These snacks, were given to Noah his last day of school last week, from a friend! They're long gone now, but he enjoyed getting one or two a day. He kept saying, I got them from MY friend! Ha ha ha. that made me happy because he has been wanting friends of his own and now he's in school he has friends of his own! Oh and, for Noah's closing ceremony on last Monday, that was his last day, he proudly told us all after class....."this time, I didn't cry when I went on stage" *sniff sniff* He is growing up! even just little by little, he really is! : )
A few letters from friends, a present from the school. The yochien buys everyone little gifts, during different parts of the year. : ) These ones were really cool, Easter eggs with shapes inside, I'll try to get a pic of what they look like next time. : )
One night last week, I made some oven roasted pork. And some baby potatoes to go with.
The cap of the salt to give an idea of the size of these taters! :D They're small, really small baby potatoes and since they were so small and the peelings are so thin anyway, I left their skins on and just cut them all in half, and boiled when the pork was nearly done. Which made supper even easier. No peeling or anything for me that day.
A hot pan with olive oil, and the pork seasoned with salt and black pepper. Just a light frying of the outside of the pork, just until the juices get trapped inside and the whole outer parts gets sorta crusty or crispy and brown. Then whacked in the oven for an hour. Tightly tin foiled.
Amazing all the grease that spills out of a roast, eh? Drained in about 5 minutes.
I sliced it, however it was so tender it nearly shredded versus flat out slicing. And I cut it every way possible but it was fall apart type tender. Ah well. : ) I then drained all the grease out, phew. And then whacked in the oven for the tiniest bit, while the biscuits baked.
Made some garlic and cheese biscuits. With the help of some canned biscuits.
Didn't really make a whole bunch of effort with this, I admit. But dinner has to be made. : ) So what was supper? A very tender pork roast, baby potatoes that were boiled drained, buttered and salt and peppered, so simple. Some cheese garlic biscuits and a nice salad with goma dressing. Oh and a glass of iced tea. : ) We had leftover pork so....we munched roasted pork sandwiches during the week with cripsy lettuce and sliced cheese, they were so good. : )
On Friday, afternoon, we went to go and pick up some gyoza for supper from this really cheap place. Noboru ended up wanting to eat lunch there as well. So, we did. : ) Everyone had ramen.
Yumm! : )
These are what we took home, they came frozen and we made them for supper Friday night. 30 gyoza for 450 yen/$4.50US. I also made some fried rice, so just a simple simple supper Friday night. : )
When we got back from ramen Friday afternoon, hubby did yard work while the boy's played in the backyard. See this pic? See those little white dots? Nutrients for our grass,lol, he also threw down something else the day before for the grass. So lots of work and care have been going into the yard/grass during Spring so far! Oh and he also threw down some, weed repellent. We had American weed repellent for the past 3 years, however it only works on American weeds, lol! So, which is why he ended up getting the weed repellent from the local farming place. And he made a big fuss about telling me...he did not buy weed *killer* but instead a repellent? What's the difference? Don't ask me, my husband is so heavily into grass and yard stuff since moving into our home 3 years ago, reads homepage after homepage about grass and yard stuff, lol, it's silly almost! Ha ha ha. But honestly, I don't mind so much though, because he has a harmless hobby.
It's slowly turning green. It is even a little greener right now since I took the pic. It will be gradual. Like I said about 8 days ago on my other post. We had American Kentucky blue grass on the front yard and Japanese grass in the back. We purposely chose Japanese grass for the back because it is so strong can stand up to kids running on it and the extreme heat, we in Japan get in summer and it still stands strong and virtually needs the tiniest bits of water. Meanwhile our Kentucky blue grass on the front, was green 365 days a year, soft and gorgeous. However, it attracted weird bugs, who loved to feast on it since it was such a rare treat. In the dead of summer, it started turning yellow in places, got something called angel halo or some sorta funky disease, how do we know, because hubby took a pic, showed it to the grass specialist and sure enough another disease. It needed water every evening because American grass needs lots of water, so it was expensive as well. However the grass seed itself was cheap as chips, we would bring the grass in 5-10kg bags from Guam no problem. But it just gave too many problems. And lucky for us, we know when to give in....and give in we did. So, Japanese grass in front and in the back for us this year. So anyways....we are feeding the grass all the proper nutrients now to get it nice and green for the Spring. : )
Noah jumping rope last Friday! : )
Both boy's jumping rope last Friday! : )
Noah dribbling the ball. This is sorta funny! He can dribble the ball up to about 50 times so far, in 1 set. Which is pretty funny because at yochien to get the PE award, you need to dribble it at least 10 times, even for the blue badges it's 10 times. Yet here is this little yellow badge dribbling it like 50 times! LOL. It cracks us up to no end! : ) How did he learn how to do that so good? He learned it from his big brother Branden....no kidding! Ha ha ha. : )
The rice fields behind our house are also getting ready for Spring. The farmers have been doing a lot of burning, and boy does it smell fantastic! : )
Close up of the burning of any old debris before they start planting the rice! Smells like camping, lol! I do enjoy watching the rice grow back there and the lush endless rice field view! Very peaceful, tranquil and just so nice to sit on the back patio with hot cup of coffee and look out. : )
All the way to the right... all the way to the left and all the way forward. Come on farmers!!! Hurry with the rice! I can't wait. : D Oh and sounds silly maybe but we buy our rice locally. Yup, we buy the rice at the local hole in the wall family owned type place, the "all they sell is rice store", lol!!! So, we actually buy and eat this rice that they grow back there!!! : ) Very cool!
The group that came to play last Friday!!! Branden, Noah and 2 little girls who live in the same housing community we live in. They go to the same elementary school as B. They played for so long Friday, they stayed until 5pm when the song in the neighborhood played for the kids to come home, lol!!! Who else came to play during the past 7 days? Genki and B played twice this past week, Kouiki came over 3 times. These 2 little girls came twice. And a few other kids came too. A few times they just rang the doorbell and the whole lot of them went bike riding. Another day they went exploring in the rice field out back. Another time they came to play soccer in our back yard. And just stuff like that. And with Spring break in effect, I imagine the kids will play even more now.
Saturday night we had tacos for supper. Taco Bell tacos, lol! Thanks to the Taco Bell seasonings! Not very authentic I know, but very American, lol! We loved them! :D
Barely 4:32 pm and dinner was made. However the boys were still playing with a few boy's outside and when the bell rang at 5pm, they came in washed hands and we had supper. For the most part, we usually eat at 5pm, however it's not set in stone either. : )
My Saturday supper, 3 crunch taco supremes, lol. Yup with sour cream too! : ) And an iced tea with ice. Hubby took shower with both boy's and I took a shower alone and then we all settled in for the night. Watching American idol. It's so good right now!
Sunday, March 22nd, my birthday! Hubby made me pancakes and hot coffee for breakfast. And the boy's jumped in and helped as well.
Noah stirred!!! He is getting so good at cooking and helping.
Branden stirring and then finally hubby finished with the stirs! : ) And boy, did my family all have that..."we just woke up look" or what? Ha ha ha!
Pancakes by my husband, you know, sure one pancake is darker then the other two. But, man....from the start of my day, he made me feel like...."queen for a day", so in my mind those were so pretty gorgeous looking pancakes. Ha ha ha. Do you know what I mean? Ha ha ha. : ) During breakfast he said...what do you want to do today? Gee, I sat and thought...movie? Long drive...what? And then I thought, ungh huh! And I said....karaoke!!! He said, done! And so after breakfast we all went upstairs and got dressed.
A very large basket of fries and endless drink bar for as long as we stayed. We sang for 2 hours by the way. : ) It was totally fun!
See these Prince songs? : ) I sang, 1999, Little Red Corvette and Raspberry Beret! LOL! Madonna's, Material Girl, Borderline, American Pie, Rhianna's Umbrella song, Beyonce's Irreplaceable, Lisa Loeb, Stay.....Eagles, Hotel California and by the time we left, I even sang MC Hammer's, "Can't Touch This" because by then I was feeling a bit silly! Ha ha ha. Hubby sang tons too, kids sang a few and mostly laughed at us.... their dorky parents! Ha ha ha, : ) And I had a fantastic time! I really really did! : )
And I did not punch in the numbers to this song, Noboru did, it was the last song before we left. He and both the boy's sang Happy Birthday to me, in the karaoke room before we left! I got to spend the day exactly how I wanted, so it was really special.
After karaoke, we headed to the little country mall, that isn't even in our town, our towns too small for a mall, even a country one, lol! I asked why, he said, it was lawn care related. I believed it hook line and sinker. When we pulled in and he said, we are really here to pick up your cake!!! Awww, first feelings were pure joy. What a thoughtful husband. And I know I'm lucky to have suck a thoughtful hubby like that. Then my second thought was....oh dear god, I hope it doesn't have chocolate in it?!!!! You know...lent, I'd given it up for lent. We went in and picked up the cake and yup....indeed chocolate icecream was indeed in there. Should I say something? How could someone complain though... just for someone trying to be so thoughtful in the first place? I mean, he didn't know! Dilemma dilemma. Complain, and hurt this most dearest sweetest man's feelings. Or.... Ugh. And to top it off, he got both the boy's a kids scoop of icecream just because he's such a good dad and all around wonderful guy. Dilemma yet again. Hubby meanwhile was so excited. Saying to me..." you know, I don't really like keeping secrets but...were you surprised?" He was all excited about the cake. And I ultimately didn't say a thing except thank you and I meant it. I guess, I just couldn't stand hurting someones feelings like that. Shattering someone who had just done something sweet. Hurting someone with jugular exposed is so totally not who I am... as a human being. Now eating something gross even to save someones feelings is more my style and believe me, I've done that heaps in Japan! :D So, nah, I was very appreciative about my birthday cake. And so we went tootling out of the the mall all happy with cake in hand! : ) We went home dropped off the cake. Watched TV for about 45 minutes and then we headed to Narita City for my birthday dinner. I chose Capricciosa!
Cesar salads, tomato, olive oil and garlic baguette...
Enormous sized breaded rice ball with melted hot gooey mozarella cheese inside.
This is so darned good! By the time our dinners came we were nearly full! All the starters/appetizers were so filling.
2 large servings, of pasta and 1 pizza! A soda and we were all nearly busting at the seams by this point.
We always show actual ID when it's our birthday's no matter where we go, so they know we're not lying trying to scam some freebie or anything, lol. And sure enough they always give me my choice of cakes....choco cake, pumpkin tart or rasberry cheesecake. I went with the cheesecake. Kids all had the icecream and hubby and I shared the cheesecake. They brought out 2 hot coffees to go with dessert. All of us were so stuffed, we four nearly almost had to roll ourselves out the restaurant, lol! Wink, wink!!! And we headed home.
Hubby went upstairs, and changed clothes to sweatpants. Hey home is where we stay comfy!!!! : ) My skype phone rang, perfect timing. It was my dad, wishing me a happy Birthday. I thanked him. And I told him about the whole dilemma about chocolate and lent etc etc. He told me how Sunday's don't technically count for the 40 days and to look it up. I know people have debated that for years. Anyway...at least he tried to reassure me. And it sorta helped. My dad all trying to be Mr. helpful. I pretty much decided for myself to have the cake anyways so. But my dad made me feel a bit better about it. : )
Hubby came downstiars and by now I had hung up with dad. He lit all the candles, got the coffee started. And they sang me Happy Birthday!!! How was my birthday this past Sunday? It was truly fantastic! My husband made me feel like queen for a day from the start of my day.... with the pancakes. The singing of karaoke and the dinner of exactly what I wanted. Granted I didn't end up with a zillion presents or anything. But, I really don't much care so much about that stuff. My 6 pairs of yoga pants are coming. And I already have everything I need anyway. I got a family that treats me like gold, so I'm blessed in my book! I got some money from dad, my mom also got me an Old navy gift card for $100 bucks to be used for myself and a $100 Amazon gift card, she asked me 3 weeks ago and I said Amazon would be excellent. Haven't placed any orders yet. But it's there if I need it. So, it's cool. Thanks dad, thanks mom, thanks hubby and thanks Branden and Noah! : )
And just a tiny sliver of cake and ice cream! And my caramel machiatto! After my bath Sunday, during American idol, Noboru rubbed my feet for about 30 minutes with my Shea Butter from The Body Shop. My feet felt soft and smelled divine afterwards and he even put socks on my feet. I sure did enjoy the heck out of my birthday. : )
This past Monday, the 2nd to last day of school for Branden. The note said, bring only a thermos! The first graders played themselves silly Monday, which is why they needed the thermos for staying hydrated. I packed half with jasmine tea and froze it, the night before. And in the morning it was half filled and froze. Then the rest, I filled with chilled jasmine tea. So, the iced part kept the rest iced cold all day long. Tuesday, B only had school to 11am. It was a closing ceremony for the 1st graders. He also brought home a certificate saying he completed the first grade in Japan and it was stamped and the whole bit. He also brought home 2 awards for achievement. And that was that. Both kids are on break now. Life is good....life is slow! It's moving at a snails pace and by gosh..... I LOVE it! Snails pace is good!!! Ha ha ha. Will stay up late and snooze in every morning! Will enjoy Spring break like crazy!!!!TV Talk, the 2 DVD rentals we ordered got here and we watched "Get Smart", all 4 of us laughed so hard, I didn't expect too much since it's a remake of the old TV series, but it was great. Branden actually watched it again on the mini DVD the next day! That's how good it was! And we also rented Saw part 5. No, obviously the kids weren't allowed to watch that, lol. Just hubby and I did. We started it at 11pm one night long after the boy's were in bed. It was gore as usual. And the quality of the Saw movies are starting to go down, definitely not as good as the first 2. Hmmm. : ) We still have 2 more to rent. Yikes! Will have to order them today.
Did anyone hear that Natasha Richardson died as result of a skiing accident. She apparently died of severe head injuries. Her family is legendary and so talented, her mom, her aunt. I loved her in the remake of the Parent Trap. And her sister I really enjoy in Nip/Tuck. For us in Japan with satellite, the Parent Trap was just on a week or so ago. So really really recently. And Liam Neeson is amazing, loved him in Shindler's List. And from all accounts, they were very much in love.....*sigh*. I just hate when good wonderful people die or their life is cut so short. : (
Can't believe when Branden returns to school in April he will be a 2nd grader...a ninensei!!! Can you believe it?!!! Kids really do grow in a blink of an eye sometimes!!! : ) Have a good week you guys!!! : )
Last Thursday, was the Olympic ceremony. That's what they call it. Now if ya ask me. I'll tell you it's just medals/awards given out for PE/gym. : ) The woman on the right, wearing that very light minty green or light frosty blue sweater, she is our principal. The lovely on the left, is our most favorite teacher. That's the tender hearted fluffy heart sensei. She's Noah's teacher. She is like this super kind gentle soul. She's not married and doesn't have kids yet but you can tell, when she does, she's going to be a fantastic mother. She's such a sweetheart!
This guy is our school's gym teacher. Just in case the track suit didn't give it away! Ha ha ha. :D He's hilarious this guy! He is always joking, kidding around. Branden used to really like him a lot. And now Noah really gets a kick out of him as well. He's a real good guy!
Sorry for this pic being sorta small. You all know, I usually never do that. It's just, every one's name tags are on their outer parts of their jackets. I should have tried to white out the names on the tags at least. But don't really have time. So, just shrunk the pic size. I do apologize. Anyways this is such a good story and I just have to tell it. You guys will get a good laugh about it, I think. : ) Okay, first off, I just have to say. You know how Noah had like the smoothest transition starting yochien right? Well, so then it's pretty obvious why I wouldn't have had any worries at all for the PE ceremony day thing (or so I thought, dun dun dun!!!!!!). Okay, so, anyway. Last Thursday, my dad, Noboru and myself are sitting in the second to front row upstairs waiting for the kids to come in and be presented with their little cardboard or paper medals. :D We are just relaxed and calm and just otherwise sitting and waiting, doing some small chit chat type stuff. Then the kids came in. Oldest to youngest. Blue badges first and all the way down to the wee little yellow badges. In walks the 2 last yellow badges, sniffling and with watery eyes. One was Noah! What???? Why??? My dad is like, "oh my god, Noah's crying, what happened" "Is he okay?" Me sitting between both my dad and the hubster sorta surprised myself. Going..." I'm wondering why he's crying too." Noboru meanwhile whispering..."oh my, he's crying", tender heart sensei makes her way to us and assures us every thing is fine, that this is just their first time on stage and so they are fearful. Remember that little girl and Noah started in January. The other new boy wasn't there last Thursday. The other kids/yellow badges started in October and have done 3 stage walks already before this one (Christmas recital, candle ceremony etc). So they are sorta used to it. "Ohhh okay" the 3 of us said to the sensei, what she said, sounded pretty logical and could be the reason for sures. The little girl was just flat out crying, bless her little heart. It was sorta cute though, her being so little and just a little 3 year old, and she's quite the cutie anyway. Noah, is a quiet crier, so while he might not have been as vocal, he just sniffled a lot and he indeed silently cried too. And tears streamed down his face the entire time. So the yellow badges went first. All the kids except 2, went right up on stage when their name were called. When they got to Noah and the little girl they didn't want on the stage. The other mom's having more then likely been there done that, all said....kawaii. Just them saying that, I think that made us and the little girls mom feel much better, like we were in a supportive circle, among friends type situation versus being around spiteful mockers, so it helped a lot. The other sensei, carried the crying little girl on stage to collect her award and the tender heart sensei carried our little Noah on stage. I'm glad they had them go on stage though to get over the fear factor for next time. Knock on wood. And how was I during all this? No worries from me at all, not even 1 iota, I guess, I just figure, after getting 2 kids adjusted to yochien under my belt, nothing really rattles my cage anymore. Ha ha ha! That is the silver lining with this! : )
The sweetest and our favorite sensei carrying out the gift everyone helped make. That was from the baragumi class. All of us were asked to bring in 1 picture, we were all given a little square to place the pic on. Noah's picture is on there. His pic is on the 3rd row from the top someplace. : )
After the ceremony last Thursday, my dad and hubby and I went to Coco's for lunch. With an exciting morning like that, we had a whole bunch to talk and laugh about at the restaurant. The both of them had a hamburg lunch set. And I meanwhile went for a chicken cheese quesadilla and fries and endless drink bar.
Last Thursday after school, grandpa/my dad went and played outside in the backyard with both the boy's. They chased grandpa through the yard. 
They asked grandpa to be the oni and here is grandpa about to get Noah!!! : )
He's a very very supportive grandpa. Here he is clapping for Branden because he did a hand stand!!! LOL. (And a sliver of my shadow, my arm up high and bent as I held my camera)
Still standing, way to go B! And grandpa hugging Noah!
Since I'm the only child, these are his only grandchildren. They are extremely tight! And on Thursday and Friday, grandpa would stand out and wait for Branden to walk down the hill with the other kids. After school. And then they'd both jump in my car also, grandpa walked Noah into class those 2 days to and from, he really is a doting grandpa, ha ha ha. He's so cute! : )
Not even a quarter of the amount of cookies we made.
These ones say from Branden.: )
Each kid/classmate of the boy's, got 2 cookies per bag. And there are 20 kids for Branden's class. And 30 kids in Noah's class. So 20 and 30 makes 50. 50 times 2, is 100. And then, the ones in the clear cookie bags are for the teachers. 1 bag for Branden's sensei and one for his principal. And 2 for Noah's 2 teacher's and 1 bag for the yochien principal and 1 bag for the yochien secretary. So that is definitely well over a 100 cookies. And then to my very very good friend, Noriko as well. Oh and the bigger pink bag with hearts was a bag of 5 cookies in it and a gift for Chi-chan. She's Noah's best friend at the moment and she is just so nice and helpful and sweet. She's a very very good girl. So, that's why hers was a bit different. Looks like a ton of cookies in pink bags on this table, right? It was! Ha ha ha! However, I do not regret taking my time to bake those cookies at all. And besides it wasn't that much work at all. We baked about 50 cookies at a time (these were smallish cookies that's why, the size I bake for our family, usually gets us about 2 dozen per pack of Toll House, but these were twice smaller, which is why, and we made 2 batches, but they were fine.) So, it wasn't really all that hard anyway. Homemade chocolate chip pecan cookies!!! And no, I didn't eat one single cookie since they contain chocolate. However I did have a blueberry cheesecake ice cream after all the sweets baking. Ha ha ha. I was craving something sweet after all that delicious cookie baking going on. : ) The boy's helped make the cookies. My dad also helped me *big time*!!! However, we had music playing and it was sorta fun baking together like that. The boys were excited to give them out. Branden took all of his in a paper Gap bag. And he had his classmates put theirs in their backpacks to take home. Everyone loved them! The principal of the elementary came into the classroom after he ate them and thanked Branden and said they were very good. Branden felt happy and the kids all felt happy and no one was left out, since everyone got them that was in the boy's class. Branden was beaming after school on Friday. Noah's teachers were so surprised and happy to get something for White Day. I asked them to give them to the kids, they also put them in their backpacks. When I picked up Noah with my dad on Friday, all the kids in the bara class said, thank you to "Noah's mama" Ha ha ha. The principal at the yochien got so excited she thanked me in both English and Japanese. It's really sorta cool to do something for others. Just to do it to be nice, plain and simple. Noah was all happy about giving the cookies too. A lot of the mom's have since thanked me and said how good they were etc. And I didn't do it for thanks. Just for more of the pay it forward type stuff. Sometimes you are nice to other's and they might be nice to someone else and then it snowballs. Anyway, sorry to be such a dork here! But it's sorta nice to be nice!!! Ha ha ha. : ) 
Miracle Whip for me. And Elmer's school glue for B. : ) At our elementary you can buy any glue you want and B usually just goes with the Japanese glue, but this year he requested if he could bring both glues, so he will have Japanese glue and American glue. And they do have a lot of uses since they make a lot of art projects in school so I don't mind so much.
Kneading the pizza dough on Friday.
We already made one large pizza with dough leftover grandpa suggested we make Branden and Noah their own mini personal pizzas. Good idea. : )
Three pizzas ready for toppings! : )
As you can see by the time, it wasn't even 6:30 pm. Pizza done, we ate, watched TV and relaxed.
This was such a good pizza! We really enjoyed it a lot. : )
My dad ended up catching the flight Saturday evening. That way he could spend 1 more day with the boy's. And then that was that. Next thing you know we were driving dad to Narita airport. Sniff, sniff. : ( Oh yeah, My dad found his place, we had the agent find us the place we liked and she took pics of each room in full details. So Noboru didn't even need to fly there. So dad was happy he found such a great place and we were all happy to visit with him here in Japan before he left. And it was really short and the time seemed to just slip by.
My dad and Branden. His first grandchild ever ever ever! Here he is bending down and being playful with Branden right up to the second he left! Branden was so sad when grandpa wheeled his luggage cart away and inside the airport. he said..."I don't want grandpa to go" I said, "I know you don't sweetheart. " I was bumming too, because you all know how close we are. Noah fell asleep in the car when my dad left. And when he woke up, he asked for grandpa. And even asked for him the next day as well. It was sorta really sad for me to hear how much the kids miss grandpa. Sigh. : (
Noboru, saying good bye. They're pretty close. Noboru likes my dad a lot and vice versa. Unfortunately though Noboru was working every single day my dad was here and had a really wonky schedule those days, so they only had like 1 day to chat. But all was good. : )
Right before my dad left, he handed me this money. (about $350.00US for you Americans or about 35,000 yen for you in Japan) I handed it right back. "I don't need it", I said!!! My dad said, "but your birthday is coming up soon" "I know" I said with a smile. But I still don't need it. He insisted and shoved the money in my purse, "go on just take it", I pulled it out of my purse and then put it in his pocket, "but that's way too much" So we went back and forth forever it seems. And then, he said, "look I'm your dad, just take it", so, I relented and took it. Thanks dad. I appreciate it. If I do spend it and buy something I'll let ya know. : ) Between, my dad and my hubby and my mom, I think I'll make out, okay for my birthday, I always end up getting way more then I need. Simple little Target girl that I am! Ha ha ha. : ) And my birthday isn't even until March 22nd. Ha ha ha. 
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