Family Picture

Family Picture

10.29.2011

This and That.../これにそれ...

Last Saturday the Melton's were able to come over to watch Madison while we went to see Idina Menzel at the Greek Theater!! Which was AMAZING!! To those not so Musical, she is the famous Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba(Elphie) in WICKED and one of the stars from RENT and most recently on GLEE... We absolutely LOVE her and her singing is just amazing!! Anyway, as soon as we found out she will be singing at the famous Greek Theater(really cool outdoor theater) Dave went out and bought tickets for us...the opening act was Marvin Hamlisch conducting the Pasadena Symphony. Apparently Mr. Hamlisch is one of the only people to win an Oscar, Emmy, Tony and Nobel Prize...not too shabby. He played Happy Birthday on the piano as Bach, Mozart and Beethoven...then Idina Menzel came out and had an intimate show where she introduced each one of her sets that included songs from our favorites above mixed in with new stuff. It was a nice setting under the stars. Sorry, this is the best picture we have. It is of one of the big screens they had on the side of the stage...she looks like Shania Twain or something...we weren't that far away, but without the big camera pictures were tough to take, and while Anna wanted to illegally record one of Idina's songs, we thought better of it and just enjoyed, so you'll have to catch her when she comes to an area near you if you want to hear her :-)
先週の土曜日の夜メルトン夫妻にマディソンのお子守りをして貰って僕とアンナはアイディナ-メンゼルと言う歌手/俳優のコンサートに行く事が出来ました!!グリーク劇場と言う所でコンサートが公開されたんだけどこれは有名な屋外の劇場で、やっぱり天気がとってもいいカリフォルニアでしか屋根の無いコンサート会場なんて無いんだろうなー。とにかくコンサートは大成功で一緒にいたオーケストラととっても有名な指揮者兼作曲家も凄かったー:)

Then last night, was our second time to go to the 1900 Ocean Halloween Party. Madison went to the ball as Belle. She kept it on for longer than we expected, with only minor bribery, so that was good.
そして、昨日の夜は僕達が住んでいるマンションで毎年行われるハロウィンパーティーへ... マディソンはベルになる事にしましたがもちろん2階のパーティー会場に到着するなりドレスを脱ぎたがってしまい、仕様が無く飴を使っていつもより長く着ててもらう事に成功しました。
One of Madison's pool buddies from the summer, Sophia, was there as well and kept her entertained.
夏の間いつもプールで一緒に遊んでいた子、ソフィアも人魚姫として登場。マディソンと遊んでくれたのでちょっと楽をする事が出来ました。



Our little Princess...
僕達のプリンセス...

Now some random pics...
そして、マディソンの保育園からのボーナス写真...
Recent artwork... Last week of learning colors! PURPLE!! Oh that's her Bunny Up pose:-)
先週は紫の日!!今マディソンはバニーアップしている所:)
The view from the window...
Foggy morning...
今朝起きて外を見ると...
霧で何も見えなかった...

Sunny Afternoon...
午後にはすっかり霧が無くなって...
And Videos
そしてビデオ
Reading her ladybug book...apparently got a bit of stage freight...
てんとう虫の本よ読んでいるマディソン...凄い上手に読んでいた所はもちろんビデオに撮れてないです...


Completing her chores...
エリーの餌を入れるのはマディソンの役目...

Tonight we have a Halloween party with other kids from church so stay tuned for pics!!
そして今夜は教会の友達とハロウィンパーティーの日でーす!写真をお楽しみに!!

10.16.2011

ココ壱番屋!/Coco Ichibanya!

金曜日私が仕事から帰るなりミツワへ買い物/夕ご飯を目的に行ったんだけど、残念ながら着いた時間にはもうレストランの最後の注文受付が終わっていたので買い物もしたかったんだけど夕ご飯が先と結構前に何度か通りがかる度に行かなきゃと思っていたココ壱番屋へカレーを食べに行きました...メニューも日本にあるのとそっくりかな?ちゃんとマディソン用のお子様メニューもあって、私とデイブは大感激:)待ち時間もほとんど無く、やっぱりこっちのレストラントは違う、特に
1.ちゃんと子供用のフォークとスプーンが出て来る!
2.子供用メニューはとってもかわいいし栄養のバランスがとれてる。
3.最後に貰えるおまけのおもちゃが最高!
4.ボタンを押すと、誰かすぐに来てくれる。
日本に帰った時に一回みんなでココ壱行ったんだけど、今日はマディソンのカレー初体験、とっても気に入ったみたい:)
On Friday night, as soon as I got home from work, we took off for some Mitsuwa shopping/dinner in Torrance, but by the time we got to the store the food court part stopped taking orders and the store was about to close in half an hour so although I had some shopping to do there we left for Coco Ichibanya!(Curry house we found a while back but kept forgetting to go...) Dave was sooo happy the Mitsuwa restaurants closed on us! And you are about to see what I'm missing in kid's menus in the States! We waited for a few minutes for our seats and then ordering is super easy! All they have is Curry you just have to think of what kind of topping you want... and the food came pretty quick which was nice and Madison friendly:-) What I do not like about restaurants here are these...
1. They do not have kids size utensils! Which does not make sense at all! They have kid's menus.
2. Super cute kid's meals that are balanced(I wish they didn't put french fries here but can't have everything right?) and fun to see! I'm always disgusted with their options of chicken fingers, mac & cheese, and grilled cheese! Yuck:-(
3. A surprise gift with kid's meal:-)
4. A buzzer at the table that brings the waitress right when you need her, or even when you don't when Madison pushes it.

When we visited Japan(pre Madison) we all went out for a near by Coco Ichibanya so we knew what we were getting into and as we waited we found out this is the very first US location and actually opened in February of this year... Wish we would have tried sooner!
Anyhow Madison LOVED her first curry rice and the total bill to feed a family of three a dinner was under $25:-) Nearing McDonald levels these days!



写真を撮るからって食べるの待たさせてるのであんまり嬉しそうにしてない...
She is not happy I'm making her wait to take a picture... Hungry girl.
まず最初にフライドポテトを食べたんだけど...
Of course went for the fry first but...
私がほとんど食べました...ポテトを優先して食べなかったのは此れが初めてでした...凄いな、カレーの力:)
I ate most of the fries... This may have been the first time Madison chose something over her fries so we were very happy...:-)
ご飯の後、おもちゃ引換券でこのおもちゃを貰いました...写真を撮るの忘れちゃったんだけど、エリーに似た黒猫のケータイに付けるおもちゃ!
And AFTER her meal she got to pick a toy from a bag and she picked this... I forgot to take a picture of what she got but she got a black kitty key chain that looks like Ellie so that was cool!
土曜日はデイブが仕事があったので私とマディソンはアパートでのんびりお掃除しました。そして、お昼はオムライス!卵ぐちゃぐちゃになっちゃったけど味は懐かしいケチャップライスの味...
On Saturday Dave had to go to a Special Olympics Floor Hockey event so Madison and I spent a relaxing day inside the apartment... I got a lot of cleaning done for our sleep over with the Melton's next weekend(you will find out why in a week:-) For lunch I made us my Omelet Ketchup Rice which tastes so much better than it sounds but a staple menu option for kids in Japan...


10.11.2011

教会に行けなくなっちゃった!/Oops! Can't make it to the morning worship!

この週末はとっても楽しい事ばかりのあっという間に終わった週末でした...:)金曜日のよる近くにある日本食のレストランに行ったんだけど、結果は偽物の日本食屋でおいしくなかったのでもう二度と行く事は無いでしょう...でも家族で一緒に過ごせた所は良い週末の一つなんだけどね...:)
This past weekend felt like a fun filled one...:-) On Friday night we tried out a Japanese restaurant called Yen in Belmont Shore which was not authentic like we had hoped so we will never be going back... So obviously this was not the fun part of the weekend but spending time together and being out on a Friday night was fun:-)

そして、土曜日の朝早くブライアンと一緒にディズニーランドへ行って来ました。ブライアンがマディソンと居てくれるお陰で10月だけのハロウィーンスペシャルのスペースマウンテンに乗る事が出来ました。そして、カリフォルニアアドベンチャーでブライアンが家族写真を撮ってくれました...
Then Saturday, since Dave did not have to work, we of course headed to Disney. This time we recruited our friend Brian to join us so we could go on the special Halloween edition of Space Mountain and we were able to get a nice family photo in California Adventure...

これはブライアンとマディソンがリトルマーメイドの乗り物に乗っている所です...ブライアンはパスを持ってしょっちゅうここに来ているのにリトルマーメイドに乗るのはこの日が初めて!
そして、2人の目が光っているのはハロウィーンにちなんでかな...いつでもマディソンが誰か他の人と乗り物に乗ると私達が見るのはいろいろ真剣に見ているマディソンの表情だけ...:)
Here's Brian and Madison on The Little Mermaid ride... Brian's very first time with the ride although he is a pass holder and comes here a lot!
their eyes aren't actually that evil in real life... When we let Madison ride with someone else we come with we enjoy watching her more because she is so focused and so into the ride!
そして、この日は特別に白雪姫のドレスを持って来たんだけど良い子に着てくれていたのはたったの5分間だけ、その後は自分で脱ごうとしてこんな状態になります...でも凄い可愛いんだよ、周りの人達もなんて可愛いんだーて言いっぱなし。自分でも気づいてくれれば良いんだけど...:(
This morning we brought with us Madison's brand new Snow White dress to wear at the park but as soon as she put it on she wanted to take it off and seeing so many other pretty princesses didn't inspire her much... BUT the 5 minutes that she had the dress on she looked absolutely adorable and other people even told us so...:-) So you just wait, we will get the picture to you soon! But first this is her trying to take the dress off on her own...:-(
お昼頃にディズニランドを後にして家に帰った後3人揃って2時間ぐらい爆睡そしてその後とっても休みが取れた気がしたので再びディズニーランドに戻って久しぶりの夜間のパークを楽しむ予定でいたんだけど、予想以上にとっても混雑していたのでがっかり...でもこんな可愛いプリンセスティアラを買ってあげる事ができました。
So we left the park around noon and went home for a family nap then we decided to come back for a night time at DL! It was soooo busy that we probably won't do that again but we got to take this super cute picture of her wearing her new princess tiara:-) While Madison doesn't appreciate her princess dresses yet, she did enjoy her tiara...
がいこつすがたのグーフィー...ミッキーも何かいつもと違うものを着ていたんだけど写真を撮り忘れました、ごめん!
Goofy the skeleton... We also saw Mickey in a costume but didn't take a picture, sorry!
日曜日は毎年一回行われるロングビーチマラソンの日...私達の建物の目の前を通って行くので窓から見る事が出来ます...今年はブライアンが友達と一緒に走る事になっていたので、通り過ぎるのを見て応援した後教会に行く予定でいたんだけど...
Sunday was Long Beach Marathon Day...runners have one mile to go when they hit our building so it is exciting...this year we were able to cheer on Brian and his friend before attempting to head to the church building.

ブライアンを待っているマディソン...
Madison waiting for Brian...


まだ待っている...
Still Waiting...


そろそろ近い時にブライアンが私のケータイにメールを送ってくれたので見つける事が出来ました...
Brian was actually just "pacing" his friend to help him break 2 hours in the half-marathon...he texted us when he was approaching so we could be ready...here they go...


この後駐車場から出発したのはいいんだけど、いつも左に曲がる所で曲がれず、そのまままっすぐ行ったのは良いんだけど結局マラソン者達が多すぎて流れが切れず、左折不可能...諦めてそこにあった駐車場に車を止めて、家に向かって歩いて帰る事になってしまいました...
I say attempted because while we were able to take a right out of our building, a mile down the road they would let us go straight no more and the wave after wave of runners would not allow anyone to go left, so after making a call to have my Bible Class covered (just started teaching the teens last week) and the Lord's Supper covered we were luckily able to park and walk home...

ただ横に並んで歩いているので、走っている人達の応援をしているマディソン...
So we took our lemons and made lemonade as Madison enjoyed cheering on the runners as we walked home... She is saying "Go Runners!!"

どこにも行けなくなった車用の特別無料の駐車場へ私達のハイランダーを置き去りに...
Here is our vehicle stuck at the Belmont Shore parking lot which offered free parking for other stranded motorists...

2キロ近くを歩くじゅんびをしているマディソン...
Madison preparing for the walk...
ボーナス写真とビデオ:学校で作った作品4番...番号がとっても上手に数えれる様になりました...英語では1から19ぐらいまで言える様に...日本語ではまだまだ...この日日本語で1から10まで数えると、マディソンはイチじゃなくてワンだよって...
Bonus Pics and Videos: Madison showing off more of her school work(#4)...she is so good with her numbers now...we are able to count all the way up to 19 with a little trouble in the teens...the Japanese is still a work in progress...tonight I counted in Japanese and she said, no not ichi...one, we have a lot of work to do!
毎週火曜日は私がマディソンを迎えに行くんだけどこの日内緒でビデオを撮ってみる事に...
A Sneak Peek at Pick-Up Time...this was Mommy's Tuesday to pick-up...

10.07.2011

とーってもお久しぶりです!!3と4週間目/Wow It's been way too long!! Week 3 & 4!

忙しい日々が続き、3週間ぶりにやっとブログを書いています。クライン家は相変わらず元気にしています:)
Well Hello! I can't believe it's been almost 3 weeks since we lasted posted on our blog... I hope you are still out there...:-)

3週間目の月曜日、デイブがマディソンを迎えに行くとマディソンの腕にはっきりとした歯形が...!そうなんです、同じクラスに居る子に噛まれたらしいんだけど、それが起こった時に先生が側に居なかった為どの子がマディソンを噛んだのかは分からじまい。でも今の所噛まれ事故歯その一回だけで、ちょっと一息です。でも、先週の金曜日鼻の頭が赤っぽくなっていたので絵の具かなと思っていたら次の日の朝大きな痣に変化していてビックリ!その事を月曜日にジョーダン先生に聞いたら、遊具園で顔をぶつけて痛そうにしていたけどこんなにひどくなるとは思っても居なくて月曜日に顔を見て本当にビックリしたって。わんぱくな子供だから仕様が無いんだけどね... 遊具園とかフワフワのマシュマロで出来ていれば良いのになー
3週間目は、黄色を習ったマディソン、マディソンの名作をどうぞご覧ください:)
So the big news you've been anxiously waiting for, for the last 3 weeks since I mentioned it in the last blog is this...
On Monday of the 3rd week Madison got bitten!! She was fine but the sadder part was that the teacher didn't see it happen and the victim(Madison) wasn't able to tell Sensei Jordan who bit her and the biter of course didn't come forward... Sensei Jordan told Dave that she noticed a very clear bite mark on her arm when she was washing her hand after playing outside so I guess that was the bite location... And because there are 3 kids in her class that struggles with biting and Madison not be able to point her finger at one of them all three of the kids' parents got notified that their kid may have bitten their class mate... Well she is fine now and the mark went away pretty quick so I'm thankful for her extra layer of baby fat:-) and since that incident haven't heard or seen of any other bite marks on her body so that's good... I wouldn't say accident-less though since last Friday I noticed pink/red on her nose and on Saturday it turned out to be a big bruise across her nose and we found out from Seisei Jordan the following Monday she had hit her face while playing on the playground that Friday, but didn't seem upset about it so her teacher ws shocked to see her face on Monday... These things happen to kids all the time and we understand it's really hard to watch at least 8 kids all the time so for now we still really like the school... CAN WE JUST GET A PLAYGROUND MADE OUT OF A GIANT MARSHMALLOW PLEASE!?
The artwork on top of her head is hers... She is sooo good with colors now but our challenge is to teach her to be able to call each color in two languages... She got the colors in English pretty perfect, but she only has about two colors(Red and Blue) so far in Japanese...

真ん中の3がマディソンの!とっても誇らしげ!
The middle 3 is Madison's! Very impressive to stay inside the 3 outline much better than her competitors...:-) and she is very proud of her work!

そして、先週末マディソンのハロウィンのコスチュームを買いに行って来ました。最後の一つを決める事が出来なかった私は白雪姫とベルのドレスを購入。マディソンはこのティンカーベルの靴を気に入ってなかなか脱いでくれなかったので、クリスマスプレゼントリストに入れる事にしました。マディソンが歩く度にピカピカ光ってとってもカワイイんだよ:)なぜか大人っぽく見えるでしょ?
And this past weekend Madison and I drove over to a Disney Store in search of a perfect princess dress... I gave her some options and after a big melt down while trying on the very fitted Ariel's dress, we narrowed it down to Snow White's dress or Belle's dress, but she was way out of trying on mood and only thing she was happy to try on were the Tinker Bell light up shoes which I added to our Christmas present list... So I ended up getting both dresses since she can wear them to Disneyland, they won't go to waste and they were both just sooo pretty "I" could not decide, Madison kept saying Belle, but I just could not drop Snow White quite yet...
and I was right because they both look amazing on her!! Thank you low fat chocolate cookies from Trader Joe's!


マディソンは学校で仲良くなった友達が居て、一回年上の子がマディソンが遊んでいたエルモのぬいぐるみを持って行っちゃった時に、その子が取り戻しに行ってくれたらしい:)そして、未だに学校が始まって以来一回もパシを使っていない事が今でも信じられません!
毎晩寝る前に“お祈りするー!“って言うのはマディソン:)最近マディソンが気に入ってする事は絵の具を使って遊ぶのが好きだけどなぜか使うのは赤色だけ:)あすか(お父さんとお母さんからだったらごめん)がくれた絵の具で全部の色が一つのケースに固まって入っているのだからいろんな色使えるはずなんだけど、完成作はいつも赤なんです...
その他に歌を歌うのが大好きで良く大声で歌います、特に気に入って良く歌うのはリトルマーメイドの歌:)パートオブザワールドとアースラに声を取られる時にアアアーって歌うのがとっても上手でビデオに撮らなきゃと思っています。
So at school she made friends with some of her classmates especially she gets along well with Sensei Jordan's son who is also in her class. Dave told me that one time they were playing together with an Elmo stuffed toy, but a kid from an older class came (the 3 year olds) came in and grabbed(not sure if it's out of Madison's hand or off the floor) the Elmo and took it to her class then the boy(can't remember his name right now but he doesn't have an easy name in my defense) marched all the way to the girl's class and took back the Elmo and said "that's Madison's!!!!" and brought it all the way back to their class and into her hands...:-) Isn't that cute? I think Liam can start to get a little nervous right about now...:-)
And before I conclude this post I would like to share some things that Madison is into lately...
She loves to paint and does a really good job with it but we've noticed she only likes to paint with RED... She has this paint kit my sister Asuka got her and it's one of those tablet kind so there are so many other colors available to her besides the red but her finished work always looks red... And she LOVES to sing, oh I wish you could hear her sing songs from the Little Mermaid. One goes "a way they walk, a way they run, A way they..." and another is the part when she sings for the sea witch Ursula to give up her voice. We have an Ariel doll that one of the girls from the building had given to her this Summer to play in the pool and now she plays with her in the bath and that's when she sings the second song... It's super cute and somehow we have to get that on a film!