Pink Golly

In the special box we received from NZ, there was a PINK Gollywog made by Aunty Brenda!



Thank you so much great Aunty Brenda xxx

We can use her beside Ashley to continue our family tradition of recording the kids growth :) I think Ashley is cheating a bit with her spiky hair...

I will get all three of our kids together with their Gollies - I already tried twice but it is so hard to get them stay still and cooperate.

The details

Here are the detailed photos of Oliver and Ashley's special quilts - all handmade by Merryn!

Oliver's one is an I SPY quilt so there are lots and lots of cool patches on it. And it is to cover a proper single bed - very big!





And this is Ashley's NZ Flora Fairy baby quilt:



I love the colours so girly :)

There are pohutukawa, kowhai, kakabeak, poroporo, and manuka fairies - such a cool fabric!



I really wish I can learn how to make these fab quilts. I guess I need to live in NZ for a private lessons Merryn?

Special delivery

We got a big box of surprises from NZ. The kids were so excited to get MORE birthday presents!





A kiwi activity book:



A special quilt!







Luca got a Kathmandu sleeping bag:



And Ashley got a very nice PINK baby quilt:



The boys think there will be continuous present opening until Christmas... They are so spoiled!!
Thank you family for the lovely presents (still wish you could have came over to spend some time here in Osaka tho... maybe next time).

Already!?

The boys were so excited this morning to see this!

Indoor BBQ

My girl friends are back! We were planning to have an outside early summer BBQ but unfortunately it started to rain as we got everything ready, so quickly changed the plan - we had a Japanese style indoor BBQ using a hot plate.

Lovely tender beef and pork from the butcher and some veges in season. I just loooooove Japanese food (Lucky I am breast feeding, I can eat so much and not really putting much on! Thank you Ashley...).





You think Matthew is always here ha? He does show up quite often!!



Ashley enjoyed cuddles from Chisa and Yumiko:





The rain stopped after lunch so we had afternoon tea on the balcony:



The boys got to play outside too:









It was another lovely afternoon. Thanks girls for coming over. See you soon when we next back to Osaka.

School visit - Luca

According to teachers comments I get each day, we know Luca is not being Luca at kindy. He prefers to watch people and not join in when they sing and dance. They even told us he rarely speaks! That's not the Luca we see at home - he is jumping around even when I hold him down, so loud and never stops talking and singing etc etc. We think he is waiting for the right moment to come out of his pretend shell at kindy.

So when we went to see him he was just staring and sitting most of the time. Having me and Matthew plus Oliver didn't help at all. He wanted to be carried by me...

He was pretty happy getting his yellow chair (he had a pink one to start with but sneakily sat on the yellow one when everyone went to the loo - he came back fast) - but not really smiling here either. The teacher read a story about animals on a big bus, then they sang and danced to "the big bus" song which is Luca's favorite at the moment. I know he loves the song and the movements so much but you know, he was acting like a shy guy...



His teacher told me this is also Luca's favourite at the moment. They are made of milk cartons and some fabric. They can use them as cars, chairs, windows, tunnels etc etc.





Unfortunately we didn't see him in action until the very last minute. Having a big snack helped him to wake up?



There is a goodbye song they sing every day before they are sent home. Luca was in his full volume and in action! I was too happy to finally see him do something and forgot to take a video - bugger :(

I know he is enjoying being there and is now comfortable with his teachers and friends. It is so lovely to see Oliver and Luca playing "kindy" at home together too :)

This is certainly the best thing I found in Japan on this trip! What makes it better is that we can send the boys whenever we come back for holidays.
Happy kids makes happy parents :) :) :)

School visit - Oliver

Oliver and Luca's kindy had an open day for each of their classes last week. We were very lucky as daddy just arrived and was able to come along!

On the first day we enjoyed watching Oliver engaging in the class and being very happy with his Japanese friends.

First they sang a few songs they have been learning. Each month they have about 5 new songs to learn. This is Oliver singing the "snail" song since it is the rainy season.



Then they showed us what they do in gymnastics class:







Oliver is the back right:



Then his favourite "dance" time!



It was a full on 2 hour session we watched. It included some craft session with parents too. Oliver and I made a drum and maracas. Once finished we showed off our instruments in front of everyone.







I am just amazed how well he is adapting to Japanese kindy and so happy that he is loving every single bit of it!! His Japanese is so good now and he prefers to speak in Japanese to me (well done son!) and now he can communicate with my parents too.
Well done Oliver! We are so proud of you :)

Sunflower

Having a good size backyard was MUST for us when we bought our land in Japan. However, so far nothing has been done as we mostly live overseas and Japanese backyard grass dies in winter and is very hard to maintain in the humid summer weather. So we ended up leaving it filled with gravel :(

Every time I come back I really wish we had a nice green garden... Especially when the boys are running around in it.

I decided I just have to do something little when I can. So we filled the planters with lot of good soil and planted some sunflower seeds.

Oliver has his favourite take-along kiddy pictionary book and is learning about the flower so I thought it is a good one to grow.

The boys planting with daddy:





Our very happy boy :)



Yuzuki came around to join us:



Funnest part for Luca was of course the watering...



I really hope they will flower before we have to leave Osaka. Fingers crossed!

Fish...

We used the same IKEA mobile for Oliver and Luca. It is very colourful and the movement is neat. So we brought it over to Japan for Ashley to look at too.

I am not biased (?) but I LOVE IKEA things, they are cool :) 

Baby kiwi

Baby + Buzzy Bee = A little kiwi