to get him to eat.  Which is strange for him when it comes to pizza, but it has happened before.  For Thumper, it’s more about appearance than taste – “does this look like something I’ve eaten before?”

Regardless, we had a good time out, and the teenagers didn’t miss us at all.