More of Branden's shoes for this upcoming Spring/Summer

Noah's shoes for this upcoming Spring/Summer so far!

Noah, never being one to be left out! Has enough shoes to rival his older brother! Ha ha ha, good thing they are not competitive with each other in the least!

He has the same exact Birkenstock sandals from the Children's place that his older brother has. But since he is growing twice as fast as my toddler is, he had to get two pairs in two different sizes. I got a pair, that is a pinch too big right now (because it's still too cold to wear them yet) and the next size up from that as well, so he will have shoes to last him all summer, geeze good thing, I was quick thinking enough to remember to buy both sizes to stock up on.

I also bought him a cool pair of light blue Adidas! But these are not just your average Adidas, these are *special* adidas, because they are a special edition with goofy on them! I thought they were cute and so Noboru and I, coughed up the $60.00 for these! Well, technically, they were actually 6,000 yen, since we bought these here in Japan recently. But we figured, oh what the heck! Noah is closely following in his big brother Branden's foot step's, in the sense that he wants to be the fashion maven and trend setter, that his big brother is! : )

I also bought him a pair of slip on navy blue slip on type sneakers from Target. I bought these in two sizes as well. I bought these because I thought #1 they looked classy and these are fashionable this season in the US, I know for a fact, because I saw many American women and also guys wearing these slip on's all over the place when I went home last month. I figured he could wear these when we are out and about in the back yard or going for our short walks to pick up his brother from the yochien bus pick up/drop off.

He also has a pair of Nike cortez. He inherited these from his big brother Branden. He's lucky his older brother has name brand *everything* because he can inherit some wicked stuff! Just like these Nike's!

Noah also got a shitload, errr boatload of brand new clothes and also hats galore, from when I was in the states last month, same as Branden did!

And a hippity hoppity Easter's on it's way! : )

Happy Easter to all our friends and loved ones back home in the US!

We all spent an absolutely wonderful Easter here at our home in Chiba Japan! It was so nice that dad was here to share it with us!

Branden was so surprised to find the Easter bunny did in fact know how to find him! Funny because last night before bed Branden mentioned with great worry, that the Easter bunny might not find him since he moved to a new house. I assured him, "yes honey, the Easter bunny will indeed know you changed houses and will certainly find you! :) Ha ha ha, kids, gotta love them!

Noah loved his Easter basket too! I let hi play with the brightly colored wrapped candy and chocolates, but then I took all the candies out and let him cuddle the soft plush duckie basket and he hugged and loved on that all day today. He also slobbered on a plastic egg today as well. Meanwhile Branden munched some of his stuff from his Easter basket. As usual we have tons of Easter candy and chocolates and plastic candy filled eggs left over, plus malted eggs and plenty of jelly beans to probably fill 3 more Easter baskets lol but since we got so much stuff left over, I stuck it into a bowl and placed the bowl on my kitchen counter and dad and Noboru have been munching all day long too. I have a feeling that the extra candy won't last very long, which I don't mind in the least because, it actually makes me happy they will finish it up for me!

We colored eggs this morning, but that's only because after we boiled the eggs last night, Branden ended up falling asleep so we postponed coloring the eggs to this morning.We put a bunch of newspaper down and all of us colored eggs! Even Noah got to color an egg, which was great I got it on video!

The turkey came out super juicy and so gorgeous! The entire turkey dinner came out fab! We had stuffing that I made on the stove after the turkey was finished cooking in the oven! We had a beautiful leafy green Italian salad. Roasted potatoes and turkey gravy that I made homemade and croissants, that I bought at the bakery. I wished I woulda took some pics, of our lovely dinner, but we were all so busy getting dinner prepared that I didn't have time to take pics much less remember to take pics, sorry!

Well, I'm getting back to my family now, we already rented a new DVD and they are pausing it for me and waiting just, so I could post this post real quick. Good night everyone! : )

Sharing a few more pics from Easter : )

Total egg-citement here at our house!!! : )

Easter's coming tomorrow yippy! We are beyond egg-cited at my house! Easter is pretty major here at my house! The whole family is home and we will be all sitting down in the dining room this evening and start coloring our Easter eggs! Yahoo! Also tonight around midnight, I will throw the turkey into the oven, and we will all take turns basting him, throughout the night and tomorrow morning and afternoon, so he stays nice and juicy!

We also have a Easter paint book, that I picked up at Kmart when I was in the states and both the boys have been painting with it for the past couple weeks. We have Easter pics on the fridge. Noah hand finger painted a few and Branden nicely painted many!

Here are some pics that I decided that I will share with you all. It's to show our Easter spirit! I bought a holiday flag pole and bought all the major holiday flags separately. I bought them at Target, when I was in the US last month. We have had our flag pole and beautiful Easter flag hung for weeks now! I have gotten quite a few compliments from our neighbors and two of Noboru's coworkers who are American guys came over last weekend and they not only loved my flag, they were shocked by our house and the wife nearly had herself a heart attack, when she saw my big American kitchen and stove/oven and tall counter tops! They are coming back to visit us next week. They really fell in love with our house and it made us feel good, that they felt comfortable being here! Because all we ever wanted was just that comfortable, like you were back home type feeling. Again, not a fancy shmancy hoity toity feel at all! Just a good down home type feel, and I was really super pleased our fellow American friends, got a real comfy vibe being here at my home.

You can also see the driveway has been finished a long time ago, as well as the walkway. And that the grass seeds were planted a while back too. The grass is actually starting to come out now in the front! And I imagine by the end of May, the grass will be thick and the grass will be all filled in. We also planted grass seeds in the back yard and I think it will be thick and grass filled by the end of May too. I'm also planning to buy some flower planters to hang on the front porch to jazz things up a bit and to add some color and also buy a bench or some sort of glider or rocking chair type seat to use on the front porch as well.

So even though, I don't post much about the house much anymore. But only because we are so damned happy, with absolutely *everything* concerning our house. Just know things are getting accomplished here at the house. And things are looking so beautiful. And I still am counting the days, until Ikea opens here in Japan too. : )

Ribbit ribbit!

It's been raining *so* much lately and since we live in a really nice suburb with plenty of fresh air and hills and greenery. We have been seeing/hearing a bunch of frogs the past couple nights. But only at night, when we hear a bunch of croaking from these little green guys! Branden wanted to see one up close and since I'm the only female in the house, the males of the house thought it would be a good idea to take Branden outside last night with his Incredible's flashlight and they all went and looked for frogs. However they came back asking me for a plastic cup. You'd think that would have set off some bells for me. So, I gave them a clear plastic cup and yup! Sure enough Branden came into the house with what looked like a relative of Kermit the frog's! He sat and watched the frog for about 20 minutes, but I began to worry if the frog could properly breath in there, so I urged them to go outside and set him free! So grandpa and Noboru and Branden, all three headed out in the front yard and let Kermie's cousin go!

We bought our Easter turkey already and then we headed to the Outback!

In the evening of the same day of Branden's opening ceremony we all hopped into the car and jumped onto the highway and headed to Makuhari. We went to Costco first and bought some food and my dad of course bought each boy a toy. However the toys at Costco haven't been updated in ages! And Noah and Branden already have most the toys from there already. So, Branden chose an Incredibles flashlight set and it also included a Buzz Lightyear light as well. I told my dad Noah really didn't need any toy and certainly not a flash light at his age. But he insisted that he has to be fair to both the boys and so he bought Noah a Fisher Price set of animal flash lights. Honestly, Branden already has an animal flashlight, I actually bought it for him when *he* hit age one and lugged it back to Japan with me a couple years ago. His animal flashlight is a lion and it's cool! He played with it until he nearly hit age three and then he got too old to be interested in the animal shaped flashlight, go figure and then he just wanted a regular shaped flashlight (kids!) And we still have the Fisher Price lion flashlight here at the house, but I put it into Noah's toys box, because I knew Branden wasn't interested in it anymore. So anyways, my dad sees the animal shaped flashlight and no matter even if I say, we got one already. He still wanted to buy Noah a flashlight set too. Sigh, ha ha ha. So both boys got a set of flash lights, Branden got the Incredible's and Noah got the animal shaped flashlights.

We also got, a Frito Lay variety case of chips, some stuff for Branden's breakfasts in the mornings when we have yochien, we got microwave pancakes, and Quaker Oats instant hot cereal variety pack with cinnamon roll and banana nut bread flavors and a bunch of other flavors in there as well. Some comfort food for us like black olives and a case of diced tomatoes, for days when I make some homemade spaghetti sauce/gravy. And an assortment pack of Italian style pastas, some are bow tie shapes and some are cork screws and rigatoni or stove pipe style pastas (I can make these for dinners and I can also make Branden a good homestyle Italian bento. Raisins for Branden's bento's. A couple cans of fruit cocktail. Canadian Maple cookies (darn these are good!), Cans of white chicken breast packed in water, because I also am going to start making chicken salad sandwiches for Branden's bento's as well. A giant jar of pickles for snacking on or to go with his grilled cheese sandwich for his bento's. And last but not least, I got three packs of American style bacon because we eat it for breakfast a lot! But I figure I can also send Branden to school with a crispy yummy, BLT in his bento too. I also got a 14 pound turkey because we will have a traditional Easter dinner together as a family on this up coming Easter Sunday! Which means Branden will be taking turkey sandwiches to school next Monday in his bento.

My dad treated for everything at Coscto, I told him, not to and that he was being too generous but he insisted! We all went to the Outback Steakhouse afterwards and we all really pigged out! We ate so much we brought a bunch of leftovers back home with us. We had the bloomin' onion for our appetizer, my dad had the chicken and ribs platter and he added a caesar salad to his order. Noboru had the ribs and also added a caesar salad with his order too, and I had my usual Alice Springs chicken and I figured, what the heck and added a caesar salad with mine as well too. Branden had the chicken fingers and fries, and Noah had food from everyone's plates, ha ha ha!

more pics from our escapades in Makuhari : )

Opening Ceremony! Or as Nemo said, "first day of school, first day of school!"

Today was opening ceremony day. Everything was awesome. The mom's seemed okay. As usual an English speaking Japanese mom "adopted" me, as it's pretty typical to have a Japanese women take the lone western mom under her wing and befriend her at yochien. She was quite nice and gave me her house phone number and her cell number.Turns out her family once had an American exchange student and it turns out the student came from Colorado ha ha ha! What a total coincidence. This mom also lived and studied in the UK for a year and a half and used to work at Japan Airlines. It was nice to meet her actually. There are only 20 kids in his class. And he has only two teacher's, one speaks a bit of English too. A few other moms, tried quite hard to speak a bit of English with my dad and I as well. And in return we used a hodge podge of Japanese mixed with English to communicate back with the other mom's and dad's. Noboru is lucky as he can just get away with speaking Japanese, since it's his native language to begin with.

Her are a few pics of my boys on opening day and a few pics of the school's priest and a few pics from the classroom.

One little girl was crying during the ceremony and my heart broke for her! I remembered how hard it was on Branden last year for the first week or two, when he first started school for the very first time last year. And though, he is fine this year, with absolutely no problems of going to school, in fact he looks forward to school. I couldn't help but have tons of sympathy and or empathy for her and her parents. I recalled how hard that was on my own kid and how hard it was on Noboru and I last year. I remembered how I cried one day in my minivan last April, as I drove home after dropping him off at school, last year too because it was so tough! I honestly cried the entire way home, it was tough leaving my son at school when he was crying for me not to leave him there, yet I had to walk away and leave him anyway because the sensei told me to! My heart really broke for that little girl and her parents. I can see now, how the little girl at the ceremony will adjust to school just like Branden did last year! But during the time of it, it seems just so hard to overcome! Gambatte to that little girl and to her parents! Everyone at my house will be cheering her on! And hoping this to shall pass! : )

More pics from the opening ceremony!

Here are some more pics from the opening ceremony at Branden's yochien. It was nice that my dad could be there with Noboru and Noah and I. Since last year (my mil) Mitsuko came for it, it was nice, my dad could make it for the one for this year especially since we are a Roman Catholic family to start with, my dad really liked Branden's Catholic school a lot. We actually taught him the holy trinity last night before bed! Because he has to do that at school from now on.

Getting ready for the new school year!

We've been trying very hard to get Branden ready to start his new yochien. And since we spent the past 3 weeks in March in the United States, we got a bit of a late start getting our munchkin ready. So, we have been running around like crazy trying to get the things required from this new school. And some things we had from our previous yochien but some things are required from this school that were never required from the first school.

Things we kept and will reuse, are the handmade one of a kind bento bags and book bags and shoe bags that we went to Yuzawaya last year and bought the material and then had our sewing lady make our bags for us. So, since they were still perfect condition we are reusing them again this year.

However this school also asked for a gym bag and also a seat cover/earthquake cover type thing to be handmade too. Again, you could always buy these but I found out last year having your kid show up with a handmade one is considered best. So, even though I didn't make it myself, I bought the material Branden chose and liked best. And we got to choose the strap colors etc. And basically it was made especially for Branden. So, since we had ours made for Branden last year we got the extra two required school bags this year, handmade as well. We went to Yuzawaya last week and bought the material, some nice quilted fabric. Chose our strap colors (Branden wanted a yellow strap for one and a blue strap for the other bag, go figure ha ha ha.) And today we picked up the two new homemade bags. The lady only charged us 1500 yen for making both the bags! A super deal if you ask me, for handmade yochien bags! Because if I made them myself they might fall apart for sure, lol. So better for me to have the sewing lady do these since she's a pro. And shhhh, according to my sewing lady, many Japanese women have them handmade too but don't make them personally! So now that I know many Japanese mom's do this too, I don't feel so guilty for being so sneeky about secretly getting our bags made by her! : )

Things we bought brand new. We bought him a brand new bento box this year because bento boxes don't last more then a school year anyways. And the fork and spoon and chopstick set was still good but we wanted to send him off with a new set. The fork and chopstick set was the identical set from last year, hmmm they don't change the Thomas designs much I guess ha ha ha. The bento design was changed thank goodness.

New things this school needed. A plastic cup for drinking tea or whatever. We bought him a new Thomas cup. And he also needed a handkerchief thing that goes under his bento. Plus a few other things as well. Plus the tiny handkerchief for your nose which the school requires, along with the tissues.

Plus adding the supplies the school *requires* you to buy like crayons and glue and scissors etc. Yup we found ourselves writing his name on each and every crayon like we are required to do! Ha ha ha! So we got white blank adhesives to write his name on stuff, we also wrote things directly on the plastic things just in case the adhesive ever fell off! Then on clothes we had to have the lady sew the white name tags on each thing because the iron on name tags suck and fall off I've heard. So basically we had to write his name on absolutely everything you can imagine.

I also had to buy tiny tissues for kids. I have been hunting for Thomas tissues for ions it seems, but have yet to see them and believe me, I've looked everywhere! They usually got anpanman tissues or those gross giant cockroach looking bug tissues, that some older Japanese kids are into (blech maybe, someday I will post more about my thoughts on those sometime). but I have searched high and low for Thomas tissues to no avail. However I found some very cool tissues, that look like tiny boxes of *very* popular Japanese chocolates that most of the kids, here just love! So, I figured I better buy them quick before they run out because I have never seen tissues *that* cute before! I bought two of the packs for my Branden. And I might even go back and buy a couple more packs! So, I'm happy I got some cute packs of tissues at least! Anything has *got* to be better then those giganto cockroach bugs or stink bug things (blech) that just makes my skin crawl! Sorry but bugs and creepy crawlies freak me out to no end.

The best time *ever* at Tokyo Disneyland!!!

don't ask me how I did it. But I managed to *not* take one single picture at the wedding! This makes me sad and I wish I would have taken some pictures, but I honestly was so busy during the entire wedding that I didn't get a single chance to take a photo. Hopefully my brother in law will pass along, some pictures of us, since there was a photographer taking pictures of the entire wedding. And I know he snapped some pictures of us, because it startled me a couple times actually. Ha ha ha. I wish I would have snapped some pics of Branden in his tuxedo because he looked like the ultimate cool guy! Perhaps, if I get time I can throw my guy in his very own tux and snap some pictures myself when I have time.

Anyway, the hotel we stayed at was gorgeous and it was called the Hotel Okura. Totally top of the line hotel! We had a gorgeous buffet breakfast with the entire Ishiyama clan the following morning before we all went to Disneyland. My dad had fun and so did I.

We got to Disneyland at 9:00 am when they first opened. And as usual we stayed right until they closed! Because it was chilly and the sky was gray not many people were at Disneyland except the entire Ishiyama clan and us. And a good amount of people too but it wasn't too busy. So we rode actually every single ride in the entire park and even rode some rides twice! We had lunch in Toon Town like we usually do. And we had dinner at the Alice in Wonderland restaurant (we usually go here or the curry place but this time we all went to the Alice in Wonderland restaurant!

It was very cool going with a whole bunch of people. And for a little while we all separated but we all would call eachother on our cell's and meet up again. So we all had a total blast.

I was glad I packed Branden's yellow Osh Kosh coat, because it did get chilly later on in the evening and I am glad I packed Noah's Tommy Hillfiger coat too because they stayed toasty warm. I dressed both my boys exactly the same, wearing the same style jeans and the same exact Gap sweatshirt minus the sweatshirt being different sizes, so that was cool. Except their coats weren't the same, but that's okay.

What did we buy from Disneyland? Well we bought one Buzz Lightyear balloon (Noboru bought this for Branden the second we got into Disneyland.) One Buzz lightyear moving and spinning light. Branden wanted this and it cost a whopping 2,500 yen but as usual grandpa spoils my boys like crazy, so my dad bought the light for Branden as soon as he mentioned he wanted one. Noah got a plush fleece Mickey Mouse blanket, because it did get chilly as the night wore on. And it came in a cute little Mickey Mouse bag, that is quite cute actually, go figure. We also bought two popcorn holders, but then nothing new with that because everyone of you know how much we love popcorn and especially caramel corn, yumm! We have a Chip and Dale popcorn holder, we bought about 3 years ago from Tokyo Disneyland, but with the wedding and all, we forgot it and left the Chip and Dale popcorn holder at home. So we bought some more this time. We always buy the caramel popcorn in Toon Town, so being creatures of habit, we got into the line and waited and waited and waited and waited. When we finally got to the end of the line and our turn was coming, we realized the popcorn holder was pink and with a crown? Hmmm! Being a mother of two boys, I looked at my husband and he actually looked at me too. We said, what's up with the girl popcorn holder? But by that time, we had waited for what seemed like a total eternity for the dang popcorn in the first place so we figured to just buy one! Errr! We were *not* thrilled about the popcorn holder one bit! We later bought a Buzz lightyear popcorn holder because, since we have two boys, we actually felt ridiculous carrying that pink one all through the park.

I am telling you, we had so much darn fun at Tokyo Disneyland! The fireworks were just awesome and we all sat in the chairs and tables at Toon Town and had hot cocoa and watched them, we had the best seats in town to see the fireworks! We all hugged good bye and everyone got back on their limousine bus back to Osaka. And we got into our minivan and drove home. We had a blast! And with *that* many people, everything was just even more fun, we had a shooting competition at the Buzz lightyear ride and I totally lost! Ha ha ha!

I'm glad I went to the wedding and I'm glad we stayed at that hotel and I'm glad we all went to Tokyo Disneyland, I really had a great time!

Some of the boys Disneyland loot!

A ticket, a tasket, what's gonna be in their basket?

Here are a few shots of some of the Easter stuff that I bought in Denver at Target. Keep in mind Branden has a gorgeous plush train Easter basket I bought for him at Target last year, so he will be using that one for a couple years since the quality is so top of the line and it will last. I bought Noah a plush yellow duckie easter basket because he really is too young to have a favorite character yet. And after checking out all the baskets, I thought this one was the best and nicest for my little Noah. He can use this for a couple years, since it's such nice quality. I also bought them a ton of easter candy, which is nice because I usually don't let Branden eat sweets much unless it's a holiday for like Christmas or Easter or whatnot! I mean the occasional sweet is okay but he eats way less then most kids. Noah is too young to eat any sweets but it's the thought that counts. And I might sneek him one tiny bite, since it is Easter, and it's a special occasion and all. : )

I have about 4 or 5 brand new bags of easter grass saved in a box of easter stuff in my attic and a couple more boxes of egg coloring kits too. So I am pretty well stocked for Easter holidays for this year and maybe next year too, but I'm sure I'll load up again next year too, knowing me.

One cool thing about the candy I bought this year. Each year I try to stuff little treats and candies into empty plastic eggs I have these also stocked up on in my Easter box in my attic. But anyway, this year at Target they had cool plastic eggs with candy *already* filled in them. And the plastic eggs were designed really wicked! I bought two packs of them. One pack was decorated in a racing car theme and so the plastic eggs were all themed in racing cars and had flames on them and stuff. And the other plastic filled eggs were all decorated in different types of sports balls, such as a basketball type egg and a football type egg and a baseball decorated egg! As soon as I saw these, I snatched these up right quick. And what are they filled with? Good stuff, some have gum and some have lemonheads and some have sweettarts! Cool huh? Yup, I went all out for the holidays as usual (shhh! but I actually enjoy these holidays as much as the kids do : )

Update from last month.

Okay, okay sorry for not posting on my very own blog for so long. But I've been hellishly busy. I will try to give you all a very condensed version of it all.

I went to Denver with the intention of my dad selling his house. Which he did. We somehow managed to sell his house and get all of the contents of said house all sold. And the things we wanted to keep, we had shipped to Japan. We didn't keep much except a couple boxes of family photos that are huge in sentimental value for us. I'm actually quite proud of myself for us getting everything sold and finished in the three weeks time that I had. My husband flew there the final week and my husband and myself and the two boys flew out a day early and my dad flew out the following day. He's been in Japan and so have the rest of us for only about 8 or 9 days, so we all haven't been home very long. We've all just barely gotten over our jet lag really.

My dad is probably going to hang out here with us, for the next month and he is planning on getting himself a new place in either Guam or Hawaii. He's still deciding which island he plans to live out the rest of his retirement yet.

As busy as I was, I managed to still do some absolutely killer shopping in Denver. I bought a ton of clothes for both my boys as usual (what's new lol). They got many pairs of sandals. And I bought Branden's shoes for the wedding in Denver as well. I also bought them many floppy little boy gilligan type hats. Branden got a ton, and I do mean a ton of Nintendo DS games (Dora the Explorer, a Cartoon Network racing game with Courage and Johnnie Bravo, Spongebob game and others. He also got some new DVD's like the new Spongebob movie on DVD and the Chicken Little DVD, that just got released a few days before I left Denver. Geeze, I can barely remember what all my boys got, but they got tons!

At DSW shoe warehouse I got myself two gorgeous pairs of shoes, one a ballerina type flat but with a slightly different twist which I just love and a cool pair of Ralph Lauren flip flops with the polo horse on the front of the flip flop. I also got two bottles of Olay sensitive skin face lotion and a new bottle of face wash by Olay that just came out, it's apparently a face wash and toner in one and I actually really dig this! I got tons of undies and a night gown. And I got three new pairs of capris, two pairs are jean capris (one has a few flower embellisments on them and they sorta got that beaten up or distressed look, is that the right word? The other pair looks new and has a huge cuff at the bottom of the capris, I love these!) and one pair is a black pair of capris ( I bought my capris at Old Navy). And I also bought two bottles of nail polish, at Target if I remember correctly.

Last but certainly not least, I bought a brand new vacuum from Target, it's a Hoover and it's totally kick ass! We love it and it's cool looking and works like a champ! And it was only $99.00 US can't beat that price and it's got a hepa filter and it's bagless. I also got a Hoover carpet steam cleaner, yup I can wash my very own carpets now yippy! This was also only $99.00! And I am so absolutely over the moon that my husband works at Northwest Airlines, because he gets the best shipping, we shipped both our vacuum and steam cleaner for only $40.00 and that's for both of them!

I also bought tons of Easter stuff! As usual, I really went all out! I will post more about that another time.

What else? We are getting ready for Branden to start yochien. His uniforms cost us a whopping 45,000 yen! Utterly expensive and ridiculous. But a couple people told us the school he is going is more along the lines of a prep type school or a more snooty type school. LOL, oh brother, I hope we don't end up hating this school. Because I dislike snooty mentality to no end!

And Jun is getting married tomorrow. So about 35 of Noboru's side of the family will be staying at a very expensive hotel near Disneyland, us included. He's getting married near Disneyland at some chapel. We will all stay the night at a hotel tomorrow night and the following day, on Friday we will all be going to Tokyo Disneyland! Yahoo!