Nostalgia-- Wakaba

The time flies so quickly--time with Wakaba when she's little is so precious. We remember the firsts-- first steps, first word, etc. Each moment is a picture and memory is stored forever in our hearts. I didn't know being a mom would feel like this, it took me by surprise^_^

Wakaba chan, you're the best thing that ever happened to me
You're Daddy's lil girl!
Your Mom is really fond of you
You love to play all day long
At 5 months, you started teething and this month I also started you on solid food

At 7th months, you're strong enough to sit on your own. You sat up this month
You started crawling at 9 months and just a few days after you started crawling, you pulled yourself on the table Look who's one!! You've grown so much and I will always look back on this first year with fondness and I look forward to every year that is to come!

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---What We Have Accomplished

Our marriage life was good as planned-- I gave birth to Wakaba after a year of getting married and enjoyed our first year only the two of us. We have been into ups and downs during our first year of marriage and since we're stuck together for better for worse and till death do us part we make extra efforts to compromise to make ourselves happy and finding ways to work together...

Since my husband is a chonan ( eldest son) of the Sasaki clan, we dreamt of living with my PIL 10 years after getting married but the plan has changed coz after giving birth to Wakaba, we moved earlier as expected due to my husband's work and decided to moved-in to my PIL's place instead of renting another apartment ( and our savings was near to zero ) coz his job is near to his parents place-- the famous bukid ng tralala. However, he told me the 'bout the consequences of living in with them--we may not get most of the privacy that we always wanted, I have to work with the pakikisama and all, I am in charge of all the household chores ( coz all of them were working including my MIL) but in exchange, we only pay our food monthly and other than that, we're all free from bills--a chance to save and to start anew... My husband worked like crazy and supported him all the way. We had a vacation to the Philippines then and gave birth to Haruka.

5 years later, we have saved enough money, bought our new car ( CL7 ) and moved for the 3rd time here in our new apartment ( due to his job again )-- this time on our own. We may not have the luxuries in life but I'm contented of what we are having right now.

For more talks at Couple' s Corner, head up to Mommy Liza' s fun meme

School Bazaar 2010

I've been in and out of blogosphere since of last week--yours trully and some other volunteer Japanese mums has been very busy preparing for the bazaar that was held during weekend for fund raising at Haruka's school. Lots of people visit the school every November coz it's a major fund raising event for the school. We've got booths, games, gourmet foods and fleamarket.

I guess some of you have read/seen some of our works to be sold at the event, for those who haven't, they're here and here. Mom volunteers have contributed time and shared their talents on making a unique handcraft items for selling and with that, the school bazaar event was a very successful one and I'm glad I was able to be a part of it again. Last year's bazaar was a year of influenza and only few people were invited to come over but this year, we gave the promotion ads a full blast! We went over to some supermarkets ( big or small ) and schools to post bazaar posters and gave flyers to everyone--been very busy but was fun! All the proceeds go to support school. Here's some of the photos, enjoy^_^

---Cutie baskets---

Magnetic jewelry, chou-chou, croachet coasters

Mini-Basket Pouches

Chopstick Cover

Lots of customer are looking forward for these handcrafts items

Tissue Cover

Room Shoes

Christmas OrnamentsArm Protector

My kids playing outside

Wakaba's smile

Wakaba making some crafts at the outdoor booth

Haruka was busy, too!

Us ( cashier and wrapping goodies in-charge) at the counter taken by my husband
An entry for

Food Trip Friday--Gyudon (Beef Bowl)

Gyudon with Potato Salad and Mugicha ( roasted barley tea) for lunch

Another Japanese dish in a donburi style called Gyudon, served with a bowl of rice and topped with beef and onion. I usually cook them during lunch at home coz it's very easy, quick to prepare and it cooks up so fast. Japanese loves to add raw eggs to their gyudon but I love mine just the way it is and lots of beni shonga ( red ginger ) for topping. It adds a punch to the flavor. If you don'tlike to add raw eggs to your gyudon, you can use poached egg for topping if you like. Today, I'm gonna share my simple gyudon recipe for you to try at home, too^_^

Gyudon ( Beef Bowl )

Ingredients:( good for 4 people )

Beef-- thinly sliced, 240g
Ito Konyaku( shirataki noodles )--160g
Onion--1 pc

A:

Dashi soup--200 ml ( 200ml water + 1 tablespoon of dashi powder)

Sugar--2 tablespoon

Soysauce--4 tablespoon

Mirin--2 tablespoon

Preparation:
1: Boil shirataki noodles ( if you don't have in hand, it's okay ), set aside.

2: Cut onion thinly

3: Put A into pan and put to a boil then add #1 and #2, simmer for a few minutes in a medium heat then add beef. Simmer for a few minutes more in a low heat until done.

4: Serve hot plain rice into a bowl individually and put the beef toppings over the rice add some boiled green peas, add beni shonga on top and you're done.

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

Mommy Moments--It Comes With All Shapes

My kids artwork comes in all sizes, shapes and colors...

They both love to do some art crafts at home and at school and we have a quite of collection of their arts already. They enjoy the moment of making arts and I'm delighted when they bring home their masterpieces and start making our home into an art gallery. ^_^

Haruka's project at school, Koinobori ( paper mini-streamer shape of carp)
Wakaba's drawing Haruka's drawing

An evidence that they draw continously, just look at those crayons, they're over used Origami art of paper folding made by Wakaba
My precious kids master piece of art
Tulip and Clover

Hurray for fountains of creativity!!\(^0^)/

Share your stories atJoin us! We' d love to hear from you! ^_^

October Linky Love

I would like to give thanks to friends who kept on visiting my outlet Kizuna and for commenting---your comments is very special to me and I really appreciate all of you guys for making an effort to visit and read my lively journey here in Japan. And with this, I would like to grab the opportunity to give thanks to my Top 10 Commentators and Top 10 EC Droppers for the month of October and at the same time, their links will be shown at my sidebar as a linky love for their continued loving support for Kizuna. Thank you very much!

Dhemz (23)
Chubskulit (19)
Mylene (17)
Mrs. Kolca (13)
Nuts (12)
Mel Cole of PA (9)
Vernz(9)
☆♥Shydub♥☆ (8)
Eden (8)
Cecile (7)

**October TOP 10 EC DROPPERS**

Story Of A Woman
The Crazy Suburban Mom
Online Mommy's Corner
Rose's Obstacles and Glories
On This Side Of Town
MJM:The Illumin Siblings
Sailor's Adventures and Opinions
Topics On Earth
Woman On A Journey
Mary Anne's Musing

Yours truly would like to thank Kaye of WHAMaholic for the commentator code that she gave monthly for Kizuna. And to all my friends who didn't make it to the top 10 and even if you don't leave comments, your visits is highly appreciated. From the bottom of my heart, I wanna thank you all for always dropping by and for leaving a line or two at my shout-out corner, it brightens my day ^_^Please feel free of visiting them also thru their linky.

Food Trip Friday--Bento For My FIL

Veggie Stirfry, Rolled PorkTeriyaki, Tamago Yaki, Pickles, Rice sprinkled with Furikake ( rice seasoning )

My MIL has been in and out from the hospital since she had a car accident of last year--we were hoping her fastest recovery but she cannot walk really well unlike before. It is hard for her anymore to do chores at home that's why we see to it to visit them every weekend and do the household chores for them. During our stay there last weekend, I decided to prepare homemade bento for my FIL to eat for lunch at his work coz I guess he's not been eating "real food " since my MIL can't prepare anything "much" for him anymore. I cooked something for them before we left Monday morning and all they have to do is nuke the food ready to eat for dinner.
Salad Nori Maki, Pickles, Tamago Yaki, Mini-Hamburger topped with cheese, Pan-fried Salmon
Onigiri (Rice Balls), Shimeji mushroom Stirfry, Tamago Yaki with Nori, Teriyaki Meatballs, Pickles
An entry for Food Trip Friday. Chibugan na!!\(^0^)/