Morning coffee

This little lady really enjoys going out to a cafe after the school drop off - such a hard life!

Happy Birthday Kei

It was Kei's birthday yesterday. She texted me in the morning saying her husband will be working till late so she would like to have dinner with us and celebrate with a cake. I wish I had more time to decorate the house for her...

I put up the birthday bunting:

And Oliver and Asahi made the welcome board.

Unfortunately Matthew was flying so we ended up having kids and mummies evening.    

Time for the birthday cake!! It was a very nice cheesecake. Mmmmmmmm!!!! The kids decided how many candles to go on the cake :)

Happy Birthday  Kei! 

Playdate at the zoo

Luca had a very special playdate today. He went to the zoo with his best friend Rafi. According to Rafi's father Ben, they were so keen to go into the bushes and look for bugs and spiders instead of looking at white tigers and hippos....

Art Stage Singapore 2015

During the weekend we had a chance to spend some educational (?) time at Marina Bay Sands. Our friends Ben and Gabi had some extra tickets and we all went together. This art fair is known for its special focus on South East Asian arts. Over 130 galleries from Asia and Western countries took part in the exhibition. It was unique as all the art works were presented in museum-like layouts.

It was the last day and yes there were lots of people! It was still fun for all of us walking around looking at some modern art. The kids were fascinated by all the different forms of art. There were a few things I wasn't too sure whether you call it art or not though...

This was a live performance by a Japanese artist. He was adding more details to his work, if you look closely all the fine details consists of little faces.

Another piece of art from Japan:

The kids really liked this TV screen art (?) A waterfall running and at the bottom of the screen you can see some little people were actually moving:

Ginormous vase with images added by a projector. These butterflies were flying around:

And this whole corner was a piece of art. Luca went into the art and tried to pick the seeds and got told off big time :(

Ashley and Ben admired (?) this $20,000 teddy bear sculpture... 

Once we had a good look around we then went to Gardens by the Bay for some early supper and fresh air. Luca definitely preferred "natural art" - A tree with lots of seeds hanging off it.

The boys really enjoyed playing rugby with daddies.

Great way to finish off the weekend. Thank you Ben & Gabi!

Two little dragons

Yes, Luca is now a little green dragon too!

He is still not sure about the whole hour of training tho. He wants to chase people but he doesn't want anyone to chase him :( 

Oliver has moved up and he is now in the under 6 team. A year ago he wasn't sure what was going on but now he is very confident and enjoys playing with his teammates. We are so proud to see him run around. There will be more opportunities for him to play in tournaments this year and he is already looking forward to it :) 

Ajillo night

Unfortunately Japan lost tonight in the AFC :( but we had such a great night (once again!) cooking ajillo (garlic)!
It was easy to prepare and easy to cook, perfect for a gathering like tonight. The only thing was I had to chop so much garlic!!

We had some mushroom, broccoli, shellfish, prawns, squid and octopus. In each little hole we put some olive oil and lots and lots of garlic. We put some chili flakes, salt and pepper, and herbs for flavouring. It was deeeeelicious!

Since the cooker is not that big we had to cook a few times but that worked out very well. Everyone got to have nice hot bites. The husbands were in charge of cooking so us ladies had a nice time chatting away and enjoying wine :)

For the kids we cooked takoyaki:

It has been a special treat for the boys to stay overnight after watching soccer. 5 boys in one bedroom!

We won't have another excuse for hosting sports viewing until the rugby season starts... I guess it won't be too long now. Such fun nights with lots of happy kids :) I love it!

Coffee morning

Since lots of our friends have been away on holiday and having visitors etc we hadn't had coffee morning for a loooong time. This morning Orianne organised one at her new place (they used to live in the same condo). It was a great morning. Gabi offered Ashley and I a ride - someone was very happy to be in a car seat :)

Orianne's new place is only 5 min drive away. It is a much newer condo and they live on the ground floor. Nice outdoor area and the best part is they have access to the swimming pool from their balcony - very nice!

Ashley and her little baby boyfriends Alex and Victor. I cannot believe she is not the littlest anymore!

Miss cutie

Girls become more girly as mummies like me try everything possible to make her a little Miss. I have moved the toy kitchen to the corner of our lounge so Ashley can play more (the playroom/boys bedroom is full of LEGO at the moment). This morning while I was on my computer she prepared some food for the baby doll and had a little feeding session. So cute!

Chinatown visit

Oliver has been slightly concerned that our house doesn't have any Chinese New Year decorations up YET. No we don't normally decorate but according to him right after the Christmas tree gets put away we should get ready for CNY. We can see all the shops and supermarkets are gearing up for it everywhere we go.

So Matthew and I decided it was a good time to take the boys to Chinatown for some yummy dim sum lunch and feel the excitement of CNY in the air.

We took a bus all the way down there. When we got off we were greeted by some sheep. The year of sheep - Matthew was actually born in the year of sheep. People think it's very funny to come from NZ and being born in the year of sheep - Baaaa-baaaa

Luca of course tried to grab some of the giant floating coins :)

Once we walked in the streets of Chinatown, all we could say was "DON'T TOUCH!" The boys were driving us crazy, just trying to touch absolutely everything they could see!

We walked passed the famous Sri Mariamman Temple. This is Singapore's oldest Hindu temple, dating back to 1872.  Due to its architectural and historical significance it has been designated as a National Monument. 

After walking around and picking up some bits and pieces we arrived at our favorite Dim Sum restaurant.

We found these Minion chopsticks on the street.

After the delicious lunch we were planning to head home. But Oliver was still concerned we hadn't bought anything to take home. So the kids each got a red and gold Chinese decoration to put on their doorknobs and bedrooms. And something special came home with us.

Taddaa-- His very own lion to perform a lion dance!

I am sure we will get some annoyed neighbors in the next few weeks. The boys have discovered their drums and are also using pots and pans from the toy kitchen as cymbals. Yep very very noisy!