Halloween 2013

Ever since we went trick or treating in Guam last year, we sort of just knew...ykwim, that it was just a given we would be going there this Halloween. And even up until August, that was indeed the plan, alrighty. Until of course, we received the letter about Branden's 6th grade trip being on the same exact day! @.@  At first, and I'll tell ya, we were like could they have possibly not picked like a WORSE day imaginable.... to have that on? Hahaha. But you know....to be fair too....we had a month to get over it. And plus the 6th grade trip is a trip of memories and a trip Branden really needed to take. So we just sort of said, we'll do the best little Halloween celebration we can around here and sorta just make do, you know. So the week of Halloween, we carved our pumpkin. We roasted pumpkin seeds. Also I have to add this pumpkin barely had any seeds in there! lol. : ) Anyway the pumpkin carving was a ton of fun!

My dad brought a couple bags of Halloween chocolates with him when he was here in September because we already knew at that point, that Guam for Halloween was a no-go this year. I didn't picture those treats he brought here, I pictured them in that post last month though, if you recall. : ) And these treats pictured here... are just some snacks I picked up at my local Japanese grocery store. 

The treat buckets the boys used last year for trick or treating, I just put all the treats in one of those and left that in the kitchen the week of Halloween. So at least we did get to enjoy some treats. 

Lucky for us, my husbands coworker's wife, works at the Costco Inzai-Chiba New Town and so she said to get over there and get a pumpkin pie. So we did that, this past Sunday. And yummm! It was big and delicious, only thing though is... I wish they'd use more cinnamon in it. But it is indeed pretty good. So we enjoyed that all Halloween week... also and all of us in our house love pumpkin pie. Even Noboru said, he didn't like it like it, when he was an exchange student type age, but he absolutely loves it now. So we all enjoyed this as well. And again just a small way to bring some Halloween cheer to our family. 

We have a book of jack o lantern templates, but Branden drew this free hand this year. The boys about to clean out the pumpkin!

LOL, Branden's expression in this picture. Silly silly boys! : ) 

Almost done, almost cleaned out. 

Jack the pumpkin head and our teeny tiny amount of roasted pumpkin seeds, but they were still delicious. : )

They just had showers! Branden was in jammies but he wouldn't dare go outside in said pjs, so he put on house/comfy clothes, Noah meanwhile was like, I'll go out in my jammies. Hahaha. It was raining this particular night otherwise they would have sat down on the step like they usually do each year. 

Ahh, we can see you Jack, really well in this picture!

Branden, Noah and Jack Pumpkinhead of course!

And as you know, I did give each of the boys classes a tiny pumpkin and would you believe, Noah's teacher sent home a note in the renrakucho last week asking if the class could cook it? I told Noah to tell her, it was her pumpkin and for sure, she could do whatever she liked. : ) She was quite happy, I heard. And so, they cooked it in the cooking room last week! @.@ Go figure! : ) Hahaha. Seriously. : ) 

Now actual Halloween day and night type stuff. Branden was gone, he had left super early that morning and was in Hakone. I wanted to make Halloween fun for Noah and I. Noboru was working 4pm-midnight. So it would truly just be Noah and I, Halloween 2013. So, that day I went to Mister Donuts and I picked up 2 donuts for Noah, 2 for myself and I left 2 on the green counter for a surprise for when Noboru got home. : )  Noah let out of school at 3pm, last Halloween (Thursday) and so I picked him up, I did ask him that morning what he'd like for supper. He said baked chicken Parmesan and pasta. I said done and done! So, I made that for dinner, it was in the oven and done by the time he came home. I already preheated the water just turned it off when I swung and picked up Noah. By the time he went upstairs unpacked his randoseru, switched clothes and washed his hands. Took him about 10 minutes to complete his homework. And then we ate, he had his donut and then Noah went upstairs and showered. Then I showered afterwards and then we popped some popcorn and we watched Hocus Pocus together on TV. Noah zonkered out, I carried him to bed and then I was absolutely wide awake. Now, usually I have my Branden to keep me company but, he was having fun, so no worries, I sat down with leftover popcorn from Hocus Pocus and I watched...

Halloween 1 and Halloween 2 on the AMC channel (they had Halloween movies on this channel every night all month long.)  Really good movies. I tried to stay away to say hi to Noboru, but I was exhausted, I woke up so early that morning, Noboru slept in the day before work but I was up all day and so by that time of night I was really tired. So, I went upstairs and crashed. I was out like a light. : ) Anyway that's basically how we celebrated Halloween this year, in a nut shell. 

Branden's 6th grade over-night trip to Hakone, Japan

Branden had his 6th grade over-night trip to Hakone on October 31st (on Halloween hahaha). And would be arriving back to our town Friday, November 1st evening. In Japan most schools have a 5th grade over night trip and a 6th grade over night trip, as well. Of course obviously it varies from school to school. But if you have a younger elementary school child, maybe this info will be at least be a tad helpful and something just to keep in your mind for future use. : ) Branden brought home a note about a month beforehand, explaining about the trip and what each child needed, how much the trip would cost?, etc. Just a very informative, detailed letter. The letter said, to bring snacks for the bus (a long 3 hour bus ride there and 3 hour bus ride back). To bring 1 bag or small carry-on size suitcase for their overnight essentials and then 1 street backpack for all the walking around they'd be doing and carrying of their omiyage (like easy to crush senbei or cookies), so better to bring 2 bags verses 1. Meaning you don't want your kid walking lugging their toothbrush kit, shampoo kit, pjs all over the temples and about town and such, if you know what I mean. So yeah 2 different bags. 1 for walking and 1 for carrying the essentials (next days clothes and bath towel). Also the note did say to make sure you pack your child 1 raincoat or mini umbrella (parents choice) and that's for possible rain and it did rain btw. And 1 coat because Hakone this time of year, is indeed chilly. Also, the cost of the trip again it will vary from school to school, but a good idea to at least give you a round about idea. The cost for the trip to Hakone was 20,000 yen (about $200 US dollars) and each child also would be expected to bring 5,000 yen (about $50 US dollars for lunch, drinks along the way and omiyage (gifts or souvenirs) Also the note said not to bring more then 5,000 yen either. The 20,000 yen covered night at the hotel, bus fee, and plus dinner for that night (they had steak and mashed potatoes salad and pudding etc) and they all went to a Chinese restaurant the next day, so the 20,000 yen covered that but not for lunch going to Hakone or drinks or snacks. Also each child would need to bring their thermos and the hotel filled their thermos before leave the following day. Again so this gave us, a good month (30 days) in advance notice to know the finer details. Noboru read through the list and as he read it to me, I wrote down on a white sheet of Xerox paper all the notes that I personally needed to remember, that I needed to make sure I got Branden ready for. And about 2 weeks ahead they sent home a letter that you either needed to sign and say, yes my child can go or no my child can't go. Of course everyone wanted to go, so we sent that note in right away, that yes Branden would be going.  And then the week before the trip, was when we needed to pay the 20,000 yen trip fee. We put that into an envelop the school provided and because it was such a large amount the school was collecting this only 1 day. So the week before on Thursday, we all sent our kids with the envelop with 20,000 yen in it. Anyway, so if you recall, after that big typhoon our family headed to Uniqlo to look for some pjs for Branden.

In Japan pjs are usually for the most part called "room wear", also now Branden is wearing a men's size small. He liked this color best and we (Noboru and I had to agree) very cute and that pop of color on the thermal top was great. They had a thicker more sweatpants type room wear, but these are perfect because they're not super thin thin, but they are sort of on the thin side and our house here at home can be a real oven in winter and so these are better. And something Branden can get more use from. The bottom of the ankle area on the gray pants was super cute too it had 2 ties per leg just very cute pjs. 

Branden had outgrown his last winter coat and he didn't get one for this year yet, so we bought him one at Uniqlo, in a small men's size. It says 5,990 yen but the day we went, they were on sale for 4,990 yen so a great deal. It is a down jacket, but it is super thin hence the ultra light down filled coat name. So they're warm without all the bulk that regular coats have. Plus we thought it would be great for this upcoming trip to Denver as well.   

Noboru also mentioned our trip to Denver and we want to pack light...so we should go and get Noah one as well. But Noah's still in kid sizes. We did pick him a size bigger then he usually is, his usual size is 130cm. But since coats need the extra room for all the bulky sweatshirts and sweaters and whatnot, it was better to get with enough room for the sweatshirts he'd be wearing so we picked Noah's in size 140cm. The cost of Noah's was a real steal at just 2,990 yen. Like $30 US dollars. The color choice we liked best for Noah was light orange. Noah's is a light poly filled down, but it's still warm and super cute. 

Orange and light orange. 

Branden's coat came with a small bag to carry the coat, again perfect for packing for Hakone or the upcoming trip to Colorado. 

All packed up. I did wash and dry the pjs for Branden. And I did make sure Branden was packed about 3 days before the trip. And that's just because I have a lot of other little things going on here too and plus getting ready for our Denver trip also. So this way I got the packing done and out of the way. 

Snacks, I thought this was way more snacks then he needed, but as it turns out, it wasn't enough. Branden said to me after he got back, that most kids had zero snacks for the trip back to Chiba. Because if they didn't eat them during the way there.... they ate them over that night in the hotel room, so again they had zero snackage for the bus trip 3 hour trip home. Again, I did feel badly, but I also made a mental note of it, so when it's Noah's turn I will pack double the amount and make sure to say don't open the 2nd ziplock until you are on your way home for example. : ) 

October 31st, the bus would be leaving our elementary school as in driving away... goodbye...the doors are closed...farewell... at 6:30am. So the meet up time, when everyone had to be there or else, was at 6:10am. However lots of Branden's classmates said they would be there by 6am. We woke up at 5am October 31st. And we left our house with a fully packed and ready to go Branden and a  semi-groggy still a tad sleepy Noah in his pjs. : ) Noboru was with us also, to see him off. We left our house at 5:55am. We got there around 6:03am. The boys next door's family left around 5:50am, we saw them drive away and we were like "ahh, they're leaving we better hurry!" hahaha. It was cold, foggy. But the kids were excited! Pic of the tour bus, they had come over, pick them up and drive them, the kocho-sensei (principal) went, the two 6th grade teachers, the school nurse, and a handful of extra teachers went along too. The kids bus seating arrangement was set, Branden and Genki and the Jinbei boy were to be sitting next to each other on the bus, so needless to say, they were super happy about that. They also were split in 7 groups for when they went to Kamakura and also in Hakone. Each group got 1 cell phone. The school rented 7 phones. Branden being the leader of his group was in charge of their phone. And they did meet up and have lunch some of the groups. Jinbei boy, was in charge of another group and Genki was in charge of another group.  Then they also had a sleeping group and it was 8 boys per hotel room, not sure how big each room was, but they slept on futons. And Genki and Branden and 6 other guys all slept in the same room.

Branden ready to leave. You know thinking back, when Branden was in yochien, and he had his first over night stay ever, I remember blogging about it and I cried and I missed Branden the whole night. Frankly speaking, I worried myself sick practically. : ) "Is he okay, does he miss me? Should I drive in my PJ's at 11 o clock at night and go and pick him up?" The next morning I saw Branden and he was beaming, clearly he was fine, and I felt like a real idiot of course! Granted hind sight is 20/20. Point being, I should have spent my night with Noah and enjoying myself with my youngest son versus worrying myself into hysteria, but live and learn right? Truly nobody is perfect. : ) And then when he went on his 5th grade trip, I made darn sure to enjoy myself. And not worry because I knew he was off having fun camping last year and he did have a blast. And so this trip, I was so so so happy for him! Not a pinch of sadness, truly only smiles. And yes when Noah was having his yochien trip I wasn't so worried either., It was just that first...first time if ykwim. 

The 6th graders taking a head count. And then we drove away. 

Branden was set to arrive, with his class, in the big bus, at our housing community at 5:55pm Friday, November 1st. So me and the other parents were all there and then we got a mass keitai/cell email, saying the bus would be delayed an hour, they were on the other side of Tokyo still, stuck in traffic. @.@ So we all walked back home. Then we got another email saying more delays. When all was said and done Branden's bus arrived at 9:05pm last Friday November 1st!!! They announced on the bus that in the history of our particular school no over night trip has EVER been this delayed before! Hahaha!!! : ) It was quite a long time to be stuck in traffic and like I said, the kids were starving and had no snacks and had not eaten a morsel since noon when they had lunch! Anyway, so this is the omiyage Branden brought back for all of us. Branden also brought back 1,060 yen. he said he didn't want to spend it all. @.@ Good kid good kid! But we told he he could and he should have. : )  Anyway...

Black egg face soap and the coaster to the left, Branden made himself, he said his whole class including his principal each made one. : ) 

He also brought us some black eggs. They went to the mountain and walked up and bought some, November 1st morning. I think they were 5 eggs for 500 yen. Branden ate one egg fresh and hot and brought us back 4. : ) Branden had 1 at home also and Noah ate one and Noboru and I also had one each. They say if you eat 1 egg, you can live 7 extra years, or something along those lines, don't quote me on it but something like that. : ) 

A charm for Branden.

What made me smile most was Noah was looking on with excitement what Branden brought back and Branden said and I brought these especially for you Noah!!!! They are handmade and everyone in my class bought some! Noah immediately felt how cool they were, especially if big 6th grade boys were buying them and the fact his brother brought him back a gift, especially for him. Noah was all excited and said, "thank you Branden, I will keep these in my night stand" (note his important things only go in there) and I thought awww, what good kids. They were very inexpensive and all but and sorry if it's cliche but it's true, it was the thought that counted. And theses were just the bees knees to Noah. : ) 

Cookies from Hakone on the left and cookies on the right from Kamakura. apparently these pigeon shaped cookies are pretty famous, I had no idea but Branden told us about these, also his teachers all told the kids about these and Noboru googled them and sure enough. Go figure I had no idea but the pigeon shaped cookies were delicious! So good!

And Branden also brought senbei back too. Branden was excited because he said they were fresh. : ) Anyway that was Branden's 6th grade trip in a nut shell. : ) 

Branden turns 12

Branden turned 12, last Saturday, October 26th! It was raining all day, so we just hung out at home during the day. But in the evening we took Branden out to yakiniku for his birthday dinner! He had a choice of any restaurant, though he had narrowed it down between Capricciosa (Italian) or yakiniku. Branden flip flopped all week trying to decide. : ) He knew it was his choice, since it was his birthday. : ) He decided though that he was feeling more like yakiniku, so that's where we went. : ) 

Noah enjoying nibbling on some fries while we waited for the lady to bring us our meat. We always get coupons for this place online and we get free french fry coupons, free drink bar coupons and whatnot, it's still not cheap granted, I think, we paid 8,000 yen (about $80 US) when we left last Saturday, but this place is so good, best in our surrounding area, we love this particular place, so really worth it. : )

Cool beans! The big platter of rosu (lean beef) came out and we were ready to start cookin'! Noboru had kalbi, he loves kalbi. : )  

Happy birthday sweets! : ) We sure do love you kiddo! : )

Marinating my meat, I like my meat to take a little soak in there for a bit, hahaha. : ) Then wrapped in lettuce leaves with some rice. 

You can tell Branden got a bit serious with his cooking, because he unzipped the sweatshirt! Hahaha. : ) 

Branden had a choice of a massive cake from Costco or a handmade ice-cream cake from Nagano. Either way, they're both special and good! Branden went with ice cream cake. He picked banana top layer and Nutella for this bottom layer, it says Italian chocolate, but if you read the description it says hazelnut flavored chocolate!!! We love Nutella around here and yes it is Nutella flavor, so we just cut to the chase and call a spade a spade, so bottom flavor, Nutella. : ) 

The happy birthday part used to be in Japanese only, but now it can come both ways. Which is great if you would like English or if you'd like Japanese. : ) A winwin for everyone ordering. Happy birthday Branden, you're a good kid and I'm proud to be your mom. : ) Same for you too Noah, proud to be your mom. : )

As if we weren't stuffed enough with all that yakiniku, we came home and lit the birthday candles, sang happy birthday. And had some cake! It was a Saturday, so no school the next day, which was so nice! : )

Branden has been wanting a radio control car by Tamiya for like years! In fact the 1 wish he wrote on that tanabata tree when we were at the Hilton Hotel in Guam 2 or so years ago, he wrote his wish to have a Tamiya brand radio control car! So Branden has been wishing and wanting and hoping for one, for like forever! Granted I am a girl and I'm not into RC cars at all! Though I did have a Barbie RC car and my regular Barbie did have the pink Corvette, lol. But RC wise, like major big name brands I know absolutely nothing about. However Noboru does! You know how nowadays, Spongebob, Phineas and Ferb and stuff is popular, right? Or in Japan, One Piece, Nameko etc. Anyway, in Noboru's day, there was a cartoon in Japan about RC cars!!! The cars on that cartoon were the brand Tamiya. The price of them. I'll tell you, 17,000 yen and up! @.@ Yep about $170 for 1 RC car. They are so expensive. Like holy crap expensive! Anyway, Noboru always wanted one, when he was growing up, all Noboru's friends had one. But he did not. : (  It wasn't for financial reasons because Noboru's family did have money growing up. His parents just didn't see it as important. Anyone see the Santa Clause with Tim Allen? Well that Tamiya racing car was Noboru's weenie whistle, if you know what I mean! The gift he always dreamed about but NEVER got! : ( Flash forward to now. Branden has been wishing for one for the last couple years. Noboru was always rooting for Branden getting one. But I was the one sorta semi holding out on it. Granted, I wasn't like all hard core about it or anything... but I admit I was more like, "meh, really?" 17,000 yen for 1 car? @.@ Then a month ago, Noboru told me while the boys were at school. " Look baby I know you're on the fence but...I always wanted one of those, but I never got one, now it's too late for me" " and I guess, I just don't want Branden to be like that, do you know what I mean" In that instant, I got it! I totally did. And I told Noboru about how I always wanted the Barbie dream house and I never got it either! I guess my parents didn't realize how badly I wanted it. My cousins got it! The thing was like only $30-40 bucks. I ended up with about 30 wonderful gifts that year (only child, I was) but no dreamhouse! The only gift I really wished for, wasn't under that tree, so yeah I "got it" completely. Yeah, I understood Totally! I told Noboru, OMG, you're so right... I get it! You're right, he needs to get this! : ) And so 17,000 yen later, Branden's dream came true. : ) 

Noboru ordered Branden an extra battery pack and a quick charger. Sunday thank goodness, it wasn't raining, and Branden raced that car all morning until breakfast was ready! : )

Branden getting ready and Noah got out his $25 US, RC monster truck, so Branden could have someone to race with! Nobody wants to race alone! : ) 

Noah is the official fastest runner in our family, so Branden said, Noah run with the car and see who's faster, you or the Tamiya car! Hahaha. Kids!!! The things they think are super important to test out, like....who's faster. Noah or the car?!!! @.@ : )  I love their kid logic and minds! The way they think! : ) 

Birthday bliss! : ) Branden raced it to the battery was done! He played this all day long! : ) 

Branden loved the witty card my dad sent this year! We all thought that was the coolest card! Branden has slept almost 4 years of his life so far? Eaten about 480 slices of pizza? I think that is correct, hahaha! Wow that's a lot of heart beats! Again just a really cool card! 

He's shampooed at least 1872 times! : )

All of the little facts were fun!

Branden will be taking his birthday money to Denver next week. 

Aww. : )

Grandma Mitsuko also sent a special letter for Branden along with some pocket money, and I did have Branden call her and say thank you and talk for a bit. : ) Always important to say thank you, I know. : ) I had Branden skype my dad as well.  All in all, that's how we spent Branden's birthday this year. : ) 

Noah’s class performance, at our town music and talent day

Last Thursday, October 24th was a day we had musical performances and dancing from people in our town. The 2 different elementary schools in our town brought 2 classes each to show what they could do! Both schools did amazing. A junior high group came to show their stuff also! I know, because Genki's sister Momo-chan was there in her junior high school uniform and waved. : ) All the way to the grandma hula dancer group, that our town has and plays at many different venues around here. It was pretty cool actually! Plus I know Noah's class has been practicing for the past week or two pretty hard and he was getting so excited the days leading up. Making sure, "are you and daddy going to come and watch me on Thursday?" : ) "Yes, Noah honey we will both be there, wouldn't miss it for the world!" "Next day, "you two are going to be there, right?" Ahh, my little worry wart! : ) "Yes, honey not to worry." That's so typical Noah! : ) Anyway Noah's sensei sent a note home to the entire class, a poll if you will, right before the town undokai asking if we all had a jinbei or yukata type outfit because she had a great idea to have all the kids show up wearing one! We circled yes, Noah does have one and sent it back. Everyone had one, which was great. Our school sent the 2nd graders and the 4th graders to the performance this year. The other smaller school sent the 6th graders and the 1st graders. Our 4th graders all wore cute bandannas in different colors. When the 2nd graders arrived at the plaza though, you could hear the crowd in the audience all talking "wow they wore jinbei, they wore yukata, how cool" There were lots of elderly in the audience especially since the grandma hula dancers were there with their husbands etc. The whole auditorium was packed basically. Plus the other schools parents and our schools parents. But yeah the whole crowd did like the idea that our sensei had, of the showing up wearing jinbei and yukata. I whispered to Noboru, "our teacher had a perfect idea with this one!" : ) Noah had a speaking part at the beginning but because the kid who spoke before Noah.... said the name of our school, I can't show the video, no worries : ), but it was cute though. : ) That's why Noah was standing at the front in this picture, with about 4 other boys about to speak before they performed.

They played this 1 song on their pianica. : ) Video is down below. But the coolest thing Noah's class did, was the 2 bottom videos. They sang 2 songs,  played ball and made a circle while singing. The cool thing about those bottom 2 videos is the song choice the teacher picked. Because those songs are very old school Japanese songs, everyone loved hearing the kids of today singing them. Noboru whispered in my ear, "these songs are from my grandma's age, she would sing these when she was young" Noboru also grew up singing those songs as well. So, those are like literally old school songs that people really really love and would sing during recess while at school a long long time ago, again Noboru's grandma age type song, so people have very fond memories of these songs. I don't know if I should say traditional songs, iykwim, but I guess they could fall in that category, because the older folks in the audience just absolutely loved seeing young kids of Japan appreciating and carrying on the tradition of playing the same games and singing the same exact songs...even today! Everyone was clapping and it was just super super cool, you guys.  Alright, maybe it was an "you had to be there moment" or I don't know, but it was pretty cool. : ) Again, I think our teacher is always so cool for being so traditional. It would be a fair statement to say the 2nd graders totally rocked it! : )  Anyway, if you want to hear the songs, check out the last 2 videos, the videos are super short though.  I'm glad that my kids are growing up with an appreciation of Japanese traditional things like songs and games from yesteryear and also American traditional things as well and just sort of maintaining that balance and respect of both ways. It's not always easy, but we sure try. : ) Anyway, hope you like the videos and pics and now you know what was our family was up to last Thursday. : )