scrub a dub dub

These car washing pics are from the summer. They've just been in line... hoping for the day to come that I would push the "publish" button, sharing them in all their glory with the world! Anyway. The summer. When we got back from the States, the grass in Okinawa was BROWN. And yellow. That was weird. This is a green island. I mean, a GREEN island. Apparently it didn't rain the whole time we were gone. It was actually kinda painful on the ol' feet to walk on all that pokey grass.  Baaack on topic. The car wash.  Nuala, after being exposed to all her cousins' American Girl dolls, decided she neeeeded one, too. Caroline. So the deal was: She saved up half, and we would pay half. That's $55 from both of us. Though she actually had to save up more, because often she earned the consequence of having "one dollar added to your chart!" 

We paid her (and Muffin Man) a couple of dollars for washing the cars. And then she hit up the neighbors. One of them gave her $8!!! The girl was thrilled. And also kept asking, "can I please ask Miss Shannon if I can wash her car again?"  Ummmm, it's only been 3 days, so... no. It was very generous, and helped bump her along.

I guess you get a nice little view of our bomb shelters -- er, houses -- too! There's Maeve, and little Fiona, watching. They didn't want to help... just wanted to come out and check on the progress of things before going back in to continue their playing. Hmmm... there's a teeny tiny pacifier in teeny tiny Maeve's mouth, so apparently she was being the baby for this game. Ha! During this stage, Megan (F's mom) and I would often come across Fiona "nursing" Maeve. Ha...ha...ha...... Thankfully that has been over for a while now...

The car was quite slippery. I'm pretty sure there were a couple of "accidental" sliding incidents.

Whip that dirt right offa that car!

Ahhh... good times in the driveway. And Nuala HAS, indeed, earned her doll. Just got it last month. Mostly she sits next to her bed. TOTALLY worth $110! ;)  Kidding. We'll see. N's really enjoying the Caroline book, and maybe... just maybe, Christmas/birthday will bring some doll stuff. Probably not "official" doll stuff, but close enough... (Ha! Did I say "probably"?  I meant: DEFINITELY. Definitely not official doll stuff... those things are Pricey! Capital P.)