9 Blissful Years

In 9 years of getting married, so much has happened in this short period of time--we moved from one apartment to another 3 times already, gained 2 sweetie girls, had a couple of vacation in the Philippines and a couple of out of town travels here in Japan, hospital appointments, became more busy as the kids grow up, Wakaba is now in primary and Haruka a kindergartner, a series of small and big fights, but these past 9 years have been the best years of my life. Thank you, Yochan for being loving, caring and supportive husband and a great father to our children. I am proud of all we have gone through together!

Wakaba with her apron on is doing the mixing job and measuring the ingredients
Haruka waits for her turn on doing the mixing
Chocolatey!
Almost done with the cake
Chocolate Cake for our Anniversary--made with love, full of hearts^_^
Wakaba's letter to us--isn't she sweet?
It's not where you go or what you do, it's who is beside you that counts!

Happy Anniversary!

An entry for

Happy 9th Wedding Anniversary!

You're the answer to my prayers... I love you so much, Yochan. January 29, Happy 9th Wedding Anniversary ^_^

Food Trip Friday--New Year Festives

We celebrated our New Year at my PIL's home and made all the necessary preparations just like the other year, it's a tradition here in Japan to clean the house ( year-end cleaning for new beginnings) , decorating bamboo ornaments, osechi ryori ( this time we prepared of what's available inside the fridge ), setting up an altar with kagamimochi ( round rice cakes), sake and some other specialties and since it's holiday in Japan, all of our New Year festives were bought so we don't have to cook and to have less hassles in the kitchen. I only prepared the Japanese style Caprese ( coz my husband ain't a fan of sushi's and seafoods ) and the osechi ryori was prepared by my 2 SIL--we had so much fun in the kitchen while our husband were tending to our kids^_^
Sashimi
Japanese style Caprese
Hors d'oeuvres
Temaki Sushi ( hand rolled sushi )
Nigiri Sushi
Table setting
Temaki Salad
An entry for Food Trip Friday. Chibugan na!!\(^0^)/

Mommy Moments--New Family Photo

Our Recent Kulitan Photos

Christmas Day
New Year's Day

This is the latest family photo that we have taken during the holiday season^_^

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Nostalgia--My Kids Circle Of Friends

Moving from one place to another makes a lot of adjustments most especially with the new environment, new to town and the neighborhood . I'm glad that during the time we move here in our apartment during the year 2008, there are lots of kids in the neighborhood and it wasn't that hard for them to make friends most especially when I joined social community activities like the Kodomo Kai where they had a chance to meet other kids in the group (and for me as well ) and the environment here is good ( playground, hospital, school, supermarket, etc is near us ). Some of Wakaba and Haruka's friends would come over to our house for sometimes and play with their toys and or when the sun is out, you would see them playing outdoor and running around. Sometimes they would play hide and seek inside our small apartment and guess what they've told me? There's nowhere to hide in our place!!Oh well..LOL!

Walking hand in hand
Summer treat at Lotteria

Made Kakigori (shaved ice flavored with syrup ) at home--a kids favourite summer treat!
Made muffins for snacks and invited them
Hanabi (fireworks) during the summer

Isn't it so much fun to go back and just yank them all out and just sit there and reminisce? ^_^
*Nostalgia is a weekly Thursday meme hosted by Ate Rose--please play with us by clicking the linky badge.*

Couple's Corner--We Promise...

Our marriage experienced hell during the past few years and just like any other couples, has experienced difficult times but we're glad that we're still together after all these years. As we celebrate our 9th Wedding Anniversary on the 29th of this month and for the coming years, we promise to continue to support each other no matter what, we promise to be more loving, spend more quality time, play and have fun together with the kids, to be more patient, nurturing to our kids. Through thick and thin, I love the marriage that I always wanted ^_^

Head up to Mommy Liza' s fun meme only here at

Nostalgia--Rice Cake Pounding

This was Haruka's first ' omochi tsuki ' ( rice cake pounding ) when she was still joining her prepschool as a celebration to wish good health and prosperity of the New Year here in Japan. Some Yochien ( kindergarten ) in Japan do their omochi tsuki during December but theirs is done some time in January. I was also a part of preparing the mochi ( rice cake ) with some other volunteer mums/PTA at school. When the sticky rice is cooked, it is placed in the wooden mochibowl and the kids circle around the mochibowl while the school director helped the kids one by one smashing their mallets into the rice dough. And when they're all done in participating of mochi pounding, it is our job in rolling small mochi balls which were eaten with different kinds of toppings by the kids at school. It was a new experience for me and it was also Wakaba's last omochi tsuki as kindergartner. Volunteer Mums & PTA members--sticky rice is steamed Preparing the bowls for the mochi soup Haruka gets a little help with mochi pounding Mochi with different kinds of flavor--Isobe mochi ( dipped with soysauce and wrapped with dried nori ), anko mochi ( dipped with redbean paste), and kinako mochi ( topped with kinako powder). Ozoni--Japanese Mochi Soup Haruka loves mochi

Isn't it so much fun to go back and just yank them all out and just sit there and reminisce? ^_^
*Nostalgia is a weekly Thursday meme hosted by Ate Rose--please play with us by clicking the linky badge.*

Food Trip Friday--Yochan's Birthday

We celebrated Yochan's (hubby) 37th birthday last December 30 minus the kids! The kids were picked up by their Grandparents and went to their grannies home to stay during the New Year celebration. The kids went 2 days ahead of us and we were left at the apartment and had a general cleaning. We're not used of getting out during the night most especially with the kids around and it's very rare that we went on an evening date 2gether ^_^We went to Akaoni, a typical yakitori restaurant (just a 30 minutes walk from our apartment) and sat at the bar/counter, infront of the grill. Not so fancy but if you're a beer/sake drinker you'll love the izakaya atmosphere. We ordered their best skewers ( negima, tsukune, kawa and some other japanese grilled chicken ) and some beer. It was served perfectly grilled, juicy and flavourful. Now I guess you're wondering where the skewers are, the bummer in me forgot the camera(T_T). Here's our dessert instead that I bought ahead from Repaco Garden that made a large increase in my waistline that day^_^

Pistachio Mousse@450 jpy--creamy and smooth, my favourite

Trou Chocolate @450 jpy--a heavenly piece covered with dark chocolate ganache, Yochan's fave.

An entry for Food Trip Friday. Chibugan na!!\(^0^)/