Le three day weekend...

Here in Chiba, Monday (2 days ago) was a holiday. Chiba Day. So that means Monday was a "no school" day for Branden and Noah. Last week, I made chicken curry with veggies. I made 2 times the amount (used 2 rouxs, extra veggies and 1 extra chicken breast, so 3 total) because the following day we were going to have curry spaghetti. A family favorite, around our house. : )  Curry spaghetti pictured.

Random pic of some dusting action going on, in the living room, last week. Took all the DVD baskets out, dusted the area where the baskets usually go and also dusted the DVDs. The kids were doing the 3 day weekend, happy dance all week, last week. And I was just trying to get the house in order, before the 3 day weekend.

Friday morning after finishing up the house cleaning and tossing my load of laundry into the dryer, I went downstairs and baked the fam...a pineapple upside down cake. You know...to kick off..."Le Weekend", of course! : ) Le 3 day weekend...so even more reason, to celebrate with some cake!

Lightly buttered a baking pan. Melted a bit of butter in the microwave, which was pictured to the right. And cranked up some jams in the kitchen to keep me company. Thinking Out Loud, by Ed Sheeran...I'm Not The Only One, by Sam Smith. Not a Bad Thing, by Justin Timberlake, etc.

The tad of melted butter has to go down in the pan first. Followed by some brown sugar. It says use 2/3 cup brown sugar. I tried that once a few years ago, I felt the 2/3 cups ruined the cake, totally. It was absurdly too sweet, so I use 1/3 cup of brown sugar and it's plenty. Would never use more than 1/3 cup of brown sugar. 

I have mentioned this on my blog once or twice before. But when you make pineapple upside down cake. Do not use the 1 cup of water that the box says for the yellow cake mix. Save the pineapple juice from the canned pineapple and use 1 cup of the pineapple water/juice/liquid... what was from the can of pineapple. It instantly makes the entire yellow cake mix, now taste like a delicious pineapple cake. Everyone will cheer and clap for you and wonder..how did you get your cake to taste so good. You can either share and tell them. Or just keep it a secret. But I'll share. It's the pineapple liquid from the can. : ) 

Canned pineapple rings are 89-100 yen around my part of Japan. So it's affordable. I have even seen canned cherries and jars of cherries around. I brought the cherries, back from Guam though. : ) 

Again, just substitute the 1 cup of water for 1 cup of pineapple juice/liquid from the can. The recipe is on the Betty Crocker website. But the recipe on the website gives a recipe that many don't like. The recipe makes the cake homemade and many of the comments say the cake itself, is dry and crumbly. However 1 awesome lady...wrote in the comments on the Betty Crocker pineapple upside down cake page told the...changes she made. She said...she used a yellow cake mix and the cake mix is soft and moist. Heck, yeah it is! And she said, to use the pineapple liquid versus 1 cup of plain water. When she's right, she's right! And her cook time, was dead on right too. So it's on the website....it's just in the comments section...the recipe, I use. So, in a nutshell, 1 cup of pineapple liquid not water, and use a yellow cake mix. And use less brown sugar. It's really good. : )  

I had the cake all baked and ready for my family to get home last Friday. I also made some homemade pizza dough in the day, as well. Homemade pizza from scratch...some cake for dessert. The weekend was here. 

You know...my camera on our outside front door, security camera. Shows up very fuzzy lately. I have wiped the lens, obvious first guess... but it still comes out like this. @_@ Noah and 2 friends were outside, last Friday after school. They were riding bikes Friday afternoon. They came back twice. Once so Noah could check in. And the second time was because Noah's tire went flat on his bike. I asked him..."did you ride over any glass or anything sharp, that could have punctured your tire?" Noah said no, so Bran was a good big brother and went and got the bicycle pump from the shed and pumped up Noah's tire. His tire worked like a champ after Bran, filled up the tire. Slow leak...fast leak? I hope not...hope it was just nothing and just needed air. 

Bran and kids, and 1 kid near my TV monitor sorta hard to tell, but you can see the shadow to the left of this pic. 

I cranked up the oven at 5pm. And rolled the dough out at 4:50pm placed them on the pans and waited. Noah and his friends were outside and I had to go outside and chat a bit and ask...are you kids pumped up and ready for the 3 day weekend. They said...YES!!! As they bounced around the front yard. LOL! You know...the way happy excited 9 year olds get! Then the bell rang at 5pm and it (the bell)  let's all kids know that it's time to go home. For our area...a lady gets on the intercom for our town...and you hear her voice at 4:55pm, saying, "kids this is the 5 minute warning before 5pm." Kids start going home. And then the final bell is at 5pm and she comes on again....(is this a recording, who knows probably yes) but she says..."time to be home kids!" Hahaha. So all kids go home at a specific time. Noah was a sweaty old mess at 5pm, so we sent Noah to the showers, to get shampooed and soaped up at 5pm. Meanwhile my right hand man...Bran and I...we put the sauce and toppings on the pizzas and put them into the oven. Noah came downstairs nice and squeaky clean in some PJs. And we 3 went and ate in the living room. We munched homemade pizza. We watched cable. It was nice. Weekends, we sure love you! : ) After dinner, Bran went to shower and I cleaned the kitchen. I took a shower after B got out. Noboru came home later that night, he had a later shift that day.

Saturday. Noboru went fishing in the morning. He got to go out and do what he loves. I meanwhile was getting ready for my big pot of beef stew, that I was about to make. I sliced off the tiny bit of fat that was on there. But really...it was very lean beef.

The stock pot/pan was so hot, it was sizzling hot. I meanwhile put a bit of oil in the pan, and trimmed any fat off and diced up the beef. Really lean beef. I fried up the beef. A little salt and black pepper. It cooked quickly, then I added some water and let it boil for most of the day. When the beef is..."fall apart tender" then it's ready for the veggies. 

1 onion, potatoes, 1 carrot, mushrooms. Boiled for 30 minutes. The potatoes were tender but not obliterated. : )

Turned off the pan and added the roux. I love this beef stew roux. The one with the green bean on the picture/box. It's 120 yen, where we live, but...when it goes on sale for 98-99 yen, I will usually buy like 3 of these beef stew rouxs and store them in my pantry. : ) We watched the DVD Wildcats with Goldie Hawn Saturday night.

Sunday, I asked the boys...would you guys like to play some Monopoly. The boys *love* board games, specifically Monopoly and Sorry. So they said...for sure! 

Both my boys have tablets, both my boys each have a Nintendo 3DS and a Wii. But, I like that they're not addicted to them. I like that they...go out fishing with their dad...go shrimping with their dad. Have family movie night. Go riding bikes with their friends. Be regular kids. It keeps them well balanced and grounded. So, I like spending an afternoon with them playing Monopoly. It's good for them...heck it's good for me too. : ) So Saturday...was spent playing a family board game. 

Branden said he wanted to be the fedora (hat that kids, now days *love*) Noah wanted to be the car. So, I was the shoe. Hahaha. 

This corner area was... Noah owned. He had 3 light blues all with hotels and the bright pinks all with hotels too.  This was a scary corner for me to go around. I didn't want to pay $550 US for landing on something light blue. And some of the bright pinks if you landed, it was $900 each time. Super yikes!

Bran owned the 3 properties pictured here between the Pennsylvania Railroad and Free parking. I owned the property directly across from this picture, near the Chance area. 

Branden also owned this area. 

Noah was winning for a long time, but then, I won! They each had to sell off their houses and hotels. Branden had to mortgage his property. Noboru meanwhile came home from the store after buying some shrimp and 1 chicken breast for Noah, Noboru was happily ready to cook us some dinner. He offered that morning, and I said, heck yes. Please, please! He prepped dinner, breaded all the shrimp and the one chicken breast, he made into tiny Noah sized, mini cutlets. After prepping dinner he went and showered and came downstairs and became our Monopoly banker for a good hour. It helped us out a ton. That way we could concentrate on playing without having to dole out the $200 for passing go each time...he handled all that. : ) 

Thanks Noboru. For making us dinner and being the banker on Monopoly. : ) 

I owned the whole back row, furthest this camera. The property between Free Parking and Go to Jail. I also owned, Park Avenue and Boardwalk. 

Some of my properties. 

It was a good game. Good game kids! Gomen, ne~ Sorry for beating you guys at Monopoly. 

I did bake a yellow cake with chocolate frosting before Monopoly and that's only because Noboru and the kids ate the pineapple upside down cake... to nothing left (and that's fine and it makes me so happy). ...Since it was a 3 day weekend, I thought..oh to heck with it, I should bake them another cake. So, that's why I baked the yellow cake with chocolate frosting. : ) Noah's dinner from Noboru, pictured here. Everyone was offered potato salad and also offered cabbage salad, which cabbage salad is very normal/typical in Japan when you eat fried foods. But Noah didn't want either. Which is fine. He eats veggies often anyway...with beef stew, etc. So, skipping 1 night is fine. 

Noah always prefers to use chopsticks. Which is interesting...because Branden strongly prefers to use a fork. : )

Branden's dinner. Again, Noboru said...Bran please have some potato salad or cabbage salad. Bran said...not tonight, please. So, Noboru designed his meal like this. @_@ Clearly this is not how I plate up his dinner. Bran didn't say anything, but he was like...@_@....thanks dad. Hahaha. Ahhh...it's good that they see how mom and dad are different...heck we even plate up our meals differently and that's A-okay. : )  Noboru's meal for Branden.

And my meal Sunday night. Cabbage salad, potato salad, fried shrimp and rice. It was delicious this shrimp. Branden said so too. Noah meanwhile really loved his handbreaded chicken cutlet. : ) 

Two days ago, Monday the day off school. Chiba day or whatnot. We played the board game Sorry! Branden smiling. Thinking deeply.

I lost and I lost big time. Look at all my pawns in the start zone/area. : ( Noboru kept zonking me back to start. Branden kept zonking me back to start. Noah felt badly and would not zonk me out. He's so sensitive. Aww. : )  And hey...I don't mind...it's just a game. And everyone wants to win, so you gotta zonk somebody out, hahaha.

Noah won! : ) 

Monday, I washed up the bath mat, stripey one form Ikea. Noboru's towel and the boys thermos bags. I like to keep them nice and clean. : ) 

Vitamins for the green chili plants. Come on...drink this...just like Popeye used to eat his spinach! It's good for you. : )

Are they getting any bigger? You know, I see them every single day, so for me personally...it's hard to tell. @_@ Hmmm. : ) 

I loved this movie when it first came out. Soul Man, starring C. Thomas Howell. James Earl Jones. And Rae Dawn Chong. This movie was about a spoiled rich white college aged kid. And his parents had...had enough. So they told him, we are not paying for your college. So he decided to enter school as a black student and he took a scholarship that could have went to a real black student. This was a comedy. There was also some drama. In a nut shell, he realized what a jerk he was. He came clean, so to speak. He had to pay the money back for the scholarship, which was the right thing to do. But it was just a very good underrated movie. I had seen this movie...gosh...about 10 times at least. I should buy this on DVD. 

The 2 racist jerk student neighbors of his... pictured here. Notice that's a young Julia Louis Dreyfus (Elaine from Seinfeld.) And every time the C Thomas Howell character passes these 2 jerks...they say something so racist. Some snide racist "joke" some offhanded remark. In the end...he really lets them have it! And boy did they deserve it! But yes...this movie was just really funny, really real. And in the end...you are left thinking...the kid "got it" he finally got it.  

He fell in love. And he realized...she was to get the scholarship...  he took her scholarship. He felt so conflicted. And I think it was good for him to feel conflicted. I'm not all out to talk for eons here. But the most powerful thing said in the movie came from the legend..the one and only... James Earl Jones (he played the professor character) he told C Thomas Howell..."you got to feel how it feels to be black. You have a deeper understanding yes...*but* you always had the safety in knowing you could go back, to being white any time you didn't like it. We don't have that same option." And at that point you can see...the C. Thomas Howell character...he got it! He understood.  Anyway, it was just a movie...I really enjoyed in the 80's. Flash to now...but in the same vein as the movie... 

I get up... grab a hot coffee, last Friday or something and front page of all the online American news... this story broke. Read the caption in this picture. A white woman pretending to be a black woman? First thing that popped in mind was... Is this story true? I could not believe this story. Second thing that popped in my mind was...this reminds me of that old movie in the 80's that I used to love...Soul Man. @_@ Her name is Rachel Dolezal. She was born white. Her both biological parents are white, they showed her birth certificate where it says...parents race..it says Caucasian for her mom and dad and her at birth. They showed pictures of her growing up all the way to her teens. Here she is pictured in her natural state, on the right. She has fair skin with a light dusting of freckles/angel kisses, she's blond. And that's also her on the left, as she looks now. I must point out...her parents did not "out" her. They haven't spoken to their daughter in many years...but they never did "out" her for living a lie. Apparently on facebook she has even shard a picture of an older African American man saying that's her dad. @_@ Which was not true. Her parents are 2 Caucasian folks living in Montana. But still they kept silent. It was only when....a reporter writing a piece about her...flew to Montana to interview her real parents. They said...they decided they would not LIE for their daughter, so when he asked...are you her parents. They said...truthfully, yes we are her real biological parents and provided birth certificates etc. The second the truth was spoken, all hell broke loose. This story went nation wide. If she were living a quiet private life..I think this story might have not raised more than an eyebrow. The thing and tricky part of this story is. She was the leader/head of the Washington state chapter of the NAACP. She also was teaching at a college teaching...African American studies. She also worked for a newspaper. But the legal parts...and aspects are..when she applied for the jobs...she wrote down, she was black. So...going back to the movie...did she take a job away from a real African American applicant. So it's a huge story in the US right now. And with having American cable here at my house...I have watched this whole thing unravel. And OMG...this thing gets worse by the day. She lost her job at the university she is no longer going to teach African American studies anymore there. They politely said...she won't be back next semester. She was flat out fired from the newspaper. and the NAACP, asked her to resign, some say she resigned on her own. but who knows how it went down behind closed doors...all I can say is...by me watching all the protesters outside the NAACP headquarters in Washington State on the news, with signs that said...hashtag/ #INTEGRITYMATTERS. This thing was growing out of control. The picketers wanted her gone from the NAACP, asap/immediately. Then that news reporter surprised her and asked her...flat out...an easy question..."are you black or white?" She said..."it's a complex question with complex answers" and walked away from the reporter as fast as could be. @_@  I thought personally it was a very easy simple question with a simple easy answer. But...long story short... this story is huge right now. Side note, she does not like to be called African American, she will tell you...she prefers you call her black. The question arose...could she be transracial. If Caitlyn Jenner could be transgender, could Rachel, be transracial? You know what..I do not know. That's a good question though, hmm. On the bright side. I bet Bill Cosby is happy the Duggar news sort of took the spotlight off his story. And then I bet the Duggar's were happy the Rachel Dolezal story broke and sort of took the spotlight off of them.  Oh boy. Goodness goodness. I tell ya...nothing surprises me anymore. But yep, Rachel Dolezal tried to pull a Soul Man. And people are pretty upset about it. And rightfully so. How will this story end? I do not know. But, I'm keeping up to date with the story...same as I try to keep up with other current American news stories too. Anyways...

Today Noah gets out of school at 3:45pm and Bran gets out at 4pm. I am making fried pork chop and baked gratin cheesy potatoes and a vegetable for supper tonight. The rainy season has started for us, in our area of Japan. But it's not raining today. Have a great day everyone.

Summer break is here! Taco party at home! Homemade pizza from scratch. Kodomokai/Kids Club Fireworks!!! Pics from swimming school...

Last Thursday, July 17th, the last full day both Branden and Noah had school, since Friday was a half day. So, I cruised myself to Costco Thursday morning... I was there first thing as soon as they opened their doors. Just picked up these few items. Lean ground beef for our "let's party schools out dinner!!!" for the next day. Mozzarella cheese for homemade from scratch pizza for Saturdays dinner. And the rotisserie chicken was for Thursday night (swim night) so an easy meal appreciated. And choco croissants, yummm! For last day of school/next day of schools Friday's breakfast (yes please. lol)! : ) Grabbed a slice of pizza and a 60 yen soda with ice, had a drink and refilled before hopping into my car and heading back to Mayberry (my tiny town)

Friday! Both Branden and Noah got out at 11am. I picked them both up (Branden had a lot to lug home and on a bike, I just brought him home in my car, safer and easier)...they got changed and unpacked their stuff and I took them out to McD's for a celebration lunch...school is out for summer...woohoo yahoo and all that good stuff!!!! They had cheeseburgers and fries (Branden 3 cheeseburgers and Noah 2, they are growing boys...and they shared a large fry and a large soda) I had a goma salad and we went home. Summer break for me too...no horrible alarm waking me up at 5:30am every morning Mon-Fri. Yeah love summer break! : ) For supper Friday night we had tacos. The huge pack of ground beef I split into half and put in the freezer. But 1 half we used. I also made chicken tacos as well for myself. The 4 of us had a little taco party here at the house. Just knowing summer break was here...that we could now officially stay up late, wake up late. Just really really appreciated around here. So yippy, we were thrilled. And enjoyed our meal. The kids took showers, we all took turns showering and all ended up enjoying TV in the living room just a very nice Friday, July 18th. : ) 

I've been talking and blogging since 2005 the year...my blog started about how the kids help out around the house. When the kids have break, they help out around the house. I grew up with chores. And my kids have always been the same way. Like I said many many times before, even when they were 3 years old, I'd have them go and tidy the shoes in the genkan, help fold clothes, sure I might have to "refold" them again when they weren't watching of course, but it still gave them a purpose and they grew up always helping around the house. Or I remember buttering their toast or their frozen waffle even...and remembering when I felt they were old enough to start buttering their own. And yeah it looked like they were struggling with that butter knife and I would just patiently watch them try, but they did get the hang of it. : ) I do that to help them....because I love them... so when they are someday in college or uni, they will know how to do all that stuff. : ) Anyway...at age 9 and 12 and on summer break. Same as I blogged last year, one day one will vacuum the downstairs meanwhile the other will vacuum the actual stairs. And the next day they'll switch (I vacuum the upstairs every other day but the downstairs needs it daily). Also every morning they unload the dish washer 50/50 each of them. While I do the rest of the downstairs cleaning myself. They also do homework in the morning first thing after their chores are done. And I am making their breakfast. And from 11am-12 they can play. 12 noon is lunch time, music plays throughout the neighborhood and everything. But at 1pm-5 they can play outside too. Sometimes it's too hot outside and they come inside and play Wii. But mostly Noah rides his ripstick or they play soccer or they ride bikes throughout the neighborhood. We go on "real" vacation soon to California and they won't have a thing to do. : ) Me neither. : ) But for now we're doing regular stuff. : )

Branden was vacuuming the stairs this day, Noah meanwhile vacuumed the heck out of the downstairs. Really and honestly no, the kids being home on summer break doesn't drive me crazy at all... because they help me out a lot around the house or...they're off playing and being typical boys and kids. : ) This is also the season to go and look for beetles outside. : )

Meanwhile, Saturday morning, after I made breakfast and made the homemade pizza dough and let it rest in a big bowl. I did my nails (finger and toe nails) I went for a rosy gold color. I did have 1 accent solid gold sparkly nail. Because all the Yotube beauty vloggers are talking about the accent nail, lol. : ) 

8 of my nails look like this right now. A nice shimmer rose gold color and the tips with the gold glitter. This picture is total crapola... but the nails in real life came out really nice. And 1 accent nail on each hand. So 2 super glittery gold nails. 

This is a slightly better picture than the one up above... but it's still not a great pic but better than the one up above. The nails came out very cute and summery. : ) Very feminine and girly. : )

Saturday's pizzas baking nicely in the big oven. Oh yeah we were supposed to have our housing community fireworks, Saturday, but it rained...like lightning and thunder bolts! @.@ So it was postponed until the next/following day, Sunday, technically evening but you know what I mean. : ) 

We received some omiyage from Kyushu. Ramen. : ) 

Sunday morning after breakfast. I thought, you know what...I think I'm going to bake a pineapple upside down cake. I used 1 can of pineapple. I could have really used 2 more pineapple rings. But you know what...I wasn't about to go and buy a whole other can of pineapple for just 2 rings! That's nuts! I also used a yellow cake mix but...I used the pineapple juice from the can of pineapple as my "water" substitute when I made the cake mix according to the directions. So the cake came out so delicious and pineapple-y!! 

When Noboru came home from work...he said...what is that sweet smell, I smell it from the street/outside. He immediately had 2 slices. : ) That made me happy. Both the kids had 2 slices right away too, I had one slice. Needless to say this cake didn't last very long. : ) Which is so fine...I made it to make them happy in the first place! : ) I did make dinner Sunday. And at 7pm, I had to get myself to the "jinbei boy's" house because the fireworks were starting at 7:30pm!!! I had to help set up! : ) 

A blurry picture of Noah, Sunday evening July 20th at our fireworks celebration for our housing community. This is for elementary school kids only who live in our housing community. I did however bring my own pack of fireworks for Branden because he's still 12 and I know he'd like to light some too. And sure enough 5 other JHS students with younger siblings brought their own packs too. So they could enjoy too. And also younger siblings such as age 4 or 5 don't get fireworks either, so they also brought some for their younger kids too, who aren't quite in elementary school yet. 

We had such a nice turn out! : ) Very smoky, but a nice bunch of people showed up. 

That's Branden and Noah and the kiddo closest my camera is a JHS kiddo too and he was also on the swim team last year and his younger brother is in Noah's class. : ) 

I am so glad it didn't rain Sunday...otherwise it would have been cancelled completely. And the kids were so looking forward to this. : )

Just so many kids enjoying themselves. Us yakuin/kids club leaders, walked around with trash bags collected firework package wrappers, you know what I mean. Just any sort of trash we could collect. Making sure all candles were lit. Doing little chit chat with everyone, making sure everyone was having a good time. Etc etc. 

Many people on the left...

Many people on the right...

Here is Noboru in jeans and reddish shirt lighting the fireworks. This was the finale. Small finale, I know. But hey...I think we did okay. : ) If you recall...our housing community usually has a dashi pull, every summer, however the man who keeps the dashi and equipment for that...his wife is gravely ill. And so that was canceled this year and why we decided to do this instead for the kids. : ) It was no dashi pull, I know that...but it was at least something, us mothers/yakuin could whip together... and luckily Noboru came to the rescue to help light the finale/ bigger fireworks. Good guy. : )  

Awww! : ) I thought it was pretty. And everyone clapped and I hoped all the kids had a fun time. Everyone went home. Us yakuin stayed and cleaned as best as we could in pitch darkness. We agreed to come back at 8:30am the next morning/Monday morning and finish cleaning up. We did and the 4 of us cleaned the last bits up Monday morning, July 21st. I came home from cleaning firework remnants then, did my big toilet cleaning and big kitchen clean up Monday, the boys jumped in with vacuuming (so appreciated). And then us 3 hopped in my car and we went to the store after that. Bought the weekly groceries, weekly drinks, weekly fruit, etc. : ) We went home and had lunch, an egg salad sammy and potato chips. We all took an hour rest. I made an early dinner. Because I was taking the boys to swim school Monday evening. I promised to come and watch them. I like to go and watch them swim often over Summer break...when I am not running around like a chicken with her head cut off during summer break like I am when school's in session, so I get to go to swim school and watch the both of them.: ) 

Called the swim school an said that the swim bus wasn't needed that day because I was going to take them myself. They said okay. And upstairs I sat. : ) Branden swimming right here. His swimming is so strong! It flat out awes me. Puts me in awe!

Noah's swimming does as well. Oh my little one...however did you get to be such a little fish!

They just continuously swim back and forth for an hour and a half. How does their heart not explode from all that swimming? I honestly don't know! Fit as a fiddle, they are!!!

Noboru and I are both very strong swimmers. Boogie boarders and stuff ourselves. But our kids blow us away! Their technique, their strength...their speed. I forgot to show you the medals Noah won on his swimming competition, he did bring back 2. I'll share a pic of those this week. 

Leader of the lane is Branden in the yellow cap. The order is by skill level, who swims better and who swims faster! Noah was swimming 4th...but the kid in blue was being out swam by Noah so the coach pointed to blue cap and said you change and so blue cap became #4. And Noah became #3. Not to mention Noah is actually a year or 2 younger than blue cap and the fact Noah is the youngest period...for that swim lane, but yep, he's #3 for that lane now...unless he swims slower this coming Thursday. Noah is pretty competitive with his swimming so I imagine he'll stay 3rd for a while. So #1 and #2 both JHS kids and Noah is a 3rd grader and 3rd place for that lane, hahaha. And nobody messes with Noah because #1 they all know who his brother is and #2, Noah's just a nice kid and they've know him forever, Branden's a nice kid too and they've known him forever too. Noah swimming here... is very important to this swim school...he's just THAT good and for his age group, he's freaking amazing. Which is why this swim school wants him to swim for them when they go against other schools and whatnot. And why our elementary school can't wait for Noah to become a 4th grader and rep for our elementary school too. 

Branden passing out everyone a board for his lane. By the way...the kid in the black cap in the lane behind Branden's lane...that's S...he went to yochien with Branden. He's the leader of that lane, he's a good swimmer, not as good or as fast as Bran, but he is good though. : ) He's a real nice kid though and his mom is very nice too. : ) 

See the paper taped to the board near the coach. These kids don't need swim lessons anymore, because they frankly already know everything needed to know about swimming... hence the trophy and level 1. : ) But this is competitive swimming...which is totally and completely different...a coach watches over you yes... but you have a bunch of stuff to do whatever is taped on that board for that day...swim 50 meters of the butterfly, swim 100 meters of this or 50 meters of that. Or you have a set time to swim it in. This is what Branden and Noah do twice a week...competitive swimming. It's very very intense...your lungs and heart definitely get a workout. Hahaha. They're not just splish splashing around a pool, no sirree Bob! If your times are fast enough...yes they will ask you to compete...which is what happened with Noah. And actually both Branden and Noah were invited and asked to swim and represent for their swim club this summer but the date...is where we will be in California. But yep...competitive swimming course is what they're both doing. : )  It's good for them... because they love it...it keeps them active and fit. They have both been invited to be in the sports course but we haven't done that yet...because that's a 6 day a week commitment. And we do like to travel and have free time too though. 

Two brothers crossing paths...for a brief second. Bran and Noah : ) I smiled every time they did this. Anyway...this is what we've been up to around our neck of the woods...since both Branden and Noah have been on summer break. : )