ZUMBA!!!

It's been a while but I am back exercising again! Zumba Zumba Zumba!! I am so glad there is a morning session in our condo now (it used to be an evening class which I couldn't attend).

Nice and close - with super energetic ladies :) 

My date

I had a lovely afternoon with my little spiderman. I got to do some shopping in Parkway Parade with only ONE child! We try to take them out separately every now and then for individual attention. This time it was Luca's turn.

It was so nice to see him being so so happy just because he got his mummy all to himself :)

We didn't spend long in the shopping mall but made sure we had a nice lunch together. We ate at Din Tai Fung, which is now Luca's favourite restaurant. He had so many dumplings!

Dress up afternoon

The weather is changing to the hot season. Yet our kids enjoy dressing up in fluffy dress up costumes and covering themselves...

New helmets

The boys picked a new helmet each. They did quite a good job matching to their scooters I think.

Family dinner in Japan

Matthew was able to join in a family get together while he was there for work. Now some of the kids are older it is very rare for everyone to be there. We can only see my father's legs and hands but he was there too :)

They went to have Yakiniku - Japanese BBQ mmmm yummy!

Friendly tournament

Oliver's team has started weekend practices at Turf City. Every month or so they are invited to play games against other teams in Singapore. To be honest it is quite far away from our place which adds an extra 2 hours... But Oliver enjoys it so much that we need to make sure we take him every time there is an opportunity.

It was an extremely hot day tho...

Unfortunately I had some supporters with me so couldn't really see any of the games properly.

Nice to have Matthew being a part of it :)

Our little dragon is becoming a very competitive one. It is very nice to see him enjoying team play.

Ten out of Ten!

Yes! Finally the day has come. He has been trying so hard since the start of this term. Every Thursday K2 kids take part in a spelling test. They are given 10 new words every week to practice at home.
Oliver was so proud of himself when we picked him up.

We had promised him if he gets 10 out of 10 we will have a "10 out of 10 party" so that's what we did. We had a lovely lunch at a German restaurant.

Yes daddy enjoyed it the most probably...

When we got home he was allowed to open his prize which he has been looking at for the last 10 weeks or so!

Well done Oliver! Keep up your hard work :)

A monkey in the condo?

We had some monkeys in the garden when we lived in Brunei but this was the first time we saw one in the wild here in Singapore (Matthew and Ashley found him in the tree on the way back from the school run). He was on the tree branch inside our condo!

Lincoln's Birthday Party

Luca was invited to his little friend Lincoln's 4th birthday party. His parents put on a very good birthday party last year which Luca enjoyed so much. He was very excited and looking forward to being there.

It was held at Marina Cove. It was the first time for us to visit there - an exciting day out for me too! There were lots of nice looking boats in the harbour.

The party started off with some free play in the swimming pool:

The food was excellent. Buffet style and everything was very tasty :) The boys were happy with candy floss and some popcorn of course!

Time for the magic show! This magician was at the party last year too. All the kids had great laughs.

They were also treated with some balloons. You can see someone had a great time from this picture...

Time for a cake! Not one, somehow he had two cakes this year!! Happy birthday Lincoln!

Chilling out

Our busy holiday is over. Time to chill out in this beautiful hot weather.
Ashley floating and chatting with James :) What a great life we have here eh?

Outbound

All of us came home on the same flight. Daddy in the cockpit working, the rest of us in the back.

Special way to finish off our holiday. Thank you daddy for bring us home safely xxx

Last minute catch up

On our last day in Japan I managed to catch up with my old work mate Chisa and her son Keito.

We took all the kids to an indoor playground. Lucky Matthew was with us to keep an eye on the kids while Chisa and I enjoyed some shopping together (thank you honey always!)

Our stay in Osaka was way too short this time. Hopefully we can come back for a much longer period in two months time when the kids are off kindy.

Time to say good bye

Our exciting little trip in Japan has came to an end. Everyone came to say goodbye at the airport.

See you next time Mr and Mrs Fukushima, we will be back!! Thank you so much for having us. 

Visting a family friend

Kumamoto is not a small prefecture having a population of just over 1.8million. It was such a surprise when we found out where Kei's parents lived. My parents have a very good friend whom they've known for more than 40 years in Kumamoto and they live just 10min drive away from Kei's parents.

So when my parents found out we were going to Kumamoto we couldn't come home without visiting him there. He used to work in the same company as my parents but is now retired and grows rice and tea as a hobby.

He picked us up from Kei's parents place and showed us around the area. The strawberry season just started so he took us to his friend's strawberry greenhouse.

Such a pretty countryside:

Then he took us to this little studio in the middle of nowhere. The man makes bugs out of bamboo trees. They look very realistic.

Lastly we visited Mr and Mrs Harada (my parents friend) at their house. Last time I visited there was over 30 years ago!! I felt so old being able to have proper conversations with my parents friends...  

Kumamon & Kumamoto castle

On the second day of our trip the weather turned against us. It was raining quite hard when we left the ryokan and most of the way into the city. We had a plan to visit this particular department store to see one of the most famous characters in Japan.

Someone came up with this idea of having a mascot in each city or prefecture. They are used in any form of souvenirs or products to promote locally produced items. Of them all Kumamon is very very popular and successful. He looks like this.

There is a set time we can meet live Kumamon but only limited number of people can see him each day. We were there quite early and waited about 40min before he showed up. The kids got the best spot and had lots of fun watching him dance and perform.

By the time we came out the weather cleared slightly. Unfortunately once we were in the car it started to rain again!!!! That meant missing out on our last stop - visiting the Kumamoto castle :(

We drove by it very quickly. We will come back and visit the castle next time for sure.

It was fun-filled two days. Thank you very much Mr and Mrs Fukushima for organising such a great trip.

We thoroughly enjoyed it.  

Happy Birthday Eiji

While we were in Kumamoto we got to celebrate Eiji's 9th birthday with his family.

Very happy birthday boy :)

Unfortunately Kei's father was out for a work meeting that night and missed the party. Here is an extended family selfy shot!

Happy birthday Eiji!

Night at Japanese Ryokan

Ryokan is a type of Japanese accommodation and are very traditional in lots of ways. Each unit has tatami matted rooms. Often the bath are filled with some hot spring water. Guests can be dressed in Yukatas and have beautifully presented Japanese meals.

The ryokan Kei's parents booked for us was just amazing! We drove around Kumamoto for the whole day and got here just before dinner time. It was far out in the countryside.
The main building:

Each room was a separate cabin:

When we walked in we found a private bath in our unit. It is often the case that ryokan has a communal bath where you share with other guests (male and female separated). Having three little kids this was awesome!

Washing themselves before getting in the bath:

Whenever we visit onsen the bath water is too hot for our kids but this time we could add lots of water to make it the perfect temperature for them :) The water was so soft and made all of our skin feel very smooth.

Then into yukatas!

This ryokan had lots of different designed yukatas to choose from. How do we look? Very Japanese??

Time for traditional Japanese dinner - Yep obviously we had way too much food!

The kids table:

When we returned to our unit they had laid out some futons. Sleeping on the floor is so exciting for the kids who are used to sleeping on beds.

I just loooooved the bath in this ryokan. Everything about it. Being private/en-suite, the scenery from the big windows, the smell of the wooden bath tab, the fresh hot water running into the bath and the size of the bath - it was a very big bath tub! I had to say good night to everyone and have another bath. It was so soooo good!

And guess what? The next day when we got up, the kids and I had another bath :)
It was by far the best onsen I have been to in a long time. What an amazing place it was. I felt so lucky to have this culture to share with Matthew and our kids.