Branden and Noah's class observation day

Thursday January 31st, was our local elementary school's observation day. This was a "go any time you want" observation day. And can I just say, three cheers for observation days like that! That way I can get myself to both Branden and also to Noah's class and watch, observe and enjoy the actual classes versus catching half of the class and zooming to the next one. I was there from the 1st class. This picture was taken right outside Noah's class. They wrote a paper and drew a picture on transportation.

Noboru was also there watching and enjoying. The kids actually had a bathroom/toilet break and that's when I had the chance to snap these few next couple pics. And I know I've said it before, but I love the way this actually looks like a 1st grade classroom. Lots of colors and art dangling. Book reports or stories the kids wrote up, are all on the wall, as well as pictures. Which is what Noboru was looking at. Each month is on here that they've been in school.

The class playing in the snow last week. Noah in the yellow jacket in this pic.

Noah throwing a snowball in this pic. The whole class made snowmen and had snowball fights. Actually the whole school did also. Branden also told me about the snowballs his class threw also. : )

January, the class playing in the snow, fun in the snow pics.

The day they all brought obento to school. Noah in the yellow on the right with his obento that day. : )

Class eating together. All for one, one for all!!! : )

Again, you know how our school is really hands on. Here the first graders are doing experiments and as the sign says "learning about mass" Our school is really big on the whole learning to cook, learning to sew, hands on experiments. Going for country walks learning about nature. Testing such and such theory out first hand type school. : )

Central heating ducts throughout the school. A toasty warm school.

The birthday train I've shown before. All the teachers pics on the back wall to familiarize the ichinensei. A wall of a who's who. : )  And the sign or words under the train says, "school is a fun place!" Yes it is. : )

July birthday's.  Hello Noah!

Where the ichinensei keep and store their randoseru and pianica. Thermos is allowed year round now at our school. A new rule started after undokai. And so you can see 3 thermos back there. I fill Noah and Branden a thermos everyday. I only fill it half way, with jasmine tea and ice.

Seats and seat cushions that double as the safety hood/cover. For earthquakes and whatnot.

Aha! And we know whose green elephant seat cover and yellow pull out tray this is. His name is on the back of his chair. And yes it is Noah's. : )

Hi kiddo.

And now I have left the 1st floor and Noah's classroom. And now I am on the 3rd floor and just outside Branden's classroom. This is Branden's artwork. I did fuzz out the 2 kanji where our last name is.

The class fish. They get their tanks cleaned every week by the kids. Fed daily by the kids. And they do pretty good these fish. : )

I love that sign above in yellow. Saying "our footprints" meaning what we have already done. Meaning their work. But yeah I thought that was cute. The stories about the mochi making was on that wall. And various other things. : ) Again, I do love how our school shows the kids this is their classroom, their stuff is displayed all over and throughout their class.

Hi kiddo. I cannot believe you guys are all 5th graders right now. I remember when you guys were teeny tiny ichinensei. Sniffle sniffle. : )  Kids really do grow in a blink of an eye, I tell ya. ; )

Branden's also doing wood carving right now, the whole class is learning this. I hear the 6th graders meanwhile are all making music boxes right now too. Branden decided to make an angry birds wood carving. He's still not finished. But I think it's looking super so far.

It's really coming along nice. And each day Branden comes home excited, telling me of the progress of his "angry bird character" and I was wondering how it was coming along. So, it was nice to see it first hand and up close.

If you remember when Branden was in the first grade, then you'll probably smile and remember when some elderly from our town, came to play with them. Because not only was January 31st observation day, it was also the day the elderly from our town came to show and share with the younger generation of Japan, what they used to play with, in the olden day. Old school type of play, if you will.

A couple kids were welcoming the older folks when I snapped this picture.

I was hoping Noah would turn around so I could take a pic of his face. : )

Now the Yuka-sensei is explaining that they will indeed break off into groups.

Explanation from the Yuka-sensei.

Hi beautiful!

Noah and Kaito on the left in the coat. You know, I remember when Branden was an ichinensei and Kaito's older brother was also an ichinensei. In fact, Noah was a tiny toddler outside, toddling around outside while Branden was outside walking with stilts and such with the older folks. And Kaito too was outside toddling around too. And now years later here THEY are and they are the ones getting to play with the older folks from our town. And what fun these kids had last Thursday too! Yeah but wow, funny. I was indeed thinking...Wow, Noah, I remember when Branden did this!!! And wow Kaito, I remember when your older brother K was outside doing this too! Wow how time flies! So proud of Noah and Kaito.

5 grandma's showing the kids how to play the games from the old days. This is truly "kickin' it old school" lol!!!! : )

We can learn a lot from the older generation. I really believe it. They have so much wisdom. And they know how to have fun too. : )

Observation day was pretty nice on Thursday. Anyway that's what our family did on the last day of January. January 31st, 2013. : )  We went and enjoyed watching Branden and Noah on class observation day.  Side note, I think March 1st is my next observation day. It's the kind where "you go to the last class only" observation day. And meetings galore after that. I'll have to split up those 50 minutes wisely. Hahaha. : ) I'm thinking about it already.

Wine bath, coffee rotenburo, green tea bath/rotenburo and a chocolate bath too. Heading to Hakone this February to enjoy the onsen

Our family is heading to Hakone in February. The hotel is booked already, we're using one of our free night stay coupons and Noboru already requested and got the day off. So we'll be there just 1 over night. But we'll have 2 days to play and enjoy there. One of those days will be spent at the Yunessun resort. A place that has fun rotenburo/outside baths. As well as inside baths too. If you see this picture from their website. Right now they currently have a nice hot chocolate bath. Lucky for us the chocolate bath will still be there when we go. I'm really excited about soaking in the chocolate bath. Also for January they also have a curry bath. This sounds heavenly to me. And I'd totally enjoy it. But Noboru was like @_@ "Curry to eat, yes curry to soak in, no thanks." hahaha. : ) Too bad the curry bath will be gone by the time we get there, otherwise I would have enjoyed it. But the chocolate one is one I am most excited about.  See the big chocolate bar above the heads on the pic top right on this picture. : )  

You know, for as long as I can remember, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory was a favorite movie of mine. The one with Gene Wilder. The heart of the factory, the chocolate room, where they had great huge gummy bears. Like Willy Wonka said everything in that room was edible. As a child watching that it would have my imagination spinning. Oh how I wish I could go to that room, I'd think. What would I eat first? That song....Pure Imagination. I also remember doing a book report on the book when I was in elementary school. : )

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Terrific book both Branden and Noah love. And I can see their imaginations just churning when they saw the movie. Great big food, just go to work with a bowl, plate and silverware, hahaha.

Augustus Gloop took a dip in a chocolate river, okay okay it was on accident since he was trying to drink some of the chocolate. : ) But wow, knowing I'll finally get my chance to soak in chocolate this coming month. I can't wait.

I think that's why for me personally the Yunessun really got me. I loved it! Huge bottle of wine to soak in and big actual bottle of wine near the bath.

Also reminded me a bit of the Borrower's. We look like teeny tiny little people in normal sized jars. Again the imagination, the fun of it all. The Yunessun was a perfect place for a person with an imagination or love of the books and movies we like.  I have been to a few other onsens before in Japan, normal regular ones, but this place is by far my most favorite place, to soak, hang out and have fun.

 

Anyway, that's where we will be, this coming February. : )

Woke up this morning to a winter wonderland

Alright, alright, you all know where we live in our little town, we don't really get snow all too often. Freezing cold yes. Snow? No, not really. We did have that snow a week or two ago and I sort of figured that would be it for us for the year, lol. So, imagine my surprise this morning, there I am in my sweatpants and long sleeve shirt opening all the upstairs blinds first thing this morning and when I look/glance out the first window, I open and see snow and more then just a light dusting. A good amount for our area. @_@  Holy crap, I thought. I wasn't expecting to see this view when I opened the blinds. @_@

And it's still snowing right now even as I type.

For as far as the eye can see. A snowy winter wonderland. Holy goodness.

Our roads are packed with snow. And my car!!! Look at my poor car! Okay so here's the news regarding the snow. After I saw the snow, I said really happily in the house...."it snowed everyone!!!!" Noboru in a groggy sleep haze, said...."what?" It snowed!!! I said. He said, go and check our cell phones the boys school schedule...we will probably be on a snow schedule now" I went downstairs and yep both phones are blinking meaning there's a message on there. Branden and Noah are on the same snow schedule as a few weeks ago. Meaning school starts at 10am today. @_@ Both the boys are dressed already. But they're just sitting on the couch right now and will enjoy TV for the next few hours. The roads are packed with dry heavy snow as you can see in this pic. And again the snow is still coming. It's still snowing now. Hmm. Anything else to add? I put the beef in the fridge to thaw last night. I am still making a big pot of beef stew today for dinner tonight. I think considering this weather it will be perfect for tonight. : ) Anyway stay warm and safe everyone. Just wanted you all to be updated and caught up with us here. Snow yet again for us! Hahaha. : )

Bits and pieces from the week and thank goodness for the weekends

How's every one's week been going? Ours over here has been pretty good. We're into the school routine. It's been a quiet week. School as usual, Kumon as usual and of course swimming for Noah. We did go to the Gap Tuesday evening, but other then that, we've been just hanging here at home. Weather wise? Super cold, but no snow. Watched American Idol last night. I did see the argument/debate between Nicki Minaj and the other judges last night, when she got up and walked off set. I hope they can get along better as the season wears on, we'll see. Time will tell, but I hope so. I like all the judges but I could see what Nicki Minaj was saying regarding the lady auditioning.

Ran to the shops this week. DIY type store to pick up toilet paper and Kleenex and bar soap. However they were also have a super deal on the bath powders. The kind we use here at home. So, I bought 2, 1 is the shea butter that our family uses. And the other one looks like mikans by the look of the picture, right? But it's yuzu. Love yuzu. : ) They both smell fantastic. We do take a lot of baths after showers in the winter time.

And today I woke up, sent the boys to school. Feeling so glad today is Friday. Made sure they were bundled up in jeans, long sleeve tops, sweatshirts, puffer winter vests and scarf and hats. Dropped them off, waved good bye.  Let's see, 2 days ago, I went to the DIY in Ibaraki in the day time and also the cheap meat shop also in Ibaraki. I bought meats for about 5 days worth, still had some meat in the freezer already too. And this morning, I stayed in Chiba. : ) But I ran into the small city nearest our town and went to the bakery, to buy 2 fresh loaves of bread pictured here, they were so hot and fresh she gave them to me and said to not tie the top of the bread yet (I tied the bread around noon after it cooled all the way). We need bread every Friday, because I always make bacon and eggs Saturday mornings, so we need toast too, so we needed this and we also buy bread every Monday for the week also. And then I ran to my regular grocery store and picked up last minute ingredients. Tonight we're having chicken enchiladas for supper. Only thing I needed for that from the store today is a half head of lettuce. Did lettuce prices go up or what. And tomorrow we will be having karaage, macaroni salad, steamed veggie and miso soup and rice. Again the meat for that came from the cheap meat store so all I needed was flour and karaage liquid and macaroni salad from the deli. What else. We will more then likely have karaage the next night too since the amount of chicken on sale was huge, 2kg for 500 yen. We haven't had karaage in about 2 months. And Monday we will be having beef stew. I have the beef already for that, that I picked up in Ibaraki (cheap meat store) and have thrown in the freezer. So, for that I picked up beef stew roux today for 99 yen on sale. And some mushrooms and 1 carrot (already have potatoes and onions). The rest of everything else I have. I also picked up Kirin lemon tea for Noboru and the kids, Kirin straight tea for myself and 2 bottles of Mitsuya Cider (dinner treat/drink) and some jasmine tea and some yuzu mikan juice. And yogurt our family is lost without yogurt. lol.

Noboru says tonight is expected to be superly cold around where we live. He said the coldest of the year so far. Will be tonight. @_@ Yikes! Which is why I ran to the store, made sure I had every last minute thing, we might need for the whole weekend. That way we can just tuck ourselves in here at home. And not go anywhere. : ) Today is Friday. Thank goodness! The boys have nothing after school today, so I imagine they'll either play with friends on our street/around the neighborhood or Branden and Noah will be indoors here at home. I have a load in the dryer right now, underwear, long sleeve tee shirts, sweatshirts and socks. I did no treadmill today. I'm kind of just resting today. I have the TV on right now, I hear Dr. Phil talking in the background. And the 2 chicken breasts are boiling on the stove right now that I'm getting ready for dinner tonight. Soon, I will grate some of the cheese we bought at Costco. And then skillet fry the corn tortillas real quick and then I'll get everything rolled and stuff so that by the time 3pm rolls around, and the boys get home, I can just bring the boys home and whack dinner in the oven.  Stay warm everyone. Except for you dad, you're nice and warm in paradise already, hahaha, you can stay cool and breezy. : )  Have a nice weekend everyone. And we'll do the same. : )  ahh, my lunch I had today. Since I was at the store already, I picked up 1 croissant and 1 half egg salad sandwich. While watching Dr. Phil. : ) He's on for a few hours in the afternoons. And then I had this 1 donut from the bakery with a cup of coffee.  Anyway, have a good one, everyone. : )