Lazy days! : )

Sorry for being a bit quiet here, this week. It's just with the matsuri/festival over and now summer has officially started and under way, we are spending every waking moment in the back yard. The boys get dressed in the morning straight away, brush their teeth and they run out and play in the backyard until breakfast is ready.After I do my quick morning clean up around the house, I join the kids out back, and laze around on the patio for hours just watching the kids run, jump, dig, swing on their swing set and slide down the slides. Talk about some awesome lazy days. Lunch time is, well whenever our stomachs start to get rumbly, ha ha ha and then I go in and we fix lunch and then we take it out back and eat on the terrace. Sometimes we go in and watch a DVD in the afternoon, when the sun really hits it's high point. Pop some popcorn. Noah takes a little nap around this point, Branden might take one too. Which gives me time to prepare for dinner. Sometimes I cook inside and sometimes we crank up the grill. Either way, seems you just can't get me in front of the computer, too much these days. It's just too nice outside. Too gorgeous and there's so much fun to be had outside.

We're still going to swimming school as usual. And that is at 3:00 pm until 4:30 pm on Wednesday's and Friday's. So it's a good way for him to see his yochien friends during the summer still. And I get to socialize with my fellow yochien mom friends still. And plus his swimming is really taking off these days. And he loves it. He wishes he could go everyday actually. But twice a week is more then enough.

One of my friends, Rieko/Rie-san asked me if I was having a BBQ this summer. She suggested we have a BBQ at my place with some of our friends from the yochien. That way us parents could just hang out and the kids could all get together over the summer this way. She also brought up Costco. And that we should go there and buy some food for the BBQ. She said she would split the price of the food. Which was nice of her. We talked about this last week while we setting up of for the schools festival. What did I think of all this? I thought it was a pretty good idea. I mean, heck, we BBQ every week anyway. But a BBQ among friends sounds awesome! So, I said yes. So as soon as the rainy season officially ends in Chiba, we will start to put a plan in order and get things in motion. I'll get the inflatable kids pool all set up and everything. It's going to be really cool! : )

Kumon is awesome. We went there yesterday for an assessment and to talk with the teachers. We walked in there. Hmm, nothing like a gaijin to make everyone stop dead in their tracks. My gosh, I find this so embarrassing! When we got up to the door, the big sign on the door said, "studying was in progress, please be quiet" so we very quietly walked through the door. Whispered a "konbanwa" to the head teacher. There were 3 teachers in there in total. Next thing you know, the other teachers caught a glimpse. The utter shock on their faces was classic (especially in this small country town). Total open mouths and wide eyes. I could hear whispers of...."Gaijin-san, gaijin-san", it rippled through the kids who were just seconds before, studying at their desks. I tried not to care. Not to notice, them notice. And we got to business at hand. We sat down and she started testing Branden. She spoke with us. She was very kind, very friendly. She wasn't all rush rush or hurry nor sighs! She explained everything in full detail. Yes she does speak English. The 3 teachers speak English, because they teach English as one of the subjects there. So we can communicate. And yes, I tried to use Japanese first. But she answered me in English every single time. So, I thought, what the heck. And then just spoke with her in English. She told me. she can give me progress of Branden by email so we exchanged email addresses. The things Branden knew, she said, "yes yes that is right." Stuff he didn't know, she showed him what it was. Their whole base is, cheering the kids on. And encouragement. I think this will be a good way for Branden to learn. She also told me, that there is a 3 year old boy who studies there as well. Plus the other little 5 year old girl, who is a classmate of Branden's as well. So from now on, we drop the kids off, they go in alone. And we pick them up. I won't be going into the building anymore, well unless I need to talk with her about something face to face. But, I will just park the car in front, he can run out and I watch until he gets into the building and then I will come back in 1 hour. And I will again, park my car outside and wait until he safely comes back into my car. Noboru went to the Kumon as well, well because he wants to make certain of where he is sending his son. What kind of people they were. Were they nice and stuff. He really liked them as well. So Branden, officially starts this coming Monday. They already gave him homework. He has 20 pages to do before Monday.

Here are his Kumon flash cards and folder which holds his homework.

Here is his homework. And each page only has 2 things on each, to do. So it is going to be easy for him. Not grueling or anything. And it really will help him be prepared for when April rolls around next year. : )

We also bought the paint for our fence. We will be painting the fence this weekend.

What else? We are heading back to Denver, Colorado in September sometime. So back to the mainland for us, for about 2 weeks. Just so far, we are trying to work out which week is best for Noboru and such right now. Not thrilled about the long flight though. I guess I sorta got used to the short 3 hour flight to Guam. Also, NWA (the Japan region), gave out free round trip tickets for all employees and their families to either Guam or Hawaii. The tickets are only good for those 2 destinations. It's a confirmed ticket for the 4 of us, seats and all. They expire in a year, but that's because we get these tickets once a year, anyway. But anyway, we go to Guam a bunch and catching the flight to Guam is relatively easy for us. So, we are planning to use our confirmed tickets to Hawaii instead. We are thinking of heading there this Christmas (if you recall we went to Honolulu because of this, last Christmas too). But as usual nothing is ever carved in stone. But these are things we are working on at our house. But August will be spent in Japan, but it's more then okay, we are making the absolute most of our August at home, plenty of BBQ's, and such. So we are all quite happy.

Anyway, I've spent too much time in front of this computer for my liking and so I better join my boys out in the back yard right now. Have an awesome weekend everyone! : )