Tuesday, after I got my housework finished for the day! I am talking floor mopping all downstairs including the genkan. Whole floor vacuuming upstairs, both toilets and the shower room and also the laundry room. Dusting all the mini blinds and 2 loads of laundry, okay that was way past my quota for the day, lol! So anyway I went into the each of the boys bedrooms upstairs and got out each of their jinbei stash that I stock up on and save throughout the year or whenever. And now that the weather has finally really heated up, I felt it time to break them all out. Go through them one by one (these are the ones they can wear this year and for the years ahead, the younger ones I don't count) Hmm not too bad of an assortment I guess/hope, lol. I took off a lot of the new tags and I washed them all on the gentle cycle and then hung them outside to dry on Tuesday. They dried in no time flat and are now in each of the boys rooms all fresh and ready to be worn. So, now the boys are indeed jinbei ready this season, phew. : ) And why did I go through this today? Because we got a postcard in the mail this morning inviting us to go back to our yochien and enjoy the summer festival there! And also there are a few other festivals coming so it was definitely time to get them out, wash them all properly before wearing and such! Anyway glad that's all done. : )
We even have this brand new white one with the blue whales on it too. Yup, it's jinbei city here at our house every summer. Ha ha ha. And why would a mom with only 2 kids, have a few extras. Hmm. I guess, I just think I have this great love for the jinbei and really love the summer festivals a lot here in Japan. I have always found them to be quite beautiful, cool and very breezy for the kids to wear in the summer.
This is the 100cm one that Noah will be wearing this coming summer! It's a really gorgeous aloha inspired jinbei. : ) And you betcha this is a boys jinbei alrighty! It's
beautiful, I really love this one !!! : )
Penny for your thoughts cutie pie! : )
Remember Branden's was a bit big last year? It's perfect size for him this year, so it's washed, clean and dried. All I got to do, is go and get the boys some new Japanese type flip flops (sorry forget the proper name for them and am in a bit of a rush at the moment but you guys kwim hopefully ) that go with this type of outfit and I'll be done. Phew. : )
Tuesday night's dinner! Remember that sauce that Noboru asked me to use for his wings the other week? Well, I surely tried it, but I tried it on lean chicken breasts for the kids and I and for dark thigh meat for Noboru.
Rolled the chicken in some flour with salt and pepper, hmm didn't take but a minute. I appreciated the easiness of this.
Skillet fried, again fairly easy, just set my timer, for 8-10 minutes, a low medium temp on each side. Then when the timer went off, I came back and flipped it. Hmm. I think I like this meal, ha ha ha.
After it was nicely cooked and crispy on the outside, I rolled the chicken in a bowl with the sauce got it all good and covered in the sauce. And that was it. Ahhh, I like meals like this that are still quick easy and still good. I just don't have an hour to spend in the kitchen in the evenings. By the time the evening rolls around, I'm physically tired from all my day to day stuff. And I'd frankly like to take a load off. So, easy meals are right up my alley. : ) Especially since we usually have homework and whatnot to do. And baths and a bit of free time as well. So yeah, easy peasy meals totally appreciated. Ha ha ha. : )
This was all the white meat, all the dark meat I already marinated and just served up to the hubby on his own plate.
Really easy. Again sorry folks, no bells or whistles with our food.Ha ha ha. Just simple basic dinners that an average typical family can enjoy. But still yummy though! : ) We all enjoyed dinner. After bath time, we all sat and enjoyed TV and then the boys went to sleep. I laid on the couch and enjoyed TV. Tuesday was a good day and I am really glad I tried that sauce for the chicken again, because I think that will become a once a month meal at our house from now on! : )
Is it potato harvesting season? Or how does that go? Anybody know? The reason I ask is because 2 different neighbors brought me potatoes this week! First person who brought me potatoes was my good friend Rumi-san! It was the evening perhaps about 4pm? And the door bell rang and it was my friend. She had this bag and handed it to me, she stayed just 30 seconds. She has 3 children and is a busy mommy herself. She just wanted to be sweet/kind and she said, these are for you. And she left, I was surprised and thanked her and she left! : ) Her kindness is really awesome!
I am not sure if one of her daughters went on a field trip and these came from that? The dirt made me know they clearly came from someplace farm-y. ha ha ha. They were firm and fresh! I love getting fresh stuff like this! I rinsed them all off.
Then next thing you know, that same night. Around 8pm maybe. the doorbell rang. I went and answered it.... it was the man from across the street. His wife has been in Kyushu. I think either her family has taken ill or what. But she's been gone for about 2 month's now (not not a divorce it just has to do with her family is all). Sad because she is such a nice friendly woman. Anyways he said here! (in Japanese of course) these are for you and your family, my wife's family something about a potato farm. I only got/understood bits from it. But I could understand the main parts. Perhaps her family owns a potato farm? I don't know, lol. Anyway he handed them to me and I thanked him, he said, jaga something else. And I said, hai hai! And I said, I loved potatoes. (in Japanese) and then he said to me in English "potato" Ha ha ha! And I said, yes you are *right*! And he got all happy and waved and left! How cute! I really do have the kindest and coolest neighbors ever!
These ones are like sumo sized potatoes! They actually dwarfed my hand size, see in the pic? These are gonna be the best for baking ever! : )
And the thickness? These are monster sized potatoes. Anyway, thanks to 2 of the kindest neighbors in the universe, I now don't have to buy potatoes for the next 2 weeks, at least! Ha ha ha. I am also thinking of making a gratin quite soon because of them!
Wednesday, was that yochien get together and day we all received our children's yearbooks. We all met at a local restaurant. Steak, hamburg and pasta type privately owned place. We were to meet up at 11:30 am. I was very excited to see them all today! I really like these ladies, respect them all so much and consider them friends! Some I see every Wednesday at swim club but many I have not seen since March or whenever when Branden graduated school, so I was really excited to meet up with them! Noboru kept Noah at home with him and I enjoyed some much needed alone girl time with my girlfriends! : ) I parked my car, saw my 3 girlfriends in the parking lot right away! After we "hisashiburi-ed" one another, me and Shion-kun's mom were like two Japanese comedians! She tried to give me some change back from the karaoke we all went to back at the graduation. I told her..."keep it" not to worry. she said "no" here. So she stuck it in my bag and I went and stuck it in her bag, we went at it all outside and all the way into the restaurant. Finally 15 minutes later I gave up and accepted it. But everyone had a laugh about us and the 1000 yen and some odd yen. It was a hoot! Saw my dear friend Rieko-san there (see her weekly at swim club which is cool) and saw Genki's mom, see her a lot anyways since we live so near and our sons go to the same school. But many of them it was cool to see. Taito-kun's mom who is pregnant with baby #3. She has 2 boys. We all asked her, what are you having, she said another boy! Of course she's happy to be having a healthy child to begin with. But our closeness means we can joke together. So we said..."another boy???....all boys" Ha ha ha! And we were all laughing! She was laughing too. We are all good friends and can joke like that. And then I told her what someone once told me about having 2 boys (thought she will have 3). So, I told it to Taito's mom. I said..." a house full of boys means, you will truly be the only princess of the castle, ne" and she got the biggest widest smile and she nodded her head at me! Anyway it was cool to all be reunited again all of us! : ) And yes we all had to do that speak in public and get up and share our news thing! Ugh, I really hate this part, I think this part sucks! Ha ha ha. Although I do understand the reasoning for doing it...I just don't like it, is all. Good thing they started the opposite side of the room. One woman's news was...'she now is for sure she is getting old and she stated when she walks she can feel it in her bones and joints" another said she is pregnant! (she is a real sweetie and I was so thrilled hearing that) she only has 1 child and he's 6. And she has been hoping for another child and she is now going to have one...so right on! Everyone had good news. Although one said she lost her job.
: ( Meanwhile I was not as freaked out this time, I got up and said, "ummm I don't really have *much* news, however I recently got my Japanese drivers license" ha ha ha. Sorry couldn't think of what else to say and I rarely or never talk about vacations or anything like that to my friends irl. So, I sincerely had no other news. So many were clapping and smiling and cheering for me! You know they are all so positive and welcoming, I felt really happy! And then I sat down. : ) After that, it lasted past 2pm. I quickly drove to pick up Branden. And then I went home, and at the same time as I was pulling into my driveway, my delivery from FBC was arriving too. What luck! Ha ha ha. : )
I'm going to make some enchiladas and tostadas this coming week. I was asking my friend, if she's ever eaten any Mexican food. She said no. I was telling her, in America doesn't really matter if you are Italian American or Irish or African American, chances are you grew up cruising to Taco Bell, or Chipolte, or a fantastic little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant (these are usually the best) and so she wants to try, so I said why not. So, this week sometime I will whip up something and bring some down for her! : )
And let's not forget the boys French toast sticks! : ) So that was my tiniest FBC order ever! : )
Thursday was pretty uneventful until the snake came! The 4 of us were all in the house, Noboru went outside to smoke a cigarette (blech), and he suddenly came inside and said..."snake, snake, there's a snake outside come see" The boys and I went outside. He was in the middle of the road and he was extremely fast at moving around. He had managed to slither up on our neighbor across the streets house bicycle. He slithered up the bicycle, through the basket. I made the boys stay on our front porch. I didn't get too close either, but I used the zoom on my camera. Blech that snake! Ha ha ha. : )
Look how fast he's going up the bike and up past the basket! These guy was like lightning speed. *shudders*
Look those who think a snake could not reach their yard, think again! These nice neighbors have their yard elevated, about 4 feet off the ground but it clearly did not matter to this snake at all! When there's a will, there's a way! As the saying goes! And these are the nice neighbors that brought me the potatoes, and his wife is away!
Okay now am I kidding or what? I am kidding you not! This snake just slithered all the way up to this high yard! And I mean for real!!! Talk about being a real *SNAKE IN THE GRASS* This is the real original snake in the grass, right here! Gee, I hope my neighbor didn't go walking outside with flip flops on! Ha ha ha! And yes, when the nice man (who brought us our potatoes) got home, I had the hubby go and tell him that we did see a snake in his yard today. : ) Boy did he appreciate that! Because they do have a weenie dog to look out for! Ha ha ha! : )
TV talk, anybody watching anything good on TV lately? Doesn't matter if it's Japanese or Sky perfect, if you'd like to share any good TV stuff you're digging at the moment, please share away! : ) As for me, I saw 2 movies on satellite the other day. I saw the TV movie version of...Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. I think this was originally a mini series? Obviously originally a book, lol, but I mean when it was aired on TV. However for us in Japan, it just showed one right after the other. It was long, but it was brilliant! I loved every minute of this movie! From the marvelous Dashwood ladies (especially Marianne), to that Willoughby (disliked him immensely, sorry), to the lovely colonel Brandon. (*heart flutters*, lol ) and everyone else, I just loved the movie, so much that it's shown on TV twice and though it's like 4 hours or longer. I have actualy caught it twice! I really enjoy the story lines and the characters so much! Perhaps I should pick up the book, who knows! : ) On a total opposite end of the spectrum, I also caught the movie, "Party Monster" with Macaulay Culkin, Seth Green, Chloe Sevigny and Wilmer Valderrama among others. But it was a really good movie, very eye opening, dark comedy type movie. It was sad in parts and hilarious in others. I'm glad I saw this while B was at school and Noah was napping. Other then that, I am still totally into Ugly Betty and also Desperate Housewives! : ) Have an awesome weekend everyone! : )
Ahhh, sorry I didn't have time to post about the Summer festival before we left to Hawaii, but better late then never, right? Ha ha ha. : ) : ) These are what both Branden and Noah looked like for the festival. I really love both of their jinbei's a lot, cute! : )
I was busy working the festival for half of it, so Noboru took the picture up above and this pic and the few down below. I think he did an okay job with taking the pictures. : ) The parents of the little girl closest to B asked to take a pic with both the boys. Their dad was taking pictures of the 4 of them together. So that's why Noboru also took this picture as well. : ) The little girl is the little sister of Branden's friend. Both B and her brother are the same age and are good buddies and went to yochien together and swim together as well. Their mom and dad are both REALLY nice people. Good people. So, anyway those 2 were really pretty girls, ne. Can't believe they're blue badges already.
The kids were in the "game" room and getting to pick out their bag to hold their treats in. The lady helping Noah with the really pretty long black hair is my good friend Mayuko-san. : )
The boy's got a lot of help from my friends and also Noboru was right there too taking pics and helping. I was meanwhile on the other side of the room, working the ball throwing game with Jogo-san and Rieko-san. Passing out prizes to all the kids and Jogo-san and I were to cheer the kids on as well and pass out the prizes. If the kids got 2 balls in the box, they got a certain prize and if they only got 1 ball they got a different prize and if they got no balls at all, they still got a prize. Which was pretty nice. But we had to watch and keep track in our heads and then pass out the prizes accordingly. How did I like it? I honestly LOVED it. It didn't even seem like work at all. I saw so many kids. Kids that have long passed graduated this yochien but that I knew from when B used to go there. It was really cool actually. And of course all the new kids, Noah's classmates, I knew too. When our hour and a half was up. We didn't even know it. We were so busy clapping and saying...."Gambatte, come on you can do it! Just one more ball" And then ahhh, better luck next time" (In Japanese of course) and then passing out a treat. And if they got all balls we'd hoot and holler and clap. We laughed so many times during this game it was funny. How did we know our time was up? The next group, our replacement ladies came in with their aprons and we looked at each other and said...."is it time already?" Ha ha ha. And don't get me wrong we both were happy to be able to spend the remainder of the festival with our own families, so we were happy..... it's just time went by so fast. It was fun though. : )
I was glad to see Noah did the fishing game outside. This happened while I was inside working. Noboru took this. : ) That's one of the sensei's helping with this game. : )
And happy that Branden tried this game as well. : ) Look at that big bag of stuff Branden had won during the festival. Both the kids had a lot of fun. : )
This was the activity room. This was what the other group did. It was really fun. The kids all got to create with either stickers, markers or crayons their own little charm or tag. They were also heated up and covered in plastic. Branden made one with his name and a bunch of Pokemon stickers. Noah stuck stickers on at random, but he likes it. And then they were laminated. I thought that was pretty cool of the other group to come up with that. All the kids enjoyed it a lot. I enjoyed watching the kids create their own little laminated charms.
I was so very thankful that I worked the first half, because I got to enjoy watching the kids dance for the second half. All those colorful yukatas and jinbeis. One reason I love the Natsumatsuri so much. To view all the cool and colorful outfits. : )
After the kids were in their nice little neat rows by badge/class. They started forming a circle. The sensei held Noah's hand and started stretching out the red badge class to help form that circle, meanwhile the pink badges were also forming the same circle and same with the blue badges.
When I snapped this picture of Noah, I didn't really realize at the time. But when I got home and went through the pictures, I realized the little girl in that gorgeous red yukata happened to be Noriko-san's daughter. I really like this picture because it has both of our younger kids in this picture. And she's a very good friend of mine so it made me happy. And that yukata she wore was stunning, a very beautiful color, she looked absolutely beautiful. : )
And now the kids are starting to dance. You can see all the kids including Noah has their one hand up and bent. : )
Jazz hands, no I'm just kidding! Ha ha ha. : )
And in this pic, I see Itsuki-chan wearing that beautiful blue hibiscus yukata. Ahh, I really do enjoy Summer festival to get to see all the Summer outfits. *happy sigh* : )
And of course we had to get a pic of these two good buddies. Noah and Chi-chan!!!
Some of the stuff the boys brought back. Not counting the laminated tags and other things. But the 2 bags with treats and the armor (made of cardboard, shhh : ) And the sword made of newspaper and part of a pet bottle, tin foil and tape (shhhhh, ha ha ha : ) But the kids loved them. : )
We watched our last 2 DVD rentals for July before heading off to Hawaii as well. Ponyo and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The kids LOVED LOVED LOVED Ponyo. So much so, we will go and buy the DVD probably. And I really liked Benjamin Button, so much so that I caught myself thinking about that movie the next day.
Posts
