Noah's yochien (kindergarten) class reunion...

The first week of February we received a post card that was sent by Noah's former private Catholic yochien (kindergarten) saying that.... for Noah's specific graduating year/class they were having a reunion. That the former principal and gym teacher and all the teachers that were there... during his years of yochien would be showing up and asking for all kids interested in attending to reply/RSVP. So March 29th, on a Wednesday during Spring break Noah got the chance to return to his former yochien and catch up with everyone. Also important to add. Most of these kids are going to the same elementary school together. Except maybe 4. One boy named R-kun lives on the opposite  side of the small city nearest us (awesome super kind kid). He goes to a totally different elementary school than everyone else. So he hasn't seen anyone since age 6. And one little girl moved to Narita. And then Noah and S are from our town. I knew S would more than likely not show up for the reunion because his mom wasn't in love with the yochien like we were and in fact she sent her younger son to hoikuen in our town. So, I knew for the kids who don't get the chance to see the majority of the kids daily. Such as Noah who attends a rural elementary school... he would love the chance to see his original besties and very good friends. I'd say 3/4 of the class showed up for the reunion. See all the drinks near the window? So many drinks. Teas and sodas. And snacks and cakes. As soon as Noah saw his friends and they saw him, it was if... no time had come between them! His former bestie H-kun...ran right up to Noah and hugged him right away! He said...Noah-kun!!!! Hahaha. : ) And they ran and all the boys got along super well, like always. Just like the old days. : ) 

Cakes and snacks galore...

That's Noah in the gray sweatshirt about to kick that soccer ball! And that's his former best friend in the universe.... H-kun in the black shirt and tan pants right next to Noah on his left! Noah *loves* soccer and is so good at it. It was just wonderful that these boys could get together and have a run on one of the playgrounds like this. This is the small little city nearest us obviously. And the girls were there, they were on the other playground... the main playground with the jungle gym on it. The gym teacher was playing with the boys. And the sensei's were all walking around. Some of the sensei's are married now with toddlers and babies. Our best most favorite sensei Yayoi-sensei is not married yet and she still teaches there. She is an incredibly wonderful teacher and very kind, the current kids are so lucky to have her as their teacher. 

All parents and kids were given some strawberry shortcake. 

Everybody did cheers! And they talked and talked and it was a wonderful day for these kids to get to catch up! I absolutely love that our yochien decided to have a reunion like this! : )

The current principal was also there and she is an amazing lady and we know her very well because she was Branden's most favorite teacher. And she used to ride the yochien bus with Bran and G all the way back to our town everyday for their whole yochien lives. So she asked about Branden. And she was always so super kind to Branden. And it turns out, the high school Branden is going to, her daughter attended that same high school. And then Yayoi-sensei jumped in and she also went there too. And they loved hearing Branden goes there. They went to the regular course, I think. And they do know Bran is in the English course... but they both told us what an absolutely awesome school Branden is going to. And so it was really nice to hear that and have that tie with the current principal and the Yayoi-sensei. And the fact they both love that school so much and have such good memories about that school.  All in all it was a good way to catch up with everyone and them with us too. : )

Throwback Thursday...

Today's TBT, takes us back to September 2009! Noah's yochien grape picking/cutting and sweet potato dig with his school and us parents! It was a weekend field trip/meet up and all us parents and siblings were also invited! Each child came with his or her own family. There wasn't like a school bus that took us or anything. We all met there. Noah got to pick his own pack of grapes and cut them down. And we let Branden cut down his own bag too. Each family pays for whatever they cut down. The sweet potato dig was free though and of course we could bring the sweet potatoes home with us. : )

Noboru helping Noah cut the grapes down that Noah picked out. He did a very good job at cutting his bunch of grapes. And you can see a pair of pruning sheers in Bran's hand and he was about to cut a bunch of grapes too! The kids both loved spending the day here. Branden did this too, when he was in yochien and Noah did this too when he was in yochien too. : ) 

Each child got to have whatever potatoes were between the 2 white chalk lines. Branden helped dig with Noah! That way they both could join in the fun!

They both dug and dug and harvested so many sweet potatoes! We made so many steamed sweet potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes. And also yummy daigaku-imo  (like a deep fried sweet potato with a sweet sauce.) We had sweet potatoes every way you can have them! : ) We clearly love sweet potatoes around here. : )

After everyone was finished cutting their grapes and digging their sweet potatoes, we all went and enjoyed some fresh steamed sweet potatoes and a cup of super sweet grapes. They kept bringing out more cups of grapes for everyone to enjoy and kept bringing out more and more sweet potatoes too.

Every September after the kids started back to school after the summer break...when the kids were in yochien...we always went here for our weekend afternoon grape and sweet potato harvest. These are definitely fond fun memories for us all! : )

Throwback Thursday. Noah starting yochien 2009...

Before Noah started yochien (Japanese kindergarten), thanks to having 1 child already go through yochien beforehand. I wasn't completely out of the loop or out of the know. And given Bran went to the same yochien. I made sure to get Noah prepped up a tad.... starting at the end of October 2008.  Not really too early, because like I said in my last TBT, Noah started in January in a pre-yochien class. A sort of "getting ready" for yochien class from January until the end of March. You really only need 1 set of bags. What size and sort of handmade/homemade bags you need, really depends on your own personal school and what size and specifications they want. I, as you can see... did buy 1 main set, the frog set. And that is what Noah used 95% of the time, but once in a while he wanted to change and if he did, he had a *really* cool handmade Thomas set and the Sesame Street handmade set. Noah had quite a few different handmade sets. But his favorite and most used set was the froggy set. He used his main big square bag, the inside shoe bag and the other bag was for his gym clothes, so his gym bag. 

This set was very helpful for Noah. And so cute.

They had spots for his names on all his bags. But everyone knew the froggy bags were his. : ) And his classmates also had really cool handmade bags too. : )

Inside lining with stag beetles. Which are quite popular here in Japan for boys. 

I really love this big square handmade bag and I love that it's in English. Noah uses this even now. He loves this bag and it's not too overly child-ish really. So, he still...even now feels comfortable taking this to elementary school sometimes...but his main bags now are a nice set of handmade Super Mario Bros. : ) 

Inside lining on all his bags. 

I really loved Noah's handmade yochien lunch mat and cup holder and obento bag. I love how that little frog on the obento bag is holding a rice ball/onigiri. He also had a few other lunch sets too. : ) 

So cute!

I also, made sure Noah had some handmade tissue covers. His favorite of these was the aloha shirt and the orange Snoopy. : ) 

Pale yellow and blue design and penguins. This was Noah's handmade seat cover but it held his bosai zukin (emergency/disaster cover). 

Hankies.

Stickers for putting name stickers on everything of Noah's.

Kids play with nendo/clay in yochien. And need a plastic mat. What I did with Branden and also did with Noah was, I went to a DIY store and found the most colorful and happy looking plastic table cloth and cut this amount and this cost me about 300 yen and when I cut it into the correct size at home, I got about 5 nendo mats from this... 1 piece of plastic cheery plastic table cloth. I have had about 5 different fellow foreign women in the past... who had contacted me, before when I accepted comments... thanking me for mentioning this very tidbit. Because some of them were thinking..."where in the heck can I find a nendo sheet?" Maybe they make them now days? But back in 2009, I never found any. And this way was the cheapest and it simply worked so well. But yep, so many people said...thank you for mentioning this! : )

Since Noah wasn't an official student yet until April, he could only wear the gym uniform to school. No cute little navy blue uniform until April. But since he was starting in January, we went ahead a month before and made sure we had Noah's gym shorts, long sleeve tops, navy blue school shoes (we called them his French shoes, since they had a French flag on them) and inside shoes and smock. : ) 

All of these school supplies pictured here... were bought easily at the actual yochien. That's Noah's art book, attendance booklet. Glue, scissors. yellow badges were for the kiddos who were not really yochien... real students yet. : ) Yellow at our school meant...younger than a regular yochien aged kiddo. : ) 

Every crayon was indeed...name stickered and I put 1 tape around each crayon, in case the name sticker fell off on accident. The tape ensures that the little sticker stays put. : ) 

Noah used Branden's yochien backpack, but we let him pick up a new charm for it. Noah picked Spongebob Squarepants. 

Noah also picked up his favorite character obento stuff. Spongebob of course. : )

Everyone absolutely loved Noah's.... "Noah" thermos especially on field trips. parents would comment..."that is so cool!!!" That was very kind of them to say that. : ) I bought that in Denver. 

The good part of having 2 boys is, Noah also inherited Bran's Thomas thermos and cars thermos too. 

And Noah also inherited Branden's lunch goods he had too. Branden had Ultraman and Thomas galore. And it's nice that Noah could get usage out of all those extra lunch boxes but...I also don't want Noah to feel like a hand me down kid either. If you have 2 boys or 2 girls, you'll know what I mean. So, it was important for me to make sure Noah knew..."see we let you pick out YOUR special Spongebob lunch box" but see...you can also use these too. That way he doesn't feel like he just gets hand me downs 24/7. So again...I do try to be fair too. 

One of his gym shirts was in Japanese and one was in English. 

Good grief did I have to sew so many name labels on things.

Even his inside gym shirts/under shirts had name labels on them.

Yep this was before March, so Noah had to go in his Catholic school gym clothes. We loved those gym clothes though because they're so pretty, such a beautiful nice happy yellow pair of shorts. And nice long sleeve white top. Love you Noah, have a wonderful day at yochien sweet pea! : )

Now it was getting closer to March and we went and bought Noah some new yochien socks and a new winter hat. 

The dress shirts we bought new... but we were lucky that Noah could use all of Branden's winter navy blue uniforms and gray summer uniforms and he had plenty. So that saved us a ton of money! 

Checking the size. Good and considering we had a few different sizes of the winter and summer uniforms, looks like you're all set your entire years of kindy kiddo! Looks like you were ready and excited to start yochien in April 2009! And considering you really started in January. You were already used to that school by then. Already had a best friend already, best friend H-kun at that time! That you went to swimming with and everything! So by the time April 2009 rolled around, you were totally ready!

Any current update? It rained today, so Ru's coworker is coming tomorrow morning to dismantle and take away the big playground in our backyard. Anything else? Branden got a new pair of glasses today. He calls them his Clark Kent glasses, lol. I'll share a picture next time. : ) We went to Bran's observation day yesterday. It was an English class, that we all observed. This Saturday, is Noah's observation day. Bran and I will be going to that. Many jalapeno babies are sprouting now. Like tons. We are expecting a great big crater where the jungle gym used to be. But yes...we are pretty much 100% sure it will slightly crater... like a bowl...do you know what I mean? So...this week Noboru already picked up a palette of dirt to fill in the expected space. So we will be trying to fill in the ground there and leveling that off and when it is finally level and all..."flat Stanley" looking...then we will go ahead and plant sod (grass) down. So step 1...dismantle jungle gym. Step 2...work on filling up any crater we expect we will see. Step 3, plant some sod. Considering we want a good job and not a crap job. We will be packing the dirt firmly in the ground. So we expect maybe...2-3 weeks. And how long will it take the sod...to finally look like normal grass and not like square patches...kwim? So, I imagine it will take some time to get things done. Funny thing is. My dad knows. You all know, but the neighbors don't know. Nobody in our town knows about us dismantling the jungle gym. We think our neighbors and everyone will freak out! When they notice it's gone. Hahaha. Oh well. : ) Onwards and upwards as they say. : ) 

Throwback Thursday. Noah's yochien entrance ceremony 2009...

Hi you guys! You more then likely remember how I said last Thursday, that since this was April and for us in Japan, April means, "entrance ceremony season" so I thought it would be fun to do something relating to entrance ceremony or school....every Thursday this month. How was entrance ceremony for me at the yochien? Honestly it was fun! Entrance ceremony at yochien was zero stress at all. In fact entering yochien period, was zero stress. All items Noah needed for yochien were available for purchase directly from the yochien itself. For example, crayons, glue, scissors, everything he would need and that was "school approved" we bought directly at the school. The uniforms for the Roman catholic yochien they went to, we bought at a uniform shop in the city nearest us, which is right near where the school was located. So basically uniforms could be bought from 1 shop, in 1 fell swoop. And the school supplies could be bought easily at the actual private yochien Noah attended. So again, no running from store to store. Trying to scratch off items off your big long shopping "what to buy" list, like how we had to with elementary school here. At yochien it's seriously so easy peasy. Done super easy. Presto and done! So totally no stress. Nothing to fret about at all. Sure we did make sure Noah started school with a handmade seat cover which is where his safety earthquake thing was tucked into. How did we pick our yochien? Research and also word of mouth. For starters, our town has zero yochiens. Period! None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Yes, I told you I live in a true rural part of Japan. Our town does have a hoikuen though, only 1. Hoikuens are usually for kids with 2 working parents. There were 3 yochiens in the small city nearest our town. 2 private yochiens and 1 public yochien. And it is a VERY small city by the way. Hahaha. Anyways. We researched. We checked out all 3 of the yochiens. Noboru's coworker whose family lives near us. Anyway they were sending their kids to the private yochien which was big on band and musical instruments for all kids of that yochien but apparently they were also *big* on manners. And according to his coworkers they were tough and strict with the kids there! They actually said more like military style. To me...after hearing first hand from them about how big on manners they are. And how strict they are.  I wasn't really interested in that yochien only because I feel kids... preschool aged kids should have fun and also learn things. Not be afraid of their teacher and learn military type school manners at age 3. I want my child to have a kind teacher, not a drill sergeant! @_@ However we did drive over there and checked things out. It looked sort of like an old building. Creepy old long grubby curtains. I don't know. It just didn't seem like a happy peppy place to me at all. And again given how we heard... how strict they are. We vetoed that one. We then checked out the public yochien. For starters that school had a big population of kids. Which we wondered would our kids get lost in the shuffle...with that many massive amounts of kids? Also that school didn't start until age 4. So again, we didn't feel that was really a school for us. Then we checked out the 3rd and final yochien. A private Catholic yochien. It was very well taken care of. Nice grounds, fresh paint on the building. A very well taken care of school. The teachers were so nice and running and playing with the kids in the fenced in yard as we were parking our car and about to go and talk with their principal. The uniforms were super snazzy, out of the 3 yochiens we checked out, these were the nicest and most classic uniform. And it just seemed like a perfect fit. And given I'm Catholic. Started my education at a Catholic school too, it seemed to fit. And it was just..the best choice for our family. Zero regrets. We just knew that day....we had found "our" school. The school for us. And given Bran transferred to this yochien after we finished building our home and we moved here. Bran started here his 2nd year of yochien and finished here too. And we loved the experience and so when it was Noah's turn, we picked the same yochien too. As most of you know, I was an elementary school teacher in the states. And I also taught and worked in 2 yochien's here in Japan as well. So, I think I knew what to look for, when picking out a yochien. And as a mother. We are entrusting our most treasured loved ones in the care of that school. And so we need to find a school we feel comfortable with. And that is a perfect match for our family. For us, this school was the one for us. : )  Gratuitous shot of Noboru and Noah at the entrance of our private Catholic yochien and under the blooming cherry blossom tree. 

School officially started from April for all 3 year olds. However we started Noah in January of that year, so just about 2 months earlier than most of his 3 year old classmates. I think about 5-7 of his classmates also enrolled early too. I think for us this was best because Noah took about 10 solid days to get used to yochien. He cried every morning for 10 mornings when we dropped him off. And this happened with Branden too. It eventually stopped. And they got used to it. And they eventually waved us a quick good bye and ran off to play... but yes, remembering how it was for Branden. I thought it best that Noah got through his rough "transitioning" time in January versus in April when about 40 kids are crying their eyes out. That way...by the time April rolls around. Noah's used to it. And he can perhaps help his fellow classmates out if they were scared or whatnot. That just worked out best for us. And again, like I always say, each family is different so just pick what's best for you and your family. Nobody knows what's best for you, but you. : )

One medium brown head of hair, in a sea of kiddos with black hair. No worries and they're all gorgeous. It's just easier to pick him out! And look, he was singing and doing jazz hands and everything! I was so glad that we worked out all of Noah's nervousness of being away from us, his parents...Noboru and I... back in January. Because in April, he was just a smiley happy little boy. : )

My pale one, with cute fat baby cheeks. Smiling at daddy/Noboru standing back there. Such a sweet boy! I met some of my most closest friends back from these years. Friends that we still go to movies together even now and still hang out and go to lunch. Some people say...when your child is in yochien that is your funnest time. And I agree with that. However, I find this time, the age and grade my kids are at right now in 2016, also some of the funnest times too. My kids are a little more independent, yet they haven't totally left the nest either though, you know what I mean? So yeah this time is fun also.  

Noah and a falling cherry blossom lands on his winter hat! 

Noah's entrance ceremony, so Noah's choice of place he'd like to go and eat! And yes we ended up at Coco's! Clearly you can see that our small city nearest us. Where the yochien is located doesn't exactly have many restaurants! Hahaha. : ) But considering our town has zero! It's totally fine with us, so Coco's it was! : )  Noah had lunch and an ice cream for dessert! : ) Yochien entrance ceremony, definitely calls for some ice cream! : ) 

Throwback Thursday! Setsubun...

Yesterday was Setsubun for us in Japan! So a perfect subject for today's TBT! Here are a few pics for this weeks blast from the past! This pic was from February 2008! Our yochien would have the kids all decorate a mask every year. And all of the kids would cast out the oni at school every year too! Here is Branden and the mask he decorated that year! And by the way, I loved that long sleeved shirt that was half green and half gray. Such a neat shirt and BrannyB loved that shirt that year *so* much! That was hands down his favorite shirt from that year. What a great oni mask you made that year Bran! : ) 

Aww and look who we have here! Noah and the oni mask he decorated and colored. And goodness were those colors, all over the place or what?! But that is absolutely fine, totally age appropriate coloring there. He was just a little fella. Hahaha. : ) This pic is from Setsubun, February 2009!

You did such a fantastic job coloring your mask Noah! Love you both to the moon and back! : )