Some of the bottoms Branden has gotten so far.

Branden got two pairs of khaki cargo shorts in size 4T, he may wear 5T tops, but he's got a slim waist so he wears his true size and even these are sorta big, waste wise speaking! But these are cool because they have the adjustable waste band, which is a godsend for mom's like me, who have slim kids! I also stocked up and bought a third pair but I bought these in size 5T! So he can wear these next year. I also bought him a pair of lighter colored khaki cargo pants. I figured they'd be good for chilly spring days! I bought these in size 4T and I must say these are enormous! Good thing they also got the adjustable waste on these too! And I may even have to fold the length one time too, but it's okay he'll grow into them and will probably still be cruising around with these for a long good while since they are so big! Where did I buy these cargo shorts and pants at? Target! Sorry but like many of you, I also buy stuff wherever I find it and as long as it's cute and good quality, I don't mind where it comes from! And Target always has the best and cutest and coolest stuff! : )

PS, as all of you know I got a funny/strange habit of washing *everything* I buy first before my kids or I wear them first. So if these shorts or pants are a pinch wrinkly, sorry. I washed them the second I bought them! : )

PSS He also has brand new jean shorts and cargo shortalls as well, that I blogged about already. http://adventuresoftokyomom.blogspot.com/2006/02/some-of-basics-i-bought-are-pair-of.html So anyway this is just a start for both the boys.

The Children's Place jean overall's for Noah, just in case it gets chilly and he needs to keep his legs warm this coming spring/summer. And a khaki pair of shortall's. He also got a couple pairs of jean shorts from the Gap outlet. And also a couple pairs of shorts from Target as well. So this is just a peek of what types of bottoms, meaning shorts, pants etc., Noah will be wearing this coming spring/summer.

Like, I already said, this is just a head start on their clothes for the upcoming warmer month's. And it's tough buying clothes when you live overseas, either the selction isn't so good or the prices are too over inflated. So that's why I try to stock up, whenever I get a chance to be back in America. : )

We did our good deed for the day!

Sunday morning and we all woke up bright and early. And hurried off to the laundry mat. Yes, we do have our own washer and dryer here at our new house, but today was blanket washing day! Sigh, regardless of the day, I certainly do cruise to the laundry mat, once a week and wash all the beddings for both the beds (always do and always have)! Of course I could get away with just washing the sheets in the washer at home and once in a while washing the big comforter's, but I just feel better if everything gets fresh and clean *each* week. Makes me sleep better and feel better knowing both my munchkins *always* sleep on clean bedding!

Anyway, on the way to the laundry mat, somewhere near our house on the street as we were driving in the car. We saw a wallet. Noboru stopped the car and picked it up. It appeared to be a girl's or ladies wallet. It was a Winnie the Pooh wallet and it had a charm on it. No address or anything letting us know where this wallets belongs (we knew who, since the name was on it, but not where ). It contained a book card, a Harry Potter movie stub. A few other cards and a Tsutaya video rental card and also 12,000 yen which is about $120.00. Quick thinking by my hubby, he called immediately to the video store. And he told them the situation, that he just found a wallet and he said if they can look up the number and call the person and let them know we found their wallet and if they could call my husband's cell. Then they can arrange to pick it up. Sure enough they called and after our laundry was done, they met us at our house! They were so thrilled that they brought us a great big tin of cookies. Delicious cookies I might add!

Anyway after the whole wallet thing was over, we then went to Chiba New town, which is quite close to where we live, and went to the Joyful Honda, because like I said in an earlier post this place is essentially like a Wal-Mart Superstore or a Target superstore! They have all house needs, and also a grocery store! So we picked up some groceries and looked at the charcoal BBQ grills!

We bought stuff for our dinner stuff for the week. And also juices and teas, bagel's and raisin English muffin's, sandwich bread for Branden's bento's. And also fresh strawberries and super cute tiny sized bananas for Branden's obento's, since I like him to take a variety of fruits every week. And these bananas are so cool, perfect for his school lunches this week.

When we got home, the people who we returned the wallet to were actually chatting with our neighbors three houses down the street. We noticed their light blue box shaped car. And said "weren't those the same people we returned the wallet to?" What the heck? Anyway as we unloaded the car, sure enough they came back! This time with a box of shoucreams (cream puffs), she said, her friend actually lives down the street and she was telling them, that we were such honest people. And she told us that, she brought us back the shoucreams, and wanted to tell us that she is just so surprised *still* because in this day and age, most people wouldn't be honest enough to return a wallet back, much less return all the money back inside the wallet, like we did! And that it is very rare these days, to find people as honest as we are and she wanted to tell our neighbors about it and I guess she apparently told all our neighbors about our good deed!

It was a good feeling to know we did a good deed. And we certainly and absolutely didn't do it for the glory or anything! We did it simply because, Noboru has lost wallets in the past and he know first hand how it feels to lose something *that* important! Also, about the money! We've got money and a nice life now for sure! But we have certainly had tough times before and we know how that could be a lot of money for a family! And honestly, we'd never be so totally generic, as to keep the money or pocket it! It just wouldn't feel right! And finally, my husband is bigtime and I do mean *big time* into karma! He said, in the car, if we do a good deed, it will come back and if we were to do a dishonest thing with the wallet, it would come back ten fold as well! And I believe it too and totally agree with him! So for us,there was a multitude of reasons, why we would NEVER keep the wallet and we would never want to! However, it felt really awesome doing the right thing and we made sure, Branden knew what was going on and he knew our family did the right thing! : )

For dinner we were all so totally tired by then and really hungry. So we had fried/cooked some frozen gyoza in a skillet, this gyoza we just bought at the Joyful Honda superstore. This gyoza is so good! We keep buying two packages of this, each time we go shopping there! So our family had a super simple meal, we had gyoza and rice, and some ponzu sauce and gyoza sauce for dipping our gyoza with. And Noboru had instant miso soup. For dessert we had the shoucreams! They were really good! Then we all sat down and watched American Idol on Fox TV, here in Japan, thank god we have satellite! It was a good show! We had a good weekend!

Pics are of the cookie assortment the family who we returned the wallet to gave us. The other pic is of just some of the fantastic American groceries they sell at the superstore near my house! They've got about the best selection of foreign stuff, I've probably ever seen, since living in Japan not counting Costco. They also got bunches of stuff, even Costco doesn't even have. And we all know how much I love Costco, so now I got two options, Costco and this store (not even counting Kaldi)! Yippy! The other pic, is of the fruit I bought for this week, and the cute little mini bananas, that both my munchkins really love! And the other pics are of our simple Sunday dinner!

What we did on Saturday : )

We ended up going to a shopping mall in Tsukuba, called Crio. It's near our house and this mall rocks! They have GAP, GAP kids and baby GAP! Yippy! The Body Shop and also a Lush! Muji and MORE the whole place is huge! It's the same size as the other mall, I used to go to in Japan a lot (Lalaport), but I think this one is actually closer to where I live now. I'll still go to both, Lalaport and also this one. But this one is *very* nice and it's a brand new mall! So it's sorta cool that now I got *two* cool malls to chose from, depending on my mood or just whichever one I want to go to. I was really happy to make this newest find!

So, we hung out at the mall and did a little shopping. Didn't buy anything major because we really didn't need much except for some patches for Branden's school smock, we bought him some new Thomas patch's. We also bought a nice amount of snacks at Muji. We bought Taco flavor and also cheese flavor tortillas chips, yumm! And some peppered senbai (wowie these are the hottest peppered senbai's we've ever and I do mean *ever* had! these were delicious!), some caramel popcorn and Noboru got some freaky looking squid snacks.

We headed to Starbucks and Noboru got an iced green tea drink and I got my usual caramel machiatto. Then we cruised the town for a bit and ultimately wound up at the Red Lobster for dinner.

Red Lobster in the states in delicious and just the best! However and yes I will be 100% honest in all my reviews on stuff! I absolutely thought Red Lobster in Japan sucked! Here's why!

In the US, you go to Red Lobster and you order an entree and you get either surf or turf, depending on what you ordered. You also get salad and also a side dish with baked potato. You also get those gorgeous cheese bread rolls that are free! However and I do stress however. In Japan, they had no chicken or steak or anything really turf unless you mean the pizza they had available. But no real land animal, hence no turf. Also, we ordered the lobster and guess what it came with? Absolutely nothing! Yup that's right, it came with a big fat zero, nothing, nada, zip! Prices? Outrageous, the lobster was sized from regular, medium and large. And the price range was 3,900, 5,900 or gulp, 7,900! And did I mention no side dishes at all??? I'm sorry but for freaking $40.00! You'd at least think they'd include a damn baked potato, right? Ridiculous! And I am telling you the real truth, no glossy bull here!

What we ordered. We ordered two appetizers, we got the fried calamari and the popcorn shrimp! For our meal, Branden got a kids meal. And we ordered the ebi fry plate, and a margarita pizza, and a lobster! So we ordered a lot! They however did *not* bring our appetizers out first like they were supposed to! They instead brought everything out at once! And so we felt we ordered too much, but in actuality, if they woulda brought out the appetizers out first like they were *supposed* to we wouldn't have had this problem in the first damn place! No free refill\s like at the Outback Steakhouse! And worst part was no side dishes for any meal we ordered! It was a very odd experience and honestly I don't think we will be heading to the Red Lobster in Japan anytime soon! And the bill was nearly 10,000 yen which was nearly $100.00 US. isn't that ridiculous? We will just eat at the Red Lobster in the US, where the food is twice as yummy and where the bill is only half that!

It was late by that time, so we went home. And we got quick showers, no relaxing bath. We watched TV for about 15 minutes, by that time the kids had gone to bed after their showers. And then we also fell asleep! The shopping mall was cool. The meal was iffy! All in all, our Saturday was good though! We were all still happy and we all still had fun!

Edited to add, before we got to the mall, we went Toys r us and bought Branden a new train. And Noah got a blanket holder for using on his stroller. And I also got some things for Branden's obentos, like some Thomas dividers and mini plastic forks for picking up his fruit.

Spring is in the air!!! Literally! : )

Good morning, ahhh it's sunny and warm and it's still just the morning still (I imagine it will heat up even more throughout the day). We've just finished a great big American style breakfast that I made complete with crunchy crisp bacon, yummm! I'm on my second cup of coffee as I type this. Both the boys are both so full from the egg's, potatoes that I cooked and the bacon and toast. Noboru is stuffed to the gills as well. Branden had two cups of milk as always (we all know how he drinks enough milk to keep all the cows in full service ha ha ha!) And Noah had 10% apple juice (baby apple juice) in his sippy cup.

You can really start to tell spring is in the air! Flowers are in full bloom all over my neighborhood. My neighbor across the street has some beautiful tulips that are just so gorgeous! Anyone who knows me, knows I've always been quite fond of tulips! Makes me think, maybe I should probably grow some tulips too!

I have now got the Easter flag all safely folded and put away in an air tight gallon freezer bag and stowed away for next year! And I now got our Spring flag outside, I got it all put together and hung yesterday! I put it out in the mornings. And I bring it in the house when it starts to get dark in the evenings for safe keeping. Isn't it beautiful though? It says Spring in green with white wording on the top! and it has flowers on it with button centers (totally love the details on this one) and a cute little butterfly too! Happy Spring everyone!

What will we be doing today? Well, we are not sure yet, but we'll do something fun that's for sure! Noboru's off today and tomorrow. We were sorta thinking maybe hitting Narita city and exploring around town. Or maybe look for our BBQ today and lawn furniture that we want to buy. Or hitting Toys r us. Or just hanging home and this evening hitting the karaoke room at this new karaoke/pizza place, yup you've heard right, they specialize in pizza and the private karaoke rooms. And we obviously love pizza a bunch, so we were thinking of heading over there too! Hmm! So not sure, but we will have fun whatever we do today.

Some of the lunches, my son has had this week.

Here is a pic of the turkey sandwich that I sent Branden to school with on Monday, the day after Easter Sunday. He took along a gorgeous turkey breast sandwich that I lightly sprinkled with salt and a pinch of pepper, on some soft white sandwich bread, with that little bit of zip from our miracle whip, fresh crisp lettuce, and a Kraft cheese slice, I wanted to add a slice of tomato, but I figured the sandwich would get too soggy by the time lunch rolled around and I did consider packing it separately on the side, but figured my toddler would leave it out anyway, ha ha ha! I wanted to send him to school with some chips to go along with the sandwich, but since chips aren't allowed in Japanese obentos (lunch boxes), I sent him to school with a small amount of fries on one side of his bento and I cut the turkey sandwich into fun smaller and easier to eat (for toddlers) squares, that kids like. I also sent him to school with a diced up apple and two mini jellos/jellies. All in all, not a terribly fancy shmancy lunch, but certainly a well balanced good wholesome lunch if I don't mind saying so.

I have an option at this new school to send him with a homemade lunch 3 days a week and buy him a school prepared lunch twice a week. Or send him to school with a homemade lunch everyday! I knew it was going to be extra work and it honestly *is* however, I prefer to prepare and make my son his very own lunches every single day and this way I know what goes into my sons tummy everyday. And I know he gets a well balanced meal. Just sorta makes me feel better, I guess.

I made lunch all this week of course, and sorry I don't provide pics of *every* single lunch ever made by myself (lol), but as I am a typical mom, I'm usually running around like crazy in the mornings trying to get one son fed and dressed and his lunch made, while also tending to my other son. However today, I managed to take a quick snap of his lunch today, which is Friday.

Today, I prepared him some pasta and the sauce I made this morning with olive oil, garlic, and other ingredients as well (duh lol : ). I also bought some gorgeous bread at the bakery yesterday afternoon and that is what I used to make my garlic bread with this morning for my son's lunch. I also sent him off to school with a fresh homemade salad and I used goma dressing, only because that's Branden's favorite dressing at the moment. And of course, I never forget to add some fruit, and today I gave him 5 fresh strawberries that I cleaned like crazy and set in a matching little clear plastic tupperware type thing, that is the same as what I used for his salad. And I also included two mini jellos as well. Sorry it may not be a gorgeous picture of a bento, but it is probably the tastiest lunch outta his entire class today that's for sure (not that I'm trying to toot my own horn or anything but I do care what my son eats at school a great deal and I also don't want to send him off with the same thing day after day either, I do try to give him a good variety.)

Branden's sensei's are coming to our house this afternoon. I guess they come to each students house in Japan and talk about the progress our child is making etc. They'll be here at 3:30 pm today.

Also, yesterday I found a whole bunch of Thomas stuff at a store near my house, and I wasn't even looking for it in the first place ha ha ha. I actually found Thomas the tank engine tissues, go figure! About time, huh? I bought them just because I have been looking for them for so long (didn't really need them, since I just bought the candy ones last week), I also bought him a Thomas Japanese long washing cloth for the shower, and a new Thomas cup (errr I think this must be like his fifth Thomas cup, I'm embarrassed to admit), and a cute little Thomas charm that will go onto his school backpack (we stuck it onto his backpack this morning already and he already has a Spongebob Squarepants charm on his backpack as well), I bought a few other things, but I forget what they are at the moment.

Move over Imelda Marcos! And make way for both my boys! ; )

I've gotten two emails from friends this past week asking me. "So what did you buy back home already"? I know, I know I said I would share a couple pics of what I bought and whatnot. But things have been just *so* super busy here at the house. But I will try and show you all a few glimmers. Today I will show you some of the shoes that I have bought for both my boys to get them ready for this coming Spring/Summer season!

Branden: I always buy him a nice name brand pair of sneakers each season because I think good quality shoes are pretty important, especially for kids.And plus I like my kids to look good while they are out and about town! However, I actually liked a pair of Adidas and also a pair of Nikes shoes as well. So, I ended up just buying Branden both pairs, I figured they both were cute and both were different looks, since one is technically a trainer type style sneaker and the other pair looks sorta like an "old school" style of cortez Nike, but with a twist. So they both provided different "looks" so I'm happy, I bought my son *both* sneakers and I'd do it again in a heartbeat, no questions asked.

I also bought Branden, a pair of GAP leather flip flops. I bought these because I think they look so hip and so preppy! I absolutely adore these, so I snatched these up right away! I bought these at the GAP outlet in Denver. And I bought them in a pinch size bigger, because I know he will want to wear these all summer, so now he can!

I bought him a cool pair of Birkenstock type sandal's from the Children's Place outlet. I really dug the thicker chunkier look of the metal buckle!

I also bought him a pair of Birkenstock type clogs from Target. Again, preppy looking sandals for this upcoming spring/summer season!

And finally a pair of Birkenstock type sandal's from Old Navy. Sorta like the one's from the Children's Place, but a pinch different and I liked these a lot too, and I wanted my son to have a good selection of sandal's and shoes for this upcoming season.

All in all, I think Branden has a good selection of shoes for this upcoming spring/summer season. He has many to choose from! He is one mighty lucky little boy, but he's a good boy so, I don't mind in the least! He also has a couple new pairs of shoes as well, that I bought in January all the way back from last August, that I have been stocking up on (sorta have to stock up, since I live overseas yk), that I won't even bother taking pics of, but yup he has a super good selection of shoes for these upcoming warmer month's (as he always does anyway.)

I haven't even shown you all the hats and clothes he has gotten yet. So just imagine, if this is how many shoes he has, imagine *how* many clothes and hats he has too! Yikes! Ha ha ha!

More of Branden's shoes for this upcoming Spring/Summer

Noah's shoes for this upcoming Spring/Summer so far!

Noah, never being one to be left out! Has enough shoes to rival his older brother! Ha ha ha, good thing they are not competitive with each other in the least!

He has the same exact Birkenstock sandals from the Children's place that his older brother has. But since he is growing twice as fast as my toddler is, he had to get two pairs in two different sizes. I got a pair, that is a pinch too big right now (because it's still too cold to wear them yet) and the next size up from that as well, so he will have shoes to last him all summer, geeze good thing, I was quick thinking enough to remember to buy both sizes to stock up on.

I also bought him a cool pair of light blue Adidas! But these are not just your average Adidas, these are *special* adidas, because they are a special edition with goofy on them! I thought they were cute and so Noboru and I, coughed up the $60.00 for these! Well, technically, they were actually 6,000 yen, since we bought these here in Japan recently. But we figured, oh what the heck! Noah is closely following in his big brother Branden's foot step's, in the sense that he wants to be the fashion maven and trend setter, that his big brother is! : )

I also bought him a pair of slip on navy blue slip on type sneakers from Target. I bought these in two sizes as well. I bought these because I thought #1 they looked classy and these are fashionable this season in the US, I know for a fact, because I saw many American women and also guys wearing these slip on's all over the place when I went home last month. I figured he could wear these when we are out and about in the back yard or going for our short walks to pick up his brother from the yochien bus pick up/drop off.

He also has a pair of Nike cortez. He inherited these from his big brother Branden. He's lucky his older brother has name brand *everything* because he can inherit some wicked stuff! Just like these Nike's!

Noah also got a shitload, errr boatload of brand new clothes and also hats galore, from when I was in the states last month, same as Branden did!

And a hippity hoppity Easter's on it's way! : )

Happy Easter to all our friends and loved ones back home in the US!

We all spent an absolutely wonderful Easter here at our home in Chiba Japan! It was so nice that dad was here to share it with us!

Branden was so surprised to find the Easter bunny did in fact know how to find him! Funny because last night before bed Branden mentioned with great worry, that the Easter bunny might not find him since he moved to a new house. I assured him, "yes honey, the Easter bunny will indeed know you changed houses and will certainly find you! :) Ha ha ha, kids, gotta love them!

Noah loved his Easter basket too! I let hi play with the brightly colored wrapped candy and chocolates, but then I took all the candies out and let him cuddle the soft plush duckie basket and he hugged and loved on that all day today. He also slobbered on a plastic egg today as well. Meanwhile Branden munched some of his stuff from his Easter basket. As usual we have tons of Easter candy and chocolates and plastic candy filled eggs left over, plus malted eggs and plenty of jelly beans to probably fill 3 more Easter baskets lol but since we got so much stuff left over, I stuck it into a bowl and placed the bowl on my kitchen counter and dad and Noboru have been munching all day long too. I have a feeling that the extra candy won't last very long, which I don't mind in the least because, it actually makes me happy they will finish it up for me!

We colored eggs this morning, but that's only because after we boiled the eggs last night, Branden ended up falling asleep so we postponed coloring the eggs to this morning.We put a bunch of newspaper down and all of us colored eggs! Even Noah got to color an egg, which was great I got it on video!

The turkey came out super juicy and so gorgeous! The entire turkey dinner came out fab! We had stuffing that I made on the stove after the turkey was finished cooking in the oven! We had a beautiful leafy green Italian salad. Roasted potatoes and turkey gravy that I made homemade and croissants, that I bought at the bakery. I wished I woulda took some pics, of our lovely dinner, but we were all so busy getting dinner prepared that I didn't have time to take pics much less remember to take pics, sorry!

Well, I'm getting back to my family now, we already rented a new DVD and they are pausing it for me and waiting just, so I could post this post real quick. Good night everyone! : )

Sharing a few more pics from Easter : )

Total egg-citement here at our house!!! : )

Easter's coming tomorrow yippy! We are beyond egg-cited at my house! Easter is pretty major here at my house! The whole family is home and we will be all sitting down in the dining room this evening and start coloring our Easter eggs! Yahoo! Also tonight around midnight, I will throw the turkey into the oven, and we will all take turns basting him, throughout the night and tomorrow morning and afternoon, so he stays nice and juicy!

We also have a Easter paint book, that I picked up at Kmart when I was in the states and both the boys have been painting with it for the past couple weeks. We have Easter pics on the fridge. Noah hand finger painted a few and Branden nicely painted many!

Here are some pics that I decided that I will share with you all. It's to show our Easter spirit! I bought a holiday flag pole and bought all the major holiday flags separately. I bought them at Target, when I was in the US last month. We have had our flag pole and beautiful Easter flag hung for weeks now! I have gotten quite a few compliments from our neighbors and two of Noboru's coworkers who are American guys came over last weekend and they not only loved my flag, they were shocked by our house and the wife nearly had herself a heart attack, when she saw my big American kitchen and stove/oven and tall counter tops! They are coming back to visit us next week. They really fell in love with our house and it made us feel good, that they felt comfortable being here! Because all we ever wanted was just that comfortable, like you were back home type feeling. Again, not a fancy shmancy hoity toity feel at all! Just a good down home type feel, and I was really super pleased our fellow American friends, got a real comfy vibe being here at my home.

You can also see the driveway has been finished a long time ago, as well as the walkway. And that the grass seeds were planted a while back too. The grass is actually starting to come out now in the front! And I imagine by the end of May, the grass will be thick and the grass will be all filled in. We also planted grass seeds in the back yard and I think it will be thick and grass filled by the end of May too. I'm also planning to buy some flower planters to hang on the front porch to jazz things up a bit and to add some color and also buy a bench or some sort of glider or rocking chair type seat to use on the front porch as well.

So even though, I don't post much about the house much anymore. But only because we are so damned happy, with absolutely *everything* concerning our house. Just know things are getting accomplished here at the house. And things are looking so beautiful. And I still am counting the days, until Ikea opens here in Japan too. : )

Ribbit ribbit!

It's been raining *so* much lately and since we live in a really nice suburb with plenty of fresh air and hills and greenery. We have been seeing/hearing a bunch of frogs the past couple nights. But only at night, when we hear a bunch of croaking from these little green guys! Branden wanted to see one up close and since I'm the only female in the house, the males of the house thought it would be a good idea to take Branden outside last night with his Incredible's flashlight and they all went and looked for frogs. However they came back asking me for a plastic cup. You'd think that would have set off some bells for me. So, I gave them a clear plastic cup and yup! Sure enough Branden came into the house with what looked like a relative of Kermit the frog's! He sat and watched the frog for about 20 minutes, but I began to worry if the frog could properly breath in there, so I urged them to go outside and set him free! So grandpa and Noboru and Branden, all three headed out in the front yard and let Kermie's cousin go!

We bought our Easter turkey already and then we headed to the Outback!

In the evening of the same day of Branden's opening ceremony we all hopped into the car and jumped onto the highway and headed to Makuhari. We went to Costco first and bought some food and my dad of course bought each boy a toy. However the toys at Costco haven't been updated in ages! And Noah and Branden already have most the toys from there already. So, Branden chose an Incredibles flashlight set and it also included a Buzz Lightyear light as well. I told my dad Noah really didn't need any toy and certainly not a flash light at his age. But he insisted that he has to be fair to both the boys and so he bought Noah a Fisher Price set of animal flash lights. Honestly, Branden already has an animal flashlight, I actually bought it for him when *he* hit age one and lugged it back to Japan with me a couple years ago. His animal flashlight is a lion and it's cool! He played with it until he nearly hit age three and then he got too old to be interested in the animal shaped flashlight, go figure and then he just wanted a regular shaped flashlight (kids!) And we still have the Fisher Price lion flashlight here at the house, but I put it into Noah's toys box, because I knew Branden wasn't interested in it anymore. So anyways, my dad sees the animal shaped flashlight and no matter even if I say, we got one already. He still wanted to buy Noah a flashlight set too. Sigh, ha ha ha. So both boys got a set of flash lights, Branden got the Incredible's and Noah got the animal shaped flashlights.

We also got, a Frito Lay variety case of chips, some stuff for Branden's breakfasts in the mornings when we have yochien, we got microwave pancakes, and Quaker Oats instant hot cereal variety pack with cinnamon roll and banana nut bread flavors and a bunch of other flavors in there as well. Some comfort food for us like black olives and a case of diced tomatoes, for days when I make some homemade spaghetti sauce/gravy. And an assortment pack of Italian style pastas, some are bow tie shapes and some are cork screws and rigatoni or stove pipe style pastas (I can make these for dinners and I can also make Branden a good homestyle Italian bento. Raisins for Branden's bento's. A couple cans of fruit cocktail. Canadian Maple cookies (darn these are good!), Cans of white chicken breast packed in water, because I also am going to start making chicken salad sandwiches for Branden's bento's as well. A giant jar of pickles for snacking on or to go with his grilled cheese sandwich for his bento's. And last but not least, I got three packs of American style bacon because we eat it for breakfast a lot! But I figure I can also send Branden to school with a crispy yummy, BLT in his bento too. I also got a 14 pound turkey because we will have a traditional Easter dinner together as a family on this up coming Easter Sunday! Which means Branden will be taking turkey sandwiches to school next Monday in his bento.

My dad treated for everything at Coscto, I told him, not to and that he was being too generous but he insisted! We all went to the Outback Steakhouse afterwards and we all really pigged out! We ate so much we brought a bunch of leftovers back home with us. We had the bloomin' onion for our appetizer, my dad had the chicken and ribs platter and he added a caesar salad to his order. Noboru had the ribs and also added a caesar salad with his order too, and I had my usual Alice Springs chicken and I figured, what the heck and added a caesar salad with mine as well too. Branden had the chicken fingers and fries, and Noah had food from everyone's plates, ha ha ha!

more pics from our escapades in Makuhari : )

Opening Ceremony! Or as Nemo said, "first day of school, first day of school!"

Today was opening ceremony day. Everything was awesome. The mom's seemed okay. As usual an English speaking Japanese mom "adopted" me, as it's pretty typical to have a Japanese women take the lone western mom under her wing and befriend her at yochien. She was quite nice and gave me her house phone number and her cell number.Turns out her family once had an American exchange student and it turns out the student came from Colorado ha ha ha! What a total coincidence. This mom also lived and studied in the UK for a year and a half and used to work at Japan Airlines. It was nice to meet her actually. There are only 20 kids in his class. And he has only two teacher's, one speaks a bit of English too. A few other moms, tried quite hard to speak a bit of English with my dad and I as well. And in return we used a hodge podge of Japanese mixed with English to communicate back with the other mom's and dad's. Noboru is lucky as he can just get away with speaking Japanese, since it's his native language to begin with.

Her are a few pics of my boys on opening day and a few pics of the school's priest and a few pics from the classroom.

One little girl was crying during the ceremony and my heart broke for her! I remembered how hard it was on Branden last year for the first week or two, when he first started school for the very first time last year. And though, he is fine this year, with absolutely no problems of going to school, in fact he looks forward to school. I couldn't help but have tons of sympathy and or empathy for her and her parents. I recalled how hard that was on my own kid and how hard it was on Noboru and I last year. I remembered how I cried one day in my minivan last April, as I drove home after dropping him off at school, last year too because it was so tough! I honestly cried the entire way home, it was tough leaving my son at school when he was crying for me not to leave him there, yet I had to walk away and leave him anyway because the sensei told me to! My heart really broke for that little girl and her parents. I can see now, how the little girl at the ceremony will adjust to school just like Branden did last year! But during the time of it, it seems just so hard to overcome! Gambatte to that little girl and to her parents! Everyone at my house will be cheering her on! And hoping this to shall pass! : )