Town Undokai...

Sunday, October 8th was our town's sports day/undokai. Yes that means the kids in our town have 2 sports days a year. 1 for all elementary school students PLUS town undokai. And same for the local one and only JHS they have their regular JHS undokai and also have to attend town undokai too. If you don't show up, you will be marked absent. The bright side is you get off school on Tuesday. So that's sort of nice. JHS kids have to stay from like 7am to 5pm-ish. I remember this when Bran was in JHS. But elementary kids need to be there only from 9am to 11:30am. And elementary kids only have 1 event. Noah's grade did a basketball race and as soon as that was over and done with, we were allowed to leave and go home. So 9am to 11:30am is not too terribly bad at all. Because this is town undokai. You *must* sit according to neighborhood. Where you live dictates where you can sit. We live in a newer housing community and so our "housing community" has their own 2 tents (1 for JHS kids and 1 for elementary kids) and we all sit behind our housing community's tent. The other housing communities have their own tents and they do the same. The older parts of town also have their own communities too and they sit behind their own tents too. Meals/lunches are bought courtesy from where you live. We live in our housing community and we pay month's HOA fees (homeowners association fees) so because we do that...we can order up to 4 obento if we decide and it will be paid for totally 100%. They pass around the monthly kairanban/information booklet a month in a advance and you can order however many lunches you want, but they know how many family members are in each house. I packed my kids sandwiches. And I made myself a salad. An easy town undokai meal. And my husband absolutely looks forward to the seafood/fish obento. So he always orders two meals. And so he feasts on fish on town undokai day. Hahaha. : ) Here is a pic of Noah and his 6th grade friend and classmate sitting in the same area and that's because he lives in our same housing community too. The older JHS boys sitting near Noah but on the older kids JHS leisure sheet also live in the same housing community as us too. 

All kids regardless of which grade do warm up exercises. You can see Noah in his bright colored New Balance sneakers warming up in this particular picture.

Noah and 3 of his classmates ran this race together. You have to run and then at a certain point you have to pick up a basketball and start bouncing it down your running lane.

Branden and I were standing on the sidelines next to eachother cheering on Noah. Go Noah go!!!!! And Noboru was meanwhile video taping Noah run his race on the other side of the field.

Noah came in first place! Branden was so proud. We all were! Good job Noah. We love you!

After Noah's race, we stayed for lunch and after lunch we packed up and went home. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying our Sunday at home. For dinner we decided to go to Narita City to our nearest pizza place and bring home some Domino's. 4 large pizzas. We had a pizza party here at the house. And because Monday was a national holiday in Japan, Branden and Noah did not have school that Monday. And Tuesday Noah didn't have school either, because he had town undokai. So all in all, Sunday was really nice. We did have sports day, but it was really low key. We didn't have to wake up super early either. An excellent Sunday October 8th and super low key town undokai. : ) 

Summer Fun: Spending the day at the beach and also enjoying a nice packed picnic lunch...

August 9th, our family went to our closest beach to our house. Our closest beach is located in Ibaraki prefecture. 

We brought our UV beach/pool tent that we usually bring...so that we can sit under it... when we're not in the water. Which we spent 99% of our time in the water. : ) We brought the Costco bag which had cookies, chips, paper cups, napkins and a trash bag (spare grocery bag) and extra sunscreen.

2 bottles of pink lemonade, plenty of ice for our cups and rotisserie chicken sandwiches were in the cooler.

Our picnic lunch. We also had a big bag of Country Ma'am cookies too. : ) It's just...as you know...swimming always makes people hungry. : )

Each of our boys got new floaties/ innertubes. Cool chocolate donut ones with sprinkles. These came from Amazon.jp. 

Quenching that thirst. 

There was a place to fill up their donuts for free with air. Noah just filled his up and Branden was about to go and fill his up too. Which he did. : )

Hey! I recognize those 2 choco donuts with sprinkles! Hi Branden, hi Noah!

Hello Noboru. And a smiling Noah. 

We spent the entire day there from 8:30am until 3:50pm-ish. While our area/part of Japan where we live... has been relatively cooler than normal, weather-wise most of the summer. On this day it was a super hot and scorching 36 degrees C. Which is 97 degrees F for us Americans.

I always want to make sure my kids have a very nice summer. Whether we just do a free activity like going to the beach. Or having a backyard BBQ. Or having a movie night at home or even going to the movies. I just want them to enjoy their summer. Because...they're my kids and I love them. : )

Summer is so awesome!

Ibaraki is way less populated than Chiba. Although we live on the edge of Chiba and in a very rural area. So when we go to the beach...there's people. But only "Ibaraki" amounts of people. Meaning just a few. 

For about 3 minutes Branden was a double donut. LOL. That's only because Noah was boogie boarding and asked B to hold his donut. : ) Bran ended up boogie boarding too and Noah had to be a double donut for a bit too. : )

An extremely happy Noah! Just enjoying a "chill" day at the beach! I love this picture so much!

After a few hours, the kids just went in the ocean without any donuts or anything. They just jumped around. Talked each others ears off. And enjoyed the rest of the day. 

That's Bran, just splashing around enjoying the rest of his day, with his family. Noboru and I enjoyed most of our time in the ocean splashing around and talking too. Watching the kids. And talking and splashing some more. An excellent way to spend the day, if you ask me. : ) 

We drove home. I jumped in the shower first. Only so that I could blow dry my hair. Everyone took turns showering after me. I didn't wear a stitch of makeup. But, I was clean and had freshly blow dried hair. We all put on some fresh clothes and went out for dinner at Saizeriya that night. We were all super hungry. After spending an entire day splashing around and swimming all day long. Saizeriya is a very affordable Italian food chain restaurant. I had a salad and rigatoni/stove pipe pasta. And a drink bar. The kids each picked 2 Italian dishes. They each picked meat sauce spaghetti, but I think Noah picked pizza and Branden picked a doria. Noboru picked a different type of pizza and a different type of pasta. We all had the drink bar. It was a fun day! And a nice way to end the day. I definitely didn't feel like cooking, so it was nice to take a break. We all went home and had some shave ice. And ended our night watching good TV. 

Happy Birthday Noah!!! Noah turns 12...

Noah turned 12, July 7th. However Noboru had to work July 7th. And considering Noboru was given off like 12 days off...from work later in the month for our big, once a year vacation. We both thought...we'd better not push it... to ask for Noah's birthday off too. Ykwim. So...considering he got his vacation days off. We were pretty satisfied anyways. So...we just celebrated a day earlier than Noah's birthday. And went out to a restaurant Thursday evening instead of Friday. Noah had been deciding all week which restaurant he'd like to go to. Jolly Pasta? Cappraciossa? The Outback Steakhouse? TGI Fridays. Kua 'Aina? If it's your birthday, it's your pick. : ) And the rest of us get a free meal out of it anyways...so every one's pretty much happy whatever the pick is. Noah decided to go to the "all you can eat" Italian buffet in Inzai. So, as soon as the kids both got off school on Thursday, we went right away to the restaurant. We do live way out in the boonies, so it took us a good drive to get there. But....it was very nice. Noah was super happy with his choice. And we just enjoyed a really excellent meal. They have a "food only" plan. And the slightly pricier option is with drink bar too. And on top of that, they also have a dessert option to add too. Since it was a birthday and a special occasion. Hey...it's not any ol' day that the "baby" in our family... meaning the youngest member of our family turns 12! So yep...everyone had a most excellent dinner celebration at the "all you can eat" Italian buffet. 

My dad sent this fantastic birthday card to Noah for his birthday. Noah got such a kick out of this card. 

Oh my! : )

I bet Noah has...

Since I am an only child. And my dad only has 2 grandchildren. He enjoys spoiling them. 

You know when kids are little. Like toddler aged. It's easy to buy them Thomas train stuff. Or Spongebob stuff. Or Ultraman stuff. But when they get older, kids really aren't into toy type toys anymore. And my kids have clothes. So trying to figure out a gift can be a bit difficult. My kids have bicycles. Fidget spinners. DS games. Tablets. Cell phones. A Wii. They both have Ripstiks. So we asked Noah a month in advance, if there's anything you'd really enjoy please let us know. But even Noah couldn't think of anything. Clearly his needs have been met already. So...we asked Noah if he'd like a Google card since he does use his tablet on the daily anyway. And so he's very happy with his gift from us. Plus considering dinner at the restaurant was about 8,000 yen and the cake was about 4500 yen. We did our best...to give Noah a fantastic birthday. And of course..it does go without saying. Spending quality time with kids is the most important and we know and do that.  

Grandma Mitsuko also sent a fantastic birthday card. And some money too. The thing I loved the most... was that my dad called and spoke to Noah for a good 10 minutes on his birthday. They speak once a week anyways. But...I was very glad my dad did call and Noah and my dad had a fantastic talk. Afterwards Bran jumped on the phone and talked to grandpa too... about high school and they just enjoyed their talk. And later in the evening. Grandma Mitsuko called the house phone. Our house phone *never* rings. Seriously nobody knows our house phone number except the school. Noboru's family. My family all know it too. But my family all Skype me and also Line me... that's how my family and I talk. And zero of my friends have my house number. It's just something we never give out. So when the phone rang...we all thought it's either the school calling which we doubt. Or it's grandma Mitsuko calling. : ) So we instantly knew who it was. Also...my amazing and fantastic sister in law in Narita Lined me on Noah's birthday too...to make sure Noah was wished a happy birthday too. So...yep...Noah was definitely feeling the love by all sides of our family. : ) 

Noah's birthday cake. We ask every year..."do you wanna Costco cake or a Nagano icecream cake?" Noah always wants the Nagano one. And this year already Bran is saying he will be choosing the Costco cake. 

In years before the green was green tea. But they switched it to choco mint. So small change...but we noticed it. Noah picked the slice with the choco mint. Oh and the main ice-cream flavors Noah chose were...Noah had a choco banana cake. Nutella chocolate and banana and then cake below the 2 different flavors of ice-cream. We enjoyed the ice-cream cake on Noah's actual birthday.

July 7th, Noah went to school. He said they announced all birthdays over the loud speaker/sound system, just like they do every day... so the entire school knew it was Noah's birthday. His class all sang to him after lunch. He said people all day long in our tiny country school... kept coming up to Noah all day wishing him a happy birthday. Noah's a little on the shy side...but he really enjoyed all the birthday wishes. Bran was out of school before Noah. Bran and I both went to get Noah on his birthday from school, as soon as school was over. I had made the chicken parmesan in the day time. As soon as we brought Noah home. I threw the chicken parmesan into the oven. And they cooked for a good 30 minutes in the oven. I also boiled some pasta. I made garlic bread and salad. And we had a special dinner at home, just us 3. And afterwards we 3 enjoyed the cake. It was after we had the cake and when I was in the kitchen cleaning up... when the landline rang and we said...it's grandma Mitsuko! Noah answered it and chatted with his grams, while I finished cleaning the kitchen. Noboru did get some birthday cake when he got home. : ) Anyways Happy 12th birthday we *love* you so much Noah! More than tongue can tell. : )

The 4th of July and also Noah's Observation Day...

For the past couple years, our local elementary school has been having their summer observation day fall on the 4th of July. Granted it doesn't affect anyone else at the school. And they probably don't even realize or anything. But it's been difficult trying to celebrate the 4th of July when we have to be at the elementary school for about 80% of the day. From 12 noon until they got off school. We were there. And considering you need to get dressed and be presentable too. There's really nothing you can do...4th of July-wise. Simply because... we're out of the house most of the day. About 5 years ago, summer observation day, was on a different day. I think the 2nd week of July. But since about 3 years ago or so, it's sadly fallen on American Independence Day. Oh well, next year with Noah being in JHS next year...I will hopefully be able to do something a little more. : ) Anyway...I did make a coconut cream pie. Super easy. It was a ready made graham cracker pie crust. I used 2 of my 4 coconut cream pudding mixes. It said whisk for 2 minutes. I added the milk and whisked for 3 minutes, just to give it a little extra thickness. And I poured it into the pie crust. And wrapped it in plastic wrap in the fridge from around 8am. It sat hardening until 4pm-ish. After school let out... and we were all home and while the cream stew was boiling up a storm. I toasted some coconut. I had the whipped cream in the fridge already. I put the whipped cream down. Let the coconut cool and when it was totally cold, I sprinkled the coconut. It was a hit with my entire family. Again...I wish I could have had more time...to make a more special meal, you know what I mean? But, honestly I was so tight on time already. So, I was pretty glad still..by what I managed to accomplish and do. : )

A pic I took while in Noah's classroom. These 3 turtles are their class pets. The 2nd grade teacher saw them along the street 2 years ago or so. And since she's a teacher...she took them. And they have been with Noah's class for 2-3 years. All the other classes already have different types of pets. So, she brought them to Noah's class, when Noah was in the 4th grade. Yep, I think he was a 4th grader when these 3 became their pets. Oh and fwiw. They had 2 turtles homes. But according to Noah, the other turtle home cracked. : (  They're fairly inexpensive. So, I am currently thinking about buying the 6th grade class another plastic home for their turtles. : ) Oh and...the class named the 3 turtles years ago, but nobody in the class can remember what their names are. @_@  Should we call them turtle 1, turtle 2 and turtle 3? Or perhaps. Donatello, Leonardo and Raphael? LOL. : )

Bran has been getting off school all this week at 11am-ish. All high schoolers in Chiba seem to be too. So, he came with us to Noah's school observation day. The kids were giving presentations. And us parents and brother... had to walk from kid group to next kid group. It was very nice. Noah liked having 3 people show up for him. After observation day was over. I went home and quickly made the cream stew. I smartly diced up all the veggies and the 2 chicken breasts in the morning. After I made the pie. I also preset the rice cooker. So, as soon as we 4 got home. Noah quickly did his homework. Branden quickly jumped in the shower. Then Noah went to shower. Noboru was outside watering the lawn and flowers. He came in and quickly showered. And we ate. Had our coconut cream pie. Everyone pitched in to help clean up after supper. And I meanwhile took a nice hot soapy shower after the clean up. And came downstairs in my sleep tee/nightgown. We just all sorta relaxed. Gee whiz, it was a fairly busy day, but nice day. And I was also glad I had a bit of time too to let ya'll know what's up with the whole Photobucket and the blog. That way you all at least knew, what was up, ykwim. Anyway...and now that brings us to today. It's Friday. It's Tanabata. And my beautiful gorgeous Noah is 12 years old today. We 4...went out to dinner to celebrate last night. Noboru is working today, which is why we went out to eat last night. But we still celebrated as a family last night. Branden gets out at 11am-ish today again. Noah gets out at 2pm today. And I am making a special birthday meal. Chicken parmesan on top of pasta. We have that delicious handmade ice-cream cake from Nagano in the freezer. I had it delivered July 4th between 6-8pm. Noah received birthday money from grandpa (my dad) he received something awesome from us too. Plus we're leaving back to the US for vacation at the end of this month. So...it's going to be an awesome birthday for Noah. I will be making a birthday post for him soon. But right now...I just want to finish getting the house clean and in order, since it's Friday. I want to have a wonderful relaxing Friday with my 2 amazing sons. We will celebrate Noah to the fullest as soon as he gets home. And we all want a quiet restful weekend here at home. : ) Anyway...talk to you all in a day or two. I'm gonna go finish the house now. And then jump in the shower. : )

Throwback Thursday...

Happy TBT everyone! Today's throwback is going to be short sweet and to the point. Just 2 cute pictures for today! This picture right here of a super little... potty training Noah. Noboru straight up loves this picture... so much so... that this is one of the few that he keeps on his phone. He only keeps about 20 family pics on his phone and this made it in his top 20 pics of all time. Noboru loves this picture so much that, every time he sees this pic, he can't help but go....awww! Every single time he sees this. : ) Hahaha. I'm serious. : ) 

And this picture is so cute to me... because it's of both my boys and they were fresh out of the shower and into their jammies...just relaxing on the couch enjoying some TV.

Anyways...was that a quick post or what...hahaha...anyway...please have a good night everyone! As for us here anything new to add? Bran gets out of school at 12:30pm tomorrow. This week half days... it was from Wednesday to tomorrow/Friday.  So this week he gets out early and next Monday and Tuesday too. He will also be getting home early. He's having half days because they're having light little testing. Nothing major. But they are testing... so he is getting out early and has had half days since Wednesday.

Noah's doing good. And he gets out tomorrow at 2:20pm. Bran should be home around 1:30pm. And I have my Japanese thermal hair straightening tomorrow morning at 9am. I picked the earliest hair appointment of the day...not because I'm a maniac and love the mornings. I don't. It's just...I know I have 2 kids that get out tomorrow... hella early tomorrow and I can NOT be delayed tomorrow at all whatsoever. So...hopefully they can straighten my hair...straight as a pin ASAP. I love my hair cut.. but will just get a tiny trim. And I won't be going back to the salon until first week of September or so? I'll be all done for the summer hair-do wise. Thank gawd. : ) Hahaha. Which is nice. : ) Just gets that all nicely scratched off the list.

We're having nachos tonight for supper. And that's about all there is to say for right now. Ohhh, I did go and do my weekly grocery shopping today. Got plenty of real food. Plenty of fresh veggies from the farmers market. Fruit. Bought a bunch of American cherries and melon of course. It's always melon for us...around here. Hahaha. : ) Also bought 2 ice-creams each... for us all. 4 packs of choco mint Country Ma'am cookies plus some banana cream sponge snack things.  PLus 2 cases of drinks. We're all stocked up for the weekend and beyond food-wise. Anyway...talk with you all later. : ) 

Our anniversary dinner...

Last Sunday, the 4 of us made the 2 hour drive to the city, for our anniversary dinner. We drove to Makuhari to go out to our anniversary dinner. If we would have taken the toll highways, it would have been about US$20 each way/one way and we would have still taken over an hours drive. But if we drove the regular roads, it saved us $40 bucks round trip. Plus we enjoyed the drive. Yes we live in rural Japan at the very end of Chiba prefecture, but we love where we live. When we do get to the city it's a nice couple hours...but boy oh boy is it a pain to get there. But we don't go to Makuhari or Chiba city too often. So it was a nice rare thing for us. And we went to the Outback Steakhouse because it's one of our favorite American restaurants that is available in Japan. : ) 

They bring you fresh hot honey bread with butter and they keep bringing out more all throughout the meal for free. When we lived in the city before our home was built in our rural town, we used to go here once a month. Yep, we used to come here often, when we lived in the big city, when we first moved to Japan. But ever since we moved to where we live now. Wow...we haven't been in here for at least a good 10 years. So a good pick for our anniversary dinner for sure. : ) 

If you show your Costco card you get a free appetizer. I have mentioned that on here before. About 10 years ago, lol. But I'll mention it again now, in hopes this can be of help to someone. : ) We ordered the nachos. The kids and I were not really fans of these nachos. And we *love* nachos as you know. For starters these nachos had zero cheese. What kind of nachos have no cheese? @_@ Just lots of chili beef. No beans at all. Just very...different. Noboru ate them... but he didn't love them either though. And fwiw, they used to sell fried mushrooms here and we would always have that as our appetizer. But not at the Makuhari location anymore. : (  But not bad for free though. Next time we'll have to pick a better appetizer for our family. 

I had the Alice Springs chicken. You can pick any 2 sides and I always pick 2 cheesy butter baked potatoes. Noboru picked the ribs. 

Noah had the chicken strips meal and Bran had an adults cheeseburger meal. The drinks were unlimited. And it was just a nice dinner. I see your dimple Branden.

We also shared a hot fudge sundae on a warm brownie. This was so good. We all left the restaurant so full. Considering the lengthy drive. We all enjoyed our dinner and dessert. We talked a lot. It was just such a nice chill... low key way to ring in 20 years of marriage. Enjoying our dinner with our family was the perfect way to celebrate for us. We hopped in the car and made our trek back to the countryside. We left our house at 3:50pm, because we wanted to eat around 6pm. LOL. We got there around 5:50pm. So we did good timing. We left the restaurant around 6:50pm. And we got home just before 9pm. The kids quickly showered and went to bed. Because they had school the next day..Monday.

Anyway, anything to add? We're having a backyard BBQ for dinner this evening. We're going to be grilling racks of ribs. We bought ribs at Costco when we were there yesterday. So today's plan? Just chilling at home. Watching some good TV. And later in the evening we'll BBQ. Have a good weekend everyone. : )