Here's the Mother's Day gifts Noah made for me at yochien this year! A very nice drawing/portrait of me. And this handmade panda container holding a flower! I love homemade kids gifts the best! They're *so* special! : ) Branden doesn't get to make any now that he's in elementary. : (
See the magnetic tape on the back? ; ) I love that the school thought of putting magnets on there.
And now it proudly hangs underneath Branden's old one he made me at yochien years ago. I know, I know I should have packed up B's a long time ago, but it's so cute and I can't bare to pack it away just yet. : ) Besides, I think it is the fine touches like family pictures along the walls throughout a house and kids homemade artworks/projects that make a house a home! And by gosh my fridge looks like a typical family fridge...who happily has kids! : ) : ) And by gosh, I love it!
On Mother's Day, we woke up bright and early, had breakfast at home, got dressed and headed to the Narita Airport Course (athletic course), we went there to spend the day as a family. By looking at the pictures online, we could tell to bring a spare change of clothes for each of the kids. Rough and tumble play expected inside. ; )
It's like a whole course. Forty different activities! Sort of like an obstacle course, I guess would be a good explanation.
Here they were about to go down into the scary dark tunnels. ; )
This one, you had to pull the rope and get yourself from one end to the next. Branden tried this one and had fun with it.
A great big swing riding high above the murky water! Branden loved this one a lot!
Noboru took Noah on it as well. I loved this one too, it rocked!
Noah swinging away...almost makes me want to give a tarzan type hollar. ; )
Very steep!
And then back down!
A really really long slide!
Noah going down the slide!
Yay Noah! : )
Two very close brothers! : )
Branden sliding down that rope with the swing yet again!
#24, the limbo! Can you limbo? Yeah, you can? How low can you go??? ; ) LOL. Makes me think of the song...."every limbo boy and girl, all around the limbo world".... 
Clearly Noah can do the limbo! Ha ha ha. How hilarious! ; )
Yay Branden!
We went through them all except this one. #32. This one was so deep and so dirty, I think you'd need a bath afterwards right away. And Noah was way to little for this one still. And frankly, I even had doubts if B should go on this one, so we skipped this one, all of us. But we did complete the rest.
Hold on tight, to a great big hunk of wood and shimmy and glide through the "forest"! Check and check! Great job and well done Branden!
And good going to you too little guy! Well done Noah!!! : )
If you only knew how absolutely silly my husband is. (shakes head ; ) Though we've been together forever so we must be equally silly! Ha ha ha. : )
#36, almost about to reach #40 and finish!!!
Hi Branden, I see you enjoying #36! Ha ha ha.
We went through the rest and reached 39.
Oh goodness this was so steep! Noboru always going directly behind Noah as a precaution. That way he could catch him in case of emergency or anything. Didn't need it, but it gave me great piece of mind.
Branden was already up on the other tier. And Noboru helped Noah up.
Good job Branden!
Coming down off #39 and finishing 40 and then we all felt really proud we cleared this course! With the exception of #32.
Everyone leaving this place, feeling quite happy, albeit a lot dustier and dirtier then when we arrived for sure! But we all had fun! They washed up their hands real good and we left!
After leaving the athletic course, we headed to lunch. I could pick the restaurant of my choice since it was Mother's Day and all. ; ) And I picked our favorite Chinese restaurant. This place is so good! The kids each had their own fried rice, egg drop soup, gyoza and they shared an adult side order of karaage it's huge so they barely finished it. Noboru had a big combo/set sort of like mine but with different items. And I had this. Fried, rice, gyoza, karaage, salad and it came with egg drop soup. During lunch I noticed how dirty Noah's yellow and white shirt was, so I switched his shirt in the MPV after we had lunch. Branden was luckily still clean but Noah's shirt needed a changing.
After leaving the restaurant, we went to a DIY. Different shirt and hat but same dusty shorts from the athletic course. ; )
We were looking for liners for our hanging baskets. We keep the same baskets but change the liners every year.
Dad and son! : )
Only 128 yen or so each and we only needed 4. Picked up some potting soil and paid and headed home.
Pic before we located the soil.
You know what? I grew so impatient waiting for the impatiens to come to my area where we live, I decided to just order online. Seriously, you know I have honestly been going every week looking for impatiens and no such luck! : ( Last Monday, I finally said...enough! And I went online and just ordered there. This place is specializing in them anyway, so I ordered from here. Granted wish they would have sold them locally at my local DIY like last year. But ah well. I understand how the extra long winter drug out and the delay for lots of flowers and planting.
New liners for the old hanging baskets. : ) You know what? I had a very nice Mother's day. We spent the most of the day at the athletic course. We had lunch as a family. And the day wound down with my getting to plant my flowery hanging baskets. Yatta!!! An awesome Mother's day indeed.
Gorgeous flowers. And I ordered all red. Yet would you believe they gave me 3 hot pink. Hmm. Not crazy about that, but to be fair they gave me 2 extra plants then I ordered so I'm not complaining. Besides I had enough red for the hanging baskets anyway. And no, I am not anti any color for flowers, ha ha ha. It's just the front porch we always hang red. That's all, no special meaning or anything.: ) Oh well, we had enough for the porch so no worries.
Getting them all seperated. I use 3 little plants for each hanging basket and by mid Summer they're all thick and lush with flowers.
Hi beautiful! Thanks to the both of you for helping me plant the flowers.
And done. 4 hanging baskets with red flowers. My 2 white pots that also have red flowers. And not really sure what to do with the hot pink...yet NEVER wanting to throw a flower away, no way! So, I got out my extra pot and planted the pink in the ceramic pot and will keep it in the backyard. The rest will all be for the front yard and porch area.
I apologize for showing a pic of my hubby's booty, the intent was showing what we did with the pink flowers, whoops.; ) Anyway, here's the hot pink flowers, they did not go to waste. ; ) They'll be loved and have a good home. They're shade loving flowers so along the shed or on the porch they go. Noboru pulling any excess weeds. And Noboru has worked so hard on the yard so far...let's see. He's sprayed fertilizer on the grass so far, used weed killer and he manually pulls any extra weeds that get away. The kids and I help too. The grass is indeed slowly turning greener and greener. I love how it slowly gets greener all Spring until Summer and then sad how it slowly fades away in Fall.
The flowers will not be on the porch until a week at least, they will sit on the terrace and get used to being transplanted and get a bit bigger before they go on the porch. They're on the terrace even now as I type. ; ) After we finished up the flowers, I came inside and made baked ziti for my family for Mother's Day. Comfort food times a 100.
Sauce, pasta, ricotta mixture, cheese and then layers once more. Baked in the oven and smells so good. We also had salad and garlic bread! So yumm! Kids always love this when I make it, so does Noboru!
Fresh out of the oven, as you can see by the spatula, I seriously did almost forget to take a pic. I was thinking "serve family food"...not take a pic. Ha ha ha. So sorry about the spatula. ; )
OMG, Sunday's Mother's day dinner! Amazing! Flat out amazing! Baked ziti, garlic bread, yummy Italian salad. Makes me hungry all over again just thinking about it. ; ) With the start of the morning, from the athletic course, to lunch, to flower shop, to planting flowers, to making dinner and eating dinner and sitting enjoying our conversation through dinner. It was a wonderful Mother's day, hope you all had an equally enjoyable Mother's Day as well. : )
My Mother's Day gifts were the wonderful art projects Noah made me at the yochien. Love homemade gifts from the kids, I tell ya... the best best best!!! Hugs and kisses all day long from both the boys! : ) And my gift from my hubby, like I said. A small order from the Flying Pig that should be here this coming Wednesday morning. Anyway, that was how we spent our Mother's Day this year! : )
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