Here's a few pics, I took of Noah last week while Branden was at swimming school with his pals. Noah was playing in the backyard like regular and I was sitting on the bench seat under the parasol and chatting with him while he played. Then I thought, why not take a few pics of Noah playing. So up the stairs he went. And then he slid on down the slide.
And then he went up again and slid down the slide yet again.
A few clicks in between slides here and there.
And of course had to capture the sliding part too. ; )
Then when it was time, we went around the front and walked up the walkway to our side of the park where the swim bus drops off Branden, we waited for him to come back and we three walked home and had dinner. : ) Okay okay....not too terribly exciting in the grand scheme of things. But there ya go. ; )
On Monday, I had it planned. I'd wash all the kids school stuff and so I did. Seat cushions/fire cover things, seat cushion covers. Red and white hats for both Branden and Noah. Gym uniforms for both the boys. Tons of short and long sleeved uniform shirts/dress shirts for Noah, and his uniform Summer shorts. Obento bags, you name it, I washed it if it had anything remotely related to school.
Branden's sneakers/trainers. B got new inside shoes so obviously he didn't need those washed. Noah's school shoes and inside shoes. Talked to granny next door (boys next door's grandma) throughout the day, a good morning here...and "it's so hot today" there. And a "you're getting the boys ready for school, I see" there from her. We also talked tomatoes and that was about it for us that day. ; )
Brought the washed shoes inside the house and new shoe inserts for Noah. Branden requests no inserts. ; ) He didn't mind them in yochien but in elementary he's said...no thanks. And that's okay. I don't want to cramp anyone's style or anything. ; )
All the school bags went on after the rest dried up. Branden's gym bag backpack, Noah's froggy bags. Just all of them. Brought them in when dried and packed both Branden and Noah on Monday. That way...in case I was running late on either first day of school, I wouldn't forget something important. Phew. Wasn't so hard but glad I got it done Monday.
I bought Branden a new thermos. And my foot step counter thingy, I have been using since last year broke. It started erasing my step count mid day. Which sucked big time. I'd look at my steps, it would say something like 7,000 steps (I'd feel happy because I can see the progress by looking at the steps I'm making). So a few hours later when I was sure I'd had way over 10,000 steps, it would say, 120 steps!!! Very frustrating. So, I bought this new step counter. And guess what, this one is horrible..... it doesn't count all my steps. I showed it to Noboru and so he says we should take it back to Cainz and exchange it. So next week, I'm going to do that...thank goodness I still have my receipt. And for what it's worth, we started the counter on zero, I walked 10 steps, for a test that hubby and I did....making sure if it was broke or not. And even counted my steps and it said I had walked 2 steps. @_@ So yeah, a bit of a bummer but it has to go back to be exchanged for one that's not defective. Anyway it'll get sorted out, I am sure. That's the positive side.
We had American style fried pork chops one night, with rice a roni and some veggie. It was good, basic but good.
See these? Know what they are? I don't either, so don't worry. : ) They're some Pokemon character. We took the boys to the movies on Wednesday like we promised. And I ended up deciding to go in the end anyway. I wasn't going to go. And Noboru kept telling me...you should go. It's no fun just being at home all alone. Come with us. I was like ehhh. Maybe. And so Tuesday I was sort of wavering towards going and Wednesday, he said I should go again and I said....yeah why the heck not. So, I ended up going.
The kids know exactly who this is and so do their friends (we ended up with 4 of these character charms, each ticket received one free). Anyway Branden's first day back to school. Our school, says to bring like 2 things each day. Paints and recorder one day for example. Shuji set and clothes the next. This can take a week to actually bring everything back from home. They do that for the kids who walk, it makes it easier for them and lighter to carry (very understandable). I always just have Branden take everything in one fell swoop the first day. As you know, I don't really like procrastination all that much and better to just get it over with. And I drive both kids anyway, so it's not so hard for B anyway. So first day back to school, on Wednesday, he brought it all to school. It was a half day, he got out at 11am. And 11am, Noah and I picked him up from school, we ran home. Picked up Noboru. And we all headed to the movies first to buy our tickets and pick our seat. Then we went to Mc D's for lunch. The movie didn't start until 1:50pm, so we ate slowly and then the boys had shakes afterward lunch and Noboru and I each had a strawberry blizzard/Mc Flurry (sorry must have had DQ on my mind, I said blizzard at first, lol). We walked across the street from MC D's to the movies (where our car was parked anyway) and enjoyed the movie.
I had to share this picture before I end this post. So, while I was doing my weekly shopping this week. I went and bought 2 packs of instant coffee for myself since I drink that every week. And I usually drink the caramel machiatto one, but was really really surprised to see Oreo coffee. I saw it. @_@ Looked again. And thought...hmmmm. Wonder what that tastes like? And then I said....as usual....why the heck not. I'll give it a shot. Just to see. ; ) We had buta kimchi Thursday night for dinner. And for today/tonight...we will have fajitas. Dark meat ones for hubby and white meat ones for the kids and I. TGIF, everyone, we all survived the first week back to school. Yay! The morning wake up time wasn't so hard for me this week at all. All in all... it was a very good first week back to school.
Whoops, I can't leave out Noah, how was his first week back at school? It was pretty good. Thursday went without a hitch. They're practicing for the undokai at Noah's yochien so the note yesterday said that from now until undokai (sometime in October) kids don't need to wear the Summer uniform anymore. Just send them to school wearing their yellow gym uniform. And bring them an extra shirt for when they sweat they can switch it. So, today was the first day for that. I sent Noah in his gym uniform this morning.
Any other bits and pieces. Hmm.
Noah has now switched swimming days to Wednesday's. If you recall. Maybe... maybe not. But Branden's out of elementary school time and Noah's swim start time, collided big time. And at first took Noah swimming on Saturday's but it was miserable with like hundreds of kids. Okay maybe not actual hundreds, but a lot. And no place to sit for us parents. So we switched his days to a weekday. He swam Friday's. And has swam Friday's ever since. But his schedule will have to match Noboru's. Meaning Noboru's day off. Now that Noboru's days off have switched again. Noah had to switch swim days too. So, no biggie. but Noah will have to swim on Wednesday's for the Fall now. And I think we will have a time conflict in December, should end in January. But, for now...no use worrying about it. I may have to go back to Saturday's for the month of December. But I hope not. Anyway...for now until Fall, Noah will now swim Wednesday's.
Branden's undokai is in like 2 weeks. And they've been practicing a lot too. And every day we send them with a thermos filled with a drink with ice.
So every morning, I'm like...ahhh, don't forget Branden's thermos. Ahhh, don't forget to make sure Noah's wearing his gym uniform and *not* his Summer uniform. So many things to remember. But it's going okay. No mistakes yet. Mitsuko is coming for Noah's undokai. I think she's spending 2 nights with us. But that's not until October. She was going to come to Branden's instead but, Noboru has a "father's club" meeting after Branden's undokai. And so that's okay. After Branden's undokai, we can just come home and relax.
I have not picked out any dvd's for September yet! Shame shame on me. ; ) I better do that as soon as I publish this.
Anything else? Anything, anything...going once, going twice. Hmm. Tomorrow's Noah's sweet potato dig, of course there will be the obligatory...."Noah's sweet potato dig" post to do. I do that every year, and did that every year with B beforehand, as you all know. Anyway you all, I better get....I have Branden's swim towel flapping on the fence and his spare gym uniform waving and flapping on the hanger in the breeze as well. Plus I need to get to Tsutaya discas online and pick those next dvd rentals (otherwise I'll have a family just twiddling their thumbs and wondering how come mom didn't pick any movies yet). Anyway, please have a wonderful weekend everyone. : )
PS...I had Noboru put Noah's training wheels back on his Thomas bike. He was starting to wobble a lot this Summer. And so, I felt it just safer to put them back on, and maybe when he's older we can take them off, yet again. ; ) Better safe then sorry though, right? I don't want an injured kiddo on my hands. : ) Okay, I better go this time for sures! : )
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