Getting ready for our trip : )

Well, I have been busy today trying to get my family ready. After I dropped Branden off at the yochien bus drop off. Noah and I headed to Narita. I stopped at the mall because I wanted to go to Mujirushi (Muji) to pick up some black pepper senbai for Noboru and I for the flight tomorrow. Since I was there, I ended up buying some more snacks that I was going to pick up elsewhere anyway but since they had some of the stuff I needed, I just went ahead and picked them up there to save myself some time.

Then I went to the dollar store/ daiso, and they didn't have much of anything. I did however pick up a pack of shave ice flavored popsicles for when we watch TV and stuff (sorry this doesn't pertain to the trip at all lol) Didn't get anything else from there so I left the mall.




I then drove right across the street to the Baby Bunny store. My purpose was to pick up, a pack of diapers for Noah so I wouldn't have to buy them in Hawaii since I prefer Japanese diapers. And to pick up some baby snacks for Noah as well. However, you know me.....this store is my total weakness! I always end up buying something in here that I wasn't intending to buy! Curse this store, lol just kidding! So long story short, I picked up the diapers, the snacks for Noah (since I got Branden's senbai and caramel corn etc. from Muji) and I also picked up a pair of shoes for Noah (I know, I know, the kid needs a new pair of shoes like he needs a hole in his head at this point!) Ha ha ha! But if I can just explain my reasoning. See, these are soft and flexible on the bottom, so these are not meant for real walking babies yet. And they also won't fall off. They will stay on his feet. They were only like 850 yen, so cheap! And the crazy bright happy colors of these shoes caught my eye, so I ended up buying them, besides we can afford it, so what the heck! So there I was in the store trying to decide between a 12 or 12.5 size. The 12 fit like a glove, but then I wondered...maybe they should be a bit or pinch bigger, so he can have room to grow. So I ended up getting the 12.5. And last but not least, I got Noah a little plastic raft type car thing, that I am going to let him sit in, and pull him around in when we play in Waikiki beach or Hanauma Bay or another beach.The thing was also only 900 yen. They had a bunch that were 2900 yen, but forget that high price you know. I mean it's just a floating raft seat for crying out loud! It shouldn't cost an arm and a leg. Also, what if Noah ended up hating the blasted thing, ha ha ha! This way, I wouldn't feel so bad about paying the 900 yen. We all know how moody or finicky kids can be! : ) So, the 900 yen one, is good enough and it has a little steering wheel and whatnot! Also, I figured *if* we ended up buying it in Waikiki, the price could be about $20.00 for one of those baby raft seat things, you know how tourist spots are famous for inflating prices on stuff. So all in all, I was quite pleased about the plastic floating car thing and the shoes, especially since I got them both at such good prices!

Thought for the day, why is it so expensive just to get ready to go on a family trip? Ha ha ha! (shaking my head and laughing)

I might still buy a few last snacks for the boys still tomorrow before we leave, like potato chips or popcorn. And I have to pack Noah's all time fav, Cheerios still! Gee, it's going to be a busy day here at my house and tonight too, with getting all the packing in the suitcases done and all. : )

Three cheers for uncle Jun! Hip hip Hooray! : )

Jun gave Branden a money envelop with the words that simply said, "thank you for being my ring bearer, this is for you" "Love uncle Jun". Since Noboru and Jun work together, he gave it to Noboru and asked him to give it to Branden last night. Branden opened it up and sure enough Jun gave him 10,000 yen in a money voucher form, this can pretty much be used at any shopping center or where ever here in Japan.

I personally called Jun last night myself, telling him that, he needn't give anything to Branden at all! That Branden agreed to be a ring bearer, simply because he loves his uncle Jun very much, he most certainly wasn't thinking of getting something for it! You know what I mean? But he laughed and assured me, that he understands but he felt Branden did such a good job and so he wanted to and just felt like it! Ha ha ha! Okay...fair enough. "Oyasumi", I said, "Oyasumi nasai", he said back to me. (I'm older, also he is the youngest of the siblings, while Noboru is oldest)

I've said it once and I'll say it again, what a cool brother in-law I have! I really like my brother in-law, he is so sweet! He is a wonderful uncle, to both our boys! I can't wait for him to have his own kids, so I can reciprocate and spoil his kids rotten!

We will let Branden use it after we get back from Hawaii, because these next two days we will be busy trying to get ourselves ready to travel with our two boys! which means, we got a bunch of packing to do! : )

According to the girls, Crocs are super hot! (like sizzling!!! : ) Have been getting the *best* help making my list to go to Hawaii!

I made chicken leg quarters last night. I baked them in the oven, oh man! They were so crispy on the outside and so juicy in the inside! I used the regular bottle of teriyaki sauce that I always buy at the store. Hmmm, not sure if I ever posted a pic of it or not. Oh well, next time if I remember I will post a pic of it. We had veggies and also some rice to go along with it.

Noboru worked a swing shift so I fixed him a plate and wrapped it in plastic wrap and he ate it as soon as he got home from work last night at 10:00 pm. The boys and I had dinner with just us. After dinner, I got both the boys all cleaned up. They had a bowl of microwave popcorn and we all sat and watched TV.

Both of them fell asleep by 9:30 pm.

I was sorta relieved because sometimes I just need some time out for myself, do you know what I mean?

I sat surfing the web. I belong to a couple groups of women online. Sometimes I am quite active on both places and sometimes I'm not. It's not really an intentional thing for me, it's just sometimes I get so busy with my own crazy life, lol. It's hard for me to keep up in my favorite groups. Sigh.

But I did however go to one last night. It's sorta a fashion/makeup/skincare type board. I went there because, while I do try to keep up with *reading* fashion mags or fashion mommy mags or whathaveyou. I sometimes go to the US and get all sorta brain dead while shopping. I think this happens to a lot of expats. The longer I stay in Japan the longer and more time is elapsed, from me knowing what's up or what's hot in the US. Fashion goes by and by. And I become a season behind, I'm afraid! : (

When I lived in the US, I was current and up to date with everything and I mean *everything*. For example when the Giorgio Armani foundation first came out about 7 years ago, I was one of the first to run right out and buy it and try it! When everyone wanted the whole Jen Anniston shag better known as "the Rachel" lol, I also was the first to go out and get mine layered up!

Being in Japan though, I have no idea what's good, what's new, or what sucks! LOL, I got no idea. So, please picture this, I waltz into a store and just get this glossed over look on my face. Staring at everything and anything! I hate not knowing what to buy or what I like or what I don't, especially when I am usually *very* clean cut/decisive with my thinking when it comes to stuff I like.

So, there I was reading away at one of my online groups last night.

Damn this group of girls are freaking geniuses! They know everything current! I read page after page of their posts on skin care, since I am really wanting to try something brand new. I printed a few pages out and I plan to take them to Hawaii with me, this way hopefully I won't have the ol' deer caught in the headlights look too much!

Fashion, well, shit! Seems everyone pretty much agrees there are *three* new things these girls are all raving for! Okay, I wrote down some more notes! Nerd that I am! LOL. Printed pictures and then, get this! One of the things that is *super cool*, in a huge huge *super huge* way right now! These are sorta like rubber clogs with holes (damn I apologize for the lousy description, but you can get the jist of the idea, yk). Yup that's right you heard correctly, I did just say holes in shoes and on purpose! Ha ha ha. Talk about total air ventilation, huh? No more stinky funky sweaty feet in the summer time hopefully, so that'll be a good thing : ) I saw these all over the place in Denver, for the first time last August when I was in Denver. However, I noticed them *but* I didn't buy any or think to much about it! Then this past March, I saw them all freaking over Denver *again*.....this time I paid attention! I saw some little girl wearing a matching pair with her mother at the Colorado Mill's Outlet Mall.

My thought, "damn those are cute!" LOL. And they are totally starting to grow on me! Yet, I *still* didn't buy a pair for myself! Nearly forgot about the blasted things. Until last night, all the girls on my fav fashion online hangout, were raving about them! Some girl on there, get this, even has 4 pairs! Lucky girl! : ) Ha ha ha! So, anyway I better start to get my butt in gear and when I get to Hawaii in 2 days, I will be sure to buy myself a pair of these! Wish me luck on the shoe hunt, you guys, please! : )

PS, and if anyone is curious, they are called Crocs! They even have a homepage online! And get this! They were invented in Colorado! That made me super proud! Dork that I am! : )

I think I will surf on back there tonight, after I get the boys in bed again and see what else is hot and start printing out some pages of stuff I gotta remember!

Pics are of, Branden eating like crazy! Does this kid have a hearty appetite or what? The teeny tiny plate that looks like our plates. Is Noah's serving and after I snapped the pic, I got a knife and fork and cut everything up into teeny tiny little bites and he actually prefers eating the same things we all do. This is usually what we do with regards to his meals anyway though. He doesn't eat much premade store bought baby food (which there are some good pre-made baby foods out there though don't get me wrong, I'm no baby food snob or anything, lol this is just easier for our family :). The other pics were Noboru's serving and the other was Branden's meal and my serving was never even photographed haha ha, with watching both kids during meal time and also cleaning up, sometimes I'm just lucky if I, even get time to sit down and eat my own food! Ha ha ha : )

Our Saturday spent at the dairy farm! : )

We live about a 7 minute drive in the car (no highways either!) near a great big dairy farm type place. They also have a place for camping! The place is huge and up until now, we have only driven past the place but we've always told each other while passing that place "we have got to go there sometime!!!" You know how it goes, always talking about it, but somehow never actually getting around and actually doing it. LOL. So yesterday we thought, it's a beautiful day! The sun was shining, it was a hot/warm gorgeous day and it would be perfect to go there. So sure enough we actually went there!

The parking was 500 yen. The entrance was 1200 yen for adults, Branden was 700 yen to get in, while Noah was free to get in. We later found out after we already paid (figures right?) we can get a family season pass for this place for a whole entire year for 4900 yen for *all four of us!* We're definitely getting the season pass next time for sure! Because it'll save us money in the long run, since we plan to come here a lot!





Kids got to milk cows. Ride pony's, adults could ride horses. They had a place where kids could go and feed some billy goats and sheep. There's more too, they had a place so the kids and also guys could fish, they provided the fishing poles and bait. Noboru and Branden caught about 5 fish, they beat all the other father and son teams around them and they did it under 30 minutes time, because I told them, I didn't want to get stuck at the fishing place ha ha ha! Everyone kept laughing and saying how lucky Noboru and Branden were, with the fishing but actually Noboru is just a wicked fisherman lol. True, he used to fish in Hawaii all the time, when we lived there and he also grew up fishing in Japan, which is why he loves fishing with Branden! They also had archery, they had little bows and arrows for the kids. Branden did pretty good, I might say! They also had the big bows and arrows for us adults and Noboru and I on the other hand had a competition who could hit the bull's eye the most and I'm sorry to say, he totally beat me on the archery! Darn it, but not to worry, I will demand a rematch sometime soon!

They also had stilts where the kids could try walking with stilts, Branden tried his best, but he got scared for some reason and didn't want to do this afterall. No biggie. Noboru on the other hand, tried the stilts only to fall off about 5 seconds after he tried, he laughed because a couple parents saw him practically kill himself on the stilts. I laughed hard too, because I thought it was funny! I'm glad that my husband doesn't mind being silly! Neither do I really though, too.


They had cars that you had to peddle but they were big and funny looking and had different kinds of shapes. They had a regular play ground in there with a teeter totter. Tons more but it's hard to describe everything.










Oh yeah they also had a place where kids could slide down a mountain in a plastic type sled. This whole farm park was just really totally cool!


Oh yeah and since they are mainly a dairy, they are super famous for their ice-cream! We had some and it was honestly the best I've ever had in my life! Bar none and that ain't no lie! Noboru and Branden had vanilla soft serve but they also had the homemade harder ice-cream and they had flavors like pumpkin ice-cream (yumm) and homemade mocha and green tea! And more, but I opted for the homemade chocolate chip! Seriously the best ever!

They also had BBQ pits where families could BBQ and also had tons of places where families could bring a picnic! And they also had restaurants where you could eat at also, such as a curry restaurant!


I'm telling ya this place was amazing and on the way home, we kept going on and on about "what took us so long to finally go there"? Ha ha ha, oh well we are just happy we finally went at least! We will also be going back soon!

Next time, I will pack us a good homemade American style picnic lunch to bring along!

Pics of Noah from Saturday at the farm!

A gentle helping and playful hand from daddy.









Clowning around!










Noah you have the most delicate features on a baby that I've clearly ever seen. No wonder people are forever commenting that you look like a beautiful white porcelain doll! You're absolutely gorgeous!










He's watching his beautiful older brother feed the animals. Noah had a wonderful time and he loved the yummy ice-cream too! He went home and fell fast asleep as soon as I gave both the boys a good hot shower and got them all cleaned up after spending a day at the farm!

A day spent at the flea market/swap meet and our night of dinner and a movie. : )

We had plans today, like I mentioned in a previous post. So what we did was, we got up bright and early and got dressed and headed to Costco. We were meeting one of Noboru's co-worker's and his coworker's wife and son. We went to Costco, because we had planned to order one of those gigantic whole baked pizzas for lunch. And then after we ate we headed to the Flea Market that was being held right near Costco in Makuhari Messe! So we did just that! We met at Costco at 11:00 am. We didn't really go to Costco to buy much since we were just using that as a meeting spot and lunch spot! But we did buy a case of soda and a big huge box of laundry detergent and a case of toilet paper, that's all we bought and you betcha, we purposely didn't buy anything that would rot, get funky or otherwise go putrid in the car, while we spent the day at the flea market/swap meet ha ha ha, so we didn't buy any food at all.

The flea market was cool! It was my first time going to the one in Makuhari, I was impressed and will come back for sure!


After a super fun day well spent in the big city, with all the super heavy traffic and whatnot, it was more then time for us to head back home. So we drove ourselves back to the serenity of the burbs. However by this time, we weren't really wanting to cook dinner at home. So we instead drove to the video store and rented ourselves two new DVD's. We rented Meet the Focker's (my god this name just kill's me and the main character's name is hilarious too, Gaylord Focker, AKA Gay Focker! LOL!) and a new Japanese anime by the same guy who made My neighbor Totoro. I forgot what the name of the new movie, we just rented was though, sorry. Then we went through the drive-thru of KFC and got a nice family 8 piece meal. Our family of four, ate KFC,then we got ourselves all washed up and our clothes changed and watched our two movies! Meet the Focker's was hilarious! And the other one was *so* good too! All in all, we had a very nice Friday! : )

Added info: the movie in question was called "Howl's Moving Castle" This really is a must see! It really was a good one! : )

Vroom vroom vroom!

We had a wonderful relaxing day well spent at home! Branden played outside with his friends, the neighborhood kids, Ayumi-chan and Rin, off and on throughout the day, taking breaks for lunch when all kids each went back to their own houses, got fueled up and went back outside and played some more! The kids called it a day around 2:30 pm.

Noah meanwhile had fun inside the house being the ultimate little cruiser with his cruise-mobile! Boy this kid just loves his walker, doesn't he? Ha ha ha! Although he did go outside with me quite a few times throughout the day, to sit on our front porch steps to watch the bigger kids play.

We had leftovers for dinner (shhh! ha ha ha ahhh, who cares, doesn't everybody from time to time? : )) So leftover sukiyaki. We all took our showers and baths quickly and we then sat watching TV with a big bowl of freshly popped microwave popcorn and then the popsicles quickly followed! We've been in a total American Idol frenzy here at our house! : )

Sukiyaki for dinner and two new friends for Branden!

Holy Toledo! Branden received another present from grandpa! We got it this afternoon. Thanks dad! But you seriously don't need to send anymore stuff for a *long* while! The boys have plenty of everything! And I know, I know, you always tell me, "spoiling your grandchildren is your biggest hobby and greatest joy!" But they really don't need anything. I tell you what, I will send *you* a nice care package of some nice stuff that I find in Hawaii, especially for you. Okay, let us spoil you for a change! Fair? : )

Branden loves the Sponge Bob game though very much and it has so many learning games on it! It's very cool! Thanks again dad, you are the best and we love you very much!!! : )

I made sukiyaki tonight. It was so yummy! In Japan it seems the variations of this are endless and limitless. Ours came out delicious. I know we're supposed to use shirataki noodles, but as I don't care for the flavor of those, I used udon noodles instead, no biggie! The boys loved having sukiyaki and so did Noboru. We all sat at the table chatting throughout dinner and having a wonderful time!

By the way, Branden has made two *very* good friends in our neighborhood. Two of the neighbor kids, one is age three and his name is Rin, he is such a sweet boy! Very polite and he also loves Thomas the tank engine. And Ayumi-chan, she is 6 years old and just started first grade this year. Ayumi lives across the street. And Rin lives two houses to the right of our house. Branden and Rin and Ayumi-chan play together every single day! They all get along wonderfully, like peas in a pod actually! There's no arguing or fighting, they all get their bikes and they ride around in front of all our homes (while I watch them and keep a safe eye on the three little ones, and of course the other mom's do too) and the other day they all went collecting butterflies *and* looking for frogs in the wide open space right next to my house, so I kept a close eye on them still yet they had so much fun! Ha ha ha! Seriously *every* single day they play with one another! I don't think Rin goes to school yet, which is totally okay because he's still a little guy yet : ), so he waits for Branden and Ayumi-chan to get home from school and then Branden gets changed from his uniform to his house clothes and he runs to play outside! Ahh it's a wonderful feeling knowing my son has made two good neighborhood friends, so he can play with them and get all that extra bit of energy out of his system ha ha ha! Plus he's being social and having a good time relating to the neighbor kids, I love it! I know these friendships will be long lasting especially since we are all good neighbors.

Branden got mail from grandpa! And also look what he made at school!

Branden got a package from grandpa today. Wow that was fast! Checking the little stamp of when he sent it and when we received it, apparently we get things the very next day! Amazing, but then again he only moved three hours away from Japan, so no wonder. : )

Thanks dad! Branden was surprised and absolutely loves the Leapster game! He has been playing with it ever since he got home from school today! You spoil both the boys *way* too much though dad! Not that I am complaining, believe me, I appreciate how lucky me and the kids are!

Branden had school today. Not quite sure why, since this is Golden week and he has off the rest of the week. But what the heck, we sent him to school the one and only day he was supposed to go this week. : )

Branden brought home another piece of his art work from yochien/school today! Gosh, I just love my munchkins master pieces, that he makes! This is a fish tote bag. I assume the fish is to go along with the carp streamers that are associated with Boy's Day. Nonetheless, I made a big hoot and went on and on about how beautiful and what fine work he did on them! He got such a kick out of all the fuss I made!

PS, dad on the other side of the fish Branden colored four pictures. I assumed they were of Noboru and myself and Noah and Branden. However, he drew one picture of his brother Noah whom he adores! And one pic of you (grandpa) and get this, two pics of himself, (one where he was holding an ice-cream nonetheless ha ha ha!) At least he has super high self esteem though, right? Two pics of himself! Ahh, he's just priceless! LOL! Kids! Gotta love 'em!

Good thing Noah wasn't in the walker at the time otherwise, I might've smashed him like a pancake, yikes!

Okay so I got the typical phone like most people in Japan have, meaning the corded one with an answering machine and also it comes with a cordless telephone as well so you can place it someplace around the house as well. I actually have the one where we have *two* of the cordless phones. However one of the cordless phone isn't working properly, which is fine no big deal, since we got two working phones still. However, the battery needed charging on the remaining cordless phone, so until it charged, I was down to just the cord phone on Monday. Again, no big deal, since I also got my cell/keitei.

Both the boys were in a dead sleep and were taking an afternoon nap. Since they had been playing together and also chasing after each other non-stop, since the morning. So it gave me a break and I needed one. The phone rang, it was my good friend Cheryl from Osaka. She's originally from the UK, and we've known each other since......geeze...a super long time and I am not quite sure for how long. But put it this way, since I used to live in Osaka and way before we moved to Hawaii and Branden was born. So anyway, I was happy she called but with no cordless phone working, I was confined to sitting at the computer table (where the cord phone is).She moved to Japan permanently after she married her Japanese husband, she owns a restaurant of her own (very impressive for a foreign wife, I must say!), has quite a wonderful life, and her kids have been going to the international school since again...way before I've even had kids. So her kids have gone to international school forever. So she was catching me up with all the gossip and stuff around her part of Japan. And what's been going on with her life etc.

Meanwhile, I was catching her up on what we've been doing over here in Chiba, with Branden's new school, the new house and my dad's moving etc etc. And yes, she's also been reading this here blog since it first began as well, (hiya! Cheryl, lol!) but somehow chatting on the phone allows us to chat about certain things more deeply and her to ask questions etc, so anyway)When suddenly...now picture this!

I was sitting on the computer chair and you know how the back is flexible and can move back and stretch some? Well, anyway I was sitting on the chair, and in a position all kicked back and I even had my feet up in the air resting on my couch at the time. Suddenly the flexible back bent too far and I thought I was going to fall all the way back! However in an attempt to *not* fall backwards, and sorta catch my fall, I ended up falling sideways and completely fell out of the chair and onto Noah's walker. Now it happened super fast and in a matter of a minute or less. But I fell and I fell hard! I didn't hurt myself at all, not even a single scratch. However the walker wheel was busted completely off by me, even though it was an accident. And let's just put it this way...."all the kings horses and all the king's men, couldn't put Humpty...err! The walker together again!

Sigh, so I had no choice really other then to just go and buy him a new one! Noah really needed a new one, because he's only nine month's old! And he absolutely *adores* and loves his walker, and uses the damn thing every single day! He cruises all over the first floor with it. And for me, to have broken it was sad! And I knew I had to replace it immediately! Ahhhh trouble maker that I am! (just kidding)

So I went to the Baby Bunny store and bought him a new one immediately. The same day. I didn't buy the cheapest one and I didn't buy the most expensive either! The one we originally had was from Denver actually and it was originally bought for Branden and he used it and loved it! Since we moved to Japan when Branden was nine month's old, that is why Branden still needed it too and why we had it shipped here. I was hoping to let Noah use the same one Branden used, to save us money. I almost got away with it too, not buying another one.Until, I landed smack dead on the walker this afternoon! Sigh, grumble, sigh! But yup Noah had been using Branden's old walker for month's now, which gee the darn thing was in perfect shape! Until, this morning! Ha ha ha. Even knocked one of the plastic teddy bears off the top of it as well, geeze, told ya, I fell hard!

Anyway, I wouldn't even think of buying the most expensive one, because I figure he'll be walking in a couple month's anyway, so I don't need to buy the most expensive one, that would be ridiculous you know. And I was gonna get the cheapest one, but the only reason why I didn't was because it had unsafe looking wheels and was freakishly small. So I bought the second to cheapest one and it's not bad!

Noah rejected this new one at first and didn't want this one at all! But after a couple hours he had warmed up to it and now cruises all over our downstairs once again but in the new one! The old walker is now sitting in our large trash bin on the side of the house.

And by the way, yup my friend knew something happened. It was pretty hard to hide the super gigantic big thud sound, while we were talking anyway! Ha ha ha. How hazukashii/embarrassing! But it's okay, we're close enough that I told her, yup I just fell flat on my ass! And we both cracked up a bit over it!

Pictures are of, the new walker on the left, the yellow one. And the old walker on the right that got it's wheel knocked off/smashed and is now unuseable. : (

While I was at the baby bunny store replacing the walker, I saw a few t-shirts for both my boys. The baby bunny store is famous for having super cheap prices! A lot of their stuff is really cute too. Noah's shirts, would you believe none of them were more then 500 yen each. And a few were actually even 384 yen! For you reading this in the US, that's $5.00 or under. So while looking for cheap yet still cute 100% cotton type t-shirts for the upcoming hot weather and for days when they just hang out at home.Nothing fancy at all just affordable kawaii shirts, you don't mind your kids cruising around the house in thus getting dirty or gasp, maybe even a stain, lol or what have you. I found a good assortment of shirts for Noah this time. Noboru for some reason fell in love with the t-shirts that had Japanese on them. He was going on and on how popular t-shirts with Japanese writing on them is so super *in style* right now! And how we should buy them. Yada yada yada!

We got Noah's shirts in size 90 cm, because he can wear them and they are still a pinch big so he can grow into them over the summer, yet aren't freakishly big either. Noboru chose the fireworks one with Japanese kanji on it, because he said it was perfect for the upcoming warm weather! And the one with the watermelon on it that says, suika/watermelon in Japanese. He loved this one! He said this is a total summer shirt and he went all nuts looking for size 90 cm and sure enough he grabbed one for Noah and threw it into our cart! He also saw one with a Japanese saying on it, Noboru loved the saying so much. He said it's a famous Japanese saying about how, babies smile or their innocence or "smiling bringing good luck" or something like that. He liked that one *so* much...he got it in both colors! Branden picked out a Thomas t- shirt for his baby brother Noah! And I picked out one t shirt that is light blue and has some green graphics on it. We also got him a few Hawaiian type t shirts with prints of surf boards and stuff! So we think he has enough cheap house shirts now...but knowing kids and how much they make messes, I am not holding my breath!

And with Branden, hmmm they only had two t-shirts I liked. I actually only cared for the light aqua blue one because I thought the color was so pretty and usually buy my boys stuff in that color. But they just didn't have cute stuff in his size. They had many 110 cm's. But no 120 cm at all. And Branden wears a 120cm to 130cm in shirts. And no way, can he fit into a 110 cm shirt at all, that would be *way* too small for him. Oh well, I know that sometimes happens when you have two kids, sometimes they have one kids size well stocked and sometimes they have the other kids size stocked well. Luck of the draw, I guess! My ideal would be go into a store and they have both my boys sizes well stocked and the same stuff too. That way I can buy them the same exact stuff! Oh well, I will go back to the baby bunny store in a few days and see if they have anymore shirts in Branden's size. If not, I will just buy him some extras when we're in Hawaii next week.

I did however, also buy Branden a few under-shirts for wearing underneath his uniform dress shirts. And some more school socks!

I've since thrown all their new t-shirts into the wash and also dryer. They are all now hanging in both of their closets.

The tops pics are of the assortment of cheap cotton house shirts Noah got and the two bottom pics are of the stuff Branden has gotten. Yup, Branden still needs some more comfy cotton house shirts too. Will, definitely go back there this week to see if they have more in his size.

A Sunday spent at the homecenter and curry udon for dinner! : )

We ended up going to a DIY homecenter today. This is the Joyful Honda superstore in Chiba New town. Since we built our new home this year, Noboru's and my biggest hobby is our home. Anywhere from home decorating to landscaping and more. Anyway, we are about to buy ourselves a shed. And we have been looking for one. In a nut shell, we don't want the metal Japanese style one. Don't get me wrong they look nice, but since our home is an imported American house, we wanted something a little more western looking. We found one we like, and it's medium sized not too big and not too small either (my best guestimate is it's about 8-10 tatami mat sized). It's about $3,000 US. So it is quite pricey, but it's a good piece and we figure it'll be a one time buy, so it'll be worth it in the end.

Anyway we have an appointment with the Joyful Honda people and they are coming to our home this Friday in the *early* morning. (since we also have afternoon/evening plans already made on this coming Friday) To take a look at the back yard and give us our complete estimate (including installation and foundation that needs to be laid down as well) and then we will be ordering it. It should take us about 2 weeks for it to get here and installed. It looks like a mini log cabin sorta, sorry I'm horrible at describing what it looks like, but it's gonna be cute, we even get to choose the color of roof and color of the actual log cabin shed itself. Even though my description doesn't do it justice, it really is a cute shed. : )

Noboru also bought 4 bags of dirt/soil. And some bricks for the front yard. So basically we spent the entire day at the "Do it yourself " /DIY homecenter. And since there is a grocery store there as well, we also picked up a weeks worth of groceries.

We went home and I made curry udon for dinner. We had a very nice laid back Sunday.

Pics are of the curry udon dinner I made on Sunday night. I made one mistake though, that I will tell you openly. I bought curry *udon* base or roux when I shoulda just used what I normally use. The flavor came out sweet and mild, but since my husband and I don't care for mild curry *at all*, I knew I had to make some changes to spice it up. I even gave my husband a taste of the sweet mild curry flavor and he said and I quote, it tastes bland and like curry they'd give you in the hospital. My husband and I like our curry with a kick and a punch! Some flavor, again, not to burn our mouth's off or anything, but yes we do like some flavor other then just bland mild curry. So I won't make the same mistake twice and I won't buy the "real" curry *specially for udon* ever again. From now on I will just buy the regular curry roux, I usually buy when I make our curry for curry and rice. I ended up turning off the stove and driving to the convenience store and buying a "normal" or standrad regular curry and added it for hotness and it tasted way better after I did that. Phew!

I just got my skinless boneless chicken breasts and cut them up and fried them in some olive oil. Meanwhile I browned a small onion in a pan all by itself. After the chicken browned and cooked, I threw in the veggies which consisted of potatoes, carrots, mushrooms and the already cooked onions. Boiled that up until the potatoes got a bit soft (not obliterated), then added my curry. Errr this is when I realized the curry tasted like super bland nothing! Hopped in the car with my sons, grabbed a normal curry (my husband was doing yard work which is why I didn't leave the kids with him or I would have). Hopped back home and then it tasted beyond delicious! I boiled the udon noodles a bit by themselves in some hot boiling water. And presto chango! Dinner was done. Sorry I don't have a special udon bowl or anything fancy like that. I just use the same bowls we've been using for ages and and yes, I got them at the daiso! Ha ha ha! But I must say, our meal was so yummy! The mild curry before I added the hotter curry, I took a big heap of that out for both the boys and so they had a real nice mild curry udon complete with noodles and chicken and veggies. Meanwhile Noboru and I enjoyed a spicy hot curry udon! It was fun watching both the boys slurp and enjoy their yummy homemade curry udon that mommy made especially for them!