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, October moments captured from 2010...

Noah picking out a small little pumpkin to take to his class back in October 2010! The mini pumpkins always seem to have stickers for Jack O'Lantern faces. Every year I buy 2 mini pumpkins for the boys to bring to their classes. Their teachers always enjoy them every year, as well as their classmates too! And we were also buying our Halloween pumpkin as well, since our family carves one every year! We're lucky in that there's a place in Inzai that sells them every year and 980 for a big one is always a fair price, for living in Japan! Of course if we lived in the US, they'd be way cheaper of course, that goes without saying. : ) We picked the bigger one near Noah's arm with the stickers on it. : ) That's the one we carved that year. : ) 

Also in October of that same year 2010! Branden received and earned his swimming trophy! He was very excited, honored and proud! He worked very hard for this! : ) Noah has one too. : ) I also love our Fall wreath that was hanging in the background of this pic and this is also the same wreath that's hanging on my front door right this second. With Fall time leaves, 2 scarecrows and a few butternut squash. Aww. : )

In other news. Current what's up with us news. As ya'll know Bran's birthday was yesterday. October 26th! Yay! He's 15 years old right now. Can you believe it? I can barely believe it myself! : ) We went out to the restaurant of his choice last night to celebrate as a family. And we had a handmade ice-cream cake from Nagano last night after supper. It was a nice quiet low-key birthday, but very special just family. : ) And his present. He got a brand new cell phone. Asus Zenphone 3, a gold one. A really nice phone. Umm, what else. I voted last week! I was pretty happy I voted online. Anyways...in other less interesting news...lol...I baked a loaf of banana bread from scratch the other day. Mopped my kitchen floors. And today...I scrubbed under my washing machine. Holy moly was it yucky under there, but now...it's awesome under there. Just...you know...slowly but surely getting the Fall time cleaning done. Weather update...last night coming home from dinner my temperature on my phone said 58 degrees F. So the nights are not...dead of winter...a blizzard is here. If you know what I mean. But...it's definitely...chilly at night. Definitely a crisp bite to the air. You may not need a winter coat just yet. But a pair of jeans and a long sleeve top and maybe a sweatshirt...is the type of weather at night. In the day time...a pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt is enough. A little too hot in the day time to need the sweatshirt just yet. But you know...just to give you an idea. The day time has been 68-72 F type of weather. : ) But the nights are definitely starting to cool down. : ) Alrighty you guys. Have a great Thursday. : ) 

Bits and pieces...

Alright ya'll...alright you guys. : ) This post is like so old and crusty! Most of this stuff happened in March maybe a few happened in April. @.@ Gomen gomen (sorry) It's like almost not worth mentioning... it's such old news, but as you all know how crazy March and April were here, I have the choice to either delete these pics or just put it up. I put these pics up months ago and they have been sitting there ever since it an unpublished post. So it's now or never. It's a bits and pieces type post.  Jean jackets are really in style they have been for the last year. I bought one from Old Navy for myself last year. And this year, I decided to order them for the boys too. However I waited until I could catch a sale on these. I usually prefer a 25%-30% off sale but 20% off wasn't so bad, better than paying full price though. Branden's is in size xxl which is the last size for kids sizes. It is plenty big and will be able to wear for at least a year. So he'll get tons of usage from it. And Noah's is in size M, size 8-9 and he's very small boned and a skinny minnie so he'll be able to wear it for a while. They did wear this in Spring a few times and will be able to wear it in Fall too. It's much too warm now to wear them. But I am glad I did get them for the boys and on sale is always best! : ) 

Two shirts for Noah. The Beatles were like one of the best bands ever ever! : ) And Run DMC is so old school. : ) Branden has that same Run DMC shirt. :  )

Branden received this Rolling Stones tee. Perfect since he's 12. : ) Noah has this tee too though. : )

This was the biggest most enormous package to come in the mail. I knew the 2 jean jackets were in there. 

Also to be fair, this was before we knew Old Navy in Tsukuba had opened up. These tees and jean jacket at the back are all Noah's. I'd say he's all set for summer tee shirt wise. : ) 

These are Branden's. Branden wore his jean jacket and Rolling Stones tee when he went to karaaoke and stuff that day with his junior high classmates. : ) They all thought he looked pretty cool. : ) 

Washing the insides of my washing machine! Hahaha. This says you are supposed to wash your washing machine every 2 months. I wash ours every 3 months. But, I do totally make sure I do wash ours every 3 months like clock work. : ) I did this first week of April. I'll do mine again at the end of June. Just to ensure it's clean. You just pour the powder inside the washing machine and let it agitate for about 2 minutes then pause it for an hour and then run it on a regular setting/wash cycle. 

I also like to unscrew the bottom of my washing machine it's only 1 bolt/screw. I take it downstairs and wash and scrub it with dish soap.

Flip it over and scrub it back there too and then screw it back on and won't do this again until 3 months. 

Spring season, also means the boys would be starting to take thermos daily. So for the Spring season, I washed Noah's thermos cover in the regular wash and hung it outside to dry. It came out looking better than new! I did Branden's the following day. And some kid has the same thermos as Noah and though Noah's has his actual  name on it with a name sticker, I did tie this orange cord on the outside zipper bag last year. Because 2 other little boys in Noah's class have the same thermos as each other (not the same as Noah's though) and 1 of the 2 boys drank the other boys thermos because they couldn't tell them apart. And apparently the 2 little boys were very upset with each other. : ( Glad Noah wasn't involved in that...however there is 1 little boy who does have the same thermos as Noah and just to make sure that type a thing doesn't happen between these 2 kiddos, I decided last year to avoid that...to tie a bright orange bungee type piece to Noah's thermos that way that kid knows if it's his instantly or Noah's and Noah can tell instantly too if it's his or the other kids. So lucky for us because of this bright orange cord tied on there, Noah and that boy haven't mixed their drinks up at all. : ) 

Gym clothes and Branden's uniform shirt hanging outside one day. 

Remember how I went to the elementary school observation day first part of April. And I went through Noah's desk!!! Because I could go in his desk and see what's what! I made sure Noah got new paints, new crayons and coupy. Meanwhile Branden needs special pencils just for drawing. @.@ And he also needs special paint brushes. Branden got 2 different packs of paint brushes, these came from a DIY, so not the cheaper Daiso brushes, I made sure to get him a nicer quality since he mentioned his teacher urged the kids to get nicer brushes. They only cost about $3-4. But, if the teacher specifically said to the class no 100 yen brushes (not sure what's up with that, it was the teachers request of her students, not ours)...then I wasn't going to get them from there then. I also purchased a pack of brushes for Noah too. So 6 paint brushes for Branden, 3 paint brushes for Noah. That other brush is for Branden's shoe cleaning. When I scrub them once a week on weekends. Also Branden needed a blue pen and a red pen. Oh well...it was the start of the school year and so...just making sure all this stuff is done and bought and now we won't have to think about it for hopefully 6 months at least. 

Inside shoe cleaner and also works great for junior high shoes. They do have one with bleach, but I use this one. My neighbor who has a 9th grade daughter will go outside and spend about a good hour scrubbing her daughters shoes by hand. She is amazing with her daughters shoes. As for me...what I honestly do is...I take Noah's inside shoes for example, to the laundry room run 1 shoe under water and then hold above the open washer machine, I squirt this shoe cleanser on the shoe and on the brush. Doesn't this look like a mini toilet brush btw? Hahaha. Anyway I scrub the shoe really hard on all sides with this brush and I also scrub the inside of the shoe to make sure no foot odor or anything, you know what I mean. I scrub everywhere. It take me about 3 mins. I put the shoe in the washer machine and again run the 2nd shoe in wash real quick a wet shoe can pick up the cleaner better and make foam better. Scrub the outside and inside and then put it in the washer. Grab Branden's JHS white shoes and again run 1 shoe in water, squeeze a line of this blue cleaner on the shoe and scrub the living daylights out of it. Scrub the laces, like crazy, the inside of the shoe too and the outside of the shoe and drop in the washer, it does take me about 15 minutes at most for both Branden and Noah's shoes. I then run them in the washer, I do add regular laundry soap. And then throw both pairs outside on the patio to dry for all day. So, while I do wash their shoes every week like clockwork, I do what's easiest on me. And it works for me, so... : ) 

Noah received his soprano recorder. 

It came with his name engraved on it, in gold. This way the kids won't mix up, which one is theirs. Noah's been using it ever since. : ) 

Also in April was "show and tell day" for Noah's class! The theme was..."bring what you are most proud of!!!" Stand at the front of the class and give a 1 minute or so speech about why you are so proud of whatever it is that you brought. Maybe the kids might have a question for you or the teacher might have a question for you. What is inside this Old Navy bag? Noah's swimming trophy! He brought his swimming trophy. He talked about it and he shared the 2 pics down below and he said his classmates liked the pictures and the silly poses. : ) Noah's teacher is new to the school, so she did not realize Noah is a swimmer. So this show and tell helped the teacher get to know her kids a little bit better. : ) 

Noah and his trophy and his silly poses! You know in things like soccer, for example it takes a whole team to win! And that's a good thing too, don't get me wrong. But in swimming, you are depending on that win on only YOU. Only you can win or pass a level. No teammates can help you, I'm afraid. It's all up to you. And so yeah....Noah was so proud to have earned this trophy.  : ) You did it kiddo!

Proud of you! And soon he will have that swimming competition. Just have fun, no worries either way kiddo. You're still pretty young. 

I shared a pic of the swimsuit from the website pic.... but it got here the last week of March. Yep, Lands' End swimsuit arrived and love it. 

This is what it is, if you remember. This rash guard and I have a swim miniskirt but it's a different one. 

And I have this tankini top to wear under the rash guard. I can't wait to wear this.: ) 

Noah's shuji/calligraphy bag came with contents inside. It's so cute and of course I had to name sticker the whole shebang! Hahaha. : ) 

My dad did send me a beautiful birthday card. in March. I just never had the time to post about it. Until now. 

Branden had a class field trip. Just the 7th graders went. They went to the Ueno zoo and a museum, pics coming later on that. But, I had asked Branden, do you still want to use your hamburger obento or would you like a big kid obento. : ) He said he can use both, but for his first field trip he would like to bring a bigger kid one. No worries, so I found this black one on the right for super cheap at Trial. And the Phineas and Ferb plastic storage containers on the left were super cheap too. See the top part of the black obento, it is a spot for chopsticks. And the Phineas ones could hold sliced fruit or also leftovers in the fridge, that type a thing. The Phineas ones are not obentos. : )

Yep special compartment for your chopsticks. The black obento was 780 yen or 880 yen. A good deal considering it had chopsticks too. And the Phineas set of 2 were 250-280 yen for both. Not a bad deal really. : )

These were Branden's snacks for his class trip. Of course he shares some koala cookies with someone and they share a handful of theirs. Anyway, I'm just happy to finally get this post up. Yes, yay me! Finally. Hahaha. : )  Only took a billion years. : ) 

A swimming trophy and reaching level 1 for Noah!!!

Noah received his swimming trophy September 9th! When he tested and passed level 2 and became a level 1! All of us are so happy and proud of Noah! It's quite an accomplishment, if you really think about it. : )

August 5th, Noah tested and passed to a level 2. He was only a level 2 from August 5th to August 9th! Hahaha. So a very little time to be a level 2. From level 2 to level 1, you need to swim a medley, back and forth a few times and show quite a few different swimming styles. When he reached a level 2, he knew he could do the medley. It's just basically every move he's been learning since age 3, and so he felt ready. And I knew Noah could do it! However, I did sew level 2 onto his swimming cap and then onto his bag. 

And then August 9th came.  And he did it! : )

You earned this kiddo! We're so proud of you Noah!

Noah's silly pose!

One happy kiddo! : ) 

Noah's very first swimming lesson ever! And according to the date and time stamp on this, this was taken, July, 19th, 2008. At 3:40pm. The swimming levels type swim club start at age 3, at "our" swim school. Sure they have baby swim class. But I wanted Noah in the flowers and numbers type levels, so I waited until he hit age 3. And as soon as Noah hit age 3, July 7th.  We went the next day and signed up Noah on the spot. They had a campaign/deal, that said he could swim all summer long as many days and he could without swim uniform. And then at the end of the summer, they would give him the swim trunks and bag for an even cheaper deal/price then usual. So we signed Noah up for that. Branden already swam for that swim club. All that summer, I would drive both the boys. And I would watch Noah through the glass window upstairs. He was so small and so young, you guys. Very nervous to be away from us. So he would wave at Branden and I through the glass every time he'd get nervous or unsure of himself. Poor thing. : ) Some days it felt he waved at us abut 50 times. : ) And by gosh, that's okay you know! And every time he'd look up, I'd wave and smile real big and give him the thumbs up sign! Branden would give him an Ultraman pose, I remember and wave and smile also! Sometimes he'd have a very worried face or look like he was on the verge of tears, but only out of nerves. But Noah never cried. He just waved huge amounts because of those very nerves. He wanted to make sure we were still there, we weren't going to leave him and we were watching. ; )

Noah took to water so fast! Both Branden and Noah have a complete and total love for the water. Which is a good thing, since Noboru and I love the water too and enjoy spending beach time or pool time. So having our boys have a love of the water like that is really great. As time went on, Noah waved a little less and less.  When he was 4 or 5, he would wave about 10 times during 1 lesson still. So it did dwindle. And even now, if I go watch the boys, Noah will still wave a few times. Way more waves then Branden will though. And that's okay, it's just Noah! : ) And I still smile and wave. : ) 

August 15th, 2008! Is when Noah received his swimming bag for the very first time and his first swim trunks and swimming cap!

My little one, you look so unsure! Your mama, was and is so proud of you. And she knew you could do it and you did it! : ) And I knew you could Noah! Even way back then! : )

Two swimming bags. When Branden was downstairs in the water swimming, Noah would be with me upstairs. And when Noah was downstairs swimming Branden would be with me upstairs doing Kumon homework or having a snack or playing with his friends upstairs. 

Snacks I'd pack for the boys at swim school. Pretzels, granola bars, and peanuts with the clip. I'd bring water or juice box also. : )

This is how little Noah was when he first started swimming, you guys! Age 3. And he is now 8 years old! Still just as silly as ever and very kind. He is much more confident now as he has gotten older, but I still see those twinges or moments when he's still just a little unsure or a little nervous perhaps. Anyway you did it Noah! And we sure do love you! : )