Getting ready for our "Natsu Matsuri", a bit of fishing and swimming class, wow what a Friday! Ha ha ha! : )

All mom's and about 4 or so dad's who could come, all came to the school this morning at 9:00 am. We were setting up for tomorrows school summer festival/Natsu matsuri. I went to help, of course. Noboru had off today, he was going to stay home with the boys. However, he showed up with the boys at the school after I was already there for about an hour. Nice surprise! The red box with flowers is what I made this morning. I cut out the red construction paper, taped it up to the box. And taped flowers to it. Taped balloons to the box as well. I actually had a great time decorating that box. Ha ha ha. I also decorated quite a few other things as well. But everyone helped, everyone did their fair share of work. And it was all very fun, relaxed happy atmosphere, so I really enjoyed myself.

This was just a bare table with balloons taped on it and they asked me to finish it up with my good friend Rie-san. So, we both taped those red and pink plastic streamers to the table. And then a few other mom's joined us and we all arranged and taped the flowers on there as well.

That's obviously Noboru there, he joined us all and he made a few balloons. Which was great because I absolutely detest making balloon animals. Ha ha ha, sorry but I do! : )

All of the mom's at our kindergarten did so much work. The whole thing came out looking really super! I can't wait until tomorrow at 3:00 pm when it all starts! : )

Around noon we left the yochien. And we ran to the local shop to get some fishing things. No, not fishing with a pole, but rather fishing with a trap. Fishing with a bottle actually. Noboru had been really wanting to take the boys to go and catch some fish this way. And so today we did that. Boy was he happy about it! Ha ha ha! : ) Inside this bottle is fish food.

Wow, what a murky looking canal! Ha ha ha! : )

We threw the bottle/trap in the canal, tied the bottle with string to the bridge and we went home, had lunch, got Branden changed into his swimming stuff and we headed to the swim school. We were wondering...."did we catch anything" We were pretty excited!

Branden ready for Friday's swimming lesson!

Noah, ready to play with his buddies at the swim school!

We have this set of stroller hooks in the car to hang the boys headphones. Branden, playfully took one down, pretending to be a pirate. "Aye there matey!" Ha ha ha! Silly kids! Bless their little hearts! : )

Noah, zonked out. Can't really say I blame him. He had been on the go all day long. No time for even a nap. He slept at the swim school for about 30 minutes. He was really tired. But then he woke up and played with his friends. They were waiting! : )

Now the car was pure excitement. We were trying to guess what we actually caught! Did we catch shrimp? Crayfish? Regular fish or what! Non stop guessing, until we parked the car. We all hopped out and looked! Just fish! Ha ha ha, that's all we caught. But we caught a whole bunch!

These aren't fish to eat or anything like that and we knew that from the beginning. These were fish to catch for fun. We have boys and boys like doing these types of things! This week, we will catch frogs around the yard as well! We never keep them longer, then to spend one night at our house. They stay over night on our porch and the boys get to get a good look at them and see their gills open and close. Their tails swishing back and forth. It's really a nice thing for these 2 country boys to get to do. And we always bring the fish or frogs right back to where we caught them. We release them back.

This small country bridge and thin one lane road. Little canal and endless green rice fields. Talk about living way out in the middle of nowhere, ha ha ha! I actually really love it though! : )

A slightly blurry pic, I know, I'm sorry about that. But we were driving quickly down the road with a bucket of a few fish in the back of the car. These vibrant green fields, always put me in awe! I'm sorry if this sounds a bit corny, but so be it. However, I always think, how beautiful Japan really is when I see this view. This is the Japan that I love! : )

See this small green frog on my back terrace? Well, I see frogs everywhere where I live. I swear to you, that I secretly must live at the actual "headquarters for frogs" ha ha ha, seriously though! It's frog city around here! I saw about 5 this morning on the front lawn. Whenever I step on the grass, actual green things jump out as we walk. And yup, you've guessed it, they are frogs! I see them sleeping, like "dead asleep" on my front porch. I let them sleep and don't bother them but sheesh! They are everywhere! Ha ha ha. My friend has told me they could be poisonous. I'm not sure but just in case, I am not crazy about the boys touching them, but they love picking them up! Ha ha ha! One jumped on my back patio kitchen sliding door/window and it scared the living daylights out of me. He came out of nowhere and just hopped in front of me as I was looking out the window.

We only brought back 4 fish with us. We didn't want to be greedy. We released the others right back. We figure 4 is enough for the boys to get a good look at. After they looked at them, we put the fish on the front porch since it's cooler there. They will stay the night out there but we will send them back home to their little fishy families tomorrow morning ASAP. : )

Our country boys, thoroughly enjoying their life in the country side, ha ha ha! : )

Last picture has to go to the fish! But of course! Ha ha ha! Anyway, it was a long busy day. But a nice and happy one at that! Have a good night everyone! : )

Catching up a bit here! : )

Our quiet Saturday: So on Saturday the typhoon was indeed pushed back a day. And was now supposed to hit the Chiba area on Sunday instead. So, Saturday was a quiet day. A gray looking day, with rain showers off and on, where I live throughout the day. And by the evening the rain had stopped completely. In the afternoon, we hit the local small shopping mall and bought both of the boys their sandals to go with their jinbeis, that they will be wearing next Saturday for the yochien festival, that Branden's school is having. We got home and Noboru played with the boys in the living room while I prepared dinner. As usual, nothing fancy shmancy. Chicken karaage, rice, and I stir fried some spinach with a little margarine and salt and pepper, versus boiling it until it looks gray. I prefer the flavor of spinach this way and both the kids and hubs love it as well. Salad with the usual goma dressing. And some fresh fruit of course, and today it was watermelon. Quick, easy and pretty yummy, if I don't say so myself. Ha ha ha. : )

Good conversations throughout dinner. Plenty of laughs.

Noboru filled the dishwasher. Meanwhile I got the bath started and the boys cleaned up. Noboru jumped in the shower afterwards. And then we all found ourselves downstairs for the rest of the night watching TV. Some really good movies actually. Munching popcorn and Reece's Pieces and some sodas. Noah zonked out first as usual (predictable Noah ha ha ha) and it was just a pretty good night. No complaints. : )

Sunday morning. We all woke up around 9:00 am. I got the coffee going right away and preheated the oven. With the typhoon looming. I thought it would be a great day/morning to enjoy our cinnamon rolls.

There's something quite nice about a family of 4 all sitting in the living room, come Sunday morning. Boys were sitting with their cinnamon rolls and milk. Noboru and I sat sipping our coffees and eating our rolls. He tracked the weather online every once in a while. Didn't seem too bad here where we live. They must have totally downgraded the typhoon. It was just like your average typical rainy day around here. And I've seen some bad typhoons before, yet it didn't seem like that at all, come Sunday. We were relieved. Noboru left to work in the afternoon, unfortunately but we had a pretty nice day at home. I helped Branden with his writing in English for only about 20 minutes. And then after that Branden, Noah and I played 2 rounds of Candyland that was a blast. The rain still persisted but it wasn't too horrible. I made chili cheese dogs for lunch. And for dinner, we had so much karaage and stuff leftover in the fridge, that we basically had the same thing we had for dinner the night before (except I fried the chicken fresh tonight since it was still in the batter all night long). With the small change of, we had corn on the cob tonight versus spinach like we had the night before. But we also had watermelon and everything else. We all got washed up in the tub again. And then we just sorta lazed around enjoying our night of TV. No school tomorrow because it's a holiday here in Japan. Marine Day or something like that.

Monday, was quiet as usual. Noboru had to work. Although mostly everyone had off with it being a holiday here in Japan. But since he works for an American company, he has to work Japanese holidays (although he gets off most American holidays so I don't mind so much). I let the boys play outside all day long in the backyard. They came in for lunch. And then after that we all took a very nice afternoon snooze. When we woke up, I brought out the big box of crayons and put down the dinner mats and let them crayon some pictures and just be a bit creative, meanwhile I was busy cooking dinner.

Tuesday: Branden's last day of school and a half day at that! Meaning no obento to make. He took the school bus to school. But we picked him up at school and as a sorta reward for a "job well done" or "glad you are finished and let's bring on summer" so we took the boys to Mc Donald's. I had the grilled chicken sandwich and the salad with goma dressing. Large iced tea. The kids played with their Shrek toys from their happy meals. And then we went home. So no more obento making for a long while or waking up so early until September now. Yippy! Three cheers, Huray! : )

Wednesday. We all snoozed in and I didn't roll outta bed until 9:00 am. So nice not having to wake up at 7:00 am. Very nice feeling actually! I lazed around in my nightgown/night shirt and drank hot caramel machiatto and watched CNN on the couch. I felt really snoozy and lazy all morning. Nice to relax for a change, versus being on " super go, go, go mode since 7:00 am" like I usually have to. The kiddos had Lucky Charms cereal (well because their magically delicious, right?, lol!) and toast. I had another hot coffee. We then ran to the city of Narita and we went grocery shopping. I got about 6 or 7 nights worth of food again. Geeze we go through loads of food around here, oh well! He he! So many drinks, it was just nuts! And we loaded up the car and I ran back home. Unloaded the car with the boys. Put the groceries into the fridge and wherever else. Made everyone some sandwiches. And then we hit swimming class. With kids and a bagful of snacks in tow. We enjoyed our afternoon there. I have a very good friend, that I really like that goes on Wednesday's too. Her name is Kaya-san. Though I've probably misspelled it. She's Japanese, but she speaks English really really well. Her son Natsuki goes to the same yochien B, does. And the kids are friends and so are we. She is very funny and I always look forward to seeing her on Wednesdays. We were laughing about something today so hard! My face must have turned pink! But I do have a good time chatting with her on Wednesdays. It's a hoot! She really cracks me up. So, anyway after swimming class. And ice creams were bought. I got the boys loaded up in the minivan. And we drove home. Noboru works the 4:00 pm to midnight shift today. So, he missed swim school with us. And he missed supper with us as well. Poor guy : ( He's phoned and asked if there might be anything left for him when he gets home, and I told him "but of course!" ha ha ha. So anyway. I made dinner obviously. Loaded the dishwasher and now we are about to head upstairs and get showered, soaped and shampooed up a storm! And then just enjoy the rest of our night.

Good night everyone, sleep well! : )

Our Friday afternoon at swimming school! : )

What a busy day. Nice day, but busy nonetheless! We informed the swim school that he is now to go twice a week for the summer and so we filled the proper paperwork out for that. And we went upstairs and found a seat. With Noboru off work today, he got to enjoy the swimming class with us. Here is one of the coaches and she is clapping and cheering Branden on! I really like that about swimming class in Japan. They tell you how to do it. They do want you "spot on" that is true, but they also really praise your efforts and cheer you on every step of the way!

She was making sure his underwater swimming was right. And she made him go back and forth a few times at it. I could see by her gestures she would say "make your arms a bit straighter" or do this or do that. And then she would praise him when he got it right. Meanwhile we looked on. And she knows we look on too. Some parents watch their kids and some don't or can't. They will just drop them off and come back when it's time to pick them up. I think it's personal choice and again whatever works for each family. But, I like to watch, so I can see the progress of his swimming. And that way if the coach has to discuss something with me, I know what she is talking about exactly. Or if he wasn't paying attention, for example I will tell him, pay attention better next time. Or I'll say..."wow you did so extra good today, let's go get that ice-cream" although we get ice cream every time though, ha ha ha. But you know what I mean.

That's Branden in the bright neon green kids Speedo goggles. I like the bright color, so I can pick my kid out of the swimming pool super easily. Boy does that help! Ha ha ha. : )

Noah and his buddies! These are Noah's Friday swim school buddies. Different kids from his Wednesday swim buddies of Noah's. All these kids have an older sibling in the pool. Noah's brother is B, of course. The little boy also has an older brother. And the cute little girl has an older sister in the pool right now. These 3 amigos, if you will, play their butts off every Friday (we swam Friday's last summer)! Next year at this time though, Noah and the little girl will be in swimming class on their own though because they will be 3 year olds next year. However, the little boy has a bit more of a wait. That's okay though they are all still good pals! For what it's worth, I've known that little boy since he was a new born last year. And now he's walking, granted wobbly walking but he is walking just the same. Every time he sees me, he wobbly walks right over to me! : )

For Friday there's about 4 in the same level Branden is in give or take a few. So it's no easy win. They are all at the same exact level. Coach had them race this way. And Branden lost, he was 3rd, you can tell by the glasses. He looked up at the window and we smiled and put up a #1 hand. And we smiled. He smiled back (playfully of course). And then the coach had them race back the opposite way.

And Branden won! Again you can tell by the green goggles. Again it's all for fun. But it helps the kids. With every race for fun, they are getting stronger arms, better upper body strength. Good cardio. Plus the coach cheers everyone on, whether they lose or not!

There was Branden turning around, looking at the coach and she clapped. Plus none of us parents really cares who wins upstairs at all, we are all friends upstairs anyways. But it gets the kids excited so it's okay! : )

Now another technique. he has to lay half face in the water, on his side. She is bending his body to the right position. Giving him the ol' pep talk.

She tells him by her gestures, "scissor feet" move your feet like scissors! Branden does exactly as she says and he has it! We watch from the window.

See the coach extended her arm like that? She is reminding him extend your arm like that!!! And then he did and she clapped for him when he got it right again. She had him do about 4 or 5 reps of these, until he got it exactly right.

And here he was coming back the other way. Scissor feet and all, lol! He has it down pact now! She will test him on this again next Wednesday I am sure. : )

Now the back stroke. She didn't like his lean back position here. LOL.

So, she had him do it properly one more time. Here he is face up against the wall and then he bent his head back yet again and she shook her head, yes! And he went for it!

She told him what he did right. Praised him for it. Told him what he did wrong and she coached him through it. She really is a fantastic coach.

Noah taking a drink from his apple juice and to grab a snack before returning to playing with his friends again. He also got a quick glimpse of B in the pool before returning back to his buddies.

And yet even another bigger girl came to play and what did they do? Well they all thought it would be fun to go check out the tape covering the electrical light socket. But all us parents put a stop to that. And then they quickly lost interest in that and started playing another game. After swim school, and buying the kids each an ice-cream, we went to the grocery store. Why? Well, because there has been talk of a big typhoon coming to Japan. Now, I went to the grocery store a few days ago and got a weeks worth of food already and I am well stocked up. But with the constant talk of a typhoon. Some say it's going to be really bad. That it will come to Chiba on Saturday and now there's talk of a delay of it coming on Sunday. In either case, I ran to the store with the kids and hubby in tow to get an extra loaf of bread, English muffins, carton of milk, a box of Kirin straight tea, 2 apple juices, 1 orange juice, 2 bottles of Qoo Sumomo momo, a bottle of water, extra batteries for our flash light, 2 candles just in case of power failure. Batteries for the small Spongebob stereo, so we could at least have music if we lost power. Fresh fruit, we bought a quarter of a watermelon, grapes, stuff for salad, bananas, and even though we have about a weeks worth of food to begin with like I said, we bought these few extras just in case, all heck, really does hit the fan with regards to this typhoon. Though I am crossing my fingers it will lose it's strength like the lady at CNN said it would. Oh yeah and Noboru bought a big thing of charcoal, because he says if we lose power, we can always cook food on the grill outside, rain or not. LOL. So we are set, I guess/hopefully. Pics we saw on TV, of what happened to like Okinawa scared us because they really got hit hard with it. I hope we don't get hit too hard. Oh man! : )

Our Friday morning and the pulling of the dashi for the natsu-matsuri! : )

Today, was a sorta practice run for the "real day" of the summer festival/natsu matsuri. They invited the kids from Branden's yochien to come and pull the rope or dashi, if you will. I'm sure you in Japan don't need an explanation, since you already know. But for other's not in Japan, I'll try my best at explaining. See, that giant Japanese float in the background (for lack of a better word here)? Well it is quite heavy. Think heavy wood wheels and extremely old statue type thing. Two ropes are in front and you pull it. Usually adults. But today, our yochien/kindergarten got to do this. They did this last year as well. Branden was the one in this pic, wearing yellow shorts, the new PE uniform. I wish they were all wearing the same uniform. However Branden went through that growth spurt a while back remember, and that white outfit does *not* fit properly anymore and since they only sell the yellow one now. Then that is the way it has to be, unfortunately ha ha ha. However one other boy is now wearing the yellow one as well. So now there's 3 total wearing the yellow uniform, phew, at least he isn't the only one! : )

Noah got a kick out of watching all of those "big" kids pull the dashi/rope. The kids were screaming.....Wasshoi!!!! (Sp?) Even, I was screaming...wasshoi!!! Though I am a bit nerdy and I admit that. I was just really having a blast, I can't help it! : )

There they are giving it a good pull.

On the day of the actual festival. There will be a large number of those huge floats. And what seems like millions of people all packed like sardines all trying to get a good look at them. So, it was sorta nice for the kids to be able to participate and pull the dashi without the crowds of all the people on the real day.

All these yochien mom's in the background are all very very nice. All our sons swim together as well. Also water canals all around with boats of people looking on.

Hey, here is a boat right now as a matter of fact, ha ha ha!

Group photo! This is Branden's class. And that is his teacher with the black t- shirt in the background. She is a really super teacher! Branden adores her. He really likes being in her class. She likes him as well. She has never had a complaint about Branden either, she says he is a good student and good athlete (obviously we just had a parent teacher conference the day before, ha ha ha). In fact all the kids really like this teacher.Noboru and I also really like her a bunch ourselves. Very helpful lady. She will be Noah's teacher eventually, ha ha ha. Good thing we all get along so well, huh? Ha ha ha. Phew! : )

Close up shot of the kids! : ) And my day isn't over by a long shot. Now I have to run home, prepare lunch. Throw another load of clothes into our dryer. And then we are off to swimming school. Today we are going because we have to make up for B missing last weeks swim lesson due to us being in Guam. I also am increasing his swimming lessons during this summer to twice a week, versus just once a week. I figure I will be keeping my little guy as active as I possibly can this summer versus just being bored. I'm also enrolling him in Kumon. Many of you know, I have been debating about sending him or not sending him. After of about 6 month's of deep thinking about it. I searched online and found they have Kumon in the US now and I read their homepage in English, boy did it answer a lot of the questions I had about it. All the moms talked highly about it at my yochien like I said before, saying it is giving their kids a little boost in their Japanese writing and reading. Noboru does help him and he does have study books in Japanese here at the house. But, I think Kumon is something our family can benefit from. Granted every family is different and as it should be, but for us we think Kumon can help us prepare for when B starts the first grade next April. So, he will be going to swimming twice a week for an hour and a half each time. So 3 hours of swimming a week. That's not too much, but enough for him to stay busy and hopefully pass to another level by the end of summer. And twice a week, he will go to Kumon for an hour a night. Again not hours upon hours of study, but enough to give him a head start for next year, we are hoping. Plus most of his days will be spent in the backyard, playing with his brother or swimming in our little plastic inflatable pool just having regular fun anyway. Or frog hunting, or playing with the kids in the neighborhood. So it's not like he will be all stressed out or anything. But yeah, we have an assessment appointment for July 23rd or 24th or something. And then after that, he will begin Kumon from that week.

Building a fence! : )

After we got back from Guam, we sorta jumped right back into the swing of things. We have been wanting to do a few small improvements here and there to the landscaping and yard and such. So we went to the local hardware store, or DIY if you will. And got, lumber, hardware and whatever else and Noboru built this fence this week. It took him just 2 short days from start to finish. Including the dry time the concrete base had to dry. And he did it all by himself. We wanted to get it up and done before the weekend typhoon we were expecting came. We will be painting it ASAP, but with typhoons and harsh rains and such. We will have to wait painting it, until we get a forecast of 2 sunny days in a row and as soon as that happens then we will paint it. Noboru wants a white picket fence. Because he wants the fence to match the metal fence in the backyard. Yet we are also considering staining it to the same color as the front porch. Hmmm. Decisions, decisions, huh? But anyway that is one reason we were a bit busy this week. Fence building. Plus we have been getting ready for the summer festival at Branden's school. We both have many things they asked both of us to do. So we have been quite busy. I've been making art cutouts for summer fans (you know to fan off the heat with, lol), Noboru is going to be selling hot dogs at the summer festival and between us both we have just been a bit busy with the fence and the summer festival volunteer duties, we've both been assigned. No complaints though, it is going to be a blast! We're all looking forward to it. Also, I have been on a hunt for the boys' jinbei's (sp?) for this year. We found an adorable one for Noah, rather quickly online, but Branden's was a bit trickier to find. Well, only because we are a bit picky, but we found a really nice one and so I'm happy about it. All, I have to do is buy their Japanese sandals to go with their jinbeis. Some of the sandals are wood, some are tatami looking types (I prefer these kinds), so many choices. Ha ha ha. I love it though because I find choosing the outfits for their Japanese summer outfits really fun! : )