Violet Drives "Mama Jeepy"

http://craftcameraroll.tumblr.com/post/53934938026

Cooking with Violet

Last night Violet made dinner all by herself. Well, I precut the veggies and put the raw meat in. But she did the rest. She made Japanese Curry. Boy was she excited! She added different spices too. She even served us all with little help from Mama. She is getting so big!! Video to come later. After she served it she asked us all how it was. She was beaming!

We all had seconds and she ate it for breakfast too. :)

Sports Day うんどうかい 6.22.20133

On Saturday, Violet had her first うんどうかい！ It's like field day. Events included a running race, tug-o-war, ball toss and some dances. The kids and teachers work so hard preparing for this event every year. The kids practice all the events for about a month before the actual day. Violet loves to run and so she was really looking forward to this day. There was a bit too much emphasis put on winning, in my opinion but still it was fun. The kids are placed in heats according to their speed for the running race. Violet was with her best boy  friend and some other 3 year olds from her class. It seemed like she was in the group of the fastest runners. They practiced running every day at school and each day she would come home and tell me that either she was first or Taku was first. They were trading off each day. So it was going to be a close race.
When she woke up on Saturday morning she said "today is undoukai!! I am going to win! I am the fastest runner!" I tried to remind her that winning wasn't the most important part of it, just having fun with our friends was the most important thing. She was adamant though, she was going to win.

I was concerned that day that she would want to sit with us the whole time instead of with her class and I felt bad that she was going to have to "be at school" for half of her Saturday, because she so looks forward to "no school" days. But she did fine. She was a little hesitant when I left her at her room. She asked me to stay with her for a while, so I did. Then I told her that when I went I was just going to be outside and I was going to be waiting for her just outside the door. She seemed ok with that and told me I could go.

She didn't see us at first and she began to cry. Finally she spotted us and all was well again. Until the race....
She ran so fast and so hard! Taku came in first and Violet in second. As soon as he crossed the finish line you could see her tears starting to come. But she finished out fast and hard and came in second. She burst into tears and ran to me. I tried to comfort her and tell her it was ok to be sad but that she did  really good job. She was inconsolable for quite a while. So I held her for a while and just let her feel. Finally I let her go back to her class and her teacher held her for a while too. She wanted to go home but we asked her to stay for the dancing.

There was a parent/child dance and so I went up to dance with her. She was still pretty tearful and wanted to be held. We did some of the dance though. She was getting tired and hungry by that point. And it was hot!
Last was the group dance with all the kids from the school and a guest appearance from our town mascot Ofunaton. She really cheered up then!

The kids all received a gold medal and small gift (chopsticks and spoon set, and a rain poncho) and after it was all said and done she said she had a great time! We then went out for ice cream and udon noodles for lunch. She got to play at the play area she likes at the restaurant and then we came home. Overall it was a fun day!

Here are some pics from the day! ok so the pics won't load for some reason.... so I will have to update later.