Goodbye July … and the Cousins!

Hi, everyone!

While James was at Peacemakers and Bill-kun and Karin-chan were at Allendale-Columbia Day Camp, Grandma and Thomas made another batch of party mix for his daddy.  Of course, Thomas had to eat some to make sure it tasted OK!  Uncle David gave Thomas a piano lesson.  After Peacemakers, James showed me how he plays his drum set.

At Allendale-Columbia day camp, Bill-kun and Karin-chan went swimming twice and had freezer pops every afternoon.  They made tie-dye t-shirts for James and Thomas, too!  After day camp, they sometimes went to Powers Farm Market on the way home.  They helped Grandma shuck corn for dinner and picked out a fruit snack to eat.

There is a petting zoo at the farm market, so Bill-kun and Karin-chan stopped to feed the animals before they left.  Bill-kun especially liked the burro and Karin-chan liked the black sheep.   The loading steps for the hay ride wagon were there, but I explained that the hay wagon doesn’t show up until pumpkin season!

Fresh fruit is very juicy, so Bill-kun and Karin-chan ate their fruit snacks on the back deck.  Sometimes they even stood on the railing to eat them!  When Thomas had some fruit, too, they sat down with him to keep him safe.  Thomas likes to copy what Bill-kun and Karin-chan are doing, even if he’s not big enough to do it yet!

Uncle Steven came to join everybody during James’ second week at Peacemakers.  He helped James and Karin with Super Mario on the Nintendo.  We started having dinner on the back deck so there was room for everybody at the table.  We were lucky to have good weather!  Uncle Steven also helped James with Lego building.  He looked up the directions for old sets on-line and he and James found the parts and built them.

While James and Bill-kun and Karin-chan were all at their camps, Thomas had Camp Daddy or Camp Grandma.  Thomas played word games on the iPad and went to the playground.

For their second camp week, Bill-kun and Karin-chan went to Camp Arrowhead.  They had swimming every day!  After camp, they did homework from their Japanese school.  When that was done, they sometimes played pool with Grandpa or Uncle David. One night, Uncle Steven’s family went to the Hemlock Fair with Aunt Kara’s family.  Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle David and Bill-kun and Karin-chan went to a sushi restaurant!  For dessert, they stopped at Abbott’s Frozen Custard.  Bill-kun had to lick his cone very fast to keep it from dripping all over!

We made ice cream at home, too!  Grandma got peaches at the farm market and ripened them in a paper bag so they were really juicy and tasty to put in the ice cream.  Hitsuji-san made sure to ask me for the recipe!

James was done with Peacemakers when Bill-kun and Karin-chan were at Camp Arrowhead, so Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Steven took him and Thomas to the Strong Museum.  Of course, James and Thomas and I flew the helicopter, and we worked on the engine of the Sesame Street taxi.  We also played with the wooden trains.  Just before we left, we took a ride on the carousel.  Then James got a special treat!  Uncle Steven took him to the Lego store!  James got to pick a new Lego set and build a car to run on the Lego City track.

One night, we had a special dinner!  We had a birthday cheesecake for everybody with a May or June birthday.  That’s James and Thomas and Grandma and Uncle Steven and Grandpa and Uncle David!  Bill-kun and James blew out the candles!  Karin gave Thomas a ride around the back yard on Uncle David’s skateboard, and he really liked it!  The next day, his mommy and daddy gave him a different kind of skateboard ride, up and down the driveway.

On the weekend in between Bill-kun and Karin-chan’s two weeks of camp, we all went out to Sodus together.  One of Uncle David’s friends came to visit on Saturday.  There was another boat trip to go swimming  in the shallow part of the bay.  Thomas is still too little to touch bottom there, but his mommy and daddy held him so he could enjoy the water, too.  Bill-kun, Karin-chan, James and Thomas all fell asleep on the boat trip back!  We had corn on the cob for dinner again!  Uncle David made another campfire and Bill-kun and Karin-chan enjoyed lighting sticks from the flames.

On Sunday, Grandma gave Thomas a kayak ride.  Then we all got in the powerboat to go to Skipper’s Landing restaurant for lunch.  That was the very first time we have all gone to a restaurant together!

Bill-kun and Karin-chan and James all have Nintendos, and Bill-kun and Karin-chan have tablet computers, too.  So there was a lot of game playing at Sodus!  Bill-kun did take a break to play darts with Uncle David.

When we got back to Fairport after the weekend, there was more game playing!  Uncle Steven brought his computer and played games with James.  Uncle David has been developing games for Oculus Rift, and he let me use the headset and hand controller!

Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara and James and Thomas planned to fly back to the Netherlands on the last Saturday in July, so Friday night was the last time for everybody to play together.  Grandma and I took the family to the airport on Saturday afternoon.  When Grandma and I got back from the airport, Bill-kun and Karin-chan were cleaning the kitchen floor!  They told me they do this at school every Wednesday!

When we were driving out to Sodus, Grandpa got a phone call.  Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara’s plane never took off and they couldn’t get another flight until Monday!  They joined us at Sodus in time for a late dinner.  So we had an extra day together!  We had waffles on the porch for breakfast, then everybody got out in kayaks.  James and Thomas rode with Uncle Steven and Grandma, and Bill-kun and Karin-chan paddled by themselves!  Then another friend of Uncle David’s came out!  Tim-san brought trail bikes and a minibike!  Karin-chan got a ride with her daddy, and Bill-kun learned how to ride solo!

After Tim-san left, we had quiet game time all over Grandma and Grandpa’s Sodus house.  Uncle David took the Sunfish for a final sail, then I helped Grandpa and Uncle David haul the sailboat and load the borrowed kayaks on the trailer.   We all went on a boat ride around the bay after dinner.  Uncle David made another campfire, then we watched Zootopia again.

Monday morning, we had scones on the porch before we drove back into town.  Grandma and I took Uncle Steven’s family to the airport again.  This time, the flight was an hour late leaving, but it did take off and connect to the flight to Brussels.

Uncle David and Bill-kun and Karin-chan left this morning on a very early flight.  I had to wake up Karin-chan and hitsuji-san at 4 a.m.!  Grandpa and Grandma and I took them to the airport, and they are now in San Francisco for the week.  When we got home from the airport, Grandma said I deserved to sleep in!

Love,

Lion-san