Throwback Thursday...

Happy TBT everyone!!! Since it's November...I went to my November pics from years ago to get today's throwback. Noah swinging on the swings on our playground that we used to have for our kids in our backyard when they were little. It was a sunny but cool crisp Fall day. Good thing Noah had on his warm and fuzzy fleece lined jeans and a long sleeve and a sweatshirt.

I loved that the boys could play in the privacy of our fenced in backyard. Get all their energy out. And if they got tired of swinging and riding their tire swing and sliding down their slide or rock climbing wall on the jungle gym. Yet still wanted to be outside in the country fresh air...they could play with their DS games together. Play some Mario Kart. Come in for lunch time and if they felt like playing after lunch then they could for as long as they wanted and if they wanted to come in and bake something with me or watch TV or play upstairs they could do that too. 

Another pic also from November. Branden and I baked a batch of chocolate chip pecan cookies. They wanted you to see the chocolate chips and pecans before we gave it a few quick and final stirs. 

Noah taking a rest...meanwhile his brother was swinging on the swings. I loved that I could always just peek my head out one of the 2 huge patio windows and see what my 2 boys were up to while they played and had fun in the backyard. 

A crisp November morning. My pika pika ichinensei Branden was about to be driven to school by me and I thought...better take a quick pic. It wasn't full on winter mode. But it certainly was...a crisp Fall morning that definitely felt cold.

Family movie night in November. And yep...we still have family movie nights... even now. I just want my kids to know...doesn't matter if we go to the movies. Or we watch a movie at home. The important thing has always been....togetherness...we enjoy a movie together. We have special snacks. And we get all snuggle-y buggle-y and we have pillows and fleece blankets. And it's just our special 2 hours. We take time out for our family. No computer, No phone calls. Just us. And just fun. We need to carve that special time out for our family....and that's just something we have always done. 

Yep that time it was a 3D movie. And boy oh boy did the boys LOVE that. : )  Anyway just a few miscellaneous snippets from a November of years past. How cool! : )


Anyway...anything new to add? Yesterday I went to Noah's observation day at the local elementary school. It was pretty good.

Throwback Thursday...

Today is TBT day and it also happens to be October 26th, which is of course Branny McB's birthday today. So I thought... what a fitting day to do a TBT dedicated to my first born! Branden you were regular size at birth, but as you grew month after month...you became a chubby baby. But that's good. That means you were healthy and a good eater. You were born in Honolulu, Hawaii. You lived your first year in the states and so when my pediatrician said you could be started on solids one at a time. You loved the idea. Your first food was Gerber rice cereal. That was a favorite. You loved Gerber baby peas. Those were also one of your faves. The first 3 times I gave you Gerber baby peaches you hated them and wouldn't eat them. You do like peaches now though and did from around age 2. However you really liked Gerber spiced apples. You loved KFC mashed potatoes and gravy, if your dad and I were out during the day with you and you needed something warm and quick to eat on the go, we liked that we could pick up a teeny tiny one of those for you in a pinch. : ) You loved original Cheerios, the no sugar kind that was your #1 baby snack, Noah's too. I would always have some in my diaper bag with me. And also I always had some Gerber baby wagon wheels with me too. Which is what you were munching on in this pic and what's on your table. As soon as you got teeth and didn't need to gum things anymore. You could eat and enjoy everything. Fresh fruit. Baked or roasted meat cut up in tiny little bite size pieces. 

This is you in Japan somewhere near Osaka. We went from Chiba to Osaka to meet up with your dad's family and we all went for a weekend to an onsen there. We were living in Chiba by now. 

This is you Branden and uncle Jun behind you. He went with you to make sure no deer bit or gobbled you up. HA! You and uncle Jun went to feed some deer. We were still on that family trip near Osaka at some beach onsen resort type place. Uncle Jun was not married yet during this time. Though Noboru/daddy was and my SIL/auntie K was. 2 of the 3 kids were married at this time. You have always loved animals. Dogs, cats, deer, birds. All animals.  

You were always building blanket forts in the house when you were little! You thought they were so cool and fun! Here you were watching your mini DVD player inside your top secret hide-out. : ) I always let you build forts and hoped you would get bored with them the next day, so the house wouldn't look cray-cray. But...I also wanted you to be a kid. And do kid things. And so, if I had to see forts in your room and a few forts in the living room. That was okay. : ) You also got your brother into this blanket fort stuff too! : )

You have always loved the water. 

You've always been kind and nice and had lots of friends. Love that dimple! 

You at the summer festival at your yochien.

You getting ready to go to yochien. It was raining. Good thing you had your ultra cool duckie umbrella. And yes, I made sure to buy a new duckie umbrella by the time Noah enrolled in the same yochien. : )  Because kids are kids for such a short amount of time. They're so amazingly innocent at that age. And they most definitely would not want to use a duckie umbrella when they're in high school. LOL. You wouldn't be caught dead with one right now. But when you were little...you loved it. 

You snuggling in your bedroom. Bottom line kiddo. We love you Bran. I can't even wrap my brain around the fact that you turned 16 years old today!!! I have loved every baby stage, every toddler stage...every child stage...every baby tooth that you lost, I kept and gently placed money under your pillow. Every knee that you skinned I washed it, antibacterial-ed it and put a bandaid on it. Wiped your tears. I have done monster checks in your bedroom when you were little, checked under your bed and inside your closet. Let you sleep with a flashlight...you know...just in case any monster should come during the night....and I have truly loved watching you grow right before my eyes!!! Now you're 16 years old! You're in high school. You're so much taller and bigger than me and daddy now. And while I respect that you're getting older. I love that you're also in many ways still the same too. You still love spending time with me. You still talk...truly talk and tell me stuff. I always listen. You still love coming down to family movie night on a Saturday night. Yet, I know when to give you your space too. So, I hope you look at the pics on here and smile. I already know what you're going to say... you're not going to mind but you will say..."mom those pics are so cringey!!!" And that's okay. Because someday...in the distant future you will think...what a thoughtful thing my mom did. And so no... not cringey at all. I love you kid! : ) 

Throwback Thursday...

October 15, 2008. I had made curry and rice for supper. I had also according to my pics with dates. I baked a batch of homemade from scratch oatmeal raisin cookies that morning too. So the kids had already eaten supper, had some cookies and taken nice hot soapy sudsy showers and were in their PJ's. As you know all October long we watch Halloween movies. And since they were just wee little kiddos. We watched "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." Sally is very mad that she wasted her whole night in the pumpkin patch with Linus versus going out trick or treating and getting candy!!!

Everyone got candy except for Charlie Brown. He received rocks!!! Poor Charlie Brown.

Noah enjoying, "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." Wearing his green dinosaur long johns from Target. And he has a nice cozy fleece blanket he can cuddle with too. 

Branden also enjoying the movie. Wearing his Spiderman PJ's from Target too. And just a disclaimer, our house is centrally heated, so every room and everywhere in our home is super hot all winter long and we also have heated floors downstairs and it feels like you're walking on a pancake griddle. So our kids don't need super thick fleecy PJ's. In our house they'd be overheated wearing those. Thinner PJ's in winter... but still long sleeve and stuff is enough for our home. Americans you will understand since all your homes are also centrally heated. But most homes in Japan are not centrally heated. And so they wear super thick winter clothes. Sleep with hot water bottles and the whole shebang. So I am sure people living in houses without central heating probably thought wow...her kids must be cold by looking at these 2 pics. And so just thought I would nip that thought right in the bud real quick..."no, our house is not cold and neither are my kids." It's actually super hot all Winter long. So if you saw this pic of my kiddo in just long johns or just Spiderman PJ's. Rest assured...it's perfect for our home with central heating plus heated flooring, any thicker PJ's and they'd overheat and melt.  

The batch of cookies I baked from that day. Good thing, I took pics of almost everything. : )

Anyway so anything to add? Yes! Branden has mid-terms this week. In high school they break it up in days rather than lumping all subjects in one day. So Wednesday, Thursday (today) and Friday (tomorrow) Branden is taking 2 tests each day! He took 2 tests yesterday and then came home. Today he will take 2 tests and come home too. And same for tomorrow. Yesterday, Branden was at our train station at 1pm! I went and picked him up! So, I imagine today he will also be arriving back in our town at 1pm too. Why do they get off early? The kids are getting off early, so they can go home and study for the next days tests. Branden left this morning feeling very comfortable for today's 2 tests. He studied and prepared a lot yesterday and frankly since last week he's been studying in his spare time.

Our entire family has a flu shot appointment for this Saturday. I made the appointment the last week of September. Seems every weekend we had something. Undokai. Town undokai. Culture Day. A movie. So, I made sure this weekend was just reserved for flu shots. Which shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes for us all. And we also have to do some Winter clothes shopping this weekend too. And hopefully relax, especially for Branden... with all his tests being finished... heck rest and relaxation for the weekend for all of us sounds super excellent. And watch a movie at home Saturday night. Oh, I swapped dinner nights. Instead of making curry soup last night how I was supposed to according to the menu I write for myself. I made tacos last night. And I am making American style fried pork chops tonight with either Rice a Roni or buttered noodles and a side of broccoli. And Saturday we will be having curry soup. I did that because if we go out shopping Saturday in the day...a nice easy curry nabe is super easy to do after a full day of winter clothes for the kids shopping. So that's why I switched/swapped a few of the meals set for certain nights. We might go clothes shopping Sunday though, so it depends. And it's nice that I have ingredients for all meals, but can swap or switch nights though. : )

Anything else? This morning, I washed Noboru's and my bedding. It's in the dryer right now as I type. I have been washing the kids bedding on Saturday's like I said. But ours I wash on the weekday whenever I don't have a load of regular laundry in there. And today, I don't have enough laundry for a full load, so I decided it would be a good time to throw our blankets in the washer as soon as I dropped Noah off at school. And as for the dry time at home...they only take 30 minutes to dry. My dryer is amazing! Dries up stuff in no time.

How's the weather in our part of Japan? It's raining quite hard today. My windshield wiper blades were on the fastest setting all day whenever I was driving my car. It's very gray and just an ugly looking day outside. So glad I am home inside all toasty warm. Have a house full of groceries. My house smells like Gain dryer sheets, since the bedding is in the dryer, lol! Anyway have a great day ya'll. Stay warm. : )

Oh also sorry one more thing. The last 3 DVDs were shipped from Amazon.com already. I think the hold up was because of Spiderman Homecoming not being released until a few days ago on DVD. Anyways...3 DVDs coming to my house. And the DVD, I am most excited about is...The Big Sick. I can hardly wait. And the delivery time said it should be arriving on Friday/tomorrow. I hope that...delivery date is accurate. Would love to watch that this weekend. Although we only watch 1 movie a weekend. So that would mean Everything, Everything would have to be put on the back burner. Hmm. Decisions decisions. And if we watched everything in one weekend...that would mean we have no other movies for the rest of Fall to look forward to...but if I space them out...1 a weekend. We will have plenty of movies to last us...until Thanksgiving at least. : ) Anything else to add? I'll be having leftovers for lunch today, so that means I will be having tacos for lunch. Also the Blacklist comes on tonight. American Horror Story Cult was on last night and omg it's getting so good. Anyways...I'm gonna go. Have a great Thursday. And a nice weekend. And stay warm!!!  : )  

Throwback Thursday, picking out our pumpkin 2008! And last night's Tsukimi-Moon Viewing...

Branden and Noah about to pick out their Halloween pumpkin that year in Chiba, Japan at Costco.

Here in Japan, we have a thing in Fall called Tsukimi, which literally means Moon Viewing. The best days this year are October 4-6th. So if you wanted to glance out your window from home during one of those couple nights the moon should be full round and absolutely gorgeous on those nights! We all looked out our back patio window as we were having dinner and saw the moon starting to peek out yesterday evening, October 4th. It was round and beautiful! It truly is a fantastic time to enjoy the Harvest Moon in all it's glory. : ) If you haven't had time yet, there's still time. It's only the 5th here. You can check tonight and maybe even tomorrow too, at the most. : ) We will be checking tonight also. : )

What a truly gorgeous Fall moon!!! Happy Moon Viewing everyone! : )

Throwback Thursday, Sports Day 2008...

With Noah's final elementary school Sports Day coming up this Saturday. I thought it would be nice to go back and look at Branden's Sports Day from elementary school in 2008. We've had hot and sauna like... type Sports Days. We have also had 1 extremely chilly Sports Day one year... where it started raining buckets from around 9am and continued for most of the day. So much so...omg that they considered stopping it and rescheduling it for the next day. @_@ They did not...we all just powered through and completed the undokai/Sports Day. Which is what I wanted. Because no sane person wants to make a picnic lunch from scratch 2 days in a row. So for me...after making the picnic lunch. I'd like to just heave ho and...let's finish this sucker! Type mentality for me. We have also had cooler weather Sports Days without rain and basically every type of weather you could imagine happen to us...since we have clearly been going to these for many years. : ) How was Bran's undokai 2008 weather? It was super hot. Melting hot. Sun was beating everyone down. We had plenty of drinks to keep us hydrated. The beach umbrella was only mildly shielding us from the unforgiving sun. Which that... plus the rain storm we had the following year during undokai...is when we finally said...enough is enough. And we went out and bought a full huge big tent-y tarp thing... that most families in Japan use. Looking at this pic and remembering how hot it was. Stay hydrated my gorgeous Noah. And be sure to cheer for your big brother. I tell ya...waking up at 4:30am to make obento/picnic lunch. Then arrive at the school around 7:30am. Behind the scenes make sure everyone is dressed and ready. Make sure the camera and video camera is charged. Slather sunblock on my arms and everywhere else. Watch a 3 year old toddler. Plus walk the perimeter of the field to make sure I snap and capture every shot of my child. Did I mention I had been up since 4:30am. @_@  Neither of us have extended family living in our town. Noboru's from Osaka and I'm from America. So we managed to handle everything ourselves. And I think we did okay. Were we perfect? Nope. Did I maybe miss a few shots? Or maybe a few came out blurry? They might have. But, I tried my very best. I cheered so loud. And couldn't have been prouder of Bran. : ) 

Picnic lunch. This means it's half over. Eat up everyone. And let's power up and finish this thing!

Everyone ate. And then it was the half time performance by the kids. I was back on the field clicking pic after pic. Of my kiddo playing the pianica. Gee whiz it was hot. I must get another drink to keep myself hydrated. 

While another grade was doing their race. I took my toddler to get a shave ice/kakigori. Noah looked so hot. And I don't want anyone overheating. It lasts until 4:30pm. So again making sure nobody dies of heat stroke. : ) Oops time to take more pics. Then swing back to the leisure sheet. Noboru and Noah were chillin'. Now back for me to go and click some more pics and walk around the field yet again. Did I mention, I was up since 4:30am? I know I mentioned it now 3 times. But gee whiz. This is exactly why we go out to dinner after undokai/sports day. Because by the time 5pm rolls around. I'm pooped. I'm all run out of gas. I'm exhausted. Both kids are tired too. 

What I buy for one...I buy for the other too. I made sure Branden picked the shave ice flavor he wanted. And then we went to the car. Of course we dismantled our stuff (umbrella, folded the leisure sheet, blah blah blah). And lugged everything back to the car too. We dropped everything off at home. I quickly put everything into the dishwasher. And off to the restaurant we went. So nice to relax and just eat. And enjoy our dinner together. I slept in the next day. And boy did I need that. We all did. : )

Sports Day 2017, for Noah is this Saturday. I have 4 packs of sesami (chicken tenderloins) in the freezer, this evening I will put the chicken in the fridge to defrost in the fridge over night, I have my karaage marinade and a tube of ginger. A new bag of flour. Friday, tomorrow. I will be prepping everything. And running to the grocery store for last minute picnic supplies. I will also be saving a spot tomorrow at the school in the evening too. Our going out to dinner plan for dinner Saturday night is...Noah says he wants to go to Jolly Pasta. It's a family fave of ours. And I'm *so* totally on board with that. It's Branden's favorite place too. So all of us are already looking forward to Saturday nights supper. : ) How will the weather be for Saturday's undokai? I hope it's not too melting hot. And I also hope it isn't postponed. Please no rain...do not want to make obento for 2 days in a  row. So...hope the undokai goes off as planned this Saturday. Ohhh one good thing...since Noboru is in the PTA for undokai this year... that means we can park right up at the school this year... that means we don't have to lug tons of crapola up the hill like most years. And of course whoever's Sports Day it is...gets to pick the restaurant. But since we all love that place..we're all looking for to it. Anyway...that's enough for now. : )

Throwback Thursday. Noah and his swimming trophy...

I put my weekly TBT's on hold during the summer break. But with the kids back in school, I'm back at them once again. : ) Today's TBT takes place from September 2013! Noah has been swimming since the age of 3 years old. Kids can't start swimming school... near our area... unless they're age 3. Sure you can join a baby swim class. But we weren't interested in that. So we waited and in June we signed him up, but he couldn't begin until July 7th. The second he was officially age 3 is when Noah started. Getting to watch his older brother swim for years before... Noah could. He could barely wait to start himself. So, since age 3, Noah had been taking swimming lessons. Twice a week. And our swim school will *only* pass you if you complete and show you know the moves and take a test and pass the test. He passed many flower levels and then worked his way down the number levels. From 15 or so all the way down to level 1. He had countless tests since age 3. And finally finally finally. In 2013, Noah took and passed the level 1 test!!! What success! He was awarded a trophy for basically finishing his swimming school. His picture hung at the swim school for a full month. And after that, he swam competitively for the same swim school against other swimming schools in our prefecture. Yep, age 8 is when Noah finished every single level. How did Noah feel receiving his trophy? Totally excited!!! : )

Congratulations my sweet boy, you clearly have the skills! 

Yes, you are a kid! Get silly if you want! You earned every bit of that trophy!

You silly nerd!!! I love you Noah! : )

Throwback Thursday...

This pic was taken June 21st, 2011. Grandpa was in Japan visiting us. And has always enjoyed walking the kids into school or going with me to pick them both up from school. We had dropped off Bran at school already earlier that morning in town. Now we were both dropping off Noah at yochien in the small city nearest our town. Grandpa kindly walked Noah into school and handed Noah off to his most favorite teacher in the whole wide world... the Yayoi-sensei. Noah wearing his summer uniform. In Japan the kids have a summer uniform and a winter uniform. Bran's high school, even has a summer and winter uniform too. Hahaha. : )

Anyway today is Thursday. It's raining here, ever to lightly and only off and on at times. But we're still going to BBQ as soon as Noah gets home from elementary school today. Bran is home already. You know...this week is all half days for Bran. It's just going to be chargrilled burgers, hot dogs. Fries. Super simple tonight. Tomorrow we will be far from town. We'll be at Bran's school for our parent teacher conference thing. I can't wait for the weekend to be here. Can't wait! I'm not cooking tomorrow night, as I said yesterday. We're 80% leaning towards Domino's. And 20% leaning towards a sit down restaurant. Who knows. We'll decide tomorrow. And gee whiz... I hope we can find Noah's plain navy pair of swim trunks for shogakko/elementary school tomorrow evening, plus Bran some shorts for summer!

About 10 days ago, I ordered my dad the cutest t-shirt from Esty. An extremely witty couple sentences on the shirt are what made me know this was perfect for my dad. Picked the color, and everything. Showed the kids and Noboru, they all loved it and thought it was perfect for my dad too. So I ordered it. The very next day. It was made and shipped. It arrived in Guam this past Monday. My dad loves it and had a laugh about what it said. It's what my dad received this year for Father's Day. I know he got the shirt a little too early. But when you order things from overseas and it's actually hand made... you have to order early because sometimes things can take longer to get made or shipped. I totally understand that. But this seller was fantastic and sent it at lightning speeds! So am super happy my dad received it and loves it. A little too early for Father's Day. Yes...maybe. But that's okay. : )

Throwback Thursday...

Happy Throwback Thursday everyone! Here's just a random hour captured in time. It's from May 2010! Even though today is June 1st. I did go back and look through May for my TBT this week. I can also see on the pics that followed that I had green chili enchiladas baking in the oven as I sat outside watching the hubster play with our kiddos. Just a nice simple game of some catch with a nice soft (Anpanman) ball because they were little. What do I see when I look at this picture? I can see the rice fields growth... looks pretty much the exact same for how the rice looks... right now. They look like baby rice seedlings sprouting out of the water...exactly like in this pic. I see the kids goofing around having a ball in the backyard. And as *you* can clearly agree from the post I posted earlier today of our backyard BBQ from last Saturday... they pretty much are JUST as silly and play around in the backyard in 2017, as they did in 2010! So back to the TBT pic...Bran throwing the ball to daddy.

Noah throwing the ball to daddy too.

I love how when one has an itch or a problem they both bend down and check it out. And it's funny...they still look after one another like this even now days. LOL. 

Love every minute...every second of your youth! Even now...I am *still* telling them both the same thing. 

Daddy was always there. And so was mommy too. And yes...even now. : )

Hope they can catch your ball!

Whoops Noah decided to do a cart wheel instead. Gee that just came right out of the blue....hahaha. Kids are so cool and unpredictable like that and that's okay. Silly kids! : )

What a truly happy childhood. And I can see that net in the background that my kids go and catch zarigani with every summer! Which of course zarigani just means crawdads/crayfish.

And now days... my kids still love being outside in the backyard dabbing and balancing a badminton racket on their lips and faces, lol. My point is...they still love to have fun and that makes me so happy!!! To the moon and back kids...to the moon and back! : )