December 14th, was yet another milestone for Noah. As you know this is a year of many "lasts" for him, but also on the positive side also many "firsts" too. So, last week, a slightly toothless Noah performed and enjoyed his *very last* Christmas play/recital at the Catholic yochien.
Noah will leave this yochien knowing how to play, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on the harmonica as well as a few other songs. : )
The Sakura-gumi got the ball rolling with 2 songs, 1 song they sang and 1 song they performed with musical instruments.
Noah ringing the bells, jingle jingle.
I love this song. It's one of my favorites from the yochien. They switch the words to this at graduation, at least they did when Branden went here and the kids all sang, where the words were something like..." thank you mother for all that you did with helping me at school" "now I will try my best at my new school. Thanks for all that you did. All of us mothers cried our eyeballs out at that time. And I'm pretty much expecting the same thing too for Noah's graduation. Anyway...this is a beautiful song, both versions. : )
First play the Sakura-gumi did was, "Kin no gacho". Here's Noah's best friend H trying to chop the tree down.
Then came 3 little men, think drwafs. @_@ lol.
Yes, 3 giggly, all smiling dancing and 1 slightly toothless Noah.
Noah picking something.
They were thirsty in this pic.
Phew good thing H was around! ; )
Yay a golden gacho!
Tada! : ) Come on not bad for kindergarten, right!? : )
And the audience all cheered. I clicked and clapped, clicked a picture and clapped some more.
The Sakura-gumi.
The other classes went and did their plays as well. They were all great. And then the final play of the year was the story of the baby Jesus. What a beautiful Mary she was. That's S-chan one of Noah's good friends and swim friends. She's a level 7 too. : )
Go H! : ) H and Noah had a lot of speaking parts for the last play. I thought H did wonderfully! I was very proud of Noah *and* his best friend.
Back to the story. Joseph and Mary, went knocking on this door and asked if they could sleep there that night but they were turned away. : ( Turned away 3 times in the play.
Aha! And who comes out to give a short little talk? Noah! He did so good, unfortunately I only got half his speech down below, considering it only lasted like 10 seconds and by the time I snapped this picture, he was half done. : (Only a pinch of Noah's speech since I wasted/used some time/seconds taking that picture up above. But at least it gives you an idea. I tried. : )
And some additional speaking parts, for Noah, H and a few other kiddos.
Noah and his fellow shephards listening to the angels.
This is the part where I greatly debated sharing with you. But I finally decided to share this, so please don't laugh at me for sharing this. So there was Noah sitting at the right as a shephard. And then my eyes looked left and I saw 3 tiny sheep. And in that 1 split second, my eyes teared up some. And no,I didn't want anyone to see my eyes tear up at all and nobody noticed either. I don't want anyone teasing me for that, you know. Why did I tear up like that? Because while I'm not emotionally stunted and I do have feelings same as everyone, I also, do not cry at the drop of a hat either. The reason I did tear up though was, in that instant at glancing at those tiny little sheep, I remembered and yes...this was another "coming full circle" moment for me. That is how Noah started and began his journey all those years ago at his first Christmas play. Noah started out as a tiny little sheep. I remembered what he looked like exactly. How Noah sat there amongst the older class kids. And looked at my face in the audience for reassurance. And I smiled and nodded at him as to say..."you're okay" And now flash back to now and Noah is now the shephard. A full circle indeed. Do you remember this?
Noah chan Christmas recital 2009 and S chan. His swimming friend. I remembered this.....my sweet little baby.
Noah looking at me... as to ask..."am I okay mama?" yes Noah-chan honey you are. And... he really was. : ) And that was his shephard on the right.
And now, it was Noah's turn to herd the sheep. And though he's just 6 years old. And believe me, as someone in their 30's, I know how truly young being 6 is. But wow...from where Noah started to now, he's grown so much. And my heart was just beaming.
Walking over to get their sheep.
Very carefully, Noah looks back and takes her hand and gently leads her away.
Well done, baby, well done!
And then towards the end of the play, they came in to pay respects to the baby Jesus. Noah and his adorable little sheep.
At this point, all us parents are snapping that last photo. It was our last opportunity to take Christmas recital pics. We were all snapping like mad.
I really like this picture. it's a good one of Noah and his best friend, Hikaru.Last song. We all clapped. Noah came out and asked us, "how did I do?" I said, "honey you rocked! You did so good and I was so proud of you today!" Then we 3 hopped in the car and went to lunch. Branden was at school at this time.
I had kabocha curry, salad, tandoori chicken and naan. Everyone had a combo/set. Noah had the kids curry set, with ice cream for dessert. And Noboru needing his rice had curry and rice. Noboru said, naan is nice but he needs his rice. : ) And there you have it, closing up, yet another "last"...Noah's very last Christmas recital at the yochien. We love you *so* much Noah!
Yep, it finally happened. : ) And boy was Noah thrilled! You see, since April of this year, all his classmates have been losing their first, second and even 3rd and 4th teeth already. But so far, it was a no go for Noah. The dentist at his last check-up even said, after looking at the x-rays after his 6 month dental check and cleaning. He said, all Noah's teeth underneath are ready to come up and out. Okay, so we knew to expect something. But up until now... not a thing. That was in July. The end of Summer, nothing, all Fall, nothing again... and it was beginning to look like, Noah would indeed eventually lose a tooth... but more then likely he'd be graduated from yochien by then and have no one to show. Like his best friend H. : ( To little kids, not only is losing your first few teeth cool, but showing your friends is fantastic. And then 2 weeks ago, Noah informed us, my 2 bottom teeth are wiggly. Yay we thought. Didn't advance so much after that. At a snails pace is more like it. But as long as it's on Noah's own time, we were patient. 1 full week of him having wibbly wobbly 2 bottom teeth. Branden kept saying to Noah..."you know who's going to visit you soon, right?" He happily replied...yes the tooth fairy!
Last Saturday was Branden's marathon at the local elementary school. All of the kids needed to take a lunch/obento because they would have class after that and no lunch ladies are there on Saturday's. Which is absolutely fine, I don't mind making Branden a lunch in the least. Branden brought, a toasted pepperoni sandwich on a bakery baguette. A cheese and butter baked potato, some steamed veggies, broccoli and green beans. Fresh fruit laid out pretty in colorful liners and fruit handling sticks for each fruit, he brought fresh strawberries, fresh nashi/pear, fresh cut pineapple. 3 homemade from scratch Christmas cookies and 1 slice of roll cake. Since desserts are allowed at our elementary school. And 1 yogurt for a little extra calcium boost. Branden said, his teacher, who has a reputation for being grouchy but she's never been that way to Branden or our family at all. Peeked at every one's lunches and she said that was a gorgeous obento, very colorful and she noticed a lot of veggies and fruit in there. And she liked the yogurt. She also asked are those cookies homemade? Branden said yes. Also, two boy classmates, also loved his lunch and mentioned it and asked for a Christmas cookie. @_@ So Branden shared and gave 2 cookies, 1 to each of his friends. he knew we had just made that first batch of cookies the day before and he had more at home. And I was expecting someone to want something form his lunch. Which is totally fine. : ) One of the boys said, who made those cookies, Branden told the boys, my mom and my brother and I made them. : ) Branden's lunches are always a hit with the teachers and with his classmates. I Imagine next year I will be packing 2 of these lunches. : )
And obento in the making, his sandwich just came out of the toaster oven, the cheese was all melted the pepperoni all toasty and the bread slightly crisp. I let it cool some then added the lettuce.
Last Saturday morning, it was freezing cold. One of the rice fields, that had filled with water, why water for this season, perhaps just rain fall? I'm not sure... but it had a thin covering of ice on top of it. Is why I mention it now. It was that cold. Cold enough for the water in the field to be frozen on top. Kids may wear their jogging school pants while they wait their turn to run. But they may not wear them to run. Only the shorts are allowed.
About half the kids, including Branden, just wear the shorts before they run, because some feel no sense in being toasty warm then right before you run you take off your pants then when you run your muscles sort of tighten on you. From the cold. Know what I mean? Just boils down to personal preference I guess. So, this way Branden sort of gets used to the freezing cold before he runs, however, he puts on his pants afterwards and coat though after he runs. These poor kids, not sure I could run in this cold weather like this.
The ichinensei's ran first. Go first graders. I think knowing full in well, this will be Noah running next year, I paid a little bit more attention this time around. I looked at their bodies and they were so small, almost mirror sizes of Noah and his classmates. I cheered for these little kids. Running in the freezing cold for them must be a new experience. : ( Noboru said to Noah, this will be you next year. Noah looked on and watched them. Also want to mention, see Branden's class on the sidelines, they all cheer them on! Clapping and telling them, you can do it!!! It's good for those little ichinensei's hearing that. And they do the same when the older kids run too.
Noah watching the marathon from up here. This was the designated spot for all of us on-lookers to be at, you know parents and siblings and such. Noah dressed warmly because yes it was totally cold.
Watching as the 4th grade girls were about to come around the bend, these girls are fast as lightning.
Hi Noah!
And then the 4th grade boys marched on, you see, no pants... no sweatshirts allowed. Just short sleeve tops and shorts.
Go 4th grade boys go! And kids on the sidelines and parents screaming and cheering. Clapping! Clapping for everyone. You can do it...you can do it!!!!
Branden running his butt off, he's the boy in the middle, great running pose and legs, I clicked him mid run, lol. He passed that kid in front and did well. He ran so fast this year, we were really impressed. Noah was cheering on his brother, also cheering on Genki, the jinbei boy. And before they ran, they were all waving at Noah. : ) Because of this marathon last Saturday, Branden did not have school last Monday. So Noboru and Branden had a father and son date. They went to the science mueseum December 12th. Meanwhile I took Noah to yochien and I had yet another shaon kai meeting that day.
Last Friday, Branden and Noah and I baked some homemade Christmas cookies from scratch. I know the boys look forward to making Christmas cookies with mommy every year and to be honest I look forward to it too. : ) You can see some Christmas wrapping paper in the background because we've been wrapping presents like crazy since the first week of December.
Making the most fun out of our family time. : )
The first batch. Only 2 or 3 more batches to go! : )
Christmas tree close up! : )
A month ago, Noah received yet another letter from our town. Inviting him to take part in the Himotoki Iwai celebration that our town has for the kids who are about to start the first grade. If you research it online, there is very little about this. : ( In fact when I was speaking to my friend Noriko last week when I went to her house to watch the last Harry Potter dvd and have lunch and popcorn and stuff, she said, this was the first she had ever heard of a Himotoki. And Noboru said the same. Where as 7-5-3, there is information a plenty online. But not so much..in fact almost slim pickings when it comes to the Himotoki. : ( From what I gather in the olden days, this was when the kids, were finally a bit older and could tie their obi or belt themselves. Again, I am no expert on this. But this at least gives you a general idea. So what does that translate in the modern world when most kids wear western style clothes? You sure, got me, I was curious too. : ) Well, we phoned a month ago saying, yes, Noah would be there. You were asked to inform them if you were showing or a no show. So, last week, Noah and Sera had to be absent from our yochien. While the rest of their classmates went to yochien as usual. At 9:30am, we all drove ourselves to the Plaza in our town it was to start at 10am on the nose, but we had to sign in first. Sera was there and his mom. Kaito and his mom. 4 yochien kids total and then the hoikuen kiddos arrived. Again they are making lots of effort to chat and talk with the 4 yochien kids and vice versa. I was sitting way at the back in a chair with the 3 other yochien mothers. The hoikuen kids were brought by their sensei's. I could hear from that far away. A little boy from the hoikuen, after staring at Noah's face for a minute, he asked Noah..."how old are you?" In Japanese. Noah, said, I'm 6, how about you? I'm 6 too. Then they chatted a bit more. And that was it. These kids all really want to be friends, I can really tell.
The town leaders came into the room, all 9 of them. 5 gave speeches. And the rest just stood and said...congratulations to the kids. Then they whipped out a basket of presents for the kids. Crayons and Chitose Ame. You can see Noah's yellow sweatshirt on the left of this pic but more towards the front of the class. He was sitting with Sera. It was a fairly short ceremony. Just listening to speeches and then presenting candy and crayons and then done.
After that, all the future first graders all took pictures together. All the yochien kids took a picture together, just the 4 of them. Ha ha ha. Then, the hoikun kids started taking pics, they moved us yochien mom and kids to another area...to go and watch the puppet show by now. And the hoikuen kids came in after they finished with their group photo. The puppet show was open for anyone who lives in the town. So many mother's who have 1-3 year old kids, brought in their toddlers to watch this as well. Sera's grandma came during the puppet show and brought Sera's younger brother. That's what this picture is of. Noah and Sera laughing and talking and Sera's little brother joining them. His little brother will be starting yochien this coming April. Sera's mom and I talked off and on during the puppet show, but the puppet show was actually fun to watch. They're going to Malaysia during the Christmas holiday, since her husband works for Malaysian airline. She asked about our plans, I told her. And she said, we'll both be leaving during the Christmas holiday, and I shook my head. We also talked about the shaon kai, since we're both members and the upcoming Christmas recital.
Noah's treats from the town.
Says, Himotoki Iwai
Very cool crayons. In plastic and they twist up. We have some of these, but Crayola brand. These are good crayons. And Fujiya brand Chitose Ame.
I've mentioned this before, but the elementary school Branden goes to, is an extremely modern elementary school, the thinking and teaching methods, as well as the building itself. They're really big on encouraging kids and getting them to think outside the box and think for themselves. The school itself has, central heating and air conditioning, which is a big deal considering most schools here don't have it. It's newly built. They're very heavy on the arts and science this school besides the regular normal subjects. We have been quite happy with the modern education Branden has been enjoying here. And are looking forward to Noah starting here this coming April. What do they learn at Branden's school? Besides regular classes like Math, science, Japanese, geography etc. They have weekly English every Friday. Which many schools offer now days. But they also have clay pottery class where they can make, plates, cups, bowls. They can get their creative juices a flowing with this class. Paint said clay bowls and plates. Glaze them and bring them home. They have an art class. They have music class, as well as choir (you saw them singing at that recital a month or so ago). But they also have, mini field trips about 1-2 times a month. Walking along the tanbo/rice fields. The last one they did, the 2 teachers for the 4th grade #1 and #2 class took them walking and she wanted them to collect and bring back things from nature that were for the Fall season. Branden collected pine cones. leaves that had changed colors (gold, red and orange), etc. They made Fall collages, they also take their sketch pads with them when they go on these mini excursions and sketch the scenery and what they see. A few years back, the pine cones collected were painted and they made mini Christmas trees from the pine cones, a few of you might remember those trees made from pine cones. They have a thing called morals class, many schools have this now days here. Where they talk and have a deep discussion with the teachers and amongst themselves the students about a topic. Say...bullying etc. The teachers are not allowed to hit kids at our school. The kids also have computer class/lab. And Home Ec (economics) they have a sewing class and a cooking class. Branden was chosen to be one of two of the leaders of the cooking class 3 weeks ago. And the teacher said that their food they would have to research and cook was to be the sweet potato. So, the kids went to the library and researched many recipes they could try. They also researched the nutritional value of the sweet potato. Then the kids had a vote, what 1 recipe should they make. They knew us parents would be eating them on observation day. Should they make, daigaku-imo? Imo no tempura? Nope the teacher said it was too dangerous for them to make the tempura, many of us mothers agreed. : ) Hmm. Finally they put it to a vote. What to make with sweet potatoes. They finally voted and decided sweet potato muffins. So, each of the kids needed to bring their apron and head scarf. Check and check! : ) Which is what was in this first picture.
So last Thursday, December 1st, I woke up, made Noah's obento. Told the Yayoi-sensei, Noah would have to get out early that day because of Branden's observation day. She said, okie dokie. And at 1pm, I ran and picked up Noah all the way in the small city. Rushed back to our tiny town and directly to the elementary school we went. By the way, it's worth to mention, while I was driving along the road from our yochien, as the road merged, Kouki-kun's/Kaito's mom had picked up Kaito early also, because we followed them from the city all the way back to our town. Kaito waving back at me in my car the whole while. : ) Noah could not see since he was strapped in his seat belt and car seat in my car. But, I told Noah...Kaito's waving at us! : ) Noah said, really? : ) Yep! From the plaza, we ran up the hill to the shogakko. Last Thursday was the first day, it actually felt REALLY freezing, here in our neck of the woods. The Jinbei boy's mom and I walked and chatted as we ran up the hill. And we ran to the second floor. Checked our names as here/in attendance. And into the library we went. They have a huge cooking room, but for whatever reason they moved us parents into the library. Hmm. Anyway, all the kids stood up and welcomed us parents.
Each table had trays of steamed sweet potatoes and also had sweet potato muffins. And posters telling us parents, why we should eat the fabulous sweet potato. ; ) The whole room smelled sweet, I think because of the muffins.
Branden.
Noah quietly watching the class unfold.
Pictures, diagrams even! Telling you/us how much nutrition you get from sweet potatoes. They spoke about how they're readily available here where we live in the countryside. How cheap they are. And a few of the posters kids held up said...sweet potatoes will get rid of your nikibi (zits/pimples) @_@ Also eating sweet potatoes you're skin will have a healthy glow. Also, it's a good source of this.....and a good source of that. @_@They tried very hard to convince us parents. : ) To eat our sweet potatoes. Not sure if I believed all that. But it was cute the way the kids got all into it. And I do love sweet potatoes so I enjoyed hearing all about them. How hard they tried to 'sell" us on the goodness of sweet potatoes. And wow, I guess...if these kids are right...move over Proactiv! Make way for the glorious sweet potato. Ha! : ) All in all it was a truly fun and enjoyable class to watch. Us parents were laughing quite hard a few times/ Noboru had to work, so it was just Noah and I. Many father's were there and many many mother's were there as well. And 3 yochien aged kiddos including Noah.
Branden and 4 others giving us even more reasons to fall in love with the sweet potato. By the way, I think that kid on the right of Branden, gee he has to be at least 160cm tall or something. I haven't measured him, but he's taller then most the mom's in the back. And the teachers. But he is a very lovely boy and his mom is equally lovely. : )
Each child made and got to keep 2 muffins. Branden ate one and gave the other to Noah and I, to share. We ate it at the back of class. Also, many kids did the same as well, sharing and giving the other muffin to their parents. At least half the kids shared with their parents. However a handful of kids, ate both muffins and then felt guilty and 3 of the kids gave a small crumb/nub to their mom's at the back of class. One mom, said gee what's this? And she laughed. She joked, that she could barely taste it. It caused a laugh from some of us. And it was all in fun. Then Branden's teacher then swung around and gave the 3 yochien kids their own muffin. So Noah got 1 and a half muffins. @_@ And then they served us all the steamed sweet potato as well.
As the award says, November 30th, is when Noah tested and also passed into a new level in swimming. He is now a level 7! For being in yochien and being a level 7, that's actually really amazing. Well done kiddo! : )
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