Going to the movies with good friends...

So, last Thursday, July 9th was my fun little movie date and lunch that I had set with my 2 favorite/best friends. We were all set to catch the morning 9:35am showing of The Avengers, Age of Ultron movie. And we were going to have lunch of course afterwards and more than likely we'd be talking and staying at the restaurant, all the way up until it was time for us, to pick up our kiddos. So, I knew dinner either had to be cooked courtesy of my Crock Pot, that I bought and brought here over 10 years ago from Denver, to Japan with me. An American moms best friend in the kitchen, I tell ya....we do love our crock pots. Hahaha. Or it would have to be an easy already rotisserie chicken from Costco, you know what I mean...it had to be an easy dinner though, because I wouldn't be home that day. Knowing this on Monday as I was writing out my weekly menu, I picked up a lean block of beef, Wednesday, I defrosted it from the freezer and so Thursday morning, I sliced and cubed it, skillet fried it in a tad of oil and salt and pepper, then I filled my crock pot up with the right amount of water and threw it into the crock pot, on high. 

About to be plugged in and quickly set. I do have a counter in my kitchen obviously, but...I didn't want to move my rice cooker or anything else and as I was pressed for time (had to get dressed, wash my face, put makeup on etc etc) I just put it here and called it done!

We 3 went to the movie. We enjoyed the movie so much! We went to Saizeriya (an affordable Italian restaurant, it's a chain restaurant) after the movie and we stayed there from 12 noon until 2:10pm. I had to get Noah at 3pm and drive back from Ibaraki to my town. So, I had to leave at that time. I made it right on time to get Noah. Bran got off at 3:45pm. I picked up Noah and we went home. The rice cooker was just finished, it was playing, it's little melody/song as we entered the house. The beef in the crock pot was fall apart tender. I, at that point, started to slice an onion, get the mushrooms out of the fridge, peel 2 large potatoes. Slice the carrot. And at that point. Noah stayed home, in the kitchen, and did his homework with strict instructions, do not answer the door for anyone (he knows this though already). And I'll be back in 5 minutes. I went and swung by the plaza and sure enough Branden was just walking up, he hopped in the car and we were home lickity split! Bran, went upstairs changed his clothes and whatnot. I meanwhile, transferred, the crock pot contents to a regular stock pot type pan on the stove, added the veggies set the timer for 30 minutes so the potatoes would be soft but not obliterated. While dinner was just finishing up. Noboru came home. He took a shower. And by the time he came downstairs, I was already melting the beef stew roux in the stew. Noah *loves* beef stew so much and considering he's such a skinny minnie, I am very excited to see him eat. Noah had 2 full servings of beef stew. Which made me thrilled. Branden ate, Noboru ate, we all ate a very nice hearty meal. We all asked about each others day. And just had a nice dinner conversation as a family. I didn't have many dishes that night. The crock pot I washed by hand, Bran dried it for me and put it into the dish cabinet. But other than that, I really only had a knife, a cutting board and our 4 curry/stew curved plates and some spoons and whatnot to toss into the dishwasher. It was a fairly easy peasy dinner. We all had cantaloupe for dessert, and that's only because melons are superly cheap around where we live, so we eat honey dew, cantaloupe and watermelon all summer long. Until we're all sick to death of it. hahaha. Luckily we're not at that point yet though, so it was wonderful. : )  Anyway, that was the... fun little movie date with my friends. And then a quick dash to get the kids and a quick and easy, dinner (thank you dearest crock pot). : ) 

Happy Birthday Noah!!! The start of the double digits! Our newly minted ten-ager!!!

Happy Birthday, our dearest most gorgeous Noah! No more single digits for you anymore. You've officially hit the big time kid! It's double digits from here on out....well until you hit age 100, then you'll be hitting the triple digits, hahaha!  Anyways, our good luck Tanabata Boy, came home, from school July 7th with a huge smile on his face. Nearly bouncing around like Tigger from Pooh, you know what I mean. As he was bouncing and getting into my car, he said matter of factly with huge enthusiasm, I might add. I have decided where we should eat mama! I said..."oh where Noah...please do tell, do tell!!!" He said Jolly Pasta. Keep in mind out of all the restaurants this being the farthest, from our house. LOL. Our nearest Jolly Pasta being about an hours drive, each way. But never mind that, it's what the birthday boy, would like to feast on, for his birthday and so done and done! : ) Noboru was just getting home and we waited for Branny McB to get out of school at 3:45pm and when he did, he came home and quickly changed from JHS uniform, to regular clothes and we took off, without much delay because it was quite the drive. We had tunes on in the car. The kids and I belted out tune after tune. Jam after jam. Noboru's not much, of a singer in the car, but he *loves* that we are, so he listens, he's a fan, hahaha. : )  Noah crooned away at Lay Me Down by Sam Smith and many other songs. He really sings nice. Same for B, he sings nice as well. We arrived at perfect timing at Jolly Pasta, because there was only... 1 other group of people there at the time. A group of 4 seniors drinking a huge bottle of wine and I do mean, it was huge, eating Italian yummy goodness and they stayed there even longer then us, but they were just having a great old merry time with their quiet little group in the corner. They were adorable. So just them and us. We ordered. Bran, Noah and I ordered this pasta, pictured. You can see by the pic, there's a tiny chili pic and garlic pic, under the pasta pic. It's really good pasta, it has chili so it's slightly spicy, but Noah said it wasn't spicy at all, just good flavor (we all love spicy in our family). : ) It has chili, garlic, mozzarella. This pasta dish is amazing. Noboru picked a different pasta dish and we each had a personal pizza. And a drink bar. The quality of their food is top notch. After we ordered, like tons and tons of people started coming in and sitting down. Different families and before you know it, the place was packed with people. We laughed and said...doesn't this always happen to us? We get there, it's dead...we order and then like...BOOM explosion of mass amounts of people afterwards. But, we all agreed good thing... we ordered first. Before the crowds. Silver lining. : ) 

The glasses are really nice and cute. And we honestly spent over an hour in the restaurant. We talked quite a bit. Refilled our glasses quite a bit. Again our birthdays are always spent really quiet...just our family together. Just... very chill. The kind of birthdays we prefer. 

My pasta. Noboru's pizza was a jalapeno pizza. OMG, his pizza was so good! We seriously just had the best *best* time being at the restaurant. And YES, of course Noboru had to recount to Noah...the old....when you were born you were *this* small, type stories. And he had to recount the same stories he tells Noah *every* birthday, same as he does the same exact thing for Bran's birthday too. Again though...the birthday dinner was very cool. Very low key. Just very chill. Just, us together as a family having a great time. 

The kids and I also had some hot cocoa. Noboru had a coffee. We went and paid and then we hopped in Olive and she took us home. 

Ice cream cake from Nagano, homemade! Choco banana, the top layer is homemade banana and the bottom layer is Italian chocolate which describes it as, having hazel nut flavor and it tastes exactly like Nutella ice cream. This cake is amazing! And the cake at the bottom is yumm too. Totally high quality birthday cake, for sures!

You can see Noboru's elbow on the right of this picture, or shirt. But Bran absolutely adores his little brother. I mean, they're super tight, these two! He's always been sorta like a second papa to Noah... mixed with a best friend. They're close and as an only child myself, I am so glad they have each other! So, Bran said, I'll light Noah's candles. And so he did. And as he did, he told Noah, "now be careful..it's hot okay?" Obviously Noah knows that, he's 10. But...you know hearing how much he worries and cares about Noah and watching B go around this cake and light each candle with care. I don't know...but it made me proud of the both of these two! Good kids. : )

And the last candle for B to light. And as the name plate says...Happy Birthday Noah. 

You are so loved! While your brother is strong and opinionated and brave and fearless and extremely competitive! Bran raises his hand in class probably 20 times a day, to answer the questions in class, he likes being top dog. As always and probably always will. He's definitely one of the cool kids, Branden. He's *very* Alpha male, Branden is. And qualities that are super wonderful for a boy to have! You...Noah in personality are quite the opposite.... you have always been very gentle, very agreeable, you are the least competitive person, I know. You are also popular, but you're different, you don't want to be top dog, you're just totally content. It's very interesting to watch, you both..... and I love you both so much. Noah, you naturally, share everything. If you have 5 pieces of gum, and you are with 6 people (including himself) you'll give all your friends a piece of gum and you'll have none for yourself (this worries me, as your mama and we have had talks about this, you and me...the old... "you matter, and you need to care about you a little more"... pep talk). You are nice...*so* nice...sometimes I worry, too nice? Hahaha.  You do have a very kind heart. For real, straight up...he has the kindest heart ever, you guys! This kid has seriously hands down... never been greedy or jealous or unkind to others, like *ever*... a day of his life! He's never went to a store and said..."I want this...I want that." Absolutely never. He's totally Charlie Bucket...not Veruca Salt, if you know what I mean. His heart you guys, he's golden, this Noah-chan! You always think the best of people (even when they don't deserve it). And you always want the best for others and always look at things... as the glass half full. He's so positive and bright and shiny and good. So pure of heart. Which is why... we 3... always protect you (we're like 3 lions guarding you always) and look out for you and watch out for you. And you give the best hugs and cuddles! You *always* say please and thank you.You are very polite (Bran is too though, I was a stickler about manners when they were younger) It's very interesting watching the two of you grow up and see how your personalities differ so much. We love you Noah...exactly as you are!!! Oh and the whole ten-ager thing. Noah being 9, last year, saw Branden become 13. And he idolizes his big brother, we all know that. : )  And he said all last year...wow Branden is so cool, he's a teenager. Branden too says...I'm a teenager. We knew Noah was in awe all last year... because we have heard the word...*teenager* being used all this past year. So, Noboru told me...let's call Noah this year...let's call him a  ten-ager. That way he can sorta- semi join Branden. I said...you know what...that's an excellent idea! So, on his birthday at the restaurant, we called him a ten-ager! And OMG...you guys...he loves it! Noah totally loves it. And now we say...we have 1 teenager and 1 ten-ager! Hahaha. So, a term we coined and we will be using all this year. Sorta cool, yes slightly corny... but who cares...when or if you have kids...you'll more than understand about wanting to make them smile and we personally love the word. Ten-ager! Hahaha. : )

You guys already saw, the swimsuit Noah got for his birthday and cool outfit with matching shoes and stuff. But this was Noah's big gift this year. We wanted to get Noah a larger tablet this year. A brand new 2015 model one. We bought it from the company on this box. We considered buying it from Walmart, when we're in California next week. However since we live in Japan, and if anything happened... we would have a hard time replacing it or whatnot. So we bought it from Expansys. It's a company that sells electronics worldwide. They are a legit company. They sell in America, in Europe, all over. And if we buy from this website, but in Japan, we have a 12 month warranty, that way...we're safer... if anything happens we can send it back. So the 12 month warranty and stuff factor, is what drew us to buying from them. Versus buying at an actual store in California. 

The brand new Samsung galaxy Tab S, 8.4 inch screen, so it's huge! Perfect for reading books or playing games. The graphics, we compared to different tablets online on Amazon.com, they have comparisons on there and this rated best. Highest resolution, pixels, processor (speed), just super top of the line. But a perfect gift for our sweetheart cuddle bunny. : )

Noah's old tablet to the left, it was a Nexus 7 (7 inch) it's a good tablet and was a perfect one for him to start off with. It works and stuff and he'll still keep it and stuff. But, this other one, is bigger, and nicer. And newer. It's in a beautiful bronze brown color. The choice was white (no way) or bronze. And he loves it! Noah went goo goo gaga for this, when he saw his present! It's a pretty major big present to receive. He's one lucky kid! : )  He also loves his swimsuit and outfit as well. And he received money from all his grandparents. Branden loves this tablet and so he has already requested to get the same tablet for his birthday in October. Anyway, so that's how we spent Noah's 10th birthday this year! Happy Birthday to the sweetest, kindest kid, I know! We love you Noah! : )

Throwback Thursday...

The date and time stamp for this picture says April 25th, 2007 at 2:04pm. Noah and I were at the main park in our housing community waiting for the afternoon drop off, of Branden from the yochien bus. 

This picture unfortunately has no date and time stamp. However, Branden was feeding the deer, that's uncle Jun to the right of Bran. We were all enjoying a family day out, that day, with some of our extended family. It was a very nice day! And Branden loved feeding the deer! Oh, my Mr. Branny McBee, you were just a teeny tiny tot, weren't you, at the time. : )

Noah's observation day, The Fourth of July and a few other bits for good measure...

Alrighty, you guys, this is sort of a catch up, slash what we've been up to lately. Things I wanted to add here or there, but just didn't have the time to. So hopefully, I can get this up right here. A new mole has moved into the backyard. And Noboru's been trying to catch him this past week. If you remember Noboru has a mole trap and caught/killed the last mole that dared move into the backyard. Then you'll understand that this mole...for the sake of his safety, he really needs to skedaddle it... right out of our yard and take up residence elsewhere. Please mole...it is for your own good. : ) 

Every Monday there are sales at my cheap meat store. They also have cheap veggies too. Last Monday's specials were pictured here, melons from Ibaraki prefecture. Which, I took this picture in Ibaraki prefecture, since I live bordering Ibaraki and spend most of my day in Ibaraki unless of course, I am home. : ) These are cantaloupes and are 180 yen each. About $1.50 US right now with the exchange rate. Melons though are super cheap where we live anyways though, because melons are famous in Ibaraki and are quite plentiful for us. Usually the going rate for a big cantaloupe are 2 for 500 yen. That's the going rate, when not on sale. So, 180 yen for each whole big melon is quite the deal. I picked up 1 cantaloupe last Monday. 

Large size honey dew melons were also on sale, 298 yen. Usually these are 2 for 600 yen so not really a huge savings in my mind. But yep, where we live, groceries are super cheap. And vegetables and fruits super cheap as well. : )

I messed up here you guys and I'm sorry. I should have put the Costco pics *after* Noah's observation day pics. But, clearly I wasn't thinking when I put these pics up. I'm sorry. Noboru and I went to Costco last Friday. I wanted to pick up a rotisserie chicken for the boys and I, for the 4th of July. And ended up getting a few other things. Pasta sauce. Finally our Costco has pasta sauce. It's been out, for ages. Potatoes for mashed potatoes for the 4th of July. Frozen pizzas for an emergency meal or two. And Noboru wanted that Energizer electronic thing for his mini minivan. Some type of charging device. He loves it. : )

Special of the day at Costco. Dish soap.148 yen.

Decided, that was too good a deal to pass up. So picked one. 

White grape scented one.

After Costco, Noboru and I went to lunch at the Ohsho. It was pouring rain most of all last week and weekend.

Last Thursday July 2nd was Noah's observation day. This was the day before Costco. Noboru and I went in separate cars. Because #1 he's in the Father's Club and every summer observation day, the Father's Club dad's help all the 5th graders make scarecrows. They stuff the scarecrows, dress them. The kids love it and have so much fun and the Father's Club dad's love it too! Noboru has been doing this for years. So, Noboru had to be at the elementary school an hour before, I did, since he is a Father's Club dad and he had scarecrow duty that day. : ) Also, I know Noboru had to leave directly to work after observation day. So, that's reason 2, why we took separate cars. : ) Anyway, I arrived pretty early. Okay not too early, but about 10-15 minutes before I was supposed to be there. All kids in Noah's class are *really* big into arm wrestling right now and thumb wrestling right now. The teacher was arm wrestling a whole bunch of kids in the class, when I came into the class. And 2 little cutie patootie girls were arm wrestling one another. And so, as I entered, I saw that and so I joined in, right away, so I arm wrestled Noah. I knew beforehand I would let him win, but I did "try" to struggle a bit and stuff. He had 2 of his friends come to us and were cheering for Noah to gambatte! And defeat me on arm wrestling. Oh man...I had no one cheering for me. LOL. Hahaha. It's okay, I absolutely do not mind, it's all in fun. : )  So when he defeated me, they were cheering. I then arm wrestled 1 little boy and the girl who sat next to Noah, his desk partner. @_@ Yes, I let them both win. However...his desk mate beat me at thumb wrestling fair and square though! : ) Next thing you know, the class began and I stood up and stood at the back of the class as the other parents trickled in, one by one. : ) I really love the kids in Noah's class, all of them. I love how they always come and greet me and say hello. They're just very nice good kids! So many parents were there. Noboru arrived and came and stood next to me. It was nice to observe Noah's class with Noboru. What were the kids doing? The kids were deciding what their science experiment/project for this summer would be. Each child had to decide and put it in writing. 

Sorry, Noah, for taking such a bad picture. He has had the sniffles lately and so he was clearing his nose at the same time, I took this picture, he was sniffling, hahaha. Terrible picture, I know. But, I only snapped one. We took the boys for fresh new haircuts Monday after school so they'd both have nice clean haircuts. especially for Noah for observation day. : ) Just don't want either kiddo to look like a raggamuffin on observation day. : )

The Fourth of July! American Independence Day! Usually people BBQ. But it was raining buckets all Saturday and we knew by the weekly forecast it would be raining all weekend. Plus Noboru had work at 4pm anyway. So, while the kids and I still wanted to celebrate. We knew it would have to be inside the house given the weather. And plus...it's still a weekend and I'd like to relax on the weekends too. So, I thought a rotisserie chicken from Costco, bought the day before. Would be perfect, some mashed potatoes & gravy and some corn. Just a really easy simple meal. But really good. : )

Dessert for the Fourth of July. You know rocky road ice cream? We decided to make that except with pecans instead of walnuts (just what I had on hand). And we'd flavor ours with Nutella, so even yummier. The ice cream at Costco is 1900 yen. It's delicious and from America, but that's frankly too expensive. Then at Besia, there's a bigger container but it's not ice cream it's only 10% milk so it's called something else. But it's not called ice cream. And I was going to get that one. But, I really prefer actual real ice cream. Then I thought...duh! The grocery store in our town, sells super cheap real ice cream for 298 yen and it's delicious and it's real ice cream. How come this is so cheap? I don't know, because it's delicious and my store sells 3 different varieties/flavors of this brand, but we need the plain vanilla one, since we're making our own flavors. But it's perfect and the price is right up my alley. How did the ice cream come out? Amazeballs! And now the boys and I are planning to make peanut butter ice cream next. Maybe even peanut butter with grated chocolate, we'll see. And how much Nutella did we use, just a small spoonful was plenty for the amount of vanilla ice cream we had. That's why I bought the Nutella at Costco 2 weeks ago, we had been planning to make our own flavor of ice cream on the 4th of July. : )

We used 2 metal spoons to mix the Nutella in first then added the chopped nuts and marshmallows last and then we refroze the ice cream. The kids said...this was the best ice cream. We wondered...how come we haven't done this before? But now...all summer long we'll be making all sorts of cool new flavors of ice creams. Especially since we can get a little tub of vanilla near our house for such a great price. Three cheers for this ice cream, it rocks and the price superly rocks. : ) 

We purchased this at a local DIY the other day. This is a anti mosquito coil. There are a whole bunch of coils inside. And you take 1 out, light it with the lighter and then place it inside and it will burn slowly and they say the scent will keep mosquitoes away. We don't have heaps of mosquitoes. But the ones that we do, all seem to attack Noboru and not us. We heard something in Japan a few years back that mosquitoes prefer O blood. Again we're not sure if this is true or if this is just an old wives tale..the Japan version. But in any case, Noboru does have O blood, as does Noah. And they seem to prefer Noboru the most out of the entire family. Second choice would be Noah for the mosquitoes. However...Noboru hates mosquitoes. He's so nervous when it comes to mosquitoes. That if 1 should come into the house, he seriously can't relax unless the mosquito has been caught. Granted, I don't like mosquitoes either... but he's like...superly anti mosquito. So, this mosquito thing... every day in July through all of summer will burn on our front porch. Noboru lights them daily, and in the evening too. So, he's on high mosquito alert... for this season again. Hahaha. As for me, my thoughts? I actually enjoy the scent of the old school original mosquito coils. I have smelled the rose and lavender ones, but...I prefer the original scent. It really reminds me of Japan in summer time. 

Gap was having a huge sale a few weeks back. And with Noah's birthday in mind. And given the price of this swimsuit. Noah's rashguard on the top in this pic, size 10, because he's 10 today. And his swim trunks in size medium, because Noah's so skinny. Again, I checked the size chart online and Noah's weight, would put Noah in the size small, 6-7 size. If you just considered how much he weighs. However his height is of a 9/10 year old. Again according to the Gap size chart, the average American little boy who is 10 is, 80-90 pounds. @_@ Is that right? My kids like half that. He's 26kg, like 56 freaking pounds (I'll have to weigh him again today, to double make sure). He is light as a feather. But he's average height. Not overly tall granted, but average height. There's no way Noah can fit in a pair of shorts for an 80-90 pound kid. They'd fall to the floor those swim shorts. So that's why I made sure he got a size medium. Actually Branden is only 110-115 pounds and he's an 8th grader. Again, I'll have to weigh the both of them again. But yeah, when I saw the weight measurements for a 10 year old on the Gap chart, I was like...what? @_@  I wish Gap started making swimwear in slim sizes, because not everybody has an overweight kid. They do make slim shorts in some styles, but not all and I would love it if they made slim swimwear too. 

Anyway, liked this Heather pink shirt for Noah. And the 30% off was perfect timing.

I thought this was cool. Like a cute little outfit for his birthday. Matching shorts and shoes. And navy top. I bought the shorts size 10 because with swim shorts he's moving around a lot, but not with regular shorts as much, hopefully. Also some mother left a review on the website and said..these ran small for her child. So, I hope these are a slimmer fit. 

When you get almost $35 in savings and free shipping. It's a good day!

He will love unwrapping this Gap swimsuit, this evening. 

The matching cool outfit. I hope the shorts fit, waist wise, since they're size 10 or hope they have that adjustable waistband. 

I also picked up the following day, while the sale was still going on... 3 shirts for myself and a pair of comfy house shorts. 

Noah's shirt. This plus a pair of jean shorts and his floral hibiscus type shoes. 

I've been seeing a lot of tops for the past few months with lace on them. I have resisted for quite a while. And then, I saw this one...a bit more conservative with lace just on the arm in a thin line. 

This one was my most favorite though called a shark bite tee. I love this. 

And this one too, I received. It's a bit unusual, if you see it. The fits really cool. I liked the sleeves.

Anything else to add? I have a movie date this Thursday with 2 of my really good mama friends, We're going to see the Avengers. The movie starts before 10am. So that's a nice early movie. Also, today is Noah's birthday, 7/7... July 7th. And if you know Japanese years, you'll know the year 2005 is actually the year 17 in Japan, so he's actually a 7/7/7 baby. Noah was a very good luck baby and is a very good luck kiddo! He has really good luck. I'll be blogging about his actual birthday later so, I won't say anymore. Except his birthday cake arrived Sunday. And we're taking him out to dinner tonight, his choice. He said he's been deciding all weekend. Yakiniku, Capricciosa or Jolly Pasta. Those are his choices, he gave to himself and he's still deciding. : ) So where will we go to dinner tonight? We're not sure...Noah will let us know when he gets out of school today. Noah gets out at 2pm today. : )  Both boys are set to swim today. Noah was supposed to swim yesterday, but it rained yesterday, so it was postponed to today. And Bran is scheduled to swim today anyways. It's not raining here now. And says only 20% chance of rain for our town today, so I sort of think they'll both be swimming today. : )  Alrighty, you guys... have a wonderful day! And I'll catch up with you all soon. : ) EDITED TO ADD: I did weigh Noah and although I was a little off on his weight, I'm human and I said I wasn't 100% anyways...anyway I must say, I wasn't off by much! He weighs as of this morning before school 25-26kg and that's 56 pounds, which is quite slim compared to what GAP and Old Navy says the typical American kid weighs at age 10.