Here's the Mother's Day gifts Noah made for me at yochien this year! A very nice drawing/portrait of me. And this handmade panda container holding a flower! I love homemade kids gifts the best! They're *so* special! : ) Branden doesn't get to make any now that he's in elementary. : (
See the magnetic tape on the back? ; ) I love that the school thought of putting magnets on there.
And now it proudly hangs underneath Branden's old one he made me at yochien years ago. I know, I know I should have packed up B's a long time ago, but it's so cute and I can't bare to pack it away just yet. : ) Besides, I think it is the fine touches like family pictures along the walls throughout a house and kids homemade artworks/projects that make a house a home! And by gosh my fridge looks like a typical family fridge...who happily has kids! : ) : ) And by gosh, I love it!
On Mother's Day, we woke up bright and early, had breakfast at home, got dressed and headed to the Narita Airport Course (athletic course), we went there to spend the day as a family. By looking at the pictures online, we could tell to bring a spare change of clothes for each of the kids. Rough and tumble play expected inside. ; )
It's like a whole course. Forty different activities! Sort of like an obstacle course, I guess would be a good explanation.
Here they were about to go down into the scary dark tunnels. ; )
This one, you had to pull the rope and get yourself from one end to the next. Branden tried this one and had fun with it.
A great big swing riding high above the murky water! Branden loved this one a lot!
Noboru took Noah on it as well. I loved this one too, it rocked!
Noah swinging away...almost makes me want to give a tarzan type hollar. ; )
Very steep!
And then back down!
A really really long slide!
Noah going down the slide!
Yay Noah! : )
Two very close brothers! : )
Branden sliding down that rope with the swing yet again!
#24, the limbo! Can you limbo? Yeah, you can? How low can you go??? ; ) LOL. Makes me think of the song...."every limbo boy and girl, all around the limbo world".... 
Clearly Noah can do the limbo! Ha ha ha. How hilarious! ; )
Yay Branden!
We went through them all except this one. #32. This one was so deep and so dirty, I think you'd need a bath afterwards right away. And Noah was way to little for this one still. And frankly, I even had doubts if B should go on this one, so we skipped this one, all of us. But we did complete the rest.
Hold on tight, to a great big hunk of wood and shimmy and glide through the "forest"! Check and check! Great job and well done Branden!
And good going to you too little guy! Well done Noah!!! : )
If you only knew how absolutely silly my husband is. (shakes head ; ) Though we've been together forever so we must be equally silly! Ha ha ha. : )
#36, almost about to reach #40 and finish!!!
Hi Branden, I see you enjoying #36! Ha ha ha.
We went through the rest and reached 39.
Oh goodness this was so steep! Noboru always going directly behind Noah as a precaution. That way he could catch him in case of emergency or anything. Didn't need it, but it gave me great piece of mind.
Branden was already up on the other tier. And Noboru helped Noah up.
Good job Branden!
Coming down off #39 and finishing 40 and then we all felt really proud we cleared this course! With the exception of #32.
Everyone leaving this place, feeling quite happy, albeit a lot dustier and dirtier then when we arrived for sure! But we all had fun! They washed up their hands real good and we left!
After leaving the athletic course, we headed to lunch. I could pick the restaurant of my choice since it was Mother's Day and all. ; ) And I picked our favorite Chinese restaurant. This place is so good! The kids each had their own fried rice, egg drop soup, gyoza and they shared an adult side order of karaage it's huge so they barely finished it. Noboru had a big combo/set sort of like mine but with different items. And I had this. Fried, rice, gyoza, karaage, salad and it came with egg drop soup. During lunch I noticed how dirty Noah's yellow and white shirt was, so I switched his shirt in the MPV after we had lunch. Branden was luckily still clean but Noah's shirt needed a changing.
After leaving the restaurant, we went to a DIY. Different shirt and hat but same dusty shorts from the athletic course. ; )
We were looking for liners for our hanging baskets. We keep the same baskets but change the liners every year.
Dad and son! : )
Only 128 yen or so each and we only needed 4. Picked up some potting soil and paid and headed home.
Pic before we located the soil.
You know what? I grew so impatient waiting for the impatiens to come to my area where we live, I decided to just order online. Seriously, you know I have honestly been going every week looking for impatiens and no such luck! : ( Last Monday, I finally said...enough! And I went online and just ordered there. This place is specializing in them anyway, so I ordered from here. Granted wish they would have sold them locally at my local DIY like last year. But ah well. I understand how the extra long winter drug out and the delay for lots of flowers and planting.
New liners for the old hanging baskets. : ) You know what? I had a very nice Mother's day. We spent the most of the day at the athletic course. We had lunch as a family. And the day wound down with my getting to plant my flowery hanging baskets. Yatta!!! An awesome Mother's day indeed.
Gorgeous flowers. And I ordered all red. Yet would you believe they gave me 3 hot pink. Hmm. Not crazy about that, but to be fair they gave me 2 extra plants then I ordered so I'm not complaining. Besides I had enough red for the hanging baskets anyway. And no, I am not anti any color for flowers, ha ha ha. It's just the front porch we always hang red. That's all, no special meaning or anything.: ) Oh well, we had enough for the porch so no worries.
Getting them all seperated. I use 3 little plants for each hanging basket and by mid Summer they're all thick and lush with flowers.
Hi beautiful! Thanks to the both of you for helping me plant the flowers.
And done. 4 hanging baskets with red flowers. My 2 white pots that also have red flowers. And not really sure what to do with the hot pink...yet NEVER wanting to throw a flower away, no way! So, I got out my extra pot and planted the pink in the ceramic pot and will keep it in the backyard. The rest will all be for the front yard and porch area.
I apologize for showing a pic of my hubby's booty, the intent was showing what we did with the pink flowers, whoops.; ) Anyway, here's the hot pink flowers, they did not go to waste. ; ) They'll be loved and have a good home. They're shade loving flowers so along the shed or on the porch they go. Noboru pulling any excess weeds. And Noboru has worked so hard on the yard so far...let's see. He's sprayed fertilizer on the grass so far, used weed killer and he manually pulls any extra weeds that get away. The kids and I help too. The grass is indeed slowly turning greener and greener. I love how it slowly gets greener all Spring until Summer and then sad how it slowly fades away in Fall.
The flowers will not be on the porch until a week at least, they will sit on the terrace and get used to being transplanted and get a bit bigger before they go on the porch. They're on the terrace even now as I type. ; ) After we finished up the flowers, I came inside and made baked ziti for my family for Mother's Day. Comfort food times a 100.
Sauce, pasta, ricotta mixture, cheese and then layers once more. Baked in the oven and smells so good. We also had salad and garlic bread! So yumm! Kids always love this when I make it, so does Noboru!
Fresh out of the oven, as you can see by the spatula, I seriously did almost forget to take a pic. I was thinking "serve family food"...not take a pic. Ha ha ha. So sorry about the spatula. ; )
OMG, Sunday's Mother's day dinner! Amazing! Flat out amazing! Baked ziti, garlic bread, yummy Italian salad. Makes me hungry all over again just thinking about it. ; ) With the start of the morning, from the athletic course, to lunch, to flower shop, to planting flowers, to making dinner and eating dinner and sitting enjoying our conversation through dinner. It was a wonderful Mother's day, hope you all had an equally enjoyable Mother's Day as well. : )
My Mother's Day gifts were the wonderful art projects Noah made me at the yochien. Love homemade gifts from the kids, I tell ya... the best best best!!! Hugs and kisses all day long from both the boys! : ) And my gift from my hubby, like I said. A small order from the Flying Pig that should be here this coming Wednesday morning. Anyway, that was how we spent our Mother's Day this year! : )
Dvd's, dvd's. Here are 2 of the 4 movies we rented for the month of May so far. Gran Torino, haven't had the chance to see this yet but it looks excellent. And the reviews for it are good according to imdb online. Saw 6 the hubby and I saw this late Saturday night after the kids went to sleep. We saw and liked the original Saw. And as the reviews sort of said, the others were somewhat lame. So we weren't going to rent this one. Then I went to imdb and a bunch of people said the same thing, first one was good, the others not really but this one was good. So I took a chance and rented it. And Noboru and I really enjoyed it. I covered my eyes quite a few times. But it was pretty good. We also rented 2 for June already am on the waiting list for those already. The Hannah Montana movie (for the kids) and "The Haunting in Connecticut" for us. We chose another for May already. Hmm, the title escapes me now. If I think of it, I'll come back and write it. Oh yeah...Inglourious Basterds. However, we changed our minds and will now cancel that movie and look for something else to watch instead. So 2 for May still not picked yet.
Last Friday, was nice. We were all ready to start the weekend. I ran to the store earlier that day while the boys were at school. And for dinner, we had french bread pizzas. If you're from the US. You might remember those yummy Stouffer's french bread pizzas in the freezer section? ; ) I sliced the bread in half, and let the boys have at it and make the pizzas. I watched and they did most of it. They love helping with dinner and it's good for them to feel helpful. Everything can be bought in Japan, the bread, the sauce, the cheese. If you have no access to pepperoni and don't wanna order from the Meat Guy online. Ham would be great too. Or a veggie french bread pizza too would be yummy as well. The topping combinations are endless. Whatever you want. ; )
Whacked it in the oven. And they were done right when I finished with the salads.
Last Friday's quick and easy meal, french bread pizzas and a salad. Fast and delicious.
This past Saturday was Noah's first day in the B course. The whole family went. We knew ahead of time the B course kids can range from being "blue badges" the last year of yochien, to ninensei's and even sannensei's, there's no set age, as long as you're over the age of 5 you can be a B course. When the other B course kids started filing in. They looked gigantic compared to our 4 year old Noah. I mean, they looked like Branden sized kids for crying out loud! I could see the little bit of worry on his face. And I reassured my son. I said, "Noah don't you worry honey, we'll be right here watching you from this window. You're going to do fine. They wouldn't have let you into this course if you weren't ready" when it was time for them to begin their warm up exercises so you don't pull anything in the pool, Branden escorted him downstairs. I think that way they could see he had a big brother. Branden is the one who wanted to escort him down. Everyone had a # and Noah was the only one in the entire pool wearing a tulip. I did not know at the time but Noah told me afterwards. The coach made a quick speech to the class downstairs and said, "Noah was only 4 years old, he is now in their swimming course and to please help him" They all said, hai!!! And the little boy who was a good foot taller then Noah in this picture also with a white cap, he helped Noah out quite a bit. Not with swimming technique because they all have the same swim level, but he was nice to Noah and talked with him, tried to make him laugh. Also another little girl probably about age 6 or 7. Talked with Noah quite a bit too. The boy with the white cap (looks about 6 years old) though was super to Noah. And when we were leaving the swim school he told Noah in Japanese..."Good bye new friend" That made me feel so relieved about him switching to the B course so looks like things will be A-okay. Huge sigh of relief. And Branden told that boy...thank you for helping my brother today. And the mom sayonara'ed me and I did the same. ; )
Here's Noah down in the pool, the last time he would ever wear that red tulip again. It is now on his swimming bag.
Go Noah go!
The lowest level you can get is a 17 the best a #1. Branden is a #4. And after testing Noah he was determined to be a level 14. All the flowers he achieved because he earned them. He worked hard for them and they now are sewn on his swimming bag. Well done Noah, we are so proud of you too baby! : ) 
For 5 straight days, Noah and I took Branden to the compressed swim course at their swim school. On the last day, the final day was a big test. Paying the high fee of 6,400 yen or whatever for the 5 day course does NOT in anyway guarantee you will pass. So many kids failed. And though maybe I should not mention that part, it's true. Lots did not make it, unfortunately. : (
Here is a picture of Noah while waiting for his brother to come out to swim one of the mornings.
Here is a gorgeous shot of Noah another morning while at the swimming school.
What a beautiful boy!
And this picture was taken on the final day. Though I should not say this. We sort of knew Branden would pass. Because on the note/comments each day. The first day the coach wrote a correction. She said for Branden to not put his head forward to only move it to the side and that's why he was losing time. Once he heard that he made the proper correction and he never did that again. So the 2nd day, the note said, sorta like, great job your time is that you'd pass. The 3rd day said same sort of comment, you're time is great and if you swim like today on the day of the test you'll pass. Same stuff the 4th day. So, we sort of knew he'd probably pass. But of course, not wanting to be overly confident either. On the 5th day, Noboru went for the final day with Noah and I. The 7 kids total including Branden, all swam in the same row as Branden. The 3 boys were all #5's and all wishing to be #4's. 1 little boy did not pass.: ( And that was very sad. 2 out of the 4 little girls were #6's and hoping to be #5's and did not make it either. For the 8 years old and under category to pass you'd have to swim 1 minute and 3 seconds. Or under. Branden made it in 56 seconds back and forth the length of the pool. 50 meters. So he did awesome with time to spare even.
Branden diving in starting his test.
His coach standing along the side of the pool with stop watch in hand. He killed it! (in a good way) He blew that test right out of the water! Branden did so fantastic. I wanted to jump up and down. But I knew other parents were nervous and their kids were not up yet, so I sat quietly to be respectful of the ones not yet having a turn to test yet. I was loudly cheering on the inside though. : )
His certificate and the time of 56 seconds on there. And new #4.
His notes from the 5 days. He honestly did really well. Both the boys are really good swimmers though anyways.
The time you have to make to pass depends on your age. The older you are the shorter time they give you. Anyway congratulations dear Branden, we are so proud of you!!! : )
In this picture, you can see my niece looking for Noah and Noah hiding behind a tree. ; ) Hide and seek was in full effect while they were here during Golden Week.
That's my sil Kaori in this pic. She played up a storm here too. Ha ha ha. She's definitely Noboru's sister. She's very genki like Noboru is. : ) I am too, so that could be why we get along so well. The genki family, ha ha ha.
Holy crap, run Noah! Run for your life, you're auntie's hot on your trail! He ran zig zagged so luckily she did not catch him. LOL. ; ) But man, it was SO close! Ha ha ha.
My niece chasing Branden. And we ran into a whole bunch of Branden's friends at the park and they followed us home. ; )
Saya-chan in the hat. Nozomi in the jean skirt. Keita-kun in the white shirt playing beyblades and Aoi-kun in the red top and that's Aoi-kun's backpack with all his beyblade stuff inside. ; ) And of course B and Noah as well.
Kaori, taking a pic and me taking a pic of my sil taking a pic. ; ) And my niece sitting between B and Noah. My niece found this whole beyblade stuff quite interesting. : )
At 5pm the bell rang in the neighborhood and we started our family BBQ. The biggest container had yakiniku style white breast meat, skinless boneless of course. The other one had beef and the last one had dark meat chicken.
Veggies marinating and grilling.
Noah pushing his cousin on the swings. Though he's only 4 years old and she's already a big strapping 2nd grader. He was very gentlemanly about things. And he pushed her anyway! What a sweetheart he is!
What a good sweet kid Noah is!
After everyone ate. And Noboru was eating a few bites more. Just for good measure. ; ) Kaori and B and Noah and my niece all played a round of hide and seek again. In the backyard.
Noah's turn to count! ; )
They played 2 rounds of hide and go seek in the back yard. I meanwhile brought all the dishes and whatnots back into the house. Didn't mind one single bit, I actually told her just play with the kids, it's easy for me anyway. And honestly I enjoy her playing with the boys. They get that auntie time and I loved that. I think my sil and niece enjoyed their visit here very much. And I know the boys enjoyed them being here quite a bit too. I also enjoyed their visit. At night, after the kids all went to bed, Kaori and I watched the Osbournes on MTV. We watched 1 full hour, so 2 episodes. We gave commentary about it while watching it. So it was funny. She speaks English like Noboru does, so chatting is always quite fun. We also watched stuff like the City on MTV and other TV shows together. The age, goes Noboru is the first born son, then in age goes Kaori and then the youngest is my bil Jun. In the mornings while they were here, I woke up earliest in the house, followed by my niece. So, I would fix her cereal and toast, we'd chat. Watch cartoons together. I asked her how she likes her ninensei teacher this year. I think she enjoyed her auntie time with me as well. ; ) She said she loved the cereals we have here. Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops, Honey Bunches of Oats with Strawberries. Every morning she marvelled at her choices and that made me smile. I think she thinks this is a fun place to be with lots of interesting cool stuff to eat. She also loved all the cartoon channels we have. So she had a blast being here with us. If you recall her brother actually came to stay with us for 2 weeks a few Summer's ago. : )
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