Last bits and pieces from our summer, like our BBQ of ribs and getting another JHS uniform for Branden and a whole bunch of other things mixed in there too...

Hi you guys! I am *so* happy to have finished the Denver posts! Phew! That was a load off my mind to get that done. I do have this post. It's the last of the summer 2016 summer posts, I promise! It's just...boy, we had a whole heck of a lot that we were doing in August. And I just never had the chance to post everything. There just wasn't enough time for it. However the silver lining is...that it can be totally wrapped up...consolidated in this 1 post. That way we can move forward. And close the chapter of summer 2016 officially as soon as I post this one. Branden was offered in the beginning of June from Noboru that if he wanted to make some extra pocket money over the summer, he could mow our lawn when it needed it. For mowing the front and backyard he would earn 1,000 yen (US$10 dollars) Branden thought that was a fantastic deal. And so all summer long whenever the grass looked like it needed a mowing, Branden would get out there and mow the lawn. He earned a good chunk of cash by the end of summer. Good kid, good kid! : )  

Chili's were too genki beyond words! They grew like the dickens! We harvested this amount pictured here every single week! @_@ Roasting them, was a real pain in the butt, but it was worth it.

The Olympics happened this summer too! And of course we watched the opening ceremony! I love seeing all the different countries come out and share and bond over sports! And I cheered so loudly when the United States came out. I swear my neighbors must think I suffer from tourettes every 4 years! Hahaha. I am quiet the other times. But...when watching the American team walk out into the stadium I go nuts! USA...USA...USA! I think it's no big secret... how much I love my country. And our American outfits this year? Absolutely gorgeous and stunning! Our household watched swimming. I have 2 boy swimmers here at the house as you know... so they love watching swimming and they cheer so loudly for the USA! And we always watch gymnastics too. America did so well this Olympics. Sadly...Ryan Lochte and the whole...destroying the gas station. Lying about the robbery thing? Totally disappointed to hear that!  As of right now for this season...he's on Dancing with the Stars. And apparently 2 guys wearing anti- Lochte shirts booed and called him a liar after his first dance! @_@ People still seem pretty upset about the whole thing. @_@ But yep, team USA did wonderful as a whole this summer at the Olympics. 

Also in August, I had to replace my liquid eyeliner because mine ran out. I am now using this one. I used this of course during my whole trip in Denver and on days here in Japan when I have to wear makeup. I really like this one. It's better than the Dolly Wink one that I was using before this one and it is rated #1 by looking at this sticker on the package. Great liquid eyeliner. 

What else happened this summer? Oh yes, that's right. Have you heard in the news about Samsung tablets exploding? It's been all over the news recently. Noah had a Samsung tablet which he got for his 2015 birthday. Luckily it wasn't the type that explodes. @_@ However it too... had a funky weird glitch or defect. And the screen would turn yellow then back to a normal white screen then go to a funky yellow and back and forth. At the end of June we got a hold of Expansy's which is who we bought it from. And they turned out to be a very good company! First they asked us to send Noah's tablet back, which we did. And they were so honest. They told us it had a much more serious problem. Even though we were still under warranty. They gave us every last dollar/yen back. So Noah got a completely 100% full refund. I thought that was such an honorable thing for that company to do. So...Noah ended up getting a tablet from Amazon Japan. The same tablet Branden has exactly. Because after all July 2016 of us researching a new tablet for Noah, this was the one with the best reviews. So pictured here is Noah's new tablet, screen protector and case. All paid for by the refund Expansy's gave us. That was very nice and lucky the way things turned out. 

Same model Branden has. Now they both have twin tablets. Good thing Noah got his new tablet before we left to Denver. 

We had a nice backyard BBQ pretty much right before we left to Denver. We had ribs, pulled pork and baked potatoes (grilled potatoes)...

Bush's baked beans too...

Just a random picture from our family BBQ that night. Again we BBQ all the time in summer, so it's impossible to share pics from each BBQ. But yep, we enjoyed our ribs that night. : )

Cart pics with the 3 ribs stacked on top of each other on the left. Tissues and laundry soap. This pic was taken August 12th.

Also from August 12th. Our 2nd cart. Kirkland cheese pizzas. Again with it being summer the kids had lunch at home all summer. So things like frozen pizzas etc... needed to be here at the house for the boys. Chicken breasts, jaga butter these are just steamed potatoes with butter and again...a quick thing for the kids to get if they are hungry during summer lunches here at home. : ) Dinner rolls and a rotisserie chicken, we had rotisserie chicken sandwiches that night. And pasta sauce. Perfect to have on hand for a quick spaghetti and meatball dinner or chicken parmesan. : ) Just so many random little moments happened here. That were nice or fun. And this post just helps give a better idea of our summer. And this post will at least help finish up summer 2016, like I said. : ) 

JHS uniform... take 2! : )

A new blazer. And now we don't have to wonder if Branden will burst out of his old one...like the Hulk. : ) And you can see a glimpse/tiny smidgen of his new school pants on the left of this picture. 

180cm. And he's not plus size, otherwise it would say 180B. He's a 180A...a regular size. On the bright side. And there is always a bright side of everything, I think. The bright side is...Noah will end up with 3 blazers! Which is unheard of considering the cost of these. But 2 will be from his brother. But...nice to have extras, right. : ) He will also get 3 pair of JHS pants from his big brother too. Lucky Noah! So yes there is always a bright side to everything. : )

Omiyage (a souvenir from the Boy Next Door's family) Rice crackers! Such nice neighbors! Alrighty, I think this pretty much wraps up summer 2016. We did as you know go to the beach this summer, wave pool place too, and 1 summer festival plus, we had many backyard BBQ's and we went and enjoyed kakigori (shave ice) too. Plus the Denver trip, so all in all a pretty fantastic summer was had here, in our little neck of the woods. : )

Happy Birthday Noah!!! The start of the double digits! Our newly minted ten-ager!!!

Happy Birthday, our dearest most gorgeous Noah! No more single digits for you anymore. You've officially hit the big time kid! It's double digits from here on out....well until you hit age 100, then you'll be hitting the triple digits, hahaha!  Anyways, our good luck Tanabata Boy, came home, from school July 7th with a huge smile on his face. Nearly bouncing around like Tigger from Pooh, you know what I mean. As he was bouncing and getting into my car, he said matter of factly with huge enthusiasm, I might add. I have decided where we should eat mama! I said..."oh where Noah...please do tell, do tell!!!" He said Jolly Pasta. Keep in mind out of all the restaurants this being the farthest, from our house. LOL. Our nearest Jolly Pasta being about an hours drive, each way. But never mind that, it's what the birthday boy, would like to feast on, for his birthday and so done and done! : ) Noboru was just getting home and we waited for Branny McB to get out of school at 3:45pm and when he did, he came home and quickly changed from JHS uniform, to regular clothes and we took off, without much delay because it was quite the drive. We had tunes on in the car. The kids and I belted out tune after tune. Jam after jam. Noboru's not much, of a singer in the car, but he *loves* that we are, so he listens, he's a fan, hahaha. : )  Noah crooned away at Lay Me Down by Sam Smith and many other songs. He really sings nice. Same for B, he sings nice as well. We arrived at perfect timing at Jolly Pasta, because there was only... 1 other group of people there at the time. A group of 4 seniors drinking a huge bottle of wine and I do mean, it was huge, eating Italian yummy goodness and they stayed there even longer then us, but they were just having a great old merry time with their quiet little group in the corner. They were adorable. So just them and us. We ordered. Bran, Noah and I ordered this pasta, pictured. You can see by the pic, there's a tiny chili pic and garlic pic, under the pasta pic. It's really good pasta, it has chili so it's slightly spicy, but Noah said it wasn't spicy at all, just good flavor (we all love spicy in our family). : ) It has chili, garlic, mozzarella. This pasta dish is amazing. Noboru picked a different pasta dish and we each had a personal pizza. And a drink bar. The quality of their food is top notch. After we ordered, like tons and tons of people started coming in and sitting down. Different families and before you know it, the place was packed with people. We laughed and said...doesn't this always happen to us? We get there, it's dead...we order and then like...BOOM explosion of mass amounts of people afterwards. But, we all agreed good thing... we ordered first. Before the crowds. Silver lining. : ) 

The glasses are really nice and cute. And we honestly spent over an hour in the restaurant. We talked quite a bit. Refilled our glasses quite a bit. Again our birthdays are always spent really quiet...just our family together. Just... very chill. The kind of birthdays we prefer. 

My pasta. Noboru's pizza was a jalapeno pizza. OMG, his pizza was so good! We seriously just had the best *best* time being at the restaurant. And YES, of course Noboru had to recount to Noah...the old....when you were born you were *this* small, type stories. And he had to recount the same stories he tells Noah *every* birthday, same as he does the same exact thing for Bran's birthday too. Again though...the birthday dinner was very cool. Very low key. Just very chill. Just, us together as a family having a great time. 

The kids and I also had some hot cocoa. Noboru had a coffee. We went and paid and then we hopped in Olive and she took us home. 

Ice cream cake from Nagano, homemade! Choco banana, the top layer is homemade banana and the bottom layer is Italian chocolate which describes it as, having hazel nut flavor and it tastes exactly like Nutella ice cream. This cake is amazing! And the cake at the bottom is yumm too. Totally high quality birthday cake, for sures!

You can see Noboru's elbow on the right of this picture, or shirt. But Bran absolutely adores his little brother. I mean, they're super tight, these two! He's always been sorta like a second papa to Noah... mixed with a best friend. They're close and as an only child myself, I am so glad they have each other! So, Bran said, I'll light Noah's candles. And so he did. And as he did, he told Noah, "now be careful..it's hot okay?" Obviously Noah knows that, he's 10. But...you know hearing how much he worries and cares about Noah and watching B go around this cake and light each candle with care. I don't know...but it made me proud of the both of these two! Good kids. : )

And the last candle for B to light. And as the name plate says...Happy Birthday Noah. 

You are so loved! While your brother is strong and opinionated and brave and fearless and extremely competitive! Bran raises his hand in class probably 20 times a day, to answer the questions in class, he likes being top dog. As always and probably always will. He's definitely one of the cool kids, Branden. He's *very* Alpha male, Branden is. And qualities that are super wonderful for a boy to have! You...Noah in personality are quite the opposite.... you have always been very gentle, very agreeable, you are the least competitive person, I know. You are also popular, but you're different, you don't want to be top dog, you're just totally content. It's very interesting to watch, you both..... and I love you both so much. Noah, you naturally, share everything. If you have 5 pieces of gum, and you are with 6 people (including himself) you'll give all your friends a piece of gum and you'll have none for yourself (this worries me, as your mama and we have had talks about this, you and me...the old... "you matter, and you need to care about you a little more"... pep talk). You are nice...*so* nice...sometimes I worry, too nice? Hahaha.  You do have a very kind heart. For real, straight up...he has the kindest heart ever, you guys! This kid has seriously hands down... never been greedy or jealous or unkind to others, like *ever*... a day of his life! He's never went to a store and said..."I want this...I want that." Absolutely never. He's totally Charlie Bucket...not Veruca Salt, if you know what I mean. His heart you guys, he's golden, this Noah-chan! You always think the best of people (even when they don't deserve it). And you always want the best for others and always look at things... as the glass half full. He's so positive and bright and shiny and good. So pure of heart. Which is why... we 3... always protect you (we're like 3 lions guarding you always) and look out for you and watch out for you. And you give the best hugs and cuddles! You *always* say please and thank you.You are very polite (Bran is too though, I was a stickler about manners when they were younger) It's very interesting watching the two of you grow up and see how your personalities differ so much. We love you Noah...exactly as you are!!! Oh and the whole ten-ager thing. Noah being 9, last year, saw Branden become 13. And he idolizes his big brother, we all know that. : )  And he said all last year...wow Branden is so cool, he's a teenager. Branden too says...I'm a teenager. We knew Noah was in awe all last year... because we have heard the word...*teenager* being used all this past year. So, Noboru told me...let's call Noah this year...let's call him a  ten-ager. That way he can sorta- semi join Branden. I said...you know what...that's an excellent idea! So, on his birthday at the restaurant, we called him a ten-ager! And OMG...you guys...he loves it! Noah totally loves it. And now we say...we have 1 teenager and 1 ten-ager! Hahaha. So, a term we coined and we will be using all this year. Sorta cool, yes slightly corny... but who cares...when or if you have kids...you'll more than understand about wanting to make them smile and we personally love the word. Ten-ager! Hahaha. : )

You guys already saw, the swimsuit Noah got for his birthday and cool outfit with matching shoes and stuff. But this was Noah's big gift this year. We wanted to get Noah a larger tablet this year. A brand new 2015 model one. We bought it from the company on this box. We considered buying it from Walmart, when we're in California next week. However since we live in Japan, and if anything happened... we would have a hard time replacing it or whatnot. So we bought it from Expansys. It's a company that sells electronics worldwide. They are a legit company. They sell in America, in Europe, all over. And if we buy from this website, but in Japan, we have a 12 month warranty, that way...we're safer... if anything happens we can send it back. So the 12 month warranty and stuff factor, is what drew us to buying from them. Versus buying at an actual store in California. 

The brand new Samsung galaxy Tab S, 8.4 inch screen, so it's huge! Perfect for reading books or playing games. The graphics, we compared to different tablets online on Amazon.com, they have comparisons on there and this rated best. Highest resolution, pixels, processor (speed), just super top of the line. But a perfect gift for our sweetheart cuddle bunny. : )

Noah's old tablet to the left, it was a Nexus 7 (7 inch) it's a good tablet and was a perfect one for him to start off with. It works and stuff and he'll still keep it and stuff. But, this other one, is bigger, and nicer. And newer. It's in a beautiful bronze brown color. The choice was white (no way) or bronze. And he loves it! Noah went goo goo gaga for this, when he saw his present! It's a pretty major big present to receive. He's one lucky kid! : )  He also loves his swimsuit and outfit as well. And he received money from all his grandparents. Branden loves this tablet and so he has already requested to get the same tablet for his birthday in October. Anyway, so that's how we spent Noah's 10th birthday this year! Happy Birthday to the sweetest, kindest kid, I know! We love you Noah! : )