Branden's Junior High School graduation...

Last Thursday, March 9th Branden graduated Junior High School. He took his final walk into the gymnasium one last time. The 9th graders were split in 2 classes. There were 58 ninth graders total for both classes. But the 58 were divided in half all 3 years. Class A and class B. Branden was in class A and the teacher for class A... stood beautifully in her Kimono as her class A students filed into the gymnasium one final time. Music was playing. And every parent in the room was video taping and taking pictures. I took video and also snapped pictures in between. 

Then walked in class B after class A walked in first and their teacher stood as his class filed in one last time too. And then they waited for their name to be called. Before walking onto the stage. My American sized son, next to his classmate from class A.

Beautiful colorful flowers and a bonsai tree. He stood here until they called out his name one final time and he shouted proudly...hai! And then went and collected his diploma! I did not shed 1 tear. I was not sad. I was simply enjoying watching my great big tall beautiful son! Graduate with his class! I was so happy for him and oh...so proud! My heart was simply bursting!

These 4 were the very best of friends. Always together. Always talking. Always hanging out at each others houses. Always joking with one another. Growing up together since they were wee little... pika pika ichinensei, these 4! And now they're great big 9th graders. They will never again attend the same school together. These 4 are going to 4 different schools. Kento-kun was as you can tell  was crying. And I could feel and understand why. This was their final day together. Final day together as classmates. The class A kids were asked to each get up in front of the class A kids and parents and their teacher and say any parting words, this was done privately in their classroom, which I video taped. Branden said, he hopes to see everyone on Adult Day/Coming of Age Day when they're all age 20. And he kept his speech short and sweet. But so many were really feeling their hearts that day and were in tears. And it was at that point that I almost burst out in tears myself. But...I held it together. And deeply breathed in and out. Yes...I could totally understand why some were crying. And it was such a wonderful day. But also such a bittersweet day too. Best friends forever and ever!!! : )

Branden's sensei. She was the best teacher Branden has ever *ever* had! I liked her so much because she was an exchange student in Los Angeles California back in her day. And to me that matters so much because...if you have lived in another country or culture not your own. Your mind expands and you learn that the way you grew up...is perhaps not the way the rest of the world does things. Believe me...I learned that too... with living in Japan. And so...this gave his sensei such an open mind...and open outlook on life... especially when being a teacher to Branden. She also speaks wonderful amazing English. And she was just a wonderfully open minded teacher. Wonderful kind person. And she never made my son feel like a weirdo for speaking English at home. She never made my son feel like a strange-o for being half Japanese and half American. Granted she gave him no special treatment either... and that's the way we prefer it! But...she *always* had an open mind with him And a kind heart with Branden and the rest of her class too. So...yes...we adored this teacher for the 2 years she was Branden's teacher. Best teacher ever! We love you sensei!!! I hope you will be Noah's teacher when the time comes! : )

After graduation ended around 12:30pm considering we all snapped a ton of pics outside. We went home and we had lunch here at home. And we waited for Noah to get out of school. As soon as Noah was out of school, and he came home and dropped off his randoseru and stuff. We all went out to dinner. We went to Jolly Pasta, the place Branden picked. And we ordered pizza and pasta and we had a drink bar. And we just enjoyed about 75 minutes of eating and talking and laughing. It was such a good graduation you guys... and delicious graduation dinner too. : )

We even drizzled some of that amazing chili oil over our pizza and pasta. And just...enjoyed our time together. It was a nice quiet little celebration just us 4. Anyway...Branden now has zero school until high school entrance ceremony in April. Onwards and upwards. : ) 

Branden’s 9th grade Sports Day! His final Undokai at the JHS...

Saturday, September 10th was Branden's final Sports Day at the local one and only Junior High School in our tiny town of under 5,000 people. It was a sunny day. The weather was hot, granted not "steam room" middle of summer, type of heat. But it was hot, but we luckily had nice and cool breezes throughout the day. We had a pretty good spot to sit and enjoy watching Branden's final undokai/sports day at this school! Branden running in his first race! He came in 3rd place!

And another event. 

Branden laughing with his friends...

Smiling!

This race was for the 8th graders. And they had to blow up a balloon with a bicycle pump and then sit on the balloon, pop it and then run to another event. It was like an obstacle course of sorts! We were all laughing!

Branden and Genki! Best friends since their yochien/kindergarten days. They will not be at the same school next year! So it's good they have this final year! : )

The Tug of War! Go red team! : ) 

They pulled and pulled and pulled!!!

And then the PTA members and the Father's Club Dad's challenged all 9th graders to a tug of war battle!

Branden really enjoyed his final sports day at the local JHS. 

Pull kids pull! : )

Smiling!!!

What a genuinely happy kid! : )

This was a "father and 9th grader" event. It was a 3 legged race while rolling a big giant ball across the field. There went team red! Branden and his dad (Noboru) and Bran's classmate and his dad. This was hilarious to watch.

Love this picture so much! Love these humans so much! : )

Time for lunch! Homemade karaage. Potato salad, macaroni salad. A regular salad. Rice balls. Grapes (seedless enormous Japanese grapes, so delicious!) Lemonade. You can see those frozen pouch drinks of Calpis, I always buy pouch drinks also for undokai, my kids like those. We also had chocolate cake (store bought, but so good) Sports day picnic meals... are usually really special and for the most part, everyone always goes all out, regarding their obento. So, I try my best too. Oh and those 2 unopened boxes of tissues were gifts for Noboru for running in races. : )

Eat kiddo! : )

Noah drinking some lemonade. And why yes...we recognize that shirt! That's the OshKosh shirt I got on sale at Costco. : )  

These grapes were seriously so ginormous, they were karaage size. These were freakishly big grapes. Hahaha. : ) But they were so delicious. : ) 

Between the regular salad, macaroni salad and potato salad, hmm, I ate more salad than karaage. : )  But I like to eat a little bit of everything. The kids were so stuffed after lunch. Noboru was too. Time to enjoy the last bit of the undokai. 

There was a chicken fight. There were pyramids. There was even a girls dance team. They also danced! Square dancing! I enjoyed this very much. The kids enjoyed this too. There was a final relay race and then that was it! We all packed up. And we parents left. The JHS kids all ride bikes to school on undokai day, because there are so many school tents and stuff to dismantle. So they were leaving about 45 minutes after undokai was over. Branden rode home with Genki and a good bunch of his friends who live near our house. : )

Noah and I meanwhile had a kakigori/shave ice before leaving the JHS. I picked green apple! Noah picked cola!

Branden came home. He quickly took a hot soapy shower as soon as he got home and parked his bike in the shed. After his shower we 4 drove to Jolly Pasta for dinner. Since it was Branden's undokai it was Bran's choice for dinner. We always go out to celebrate as a family after Sports Day. Branden loves Jolly Pasta. Our nearest one is an hour away! That's far, but then we do live way out in the inaka! But...with nobody having school or work the next day, we said...okay. When we arrived we were starving. 

We all had pasta, we had pizza, we had an all you can drink, "drink bar" just sodas, juice, iced tea and iced and hot coffee, etc. But it was a truly awesome way to end our day this way.

And because the red team won! Which because our school is so truly teeny tiny... all class A's were team red and all class B's were team white (7th, 8th and 9th). The 9th grade A class, which were team red decided on Friday...if they win, then they would go out to eat together on Sunday. So, since they won, the next day, on Sunday, all 9th grade red team/class A kids...all met in the "small city" nearest our town at a shabu shabu restaurant. It rained hard the day after Bran's undokai. So we all drove our kids to the shabu shabu restaurant. : ) All us town folks met up in the parking lot, in the city nearest us... dropping off our kids. And they did have a reservation. Us parents made sure of that. : ) And then we all picked them up, when it was time to pick them up. So all in all, it was a fantastic way to end Branden's final Sports Day at the JHS. : )  

Last bits and pieces from our summer, like our BBQ of ribs and getting another JHS uniform for Branden and a whole bunch of other things mixed in there too...

Hi you guys! I am *so* happy to have finished the Denver posts! Phew! That was a load off my mind to get that done. I do have this post. It's the last of the summer 2016 summer posts, I promise! It's just...boy, we had a whole heck of a lot that we were doing in August. And I just never had the chance to post everything. There just wasn't enough time for it. However the silver lining is...that it can be totally wrapped up...consolidated in this 1 post. That way we can move forward. And close the chapter of summer 2016 officially as soon as I post this one. Branden was offered in the beginning of June from Noboru that if he wanted to make some extra pocket money over the summer, he could mow our lawn when it needed it. For mowing the front and backyard he would earn 1,000 yen (US$10 dollars) Branden thought that was a fantastic deal. And so all summer long whenever the grass looked like it needed a mowing, Branden would get out there and mow the lawn. He earned a good chunk of cash by the end of summer. Good kid, good kid! : )  

Chili's were too genki beyond words! They grew like the dickens! We harvested this amount pictured here every single week! @_@ Roasting them, was a real pain in the butt, but it was worth it.

The Olympics happened this summer too! And of course we watched the opening ceremony! I love seeing all the different countries come out and share and bond over sports! And I cheered so loudly when the United States came out. I swear my neighbors must think I suffer from tourettes every 4 years! Hahaha. I am quiet the other times. But...when watching the American team walk out into the stadium I go nuts! USA...USA...USA! I think it's no big secret... how much I love my country. And our American outfits this year? Absolutely gorgeous and stunning! Our household watched swimming. I have 2 boy swimmers here at the house as you know... so they love watching swimming and they cheer so loudly for the USA! And we always watch gymnastics too. America did so well this Olympics. Sadly...Ryan Lochte and the whole...destroying the gas station. Lying about the robbery thing? Totally disappointed to hear that!  As of right now for this season...he's on Dancing with the Stars. And apparently 2 guys wearing anti- Lochte shirts booed and called him a liar after his first dance! @_@ People still seem pretty upset about the whole thing. @_@ But yep, team USA did wonderful as a whole this summer at the Olympics. 

Also in August, I had to replace my liquid eyeliner because mine ran out. I am now using this one. I used this of course during my whole trip in Denver and on days here in Japan when I have to wear makeup. I really like this one. It's better than the Dolly Wink one that I was using before this one and it is rated #1 by looking at this sticker on the package. Great liquid eyeliner. 

What else happened this summer? Oh yes, that's right. Have you heard in the news about Samsung tablets exploding? It's been all over the news recently. Noah had a Samsung tablet which he got for his 2015 birthday. Luckily it wasn't the type that explodes. @_@ However it too... had a funky weird glitch or defect. And the screen would turn yellow then back to a normal white screen then go to a funky yellow and back and forth. At the end of June we got a hold of Expansy's which is who we bought it from. And they turned out to be a very good company! First they asked us to send Noah's tablet back, which we did. And they were so honest. They told us it had a much more serious problem. Even though we were still under warranty. They gave us every last dollar/yen back. So Noah got a completely 100% full refund. I thought that was such an honorable thing for that company to do. So...Noah ended up getting a tablet from Amazon Japan. The same tablet Branden has exactly. Because after all July 2016 of us researching a new tablet for Noah, this was the one with the best reviews. So pictured here is Noah's new tablet, screen protector and case. All paid for by the refund Expansy's gave us. That was very nice and lucky the way things turned out. 

Same model Branden has. Now they both have twin tablets. Good thing Noah got his new tablet before we left to Denver. 

We had a nice backyard BBQ pretty much right before we left to Denver. We had ribs, pulled pork and baked potatoes (grilled potatoes)...

Bush's baked beans too...

Just a random picture from our family BBQ that night. Again we BBQ all the time in summer, so it's impossible to share pics from each BBQ. But yep, we enjoyed our ribs that night. : )

Cart pics with the 3 ribs stacked on top of each other on the left. Tissues and laundry soap. This pic was taken August 12th.

Also from August 12th. Our 2nd cart. Kirkland cheese pizzas. Again with it being summer the kids had lunch at home all summer. So things like frozen pizzas etc... needed to be here at the house for the boys. Chicken breasts, jaga butter these are just steamed potatoes with butter and again...a quick thing for the kids to get if they are hungry during summer lunches here at home. : ) Dinner rolls and a rotisserie chicken, we had rotisserie chicken sandwiches that night. And pasta sauce. Perfect to have on hand for a quick spaghetti and meatball dinner or chicken parmesan. : ) Just so many random little moments happened here. That were nice or fun. And this post just helps give a better idea of our summer. And this post will at least help finish up summer 2016, like I said. : ) 

JHS uniform... take 2! : )

A new blazer. And now we don't have to wonder if Branden will burst out of his old one...like the Hulk. : ) And you can see a glimpse/tiny smidgen of his new school pants on the left of this picture. 

180cm. And he's not plus size, otherwise it would say 180B. He's a 180A...a regular size. On the bright side. And there is always a bright side of everything, I think. The bright side is...Noah will end up with 3 blazers! Which is unheard of considering the cost of these. But 2 will be from his brother. But...nice to have extras, right. : ) He will also get 3 pair of JHS pants from his big brother too. Lucky Noah! So yes there is always a bright side to everything. : )

Omiyage (a souvenir from the Boy Next Door's family) Rice crackers! Such nice neighbors! Alrighty, I think this pretty much wraps up summer 2016. We did as you know go to the beach this summer, wave pool place too, and 1 summer festival plus, we had many backyard BBQ's and we went and enjoyed kakigori (shave ice) too. Plus the Denver trip, so all in all a pretty fantastic summer was had here, in our little neck of the woods. : )