Busy three days

On Tuesday I went and collected our first group of junior high school students for the "season". The students all come from big city schools where they live in apartments and therefore have very little contact with "nature". They come in groups of about 200 or so and are then billeted out to "agricultural" families to have a wonderful agricultural experience. We got another good group this time and the children in particular enjoyed playing tag with them and showing them around.
If anyone is interested in seeing what other kinds of things I do with them then feel free to watch this slide show. Although it is very tiring entertaining them the 3 days pass very quickly and we never seem to have enough time to do everything on my "list". We did a few other things that I forgot to take photos of, but I have already forgotten what they were... weeding, bee hive inspecting, green tea field inspecting etc. etc.
Of course they loved having the cottage to themselves and despite there being two bedrooms and plenty of bedding they all decided to sleep in the same room in the two single beds... how they could sleep I don't know, but they were very happy and it saved me some washing!

End of a busy week

Thursday was one of those days when you don't care what kind of a pillow you have - even those filled with beans!
My day started off with me running a program for 37 mothers and their toddlers... in other words chaos! I can't understand why I say I will do the program, but every year.... I find myself in the same room with different mothers and different children, but exactly the same chaos! Unfortunately this year they think I will be doing the program three times....
At about the same time that I arrived home my husband was collecting our latest group of six boys. As much as I was really dreading their arrival they turned out to be a really nice group and it was almost sad to say goodbye to them today. They timed in nicely with Jichan allowing them to play in the muddy rice fields and drive the tractor. A little break from the regular potato digging, chicken feeding, muffin making, pizza making, cultivating, firefly watching, wood chopping etc.
Today I dropped them off and went to collect a different kind of "guest". Our one week old friend, Ryu, has come to stay for a couple of nights. His mother was due to leave hospital today, but her two younger children have been throwing up for the last two days and rather than risking the newborn catching the same thing she has come to relax here for a bit. My daughter in particular is very impressed, but despite her pleas and how nice and cuddly he is we are not planning on increasing our family in the near or far future!

Christmas number 1

Yet again I have failed to write about half the things that have been happening lately.... and of course now I have forgotten what we have done. Sorry!
The weekend was a busy one - we woke up to the first real snow on Saturday morning, but it had all melted away by lunch time. On Saturday night we had 6 friends come for dinner, three of whom stayed overnight. It was great to have some good conversation and a practice run for Christmas dinner! I had bought 2 turkeys this year - not really sure why... just thought they might come in handy and they are really cheap at Costco so I cooked up one and they all had fun trying to carve it! They even managed to eat enough of it that we only have left overs for one or two meals. After dinner our new craze - find the differences books were well studied and proved frustrating for some.
On Sunday morning we left the guests to themselves to have a quiet time talking in the cottage and went to the end of year concert at the kindergarten that my children used to go to. It was great to be able to watch the children without worrying about having to go and get my own children changed, worry about if their costumes were going to fall off half way through their dance etc.
Today I have no "work" so have been enjoying making desserts for Christmas. I think I have put on about a kilogram just licking the spoon! So far we have white chocolate icecream, chocolate and mint icecream, chocolate mousse, passionfruit marshmallows... and I still have a few days to make some more!