Carter's stuff that Noah got at Waikele!

At only $7.00 dollars for an entire little gym outfit, this was just too good to pass up! And the color was gorgeous! And I love the gray piping on the legs and the stitched appliques as well! This is so cute! I bought this in size 18 month's, so he can get tons of useage outta this, way beyond three month's of use you know! And I figure I can pair it with a warm turtle neck and maybe a pair of long john's and he'll be set to cruise all over Chiba in this cutie of an outfit! And stay toasty warm and be totally comfy!



Seriously and I'm kidding you not! This outfit was just $7.00 US. And for a thick good quality name brand sweatshirt and a good quality pair of jeans! I thought it was too good a deal to pass up! Besides he can wear these jeans with other things and mix and match! I bought these in size 18 month's. So he can wear them from September-October, and I will just maybe fold the cuff on the pant legs once and they'll be fine, all the way through the end of winter to start of Spring! Again, I will more then get my $7.00 dollars worth with these!

These were such a great deal and I bought them in sizes he could wear this coming fall/winter for when it's gets cold and he needs to stay comfy in the house or for brisk walks to go get his brother at the bus stop. Got these in one 12 month old size. And two 18 month size.



Again some more cheap $5.00 outfits! These are in size 18 month's, so he can wear these now all the way up until next June if he wants! I'm happy I will totally get my $5.00 bucks worth! These will be perfect for wearing in the house or during backyard summer BBQ's this year!



Now bubs has his Fourth of July outfit all ready to go! He he : )









With all the overall's and shortall's Noah wears, he needs lot's of these little onesies! These were beyond shockingly cheap! So I got them in sizes for this summer and next summer too! I didn't over buy, at all and grab like each color of the rainbow or anything like that! LOL. I just bought the colors that would go best with all his denim overall's and stuff.



These outfits were only $5 bucks each! The romper's like the ABC one, he can use for in the house use or wherever.

Overall's, can little boys ever have enough of these or what! Ha ha ha! I bought them in sizes he can wear this coming fall and winter and also another pair for the following winter as well. I got them in sizes 18 month's and size 24 month's. These were, I think, $5.00 or $7.00. Shockingly cheap considering they are name brand. God only knows how much they'd be in Japan, good thing I stocked up when I did. I'm not a born shopper, I'm just a wise cheapskate! LOL! Come to think of it, Carter's isn't even available in Japan is it?

I know Noah's first birthday is coming on July 7th. And with that in mind, I bought him two birthday bibs from Carter's. I also stocked up and got him a pack of socks for when Fall and winter comes around!

Carter's stuff that Branden got at Waikele!

A pair of PJ's for Branden in size 5T and for only $5.00 for the entire outfit! I could not pass it up. Again this thing will last way more then three short month's! It can be worn all the way until next August, if he wants, since he's only 4 and a half right now! So he can get a full year's usage from this! Very cute Pajama's!



I thought these shorts were so cute and at only $5.00 US I thought what the heck! Got these in 5T so he can even wear these next year if he wanted! But at that price, no worries if he didn't want to either!



A pair of sweatpants in 5T for this upcoming winter. Buying off season like this, saves me money.


These were in the sale bin and only $2.00 US! Only pair in there too! And they are the size Branden will need for the upcoming winter this coming year (obviously a bigger size then he is right now)! So even though, it's not even winter yet, heck it isn't even summer yet, lol, I jumped on these anyway! This deal was too good to pass up! Now he has slippers for the upcoming winter, Carter's slippers none the less! And they were only $2 bucks!

Old Navy at Waikele!

I got these in size 5 and they are a bit big, but he will be able to wear these for the next 12 to 14 month's no problem at all! Also, I *love* t- shirts with witty and wise cracking, sayings on them! These gave me the biggest chuckle! I will love it, when Branden wears these about town! The one with the pizza on it, even Japanese people will understand what it means! So it won't matter if they can read English or not! : )


Hmm, adding these two pairs of Old Navy pajama's I got for Branden in 5T in Waikele and he already has two pairs of SpongeBob pj's in size 6T I also just bought him too, and add in the Carter's preppy plaid pj's too he just got too. I think it's fair to say this kid doesn't need any pj's at all this summer! Five pairs is plenty! Phew thank god, I got this all over with! Ha ha ha!

Sweatshorts for next year, in next years size!


The hats were bought for Branden, since there weren't many in his size in Denver. I also picked up a tiny plaid one for Noah so he can match his big brother. Plaid is really in style this season you know!

Branden's and hegot one pair for this summer and one pair for next summer. Considering he already has a good amount of shorts, now he's all set and ready for summer time!


Noah didn't get pajamas from any other place only because his size wasn't available anywhere else. So when I saw they had these at Old Navy and they were his size, I got him 4 pairs. They were on sale for 2 pairs for $10.00! Noah didn't get anything else from here. Since he got more stuff then Branden did at Carter's since that store is mostly for littler kids like Noah. But at this store, it just happened Branden got more from here. Also, Noah didn't need anything else and I don't want to shop just for overkill you know.

I'm back from Hawaii! : )

Well we're back from Hawaii, everyone! We had such a fantastic time! I can't wait to fill you all in, with all the details of our trip! However, the flight coming back to Japan was long and I'm beat with exhaustion, so I'm heading to a hot quick shower and then I'll be off to bed soon.

We have been up since early this morning. We woke up at 5:30 am this morning got showered and dressed and got the kids ready to leave as well. And packed up the rental car and checked out of the hotel by 7:30 am. Drove through a Jack in the box drive-thru, one last time on the way to the car return. From there the car rental shuttled us back to the airport. Checked in. And the plane left Honolulu at 10:30 am. We arrived in Narita just a little while ago. We landed around 2:30 pm. Went through customs etc and picked up our car after the car-sitters shuttle picked us up at Narita. So we didn't even leave Narita until like 3:30 pm or 4:00 pm actually. Then drove home however, first stopping to get some dinner though first of course, no wonder we just barely got home now. Noboru just got finished unloading the luggage from the car to the house just now too.

Anyway, like I said, I am so completely tired, I can't even think clearly right now. So, I'll post better tomorrow or the next day hopefully and fill you all in on everything! Promise! Oyasumi nasai (good night) : )

We're outta here! See ya next week! : )

We're all packed! And we're all dressed. I just packed the snacks into the carry-on just now. And I'm about to pack the portable DVD player and movies and Nintendo DS and games into the carry-on on as well. Got the DVD player and DS game and camcorder all charged up. Did, I forget anything? Geeze, I hope not! Ha ha ha! : )

I'm really happy and excited you guys. Please wish us luck and to have lot's of fun! I'll miss you all and will post as soon as I get back!

Wait... did we request our kids meals? Phew! Noboru just said he did weeks ago! Sigh, good thing! : ) Bye, guys!

Awww, look what Branden made for me at yochien for Mother's day! I was so happy. He told me, he told his sensei he couldn't make his picture with the black contsruction paper for his mommy's hair, because his mommy doesn't have black hair! Ha ha ha! So the sensei ran to the art room and brought back a brown piece of construction paper for my hair! LOL! Isn't that funny? I laughed when he told me that! So he made mine with my brown hair, just like my real hair is! : )

Getting ready for our trip : )

Well, I have been busy today trying to get my family ready. After I dropped Branden off at the yochien bus drop off. Noah and I headed to Narita. I stopped at the mall because I wanted to go to Mujirushi (Muji) to pick up some black pepper senbai for Noboru and I for the flight tomorrow. Since I was there, I ended up buying some more snacks that I was going to pick up elsewhere anyway but since they had some of the stuff I needed, I just went ahead and picked them up there to save myself some time.

Then I went to the dollar store/ daiso, and they didn't have much of anything. I did however pick up a pack of shave ice flavored popsicles for when we watch TV and stuff (sorry this doesn't pertain to the trip at all lol) Didn't get anything else from there so I left the mall.




I then drove right across the street to the Baby Bunny store. My purpose was to pick up, a pack of diapers for Noah so I wouldn't have to buy them in Hawaii since I prefer Japanese diapers. And to pick up some baby snacks for Noah as well. However, you know me.....this store is my total weakness! I always end up buying something in here that I wasn't intending to buy! Curse this store, lol just kidding! So long story short, I picked up the diapers, the snacks for Noah (since I got Branden's senbai and caramel corn etc. from Muji) and I also picked up a pair of shoes for Noah (I know, I know, the kid needs a new pair of shoes like he needs a hole in his head at this point!) Ha ha ha! But if I can just explain my reasoning. See, these are soft and flexible on the bottom, so these are not meant for real walking babies yet. And they also won't fall off. They will stay on his feet. They were only like 850 yen, so cheap! And the crazy bright happy colors of these shoes caught my eye, so I ended up buying them, besides we can afford it, so what the heck! So there I was in the store trying to decide between a 12 or 12.5 size. The 12 fit like a glove, but then I wondered...maybe they should be a bit or pinch bigger, so he can have room to grow. So I ended up getting the 12.5. And last but not least, I got Noah a little plastic raft type car thing, that I am going to let him sit in, and pull him around in when we play in Waikiki beach or Hanauma Bay or another beach.The thing was also only 900 yen. They had a bunch that were 2900 yen, but forget that high price you know. I mean it's just a floating raft seat for crying out loud! It shouldn't cost an arm and a leg. Also, what if Noah ended up hating the blasted thing, ha ha ha! This way, I wouldn't feel so bad about paying the 900 yen. We all know how moody or finicky kids can be! : ) So, the 900 yen one, is good enough and it has a little steering wheel and whatnot! Also, I figured *if* we ended up buying it in Waikiki, the price could be about $20.00 for one of those baby raft seat things, you know how tourist spots are famous for inflating prices on stuff. So all in all, I was quite pleased about the plastic floating car thing and the shoes, especially since I got them both at such good prices!

Thought for the day, why is it so expensive just to get ready to go on a family trip? Ha ha ha! (shaking my head and laughing)

I might still buy a few last snacks for the boys still tomorrow before we leave, like potato chips or popcorn. And I have to pack Noah's all time fav, Cheerios still! Gee, it's going to be a busy day here at my house and tonight too, with getting all the packing in the suitcases done and all. : )

Three cheers for uncle Jun! Hip hip Hooray! : )

Jun gave Branden a money envelop with the words that simply said, "thank you for being my ring bearer, this is for you" "Love uncle Jun". Since Noboru and Jun work together, he gave it to Noboru and asked him to give it to Branden last night. Branden opened it up and sure enough Jun gave him 10,000 yen in a money voucher form, this can pretty much be used at any shopping center or where ever here in Japan.

I personally called Jun last night myself, telling him that, he needn't give anything to Branden at all! That Branden agreed to be a ring bearer, simply because he loves his uncle Jun very much, he most certainly wasn't thinking of getting something for it! You know what I mean? But he laughed and assured me, that he understands but he felt Branden did such a good job and so he wanted to and just felt like it! Ha ha ha! Okay...fair enough. "Oyasumi", I said, "Oyasumi nasai", he said back to me. (I'm older, also he is the youngest of the siblings, while Noboru is oldest)

I've said it once and I'll say it again, what a cool brother in-law I have! I really like my brother in-law, he is so sweet! He is a wonderful uncle, to both our boys! I can't wait for him to have his own kids, so I can reciprocate and spoil his kids rotten!

We will let Branden use it after we get back from Hawaii, because these next two days we will be busy trying to get ourselves ready to travel with our two boys! which means, we got a bunch of packing to do! : )

According to the girls, Crocs are super hot! (like sizzling!!! : ) Have been getting the *best* help making my list to go to Hawaii!

I made chicken leg quarters last night. I baked them in the oven, oh man! They were so crispy on the outside and so juicy in the inside! I used the regular bottle of teriyaki sauce that I always buy at the store. Hmmm, not sure if I ever posted a pic of it or not. Oh well, next time if I remember I will post a pic of it. We had veggies and also some rice to go along with it.

Noboru worked a swing shift so I fixed him a plate and wrapped it in plastic wrap and he ate it as soon as he got home from work last night at 10:00 pm. The boys and I had dinner with just us. After dinner, I got both the boys all cleaned up. They had a bowl of microwave popcorn and we all sat and watched TV.

Both of them fell asleep by 9:30 pm.

I was sorta relieved because sometimes I just need some time out for myself, do you know what I mean?

I sat surfing the web. I belong to a couple groups of women online. Sometimes I am quite active on both places and sometimes I'm not. It's not really an intentional thing for me, it's just sometimes I get so busy with my own crazy life, lol. It's hard for me to keep up in my favorite groups. Sigh.

But I did however go to one last night. It's sorta a fashion/makeup/skincare type board. I went there because, while I do try to keep up with *reading* fashion mags or fashion mommy mags or whathaveyou. I sometimes go to the US and get all sorta brain dead while shopping. I think this happens to a lot of expats. The longer I stay in Japan the longer and more time is elapsed, from me knowing what's up or what's hot in the US. Fashion goes by and by. And I become a season behind, I'm afraid! : (

When I lived in the US, I was current and up to date with everything and I mean *everything*. For example when the Giorgio Armani foundation first came out about 7 years ago, I was one of the first to run right out and buy it and try it! When everyone wanted the whole Jen Anniston shag better known as "the Rachel" lol, I also was the first to go out and get mine layered up!

Being in Japan though, I have no idea what's good, what's new, or what sucks! LOL, I got no idea. So, please picture this, I waltz into a store and just get this glossed over look on my face. Staring at everything and anything! I hate not knowing what to buy or what I like or what I don't, especially when I am usually *very* clean cut/decisive with my thinking when it comes to stuff I like.

So, there I was reading away at one of my online groups last night.

Damn this group of girls are freaking geniuses! They know everything current! I read page after page of their posts on skin care, since I am really wanting to try something brand new. I printed a few pages out and I plan to take them to Hawaii with me, this way hopefully I won't have the ol' deer caught in the headlights look too much!

Fashion, well, shit! Seems everyone pretty much agrees there are *three* new things these girls are all raving for! Okay, I wrote down some more notes! Nerd that I am! LOL. Printed pictures and then, get this! One of the things that is *super cool*, in a huge huge *super huge* way right now! These are sorta like rubber clogs with holes (damn I apologize for the lousy description, but you can get the jist of the idea, yk). Yup that's right you heard correctly, I did just say holes in shoes and on purpose! Ha ha ha. Talk about total air ventilation, huh? No more stinky funky sweaty feet in the summer time hopefully, so that'll be a good thing : ) I saw these all over the place in Denver, for the first time last August when I was in Denver. However, I noticed them *but* I didn't buy any or think to much about it! Then this past March, I saw them all freaking over Denver *again*.....this time I paid attention! I saw some little girl wearing a matching pair with her mother at the Colorado Mill's Outlet Mall.

My thought, "damn those are cute!" LOL. And they are totally starting to grow on me! Yet, I *still* didn't buy a pair for myself! Nearly forgot about the blasted things. Until last night, all the girls on my fav fashion online hangout, were raving about them! Some girl on there, get this, even has 4 pairs! Lucky girl! : ) Ha ha ha! So, anyway I better start to get my butt in gear and when I get to Hawaii in 2 days, I will be sure to buy myself a pair of these! Wish me luck on the shoe hunt, you guys, please! : )

PS, and if anyone is curious, they are called Crocs! They even have a homepage online! And get this! They were invented in Colorado! That made me super proud! Dork that I am! : )

I think I will surf on back there tonight, after I get the boys in bed again and see what else is hot and start printing out some pages of stuff I gotta remember!

Pics are of, Branden eating like crazy! Does this kid have a hearty appetite or what? The teeny tiny plate that looks like our plates. Is Noah's serving and after I snapped the pic, I got a knife and fork and cut everything up into teeny tiny little bites and he actually prefers eating the same things we all do. This is usually what we do with regards to his meals anyway though. He doesn't eat much premade store bought baby food (which there are some good pre-made baby foods out there though don't get me wrong, I'm no baby food snob or anything, lol this is just easier for our family :). The other pics were Noboru's serving and the other was Branden's meal and my serving was never even photographed haha ha, with watching both kids during meal time and also cleaning up, sometimes I'm just lucky if I, even get time to sit down and eat my own food! Ha ha ha : )

Our Saturday spent at the dairy farm! : )

We live about a 7 minute drive in the car (no highways either!) near a great big dairy farm type place. They also have a place for camping! The place is huge and up until now, we have only driven past the place but we've always told each other while passing that place "we have got to go there sometime!!!" You know how it goes, always talking about it, but somehow never actually getting around and actually doing it. LOL. So yesterday we thought, it's a beautiful day! The sun was shining, it was a hot/warm gorgeous day and it would be perfect to go there. So sure enough we actually went there!

The parking was 500 yen. The entrance was 1200 yen for adults, Branden was 700 yen to get in, while Noah was free to get in. We later found out after we already paid (figures right?) we can get a family season pass for this place for a whole entire year for 4900 yen for *all four of us!* We're definitely getting the season pass next time for sure! Because it'll save us money in the long run, since we plan to come here a lot!





Kids got to milk cows. Ride pony's, adults could ride horses. They had a place where kids could go and feed some billy goats and sheep. There's more too, they had a place so the kids and also guys could fish, they provided the fishing poles and bait. Noboru and Branden caught about 5 fish, they beat all the other father and son teams around them and they did it under 30 minutes time, because I told them, I didn't want to get stuck at the fishing place ha ha ha! Everyone kept laughing and saying how lucky Noboru and Branden were, with the fishing but actually Noboru is just a wicked fisherman lol. True, he used to fish in Hawaii all the time, when we lived there and he also grew up fishing in Japan, which is why he loves fishing with Branden! They also had archery, they had little bows and arrows for the kids. Branden did pretty good, I might say! They also had the big bows and arrows for us adults and Noboru and I on the other hand had a competition who could hit the bull's eye the most and I'm sorry to say, he totally beat me on the archery! Darn it, but not to worry, I will demand a rematch sometime soon!

They also had stilts where the kids could try walking with stilts, Branden tried his best, but he got scared for some reason and didn't want to do this afterall. No biggie. Noboru on the other hand, tried the stilts only to fall off about 5 seconds after he tried, he laughed because a couple parents saw him practically kill himself on the stilts. I laughed hard too, because I thought it was funny! I'm glad that my husband doesn't mind being silly! Neither do I really though, too.


They had cars that you had to peddle but they were big and funny looking and had different kinds of shapes. They had a regular play ground in there with a teeter totter. Tons more but it's hard to describe everything.










Oh yeah they also had a place where kids could slide down a mountain in a plastic type sled. This whole farm park was just really totally cool!


Oh yeah and since they are mainly a dairy, they are super famous for their ice-cream! We had some and it was honestly the best I've ever had in my life! Bar none and that ain't no lie! Noboru and Branden had vanilla soft serve but they also had the homemade harder ice-cream and they had flavors like pumpkin ice-cream (yumm) and homemade mocha and green tea! And more, but I opted for the homemade chocolate chip! Seriously the best ever!

They also had BBQ pits where families could BBQ and also had tons of places where families could bring a picnic! And they also had restaurants where you could eat at also, such as a curry restaurant!


I'm telling ya this place was amazing and on the way home, we kept going on and on about "what took us so long to finally go there"? Ha ha ha, oh well we are just happy we finally went at least! We will also be going back soon!

Next time, I will pack us a good homemade American style picnic lunch to bring along!

Pics of Noah from Saturday at the farm!

A gentle helping and playful hand from daddy.









Clowning around!










Noah you have the most delicate features on a baby that I've clearly ever seen. No wonder people are forever commenting that you look like a beautiful white porcelain doll! You're absolutely gorgeous!










He's watching his beautiful older brother feed the animals. Noah had a wonderful time and he loved the yummy ice-cream too! He went home and fell fast asleep as soon as I gave both the boys a good hot shower and got them all cleaned up after spending a day at the farm!

A day spent at the flea market/swap meet and our night of dinner and a movie. : )

We had plans today, like I mentioned in a previous post. So what we did was, we got up bright and early and got dressed and headed to Costco. We were meeting one of Noboru's co-worker's and his coworker's wife and son. We went to Costco, because we had planned to order one of those gigantic whole baked pizzas for lunch. And then after we ate we headed to the Flea Market that was being held right near Costco in Makuhari Messe! So we did just that! We met at Costco at 11:00 am. We didn't really go to Costco to buy much since we were just using that as a meeting spot and lunch spot! But we did buy a case of soda and a big huge box of laundry detergent and a case of toilet paper, that's all we bought and you betcha, we purposely didn't buy anything that would rot, get funky or otherwise go putrid in the car, while we spent the day at the flea market/swap meet ha ha ha, so we didn't buy any food at all.

The flea market was cool! It was my first time going to the one in Makuhari, I was impressed and will come back for sure!


After a super fun day well spent in the big city, with all the super heavy traffic and whatnot, it was more then time for us to head back home. So we drove ourselves back to the serenity of the burbs. However by this time, we weren't really wanting to cook dinner at home. So we instead drove to the video store and rented ourselves two new DVD's. We rented Meet the Focker's (my god this name just kill's me and the main character's name is hilarious too, Gaylord Focker, AKA Gay Focker! LOL!) and a new Japanese anime by the same guy who made My neighbor Totoro. I forgot what the name of the new movie, we just rented was though, sorry. Then we went through the drive-thru of KFC and got a nice family 8 piece meal. Our family of four, ate KFC,then we got ourselves all washed up and our clothes changed and watched our two movies! Meet the Focker's was hilarious! And the other one was *so* good too! All in all, we had a very nice Friday! : )

Added info: the movie in question was called "Howl's Moving Castle" This really is a must see! It really was a good one! : )

Vroom vroom vroom!

We had a wonderful relaxing day well spent at home! Branden played outside with his friends, the neighborhood kids, Ayumi-chan and Rin, off and on throughout the day, taking breaks for lunch when all kids each went back to their own houses, got fueled up and went back outside and played some more! The kids called it a day around 2:30 pm.

Noah meanwhile had fun inside the house being the ultimate little cruiser with his cruise-mobile! Boy this kid just loves his walker, doesn't he? Ha ha ha! Although he did go outside with me quite a few times throughout the day, to sit on our front porch steps to watch the bigger kids play.

We had leftovers for dinner (shhh! ha ha ha ahhh, who cares, doesn't everybody from time to time? : )) So leftover sukiyaki. We all took our showers and baths quickly and we then sat watching TV with a big bowl of freshly popped microwave popcorn and then the popsicles quickly followed! We've been in a total American Idol frenzy here at our house! : )