Great weather

It has been quite breezy so I can take the kids outside even at midday. I prefer this time of the day as there are much less mosquitos attacking me. I haven't taken the kids to the playground for a while. It was perfectly shaded for them to run around.

Ashley loved riding the horse. It won't be long before she will be running behind the boys :)

Castle building

Oliver can spend hours building Lego, especially when he has a huge box with ten different parts to complete! He is now up to pack 8. It is a shame he has to leave them behind when we visit Japan but I guess he has something to look forward to.

Birthday picnic for Luca

Since we decided to spend the whole month of June in Japan I wanted to have a little celebration for Luca's birthday. I guess his birthday will always fall during the Singapore school holidays so the chances for him to have a big party with his friends are quite slim (lots of our friends go overseas during this time).

We did visit this park a while ago when they were finishing up some of the slides and I have been saying to Gabi and Nicola that we should take the kids one day. We do have a nice park right across the condo but there is no play equipment for the kids. This Pasir Ris park is just awesome! There are so many things for different ages of kids and lots of the area is shaded by big trees.

Being right by the shore the breeze was very nice. It almost felt like we were somewhere in New Zealand! Luca was very happy that Rafi was there. Oliver always gets to play with TJ as we live in the same condo but Luca only gets to play with Rafi sometimes. As he says "Rafi is my BEST friend". Even the teacher asks us if they grew up together since they were very little, they just cannot leave each others side :)

I would love this at our Japanese house. The kids can entertain themselves forever.

This awesome slide was under construction when we were here last time. 

Aisla was very good entertaining herself. I cannot wait till Ashley reaches this age.

The bigger boys being boys:

The little ones had a ball too!

Time for some picnic lunch:

I managed to surprise Luca by having the dinosaur birthday hats and cake. I bought all the pirate birthday things to organise his special day but he changed his mind and only wanted dinosaur... I guess I can keep them for next year.

I made some bacon and egg pie to lift up our kiwi picnic spirit (which turned out very good, I must bake it more often) and this dinosaur banana cake. It was perfect to take along to the picnic. I just needed to place some dinosaurs on top of the rocky mountain. The chocolate rocks were very popular :)

Unfortunately I managed to forget to pack a lighter :( Luca had to pretend the candles were lit... Lucky he is good at pretend play!

We spent the whole morning there. I am sure we will be going back there more often when we return from Japan. Such a beautiful place!

The teacher parent meetings

At the teacher parent meeting I saw some of Oliver's artwork. Some he did at home as his homework, others during the school day. The teacher told me he enjoys drawing and his pictures are always very detailed. And he has lots of stories to tell which is wonderful I think.

When you grow up what would you like to be?

Uniquely Singapore, drawing special sights in Singapore - Oliver chose the Night Safari: 

Both our boys did very well this term.  Luca's teacher told me he is very active and always right into the activities and has made lots of friends. She also told me he is showing interest in Chinese language and is pretty good at it. 

Oliver's teacher told me he is just wonderful in the class. He listens and learns very well. His Chinese teacher told me he now can understand most of the instructions and can follow the class without much translation into English.

Well done boys! Now it's time for a long awaited holiday :) 

Double Birthday BBQ

I had such a busy afternoon. I thought I was well ahead of my "to do list" but I seemed to lose track of time whenever something was on. Finishing up the birthday cake, picking up the balloons, setting up the BBQ pit etc. At least it didn't rain this time - phew!

Our friend Nicola's daughter Aisla shares the same birthday as Oliver so we had a combined birthday BBQ by the pool.  

Waiting for the party to start:

We are lucky to have so many BBQ experts! 

We had pork ribs, chicken, steaks, mussels, fish - yap, pretty much everything you can BBQ.

Nicola had organised some games for the kids (Thank you!)

Pass the parcel:  

Statues: 

Oliver was kind of cheating not dancing much so that he wouldn't be spotted. 

Ashley was there to join the bigger kids too. 

The egg race:

Some of the guests:

The birthday girl - Aisla (2)

BBQ burger time:

Time for some birthday cakes. I baked a simple square sponge cake and put six marshmallows then iced it with some blue icing (Oliver requested a blue cake) then placed some Lego figures to hold the birthday candles. It was super easy - the best thing? Oliver told me he loved it!

Happy birthday Oliver and Aisla!

The kids had a ball running around with lots of friends. We are very lucky to have this nice little community around us.

The gang:

We finished off with BBQing some marshmallows:

Thank you everyone for joining us to make this day so special and the lovely presents you got for Oliver. He is a one lucky boy!