Saturday with the kids

John has a book deadline on Monday morning, plus the usual class prep, so I took the kids by myself downtown to Sapporo Station to the cheese stop (two small bags of cheddar and a small package of goat cheese... $20. The pleasure... priceless) and on a few other errands. I had the stroller and three kids by myself -- a challenge for sure. I carried the stroller down the two flights of stairs of our subway stop, and Jack held his sisters' hands. Then when we got to the escalator, I took Liv's hand (and had the double stroller folded up on my shoulder) and Jack took Kate's hand and we made it safely down. Coming home was another story... we had two escalators and this time I had to carry Katie and the stroller, so Jack took Liv's hand. Each time, Liv stepped on a crack/new step and fell over. Each time I had visions of one of those horrible-death-by-escalator stories I have read about over the years (OK, maybe horrible for a foot or hand or hair... but nightmares all the same). But each time, Liv and Jack were calm, and Liv just sat down, got her bearings, and stood up. Whew.

There are elevators at various places, but they are not always easy to get up, and it seems that most people ride the subway with strollers folded up unless it isn't very busy. Anyway -- we made it, and had grilled cheese for dinner to celebrate.

Yesterday, we went to the English preschool Ayumu goes to. The kids LOVED it. There were just three kids in the Friday class, and two teachers (nice ratio!). We are thinking of maybe having the kids go on Fridays... it is just two hours and the ease they showed there -- the way they played and talked to the teachers -- it was great to see. If not formally, we might just drop in from time to time, too.

And here are a few more photos from an earlier bike trip to a new park earlier this week. Olivia was wearing her SuperGirl Olivia cape (made by Maya for Liv's 2nd birthday)... she wears it all over Sapporo, and I do wonder what people think...















Jack is very at ease on two wheels, starting and stopping.



You might also notice another bandage on Katie's head... on one of our park trips, she was running quickly and just tripped, embedding a tiny rock in her head (which I was able to remove with little fuss, thankfully).














































Oh, and I had been meaning to write that some people have said they are having trouble posting comments. I am not sure what that is about, but it has happened with several different people. You can just email me or John at any of the usual addresses and we will get the message. Also -- if you want to blow these photos up, you can just double click on them.

That's all for now -- goodnight!