Japan Trip #2

Barely two months after his first trip, Josh made another return trip to Japan for work (same duration of time). At least for mama this time around, the boys were in school so I didn't have as much entertaining to do as I did over the summer. Also better this time around : Josh got to fly business class and had some time to sightsee a little bit. However, a major con for him this trip was that he had to go all over Japan, so there were lots more trains, buses,etc than previously.

He was so excited to enjoy the perks of flying business class, at least!

Tokyo Tower

The boys are way into different modes of transportation, so he was trying to get pictures of the different trains

Pretty food

Sightseeing tour of Mt Fuji - unfortunately, once up on the mountain it was very cloudy

Big on food displays

Bullet train?

Last of five hotels - most fancy - right by the water

We're hoping Josh doesn't have to go back to Japan the rest of the year now....though we know it's not the end of other business trips for the rest of the year :(

Oh, and we were so happy again to have him home that we made him a cake! From scratch vanilla with strawberry buttercream.

Comparison Shot

It's been awhile again since I last posted some pictures of the boys at the same ages - almost 4.5 years old.

Brother-ly enough I think :) In another week after Parent-Teacher Conferences, I'll find out if the brothers behave and such in the same way too at school. I'm a little nervous about the younger one :)

Speaking of the younger brother, he asked me to take a picture of him this morning putting on his shoes by himself. Within the last week he has started to take off his clothes and put on his clothes all on his own with a fairly good success rate. He's so proud! I think he really enjoys being able to do "big boy" things.

Daddy's Birthday Weekend

Hard to believe it's already been a few weeks ago that school began and that it was Josh's birthday. Josh literally got home from his business trip just in time for his birthday. We grabbed breakfast the actual morning while the kids were in school, then it was off to preparing for him and the boys to go on a camping trip that weekend with some buddies from work. They went to a different campsite than the one we went to together over Memorial Day weekend and I'm happy to report there were no bee stings and bears! See, I knew I brought bad curses. They stayed two nights and seemed to have a wonderful time.

Fun in the lake

The camping crew. Such a brave daddy taking everyone on his own.

Aaron and his new  girl "friends". He's going to be trouble.

Natural smiles in the great outdoors.

Our doggie got lots of walks by the kiddos there

We're very excited to get through the month of August so we can get to our family vacation...finally! ;) 

Brrring, Brrring...

We have made it through the first few days of school successfully! Both boys have had good days so far and have been excited to go back to friends and new experiences. Indeed, it has been nice to get back into the groove of things! It already has been so nice to have both of them going to the same place...one drop off for mommy, yay! I'll take it :)

Pre-K and 2nd Grade

I decided to make the boys a big breakfast for their first day back. Unfortunately we were missing daddy who is away on business, so I invited Nana and Auntie Angie over to help eat the goodies!

Can't go wrong with waffles, fruit and bacon!

Nana came along with us to school -

I was so excited to be able to go in both the boys' classrooms. Aaron has the same teacher Nate did for Pre-K, so it's nice to already sort of know what to expect and what he'll do. Nate has a totally new teacher to the school - and to Arizona even - but within meeting her in the first few seconds, I knew things were going to be okay. We're back to having a bubbly, sweet, rainbow kind of teacher. I'm impressed by her already - which maybe is saying a lot considering it's only been three days, but I'm hopeful! :)

Nathan doesn't have too many buddies he already knows in his class, but I don't think he minds making new friends and has been pleased to see old buddies at recess time.

Ok mom you're sort of embarrassing me here...2nd day of class

I think Aaron enjoys going to the same school as "big brother" and he also has a "big backpack" this year too. Have I mentioned yet how it's nice that they both go to the same school now? :) I have four more years to enjoy this a bit!

Here's to more good days of school!

FINAL week of Summer Vacation!

Here we go..what we were up to our very last week of summer break!

To begin the week, a visit to the i.d.e.a. Museum in Mesa.

Once upon A Time theme- glow in the dark Mad Hatter tea party! So cute.

What ended up being very convenient, the boys were both in camps in the morning the whole week. This particular week has been a bit of a grouchy, brother battle, "what can I do, what can I do" sort of whiny week. It was good for all of us to have some time apart a bit!

Nathan did a camp at an environmental center with the theme being set around Hawaii. They played games, did crafts, took daily walks around a lake near there...he had a good time. They even had a luau lunch!

Limbo-ing

Luau lunch

Aaron's camp centered around games - each day they learned two different ones - like golf, tennis, soccer, hockey, etc. Unfortunately I never got there in time to get pictures of him doing any of it, but the last day they too had a little special ceremony for the kids, giving them ribbons.

The sign says "Sportball" above them, the group that put it on

Getting his ribbon

We had one last hurrah at a public pool complete with Italian ice!

Our Cub Scout/neighbor boy Tyler also came back over again to play one afternoon.

The boys both had Meet the Teacher one evening and we have our cousins from California that are in town for another visit!

This morning I took the boys back to bouncing -

....as well as a Minion picture frame making  craft at Michaels.

With all this action, though, I think we're going to have one last RELAXING day at home tomorrow before school begins the following day! As grand as breaks can be, I think we're ready again for structure :)