Sorry a day or two delayed in getting this up. But as you know Branden started school yesterday/on Monday. And with the school routines going back in place. My chance to get this posted has been delayed until now. So let me try and get this up real quick. Otherwise I'll have to save this post again for another day. ; ) Okay where do I begin? I suppose the obvious answer would be at the beginning. Okay, the Easter bunny came while the boys were asleep and filled their Easter baskets with the most amazing treats. They were waiting for them for when they woke up! Hmm, I really am a jack of all trades. Mom, Easter bunny, Santa, tooth fairy and everything else rolled into one. Us mom's do it all! ; ) And yes as you can tell in the picture, I even managed to take the kids to the barber *before* Sunday to get their haircuts before school started.
A peek, inside Branden's Easter basket! Typical boy stuff, basketball shaped eggs, football shaped eggs, baseball shaped eggs. Reece's pieces inside a carrot shaped bag. Big choco crispy bunny. What a very busy Easter bunny the night before. ; )
Inside Noah's Easter basket!!! All the same stuff as Branden. With two boys, I always make sure, what one has, the other one has too.
The forecast said rain on Monday. Thank goodness it was Sunday however the day was still gray and overcast, but luckily not a stitch of rain. Yay!!! Anyway, where was I. Oh yes, we all had a nice breakfast, eggs, bacon, toast and skillet fried potatoes. Coffee for us and OJ for the kids. I had originally thought of having a huge Easter party much like my Easter's of the past here at our house. And believe you me, I debated on that quite a bit. But in the end, considering how absolutely fried/exhausted I was before Spring break. Though now I am feeling way better. Anyway, I in the end decided to have just a family Easter celebration instead. Next year I'll have the party and I certainly have enough cookie cutters and cupcake cups and stuff to do it. But this year it was just us. And I sort of loved it this way. This picture was taken before we started. A picture of getting this all set up. Tissues for little fingers that might get some coloring on them. All the cups arranged.
Branden looking at the egg he was coloring. And Noah waiting for his egg to get brighter.
Eggs in all the cups.
Branden pulling out a green egg and Noah looking on!
Since we color eggs every year, at age 4, Noah's an expert! Or should I say he's an Egg-spert?!!! Ha ha ha. ; )
What a lovely blue egg, Branden.
And after the eggs have all dried, the decorating could begin! I made a few. And Noboru and Branden were decorating some in this pic!
Go Noah go!!! There he is with his crayon!
Noah drew a face! I said..."wow Noah what a good job, that totally looks like a face" ha ha ha. ; )
The finished eggs for Easter 2010!!!
And then we hid them. And here's Noah finding one.
The playground we have..... means good hiding spots for the eggs.
Yup Branden just found one and is about to slide down with the eggs in his basket.
Safe landing and the eggs were all A-okay. ; )
Who's going to find the most? Hmm, tough call, tough call.
Branden's eggs he found.
So, Noboru tells me, if you can hide one so good they can't find then you win, but if he could hide the egg the kids could not find he would win. I had told him, "you're on!" And I must say, we colored and hid 13 eggs. And they found 12. They could not find my egg. I told Noboru, I won. Ha ha ha. And we sat there and watched and I'll be goshed darned, they could not find it! Until......Noah looked inside the cold BBQ and he...FOUND IT! Yup, I hid the egg in the BBQ. They walked past that BBQ about a hundred times and they never bothered to check until Noah finally looked in there. Big huge grin on my face but I didn't say a thing.
Well done Noah! You found the last egg!!!
Branden won, he beat Noah by 1 egg! Next year, we'll see who wins. ; )
We had 3 egg hunts in the backyard. And then Noboru got the grilled started. And I got the ground beef mixed and the hamburger patties made. We were going to do ham or roasted chicken. But with so many roasted chickens we've been eating these past 2 month's. We sort of took a break from that. And I had the beef guy grind us some very lean ground beef. And we had some good burgers.
The kids played and relaxed, while the BBQ cooked the burgers. I had fries frying up on the stove, the lettuce and tomato and onion sliced for the burgers sat on the green counter. Dinner took no time at all.
The smell from a chargrilled burger?! OMG! Amazing! Noboru kept telling me...these smell great! And they did, they smelled fantastic!
We had so many burgers, everyone could have 2 and some had 3. I had 1 and then a few hours later ate my second burger. The fries were crisp and dinner was oh so good. Definitely the funnest Easter meal we've ever had! Easter 2010, rocked! Anyway hope you all had an amazing Easter for whoever celebrates it! : )
This past week, while the boys were on Spring break, we went to visit some old friends in the Yachiyo/Funabashi area where we used to live. It was a nice visit, but a long drive for us to get there. After we finished visiting, we headed to Costco in Makuhari.
We only bought 2 things while at Costco. One large cheese pizza, when we brought it home we whacked it into the oven and rewarmed it and had it for dinner that night.
And we also bought dinner rolls, that's it. Just didn't need much from Costco but it was nice to be able to pick those up since we were in the area.
What have we done for our final week of Spring break? Besides the Costco run, visiting with friends and a quick Guam night trip. We just basically hung out at home. The boys have played with a lot of kids in the neighborhood. They've beybladed and kori-oni'ed themselves like crazy all this week. I've also spent a lot of time with the boys in the backyard this week as well. I like kicking the ol' soccer ball around with the boys. Still doing the cleaning and laundry obviously. But not having to run here and there has been so nice for me. *happy sigh* : ) Another load of towels hanging in the pic.
Can you see the farmer and his tractor in the background? Yup, they've officially started on the rice fields for this season.
I also went through Branden's stuff he brought home from school. And looked through everything and saw what needed replacing. The brand new Mizuno bag is his new shuji set, as you know. He needed new white/inside shoes, a new hat, new crayons. New notebook paper. And would you believe, the last week of the 2nd grade, get this! The sensei announced that 3rd graders at our school aren't supposed to use the standard shogako pencil boxes anymore!!!! This was an official, what the heck, for me, I tell you!!! Are they serious??? Do they know we just bought you that new Pokemon sparkly pencil box??? You should have seen my facial expression when Branden came home and told me that. @_@ Ummmm, okay then what type of NEW pencil box do you need now then? Apparently a pencil *bag* for bigger kids. Grrrr! Branden didn't know, it's obviously not his fault at all. I was just frustrated that perhaps at the many many meetings we have at the school they didn't mention this. I went to the small country city near our country town and let Branden pick his pencil *bag* which he did. And fwiw (for what it's worth), since I don't have my receipt anymore for the Pokemon sparkly pencil box, I offered to let B use it at Kumon. But he said, no, that he has one already and to let Noah have the new much coveted sparkly pencil box. I asked him if he was sure and he said yes. So, the new sparkly Pokemon pencil box is now Noah's. And he'll be using it at Kumon as soon as he starts. ; ) What a good big brother Branden is! A seriously good egg!
When Branden was an ichinensei, the note said, all kids at our school must bring an 18 piece coupy set. And 18 is what he brought for ichinensei, didn't want to be a rule breaker. And for ninensei, he also brought 18. However by then, there were kids with 24 and more pieces of coupy. Hmm. So, this year, we decided to let Branden bring the 24 piece as well. he could certainly use the extra colors for art class.
These are the things we picked up at the Daiso. Erasers, they smell like cola and orange soda and B said a few of his classmates had them, so he wanted them too. ; ) He also needed a liquid glue and a stick glue, plus the American glue, he usually takes 3 glues at school, again with so many different types of art projects he needs a variety of glues. Staples for his stapler. Tape, they always need tape.
1800 yen for the new pencil bag, grumble, grumble, grumble. Oh well, it's what Branden picked, because he likes Nike. He said Genki is bringing Puma and the other boys are bringing Adidas and Puma and Nike. We like Adidas or Nike, but the Adidas bag they had was too thin and flimsy not really as structured as the other bags. Which is why he went to this Nike bag. 
I have since name tagged everything, sewn his name on his gym hat. made sure his name got on his inside shoes. Every coupy each piece has his name on it. And Branden's ready!
I also had him get all new pencils and sharpen them. His pencil box, he had only a set number that could fit in there. But this time around, I made him take 2 red pencils (and they all have his name on them) and 8 or 9 pencils. We placed pencil caps on them all so the lead wouldn't break off in the bag. And put his 2 erasers in the front pocket and he's set. Branden starts the 3rd grade this Monday/tomorrow. And Noah doesn't start school until mid-week. This coming Wednesday. Happy Easter everyone, I'll be posting on Easter probably this evening or tomorrow morning. : )
Thought you all would enjoy the entrance ceremony picture for the new ichinensei in our small country town for the school year of 2010. How many ichinensei/first graders does our town have this year? Get a good look at the pic! I'll wait while you count.......did you count yet? If you counted 4 on one side and four on the other, then you counted exactly right! Eight. No, not 80. Not 18. Just 8.
March 29th, is the day Branden and I left to Guam. March 30th is the day we arrived back to Japan. We were there for about 4 hours or so. This wasn't an "ahhh what a relaxing vacation" type trip. This was basically a grocery shopping run! The flight was at 7pm/8pm Guam time. We arrived around 11:40pm. The pic is of Branden and I at our gate and watching the snow fall outside Narita airport. It snowed the evening we left to Guam. Noah stayed obviously with Noboru and they had their own special one on one time together, they went out for sushi together. Meanwhile B and I flew to get some shopping done.
Branden sitting in first class. Meanwhile people were boarding the plane.
Each row is 4 windows worth/total and the leg room alone extends for 2 windows, so the leg room is amazing and the seats fold out into beds. So the flight is quite comfy. Which is nice since it was night time and we needed our rest too.
My Prada tote safely in the spot down below. The complimentary bottle of water. And I think you can see a passengers leg as they were entering the plane. Everyone in first class gets a complimentary champagne at entry or orange juice. I'm not a drinker so, I had the orange juice while the rest of the plane boarded.
By now the flight had taken off, we've levelled off and Branden was picking his movie and I was picking mine. Branden chose Alvin and the Chipmunks 2, and I picked "The Blind Side" with Sandra Bullock, she's so amazing, I really like her!!!! And the movie, based on a true story was fantastic!!!
Noise cancelling headphones.
Our feet nicely propped up and us enjoying our movie with drinks and ice in a real glass. The snacks, I had saved for Noah since I know he loves those. ; )
The meal. Chicken teriyaki, rice, salad, fruit, the other thing said, baby lobster salad, though, I did not eat that. And the strawberry mousse. Mini salt and pepper shakers. After the movie, I slept a bit and so did B.
My dad was waiting and we headed straight to Kmart, then to Payless grocery store, then I was done. We had time to kill, so we went to Denny's and then to Winchell's and then my dad dropped me back at the airport. As quickly as I arrived, is as quickly as I left.
I had a small shopping list. Branden helped me quite a bit with reading my shopping list off for me and helping me in general. He's so helpful.
And at Denny's. I had a veggie and cheese omelet, hasbrowns, white toast and coffee.
Branden had the chicken nugget and fries combo with hot chocolate. Branden was not tired and he slept the entire way back to Japan. He also loved the one on one time with mom. And he felt it was such an exciting adventure. He really had fun.
My dad had the senior omelet and fruit cup. With coffee. And though he talks to B all the time anyway, they caught up with one another. So that was nice.
This is what we brought back.
And a whole dozen donuts back, for Noah and the hubby! When Noah and Noboru met us at the airport, I told Noah...I brought these donuts back especially for YOU! ; ) Just in case he was having any feelings of being left out by not going. Which he wasn't.... but just in case. ; )
3 blueberry filled donuts, 5 strawberry filled, cinnamon crunch, coconut and 2 glaze.
I am not sure why Mister Donut doesn't sell fruit filled donuts like this, well the one near us doesn't that's for sure at least. But man...they're so yummy! Noboru loved these donuts. So did the boys! Oh yeah and as I entered the plane the attendants mentioned my donuts and as I exited in Narita, the Japanese man and his family in first class behind B and I right before we deboarded the airplane. He told his wife, in Japanese "oh man, she brought back donuts" I smiled at them as we deboarded the plane. They were very nice. : )
Longhorn/colby cheese, we do love cheese in our household, so it was nice to be able to buy some there. 48 slices of American sliced cheese for grilled cheese sandwiches. crescent rolls, lasagna, and enchilada fixings. Yumm-o! : )
Salsa and chips for movie night. Mango for the boys. Chili beans for my friend and 1 can for my family. Stuffing, and gravy.
Brownies for a friend and for also my family as well. Popcorn for a friend and also for us. Miracle whip for sandwiches. Jif peanut butter because Noah eats it like it's going out of style. Turtles (pecan caramel clusters, these are for me, my treat for after the kids go to sleep, shhh)
Honey Bunches with Strawberry for Noboru, generic Lucky charms for the kids. Hey we totally don't mind generics and if I can get 1-2 lbs for cheap all the better!!! That's just smart saving money like that. Two (1 each) of enormous cans of lemonade and fruit punch Kool Aid. Cinnamon gum I love cinnamon flavored anything.
I have had 2 measuring cups from the daiso, had to replace. And they have broken, cracked actually. So, this time around, I bought a heavier duty type from Kmart. Shampoo, hair dye, tampons, yeast infection meds, granted haven't had one in years. But they're painful if you do get one, so it's better for me to hide it away and someday if it happens, at least I'm covered. And the generic brands and 7 day treatments are like $6 -7 bucks. Granted not as fancy as the 3 day name brand ones but the name brand ones are like $20-25 US. Thanks but no thanks on that price. yes, I am thrifty, I know. And that's okay. ; ) On top of the bag is toilet bowl deodorizer, and I bought 4 of those. They're like a dollar or two. Citrus Dove deodorant, love this. Hand soap for the kitchen, glue for shogako for B. A small bottle of 50 Advil. But should last us a year or two, since we don't use it that often.
I bought cookie cutters. The Valentine Heart one Wilton brand at Kmart. And the 2 Easter cookie cutters (bunny and butterfly) from Payless grocery store. Valentines cupcake holders and Easter cupcake holders at Payless. These are awesome. Some of the Easter candy and the egg coloring kit went to my fellow American friend here in Japan for her beautiful little girl for Easter. And another bit of the candy went to a yochien mama friend of mine.
Like I mentioned, I love cinnamon anything. And this has always been my favorite flavor toothpaste. Close-up brand is on this blog quite a bit. Anyway, could not believe my luck that they were buy one get one free. A great deal had on my favorite toothpaste. And some syrup for when I make french toast and whatnot.
Magazines. I love reading gossip mags. Thsi time around...How Kelly Osbourne got slim. She lost 42lbs and looks great btw. And another topic. "Is fame hurting Susan Boyle?" Her brother had some not so glowing things to say. Don't think she would really appreciate what he said about her. Anyway, I like her and found the article interesting at least. And some Easter cupcake toppers. So pretty. And that's it. I didn't come back, packed to the gills. I just got what was on my list. I spent $60 at Kmart and $100 at Payless for groceries. And I didn't just get things for myself. I brought back goodies for 2 friends (my American one and my yochien mama friend). And I'm glad I can do that. That way, we were not only able to get a few things for ourselves but for others too. And that's always a good feeling and a well worth it trip. : )
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