Whoops I forgot to share the pic of Noboru actually making us dinner! : )

Happy Valentine's day! : ) (a pinch early I know : )

Okay, my hubs and I are pretty close, but I actually think I have managed to totally catch him by surprise this time! The guy has no clue! Bwa ha ha ha! I have been secretly planning how I will be making him some yummy cupcakes for Valentine's day! The cake mix I bought here in Japan at Kaldi and hid it away a few weeks ago. The cake decorations, sprinkle type things I have been buying here and there too, ha, I am such a sneak! Insert evil laughter here! Today was the day. I told Branden, we will be doing *something* as soon as daddy leaves today. Noboru, overheard us and was so curious he asked Branden what it was, about a million times before he left. But since I knew Branden would probably spill the beans, I didn't tell Branden what it was. Ha ha ha! As soon as the hubs left to work on the late shift tonight. I got myself and the boys in the kitchen and we started to work on the cupcakes! : )

Eggs were cracked, mix was stirred. It was pretty fun! The best part is, we all helped and we all know how surprised he is going to be tomorrow!

The frosting is the whip cream kind. So it's going to be less sweet then the regular sometimes overly sweet kind. We added a pinch of red food coloring to make a nice pink Valentine's type color.

When it got the color we wanted we started frosting them!

I was thinking the colored sprinkles would be like hard candy. But I was wrong, they are more like gummy sprinkles but they are not very sweet at all. And not all overly chewy either. They really are pretty good, I was surprised. And the little silver candy balls, looks like pearls when we put them on a pink back drop, so they all came out sorta neat! The boys and I all helped with the sprinkle decorations! : )

Everything is all cleaned up now and they are all safely wrapped on that oblong tray and wrapped gently on top with tin foil. I think Noboru is going to be really happy with his homemade Valentine's day present from us! Perhaps not an expensive store bought gift, but it was a homemade gift that we made for him with our hearts and so I hope it counts for something! I hope he likes them! Happy Valentine's day everyone! : )

Yakitori obento and the ol' "my heart will go on cream stew", lol the pre- Valentine's edition! : )

Okay I didn't get a chance to show this pic last week because I was just too busy, but I really thought it came out pretty cool. It was very simple, pretty easy. The night before I cut up one skinless chicken breast. Stuck it on the 2 cheap little skewers I got from the 100 yen shop. Boy I love the 100 yen shop, in Japan, they have the best stuff! : ) I marinated them with some yakitori sauce and covered them in a Tupperware dish in the fridge until morning. When morning rolled around, I slowly pan fried them with a tiny bit of olive oil in a pan. They were done pretty quickly. The veggie skewer, I got a few frozen broccoli florets from the freezer. Sliced some carrot and used my shape slicer and sliced 3 flower shaped carrots and I lightly boiled/steamed them. Not all falling apart mushy like. Just firm but cooked. I buttered and salted them and again I skewered them along. Kids do like eating stuff from skewers or as B says, from *sticks* lol. I laid the yakitori and steamed veggies on a bed of white rice. He also had mikan and jellies. A simple, and healthy lunch! : )

Well, with Monday Feb 12th being a holiday here in Japan. And with Feb 14th the actual day of Valentine's day being a half day at B's school, I wanted to do a few Valentine's themed lunches this week anyways. So since I can't do one for Wednesday, I made one today. The day before. And I will be making one for the day after Valentine's day as well! Okay, we all know how nerdy and excited I get around all the holidays, lol! Today was so totally easy. And again cheap as chips! He didn't have anything he usually doesn't have. With the exception of how I presented it. I bought some little shaped metal tins from the 100 yen store. You get 2 different size hearts in 1 package for just 100 yen! I also have the star shape as well. So I sent him with the basic cream stew. Leftovers from the night before. I also put rice underneath the stew, just a bit. And I sent him with a cheese quesadilla (sp?), some fresh mikan and some jellies. And by the why, I always naturally want to call them jello-s. Until I hear the other mom's at the yochien/school call them jellies and I remind myself, right, jellies not jello! Ha ha ha! : )

A close-up of the heart shaped stew, ha ha ha! I think these containers are actually supposed to be used to bake tiny cakes or something. But when I saw them, I thought...presto! I can use that to shape my child's lunch! Ha ha ha! : )

The rainboots got here...those trouble making rainboots! lol! : )

Okay nothing earth shattering or major here! But since these boots and there whereabouts were unknown for a few weeks back, if you recall, I thought I better let you all know they did indeed get here safe and sound. Everything else got here safe and sound as well. So I do really dig ExpatExpress after all! Good company! If I lived in the US, I probably wouldn't need rain boots especially living in Denver, because we just don't get that much rain. But living in Japan and having an actual "rainy season", being hit with typhoon after typhoon. And you'll see why a girl could really use a pair. And with my size 9 feet/size 25 cm in Japan. That's just not gonna happen unless I wanna wear man boots or something, lol. And shucks being a girlie girl type. And watching all the Japanese girls and their cute little tiny feet, getting to wear cute little rain boots, heck....I wanted some too! I'm human here! : ) So when I saw these for just $19.99 US about 2,000 yen. I thought, why not, what the heck. Besides I'll probably use these for a bazillion years anyway. So why not. Anyway just wanted you all to know the missing rain boots found their way to me after all, phew! : )

Lunch time our second day! : )

We had been playing in the pools, lazy river ride, and even Noboru did some scuba. It's fair to say we were starving by the time lunch rolled around. We had lunch at the pool bar area. Music played loudly. They played a lot of UB40, played a bunch actually and they're one of my fav bands, so I was happy about that. Noah was still a bit wet but it was hot, so he dried off in no time. We went back to the lazy river right after we ate. I know, I know they say no swimming after a meal, but we didn't swim after we ate, we just sat in inner tubes for about 45 minutes after we ate so we were okay! We swam a full day!!!

Here's Branden drinking a coke and waiting for his lunch!

Here's Noah eating a piece of ice from his glass of apple juice and waiting for his lunch.

Lunch! Noboru had something called a pizza chicken sandwich, I know I know, I was thinking what the heck is that myself. It had marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese on top a chicken breast and fries on the side. Branden had the child's 2 cheeseburgers and fries. the burgers were really small so they gave 2., The meal was called something weird like the twin burger meal or something, lol! And Noah had chicken nuggets (whole breast meat not processed by the way) and fries. Figures I would check the chicken to see, lol. And I had a small pepperoni, mushroom, black olive, green pepper and onion pizza. And all the meals were paid for thanks to the Gold cards. We could pick anything we wanted, it was really cool!

One of the twin burgers had cheese and the other didn't. So maybe they were fraternal twin burgers then? LOL! Here's Branden eating his lunch! : )

Noah eating his lunch!

Lunch time was over! Time to wrap themselves up and go walk over to the river rafts for a while. Boy were we all stuffed from lunch!

Yup, Noah's tummy is full and he's ready for some play. : )

So this was basically our trip in a nut shell. I didn't take pics the second night, but that's because I wanted to just enjoy it all and suck it all up and not have to worry about even taking pictures. We ate dinner at the buffet the second night and it was awesome! We watched a different show the second night and headed back to the pool bar same as the night before. Our 3rd and last day. Our flight didn't even leave until 5:00 pm. So, we woke up had a gorgeous breakfast buffet. Swam until 11:30 am (yes the actual day we left back to Japan). Got dressed. We had a late check out at 1:00 pm. We checked out offically at 12:50 pm, yet they held our luggage for us which was nice and we had a very slow nice lunch there at the pool bar right before we left and then they drove us off at the airport. Sigh, it was a really good trip and sorta sad it's over, ha ha ha. Now back to normal life and that's okay, because now I am refreshed and I'm ready for it! : )

Fun in the pool! : )

Branden and Noah both playing on the crab slide! And all the life jackets were available for free of course at the pool areas. You could choose to wear them or not. And even though B does know how to swim, it's still not good to be cocky about it. Because accidents happen and it's better to be safe then sorry. So I made both boys wear them, every day we were there. I know, sniff, sniff, I'm a meanie! Ha : )

They have this cool pirate ship in the pool and here's Branden trying to steer the ship, lol! I'm telling ya, the PIC Saipan is so fantastic!

I really like this pic of B on the crab! I like this one a bunch. I also like the one of both the boys on the crab as well, though! See, the slide in the background? There were slides all over the place!


Here's Noboru and Noah hanging near the pirate ship! : )

Branden sliding off the crab. Our hotel room,was back there somewhere but on the highest floor, so the view really was pretty cool.

Noboru sliding down the slide. Hmmm. Noboru's #1 thing to do was to go sliding down these slides. I'm telling ya, he went up and slid down so many times during our trip I lost count! Total nerd! : )

Noboru is really trying hard to get Noah to start kicking on his own in the water. He's teaching him just like we taught Branden.

He doesn't cry in the water at all. He has fun with it, and that's good. : )

There's Branden on the pirate ship way back there.

And there he is just hanging around and having fun!

A quick change of clothes and we were ready to swim! : )

After breakfast, we strolled upstairs and putting on our swimwear, robes for the boys and my swimsuit cover and straw hat! And cruised back downstairs to enjoy a day full of fun! : )

Noah patiently waiting for the elevator.

Noah looking on watching his older brother put his goggles on. Yup, B wanted to wear his goggles in the elevator, lol! : )

Noboru and Noah walking hand in hand.

Noboru and the boys! : )

Noboru wanted to practice scuba in the pool. Hmm, he coulda done scuba for free in the ocean just a minute away. But he didn't want to. He wanted to do it here. Go figure! : )

Branden waited for daddy to finish with his few minutes of scuba so he just hung out on the ship while we waited.

Breakfast time! : )

What the heck, I let the kids go eat breakfast in their grubby clothes, stuff I usually let them just hang in the house in or play in the back yard in when at home. I figured it was just breakfast and so no big deal. And with Noah, even if wears a bib, if he had a spill I'd prefer it to be on something grubby and not very important. So yup, they ate like this, they survived, lol! : )


Branden and Noboru walking down to breakfast. Ready to hit the all you can eat breakfast buffet!


Noah caught up with them and together the 3 of them headed into breakfast. I shuffled behind since I was the picture taker and then as soon as I put my camera away, I ran to go catch up with them! : )

Hmmm, I think Noah's bib pretty much explains it all. Breakfast time! LOL, breakfast time indeed! : )

This was my first serving. I had an omelet, and they make it to order, I choose cheddar cheese and onion. Hash brown, crispy bacon and English muffin. My second serving was a quarter Belgian waffle, and 1 french toast and 1 banana nut pancake. Oh man was that good. My 3rd small serving was fruit. Noboru picked the Japanese parts from the buffet, he had miso soup, rice, fish, they also had a bunch of Korean foods since some Korean conglomerate company bought the PIC hotels. And so they offered kimchee and Noboru had some of that as well. Amazing how my husband and I could each be at the *same* exact buffet and yet the stuff he chooses is so totally different from the stuff I choose. It's funny! Yup, buffet meals is when you can truly see how we really are an international couple and how different our tastes are. : )

And Branden being a typical kid, his first thing he wanted was cereal. They had a whole table of every cereal you could ever imagine. It was like kid heaven for sure! His second serving was Belgian waffles and french toast! Everybody ate really well.

Here is a shot taken while we were waiting for our first dinner to be made from the night before! : )

Here's a shot of B, while we waited for our first dinner to be cooked and served. We ate out on the terrace of one of the restaurants at the hotel and with it being tropical and hot, the weather was perfect for eating outside!

Here's a shot of some people playing a night game of beach volleyball. Like I'm saying there is just so many activities to do all day long, all night long as well. It's never boring here! : )

Our night life at the PIC Saipan, lol!

The shows they had at the hotel were cool! These ladies danced to "Lady Marmalade" (sp?) And they all wore so many different costumes for all the different songs. It was just a 30 minute show. There were mostly all families and children present. I admit I was a bit worried when I saw their outfits at first, but it was a good clean fun show! We all enjoyed it a bunch! There were girl dancers and guy dancers. One very good looking guy dancer by the way!


After all the dancers danced. They called everyone to the stage to dance. I didn't go dance. I totally would have, but Noah was about to fall asleep and he was on my lap. Branden got up and did the YMCA with everyone! The pic is a bit blurry but that's because like I said, Noah was about to fall asleep on my lap and Noboru took the picture. So, most the pics from the dancing show are a bit blurry, sorry! : )


At this point Noboru came back to my seat and told me, he was having trouble using my camera, lol! And took Noah, while I snapped a few pics. I snapped this pic. Here was Branden dancing the Macarena with the other hotel guests! Well, he isn't shy, that's for sure! : )


This picture sorta made me upset. There was a older women clicking about 14 or 15 pictures. She took many, because her flash kept going off, you woulda thought she woulda took a few pictures of her family and moved out of the way for someone else to get a chance to take a pic too, obviously the lady had no intention moving and proceeded to snap about a whole roll of film, go figure! I wanted to move over and she wouldn't move a dot, not an inch! So poor Branden had to face me, where I was standing versus the direction where everyone was was facing! Oh well, no worries! We still had fun! Oh by the way, that hot dancer guy in the green and white jacket up front was so cute! Way too young for sure, but so smokin'!!! He also was one of the life guards during the day.


After the dancing show let out. We quickly went upstairs and grabbed our cheap travelling stroller and headed downstairs to the pool bar, where the band was playing and singing music! I had a strawberry daiquiri. Noah was dead asleep and didn't have anything since he was fast asleep. Branden had a lemonade. Noboru had a coconut daiquiri. They gave every table freshly popped popcorn and they kept refilling the popcorn bowls, so it never got empty. We also changed Noah into his comfy clothes that way we wouldn't have to wake him later to change his clothes.


The second drink I had was called a "lemon drop" oh man was it great! Noboru had this drink in the back, it was called a Tsunami and the Tsunami was delicious. We each had 3 drinks each, my last drink was also a Tsunami. Branden just had the one lemonade though because it was huge for him, in fact, he may not have even finished it. We stayed until the band was finished. And then we left and went upstairs. It was a full first day, I tell ya! A flight, lunch, swimming, dinner, a dancing show, the bar and by that time we were actually a bit tipsy.

This is the band we watched. We told them we actually saw them 3 years ago, the first time we went to Saipan. And actually I have them on video tape. They laughed and were very gracious! They took a few of our requests. They played Abba, Wham, Prince, Outkast, oh man they played everything it was so fun!!!


Like I said, our day was fun but it was long. Noah was dead asleep and stayed asleep until morning! He missed the popcorn and band completely! : )

This is how it looks from our lanai, really beautiful huh? It seriously was a tropical paradise.



We laid Noah down on the bed right away. He was wearing his sleeping grubbies so we didn't even have to wake him! Smart that we changed him after the dancing show, when we went upstairs to get the stroller. So Noah got out of the stroller and stayed asleep in bed. Branden changed into his pj's as well and he was dead asleep within 5 minutes from when this picture was taken.

With both kids in bed. I took a quick shower, Noboru took one after me. We both got into the hotel yukatas the hotel provided. We then had err, how should I say this politely? We then had a wonderful time well spent just mommy and daddy in the spare bed! It was nice because we were really relaxed, happy, a bit tipsy, and we just enjoyed ourselves. We were giggling and trying really hard not to wake the kids and we didn't! They were dead tired anyway, long day. Afterwards Noboru and I sat together on the lanai and just sat holding hands. I know that must sound truly dumb but it was actually really wonderful!