Sushi, Sushi, Sushi

"IRWINS- we totally want to go- we are SO into competitive eating!" Emily excitedly proclaimed into my answering machine.

We had called around to some friends inviting them to go to a sushi festival and sushi eating contest with us on Sunday. Emily was returning my phone call and apparently was super happy about the prospect. You see Emily makes her husband, Tim, watch the Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest every year with her on tv. This was Emily's first chance to see an eating competition IN PERSON! What a privilege! :) So we all headed downtown to take in all of the asian festivities. In all actuality there wasn't much to do. Thank God Y98 was there- the girls got to win some prizes so they had some toys to play with! They threw around mini beach balls for a long time while we awaited "The Competition". There was some native drumming by umm...white people and then it was time to watch 8 men and 2 women stuff their face with california rolls! They introduced all of the contestants. Last years winner was competing, trying to beat the 78 sushi rolls he ate last year. The contest began with 10 minutes on the clock and boatloads of sushi! Everyone had a different technique- some would stand, some didn't, some were wasted before the contest even started, some took drinks of various kinds after every roll. About 4 minutes in, a contestant got up and went backstage to toss his cookies (or well, sushi). He never returned. In the end, an asian man won, eating something like 86 sushi rolls! Too bad the queasy man never came back- after three minutes he was already up to 63 rolls! Emily said, "that is what is so different between this and the hot dog competition- The hot dog contest is only 6 minutes long and this is 10 minutes long. This one is all about endurance!". So we had an especially amusing time with enjoyable company. Next year, Ryan wants to participate! (the grand prize is a trip to Japan - we could finally visit Ryan's Aunt and Uncle who live in Japan)

By the way, we forgot our camera, so the above photo is not from the actual event. I found it online so you could FEEL like you were there. :)

Our Tattoo Parlor

We were cleaning the basement and found loads of temporary tattoos! We thought they would be fun to experiment with. The girls loved them. I just informed Anna of some devastating news today- that they will eventually wash off! She didn't seem too happy about that. Since we put them on, Anna and Naomi make repeated references to their "bracelets". Even Abby likes looking at her chubby little feet to see the butterfly and hearts. Gideon was over too so he got plastered with one as well! Here they are showing them off:

Gideon's Last Stand

Gideon's Last Stand. Well not really- we will still see him, but these photos are of his last day here with us on a regular basis. For the past year, I have been watching Gideon three days a week. We had lots of playtime with four children, ages three and under in the house and we enjoyed some testosterone! But August 29th was Gideon's last day :( Here are some pics of Anna and Naomi with their new friend which they are sure to miss! (Abby was sleeping and everyone knows you NEVER wake a sleeping baby...even for pictures, well actually, ESPECIALLY for pictures! That would never go well!) It was nice to have a steady stream of extra needed income this past year and I praise God for His provisions. It worked out really well. It even allowed us to purchase a few things for our home to make it more liveable with three children, a dog, and ourselves. I was also blessed because Gideon's mom is a friend of ours and because Gideon was over so often, we got to chat frequently and sometimes have extended playtimes (which helped to pass the long daytime hours away! Being a stay at home mom can be so lonely sometimes!). It was a really hard year for us with having children so young, but having Gideon here helped break up our days and provided income security so we at least didn't have to worry about money. Thank you God for a good year. Gideon is coming over tonight. So he isn't gone for good! I told the girls that Gideon is coming over and Anna said, "Daddy calls Gideon 'DUDE!"" Yes, that is true. He has to because there is no one else he can call 'dude'. There are only princesses around here.

We love you Gideon!


Gideon's favorite toy here is a ride on train. Since we only have two ride on cars, Anna is using a pillow to pretend she has one too.



This is all three of them trying to blow kisses at the camera

Blogworthy

So one day last month I looked down and saw this: OOPS!

You want to know what's worse? I left them on because I didn't have time to fix it right then. So I forgot about it again and my sister in law came over and had to point them out to me. OOPS AGAIN!

(at least they are both polka dots! It could have been worse like plaid and american flags)