Back to Japan?

B's Japanese teacher told his class of a Chicago high school that is planning a trip to Japan this summer, but needs a few more students to get the group travel rate, so she's opened the trip to OPRF students. Guess who wants to go back to Japan? B has emailed the Chicago teacher of his desire to go. He's now waiting to hear how many students the host school can accommodate. This stay would be closer to Tokyo than he was last year, and with more sightseeing in Tokyo.

Perfect assignment

L is loving this assignment - translate 10 English labels into Japanese. She chose to get 10 different candy bars. Surprised? Here she is carefully removing the candy because she only needs to take the wrappers with her to school tomorrow.

Mission dinner

Here's Andy enjoying the Italian mission dinner at church last night - stuffed shells with meat sauce, a salad and garlic bread. Dessert was apple crisp with ice cream. Appetizers were chicken and vegetarian pasties. I think that's what the potatoes I shredded yesterday were used for.

During dinner, each table was given trivia questions to complete. One sheet was Michigan trivia, the next was Benton Harbor/St. Joseph trivia (that's where the youth are headed this summer), and the last was Motown trivia. Our team did OK, but we didn't win.

An overall shot of the room taken by a fellow church member. You can see Andy and me sitting at the table.

Entertainment for the evening was a clarinet duo of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

And a vocal solo.

L's job for the night was running the raffle. She sold raffle tickets as people walked into the dinner and here she is drawing winners for each of the prizes - a week in Branson, Mo., Broadway in Chicago tickets and Bulls tickets. She actually pulled out Rob, one of Andy's work partners, as the winner for the Bulls tickets. And for her efforts in selling raffle tickets (over $200 worth) she earned a Starbucks gift card.

Our table.

Some of the youth.

Mission dinner prep

This afternoon, B,L and I went to church to help cook for tonight's youth group mission dinner. The youth are headed to Michigan this summer and the theme of the meal is "Building Bridges." We're planning an Italian dinner.

B did a lot of chopping of vegetables - peppers and onions for the salad.

I grated potatoes (I'm not sure why yet. Guess I'll find out at dinner) and stuffed pasta shells. Lots of pasta shells. These are the two trays I stuffed. There are more ... lots more.

Meanwhile, L was out in Fellowship Hall setting the tables. She made little "sleeping bags" out of the napkins for the silverware to slide in to.

Pretty table set by L.

Decorations that show the theme, "Building Bridges."

The decorations before L set the tables.

Sound asleep

Cropping interrupted

I tried to scrapbook, but August demanded too much attention. He's reaching his paw to my hand so I'll pet him.

Thanks from Disney World

Disney sent us this drawing of Minnie as a thank you for our recent trip. They want us to come back soon. Oh, OK. If we have to ...

Like spring

L was off of school today for Presidents Day so we scheduled a dental appointment. Here she is walking in, wearing a tank top (!) and sandals. Temperatures reached 68. It was a beautiful day.

A sunny Sunday

Yesterday afternoon we took L to Camp Sullivan in a Cook County Forest Preserve for a friend's birthday sleepover. This morning B drove with us to pick her up. This is the cabin where she stayed.

The girls slept on bunk beds in a large room. They made pizzas for dinner and roasted marshmallows over a campfire. It was nice that the weather was so unexpectedly warm. While she was at the party, Andy and I went out to dinner with our friends, N and V at Salerno's, a local Italian restaurant. B was home with his friend IR over.

On the way home, we stopped at the new Cane's restaurant for lunch. It serves chicken tenders. That's it. Just tenders. Not bad, not great.

Reunited for formal

E's boyfriend, P, came to visit her from ISU last night. She sent me this photo of them this morning.

He's there for her sorority's formal tonight. They went out Saturday and bought him pants, a shirt and tie. Looks like he's all set. E ordered her dress online. Even though she won't look at lace when she's shopping with me, it appears to be an all-lace dress. Hmmm. These are the pictures she sent when I asked her to send a full-length picture so I could see the dress:

The funniest part of this picture is the girl behind her. Not sure what's going on there.

This is February?

The cookies are here!

With our Girl Scout away at college, we didn't have anyone to buy cookies from. But, one night, the doorbell rang and there was a neighborhood girl selling cookies. Yay! And tonight she delivered them. These should last me for a while.

L's homework helper

Show-off

I thought I was doing so well - baking a red velvet cake with a pourable chocolate frosting. Then L came home from school and asked if she could decorate it.

Here she is working her magic.

And the final product!

Shhh!

It's been a long, but fun, two weeks. Even Muffles is exhausted.

Sad farewell

We got Takako to O'Hare by 8:30 a.m. today. Sensei took her checked bag right to the counter and found out it was 4 kilograms overweight (about nine pounds). She said Takako's bag was overweight when she tried to leave after visiting last year, too. She did do a lot of shopping! Here's sensei with Takako, B and L, moving heavy items from the bag to be checked into her carryon. It worked. The next time the suitcase was weighed, it was under 50 pounds. Sensei is a master at packing suitcases. She's obviously done this a few times before.

The family. L is already crying.

Such sad goodbyes.

And lots of hugs.

This is B with another Japanese student, one of Takako's friends, whom I think he hung out with a lot over the last two weeks.

And sensei won't let the students leave until they pose for one final picture of all the OPRF and Japanese students together. It's quite a large group and the pictures rarely turn out good before they always pose in front of large windows. B and Takako are all the way on the left, bottom row, and L is standing, on the right side.

And here Takako and her friends wave as they walk toward the security check. They were among the last Japanese students to get into the line. We stayed until we couldn't see them any longer.

Last-minute shopping & party

We took an early morning trip into Chicago so Takako could go to Dylan's Candy Bar. She saw the store when she went downtown with B and friends after school last Thursday, but they ran out of time before being able to shop there.

Since they were able to go to Water Tower Place that day, we skipped it today, but had to stop for a photo op of the historic water tower.

We had lunch at Giordano's. This time we ordered thin pizza since we had deep-dish last week. Takako wanted to get BBQ chicken and onions on it (I settled for half onions) and it was really good. We also had a sausage pizza. Plenty of leftovers! She said she liked the thin crust better than the deep dish. Guess that big ole pie is an acquired taste.

The students had their farewell dinner and party tonight. Here's Takako giving us a heartfelt thank-you speech.

L was crying before Takako ever got up to give her speech. Here L is giving her a big hug.

Before leaving the party (to go to one of the student's houses for more socializing), they all got together for a big group photo. I think I better take a lot of tissues to the airport tomorrow for L.