This pic was taken last Friday about 30 minutes after I got home from the hair salon. It snowed off and on for our part of Chiba through the night but Saturday was gone and melted away. Also the day Noboru got his sneakers it snowed a bit that day as well, but after about 30 minutes it turned to rain. Big clumpy rain...but rain. And even this morning Tuesday...we woke up to a light sprinkling in the backyard. It's all melted now of course. But this at least gives you an idea of the weather we've been having lately.
Last Friday after taking Noah swimming. We 4 headed out to a ramen shop. Noboru had a ramen set/combo with gyoza. The kids had ramen kids sets with fried rice, ramen, dessert, drink and a toy. : ) And I had the spicy ramen but something very interesting happened. I could only eat half. See all the noodles in my bowl? I left them. That's not happened to me before. I usually can finish a lone bowl of spicy ramen. But this time I couldn't. I think with me working very hard with cutting my portions down, my stomach shrank? Or I don't know. Also, I still have not lost anymore then the 2kg. And I also have not gained it. So a 2kg loss. However, Noboru measured me with a tape measure 3 weeks ago or so. And then he measured me last Friday and I lost 3cm on my waist measurements. So, that's a really good thing, I guess. : ) Anyway enough fitness talk.....
Saturday morning I baked the boys a homemade apple pie. With the weather being very cold. And with us just going to be staying home anyways for the weekend. It sounded perfect. I made the crust...a homemade butter crust. And peeled the apples.
Some flour so the apple juices don't become runny. Thickens it up a bit. Some brown sugar and some cinnamon. And a little lemon juice.
Mixed it all up. Rolled out the crust.
Smelled so good. I had 1 slice the whole weekend. Both Branden and Noah and the hubby loved and munched it all weekend. I think it was gone by Sunday afternoon. @_@
I also asked the kids a few days earlier what would they like and they said we haven't had pizza in a long time. So, I agreed and I made the crust Saturday morning. The 4 of us, enjoyed pizza Saturday night. I had 2 slices and enjoyed every bite. : ) We watched a dvd. And just had a good time with family night last Saturday. : )
This sort of didn't happen over the weekend but I haven't posted it. I placed an order for the kiddos in mid January. I had that 30% coupon. So the stuff was ridiculously cheap. So smart buys. Thanks to the 30% off coupon.
Misc boys stuff. With a few flippies for me.
Covered the rhinestones with paper which was nice.
Two have rhinestones and the other ones have a nice sized corsage on them.
Branden's stuff.
Undies and a university tee.
Being 9 has been a bit weird because they don't sell size 9 stuff at most clothing shops. They sell size 8 which is supposed to be 8-9. And he has that swim trunk size and it's more like a size 8. So he's outgrown it. So I went with a size 10.
Rashguard.
Size 10 swimwear in kelly green for Branden this year.
A nice yellow sweatshirt with pale blue writing.
Noah's stuff. a basic striped shirt and a shirt that says...Today Rocks. I use the word..."rocks" a lot. So, I smiled when I saw this one.
Peace. : )
And the same sweatshirt.
This is the magazine I read while getting my hair done last week. I also finished up a good book. While there too.
Branden being silly. ; )
I didn't tell either of them to do anything when I took this pic. No direction from me at all. I actually wanted them both just to smile and say cheese. It makes me laugh though that Noah is always looking and staring at Branden. He truly adores his big brother. He just loves him so much. : ) What else...The movies were so good. Knight and Day was so good! Better then I thought it was going to be. I'm usually not a fan of action flicks. But this was great. And Eat Pray Love was really good too. Noboru didn't care for Eat Pray Love at all. But he's a guy and maybe he didn't get her need for her "year to find herself" or I am not sure. I liked it though. : ) He loved Knight and Day though. : )
December is here and I really like all holidays, but *especially* Christmas....ahh it's such a nice time of year, right? I think so. : ) I enjoy it a lot. Also with school nearly on Christmas break and many half days ahead of me and Noah's Christmas recital coming this week (two days in a row, goodness can you believe that?) Just been sorta focusing on stuff going on here at home lately, sorry for being a bit quiet. : ) Anyway little update, last week, with a bag of apples that went uneaten. Hmm, we usually eat them right up. Anyway not wanting anything to go to waste, I decided to make the apples into a pie. So last week with the boys at school, that's exactly what I did. Think that was last Friday.
Got my homemade butter crust all rolled out. You know the more pies I make, the faster at it, I become. Practice practice practice. : )
Lots of apples, some cinnamon, a bit of lemon juice, a tiny knob of butter and a bit of flour for thickening the apple mixture and then I was rolling out the top crust.
Closed and sealed up the pie.
Made a few tiny slashes in the pie. And whacked the pie in the oven.
And hour later, it was ready. Self control. This was for last Friday's dessert. Mind you, I walked past this pie all afternoon long and resisted any and all urges to get a slice. Noboru on the other hand couldn't stand it any longer and said, can I have a slice? I sadly had to say sorry but it's for dessert. When the boys came home, they said the same thing. Thank goodness when dinner was over, we were all waiting for dessert. What was for dinner that night? You know it was a blur, all I can remember from that night was the pie. :P
Curses on you pie, for tempting us all day long like that. ; ) ; ) But man, it was totally worth the wait.
And now for this week. On Tuesday I baked my first batch of Christmas cookies, they didn't even last 24 hours, between the boys and the hubby and some for me as well. Wednesday December 9th, I went to lunch with my 2 good friends, Noriko-san and Jogo-san. We went to an Italian restaurant. A small little restaurant that is packed to the gills during the day with ladies eating the lunch sets. Hmm, have I ever seen a guy in this restaurant? You know that is a good question. Lots of mom's eating with friends at this place. And even a table of older granny types (late 60's) all eating lunch together as well. The cake we had for dessert was enormous, I mean seriously it was huge. It had caramel sauce dripping along the cake. How on earth could we meet at 11am and stay until 1:30pm until it was time for the kiddo pick up time? You got me. But we always seem to have good conversation. Talked about Christmas, stuff like what are we planning to get our kids for Christmas. Also talked about New Years. Any new DVD's or movies we all have seen. You know just fun chitter chatter type stuff. Time seemed to breeze on by and then it was time to leave. Friday December 11th, Noboru and my plan was, as soon as the boys were sent to school, we would hit the Toys r us in Narita and then head back to the country side and go and have lunch at the Indian restaurant I went to with Jogo-san the week before. I have kept talking and talking to Noboru about HOW good the kobocha (sp?) curry was. And he finally said, let's go there to eat lunch. So that was our plan for Friday.
So, after Toys r us. And a brief stop at home to hide the few things into the attic. We then went to lunch. From noon to 1:10pm is when we left to go and pick up Noah from yochien. Anyway when I was at this restaurant with Jogo-san I ordered my curry in medium. You can choose the degrees of hotness you want for your curry. I felt the medium was a tad too mild and wanted to step it up a notch. So this week, I asked for my pumpkin curry in hot. Holy goodness! This was so hot, I almost thought it was too hot??? Almost inedible hot, but not quite, but almost though. Ha ha ha. I love hot, but gee now I don't know. Maybe next time I go there, I can ask them to make it somewhere between medium and hot? Hmmm. : ) It was delicious though, but wow it set me on fire! : ) : ) Noboru had the keema curry. After we picked up Noah, we then went to go and pick up Branden and then the 4 of us all went home. I was so happy for the weekend to be here. Although it was a nice quiet week and I did get to go out to lunch twice in a week which is a bit unusual for me. Maybe once a week, but very rare for me to go twice in 1 week. So, yeah it was sorta quiet but a definite good week. : )
Friday this week, Saturday and also Sunday, we had kids come to play. Just 2- 4 of Branden's good friends. Friday (2 friends) and Saturday it was 3 of Branden's good guy friends (they played dodgeball and beyblades so including B that was 4). And on Sunday 1 of B's guy classmates who lives in our same housing community plus Saya-chan came to play.
Our second batch of Christmas cookies of the season! These are the Christmas tree ones. : )
What a good little helper! : )
And now some stars!
Aha and my other helper adding the sprinkles to the cookies. Well done boys, well done! : )
Two and a half dozen cookies later and we were done baking. Baking Christmas cookies with the boys has really become tradition for us. We all look forward to it. These didn't last 24 hours either. Smiles : )
Some of the boys presents this year so far. And a few were ordered online and should be here this week. You know, we usually set up our Christmas tree, every year but this year with going to Guam, I didn't set up the tree. That way it'll be one less thing for me to take down when we get back after Christmas.
Look the cookies almost gone by the looks of this picture, lol over a dozen cookies eaten by the time I snapped this pic. Happy smiles. : ) : ) That's why we baked them so.... that makes me happy. After dinner, and after baths on Saturday, we got out all our Christmas DVD's and watched 2 of them. We watched Elf and a Christmas Story. With big bowls of popcorn and drinks and the rest of the cookies, we enjoyed watching Elf and A Christmas Story very much! These stories always make me laugh and are good to watch every year around the holidays. Goodness that boy who wanted the BB gun and the mom who kept saying..."you'll shoot your eye out" LOL! Anyway this is what we've been up to. Not anything too earth shattering, I'm afraid but this is it. : ) 
Sorry the blogs been sorta quiet. We've just been out and about, busy enjoying life lately a whole bunch. The post of our Disneyland trip will be coming shortly. But for now, I better get the one that happened before we went to Tokyo Disneyland. This one was when we went to the Ami premium outlets last weekend! Just a little catch up since last week basically. Last week sometime, I forget the actual evening we ate this. But that's not really important, ha ha. Anyway one night last week, I made a yumm-o gratin. Just came from a box, but added our own chicken, some fresh mushrooms, some cheese at the end and some frozen broccoli right before it was finished cooking. It was good, quick and everyone had seconds on this one. With Fall in full swing, so many casseroles, hearty soups, currys, and nabes will be made around here. Cookie baking and also pie making season has started around our house. I'm sure same with a lot of you as well.
What else, what else. Noboru mowed the lawn last Sunday. The kids meanwhile helped clean up in the backyard as well.
Branden helping level out the bark in the jungle gym area.
Noah and his mantis. Good grief, all the boys in our area are in full on, collecting mantis mode lately. At the elementary school a whole bunch of Branden's friends have been actually taking their bug boxes to school, and bringing their insects to school. Branden brought his mantis to school once last week and then brought him home after class. And then brought him to school once this week too. These country kids sure do have fun. : )
And B was still making sure that bark was evenly spread out. And yup, different week, different day, same towels, hanging in the breeze.
Sunday, I made a homemade apple pie, while the guys did the yard work in the backyard. Here I was making my crust. It's a flaky butter crust.
A whole bag of apples, peeled and sliced, a bit of flour for thickening the apple mixture. Some lemon juice, for that pinch of tartness, some sugar and cinnamon.
What a horrible picture of my slice of apple pie. But good grief was it great! So good. I think it was just too hot still and so it broke apart when I tried placing it onto my plate, oh well it happens. We all enjoyed dessert so much Sunday night.
Also the card my dad sent to B got here last week. My mom sent an electronic gift card and grandma's Mitsuko's is on the way.
Branden read his own card. And I thought my dad picked a cute card. : )
B read his message. Both the boy's have every card that my dad and family (both sides) has ever given them.
Dad, you spoil the boys too much! But they sure do love you, even without all the spoiling! : ) 
Also, I am sorry to report Branden made the dire mistake of leaving his phone in his pants pocket a few month's ago. And being the laundry nazi that I am. Washed it. I stupidly did not check the pockets. Imagine my horror to open the washer and start placing the clothes into the dryer to see a phone sitting nicely washed and soaped up and rinsed sitting at the bottom of the washer. @_@ We didn't just pop out and replace it. Sticklers like we are. We decided to have him wait for a holiday. Every week he goes to Kumon he has been borrowing my phone since. And it is honestly a little inconvenient for all of us (like the time Noboru called me while he was at work, he had wanted to tell me something real quick and instead reached B while at Kumon, hubby says "hey honey", Branden says, no daddy it's Branden not mommy"). So, yes for his birthday that is what Noboru bought him for his birthday. This was very badly needed. A Kodomobile phone. lol. Mistakes happen, nobodies perfect. I hope this phone lasts him for many many years ahead.
Branden's other gift from us this year. A pair of sneakers. And Noah needed them too. They both had foot growth spurts. Branden's birthday won't be until October 26th. We always have quiet little family celebrations. We don't overdo the presents, we also keep things really simple. This year is going to be the same way too. 
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