Birthday rush - May

There are many birthday celebrations happening in Bayshore Park in May, including Ashley and Oliver. This year's trend among Japanese friends was instead of having a whole big cake the parents prepare individual pieces for easy sharing.

It was time to celebrate Ayaka's special day:

Then today we got together again to celebrate Mei's birthday!

It is so lovely to have such a great community here. Still two more birthdays left. Oliver's and Aisla's on the very same day!! Bring it on!!

Mother's Day 2017

To celebrate Mother's Day we went out for a big Japanese sushi lunch. We kind of went overboard! But to our surprise the kids ate most of it! Hungry Japanese kids!!!

I was given very cute crafty gifts :)

Matthew cooked us some delicious BBQ dinner to finish up the special day. 

The NZ wine we had wasn't MAMA but close enough. I am so blessed to be the mother of such amazing kids. And guess what!? My role will continue for a long long time yet!

Ashley's 4th Birthday - Part 3

We couldn't let Ashley's birthday celebration finish without the Bayshore Gang joining in. Ashley and Luca baked a pavlova with Daddy and decorated it beautifully. We took the cake and drinks to the pool in the early evening.

Ashley had a Hello Kitty birthday cake at her kindy and dinner at the Hello Kitty Cafe so I continued the theme. I found these great Hello Kitty bottles in the supermarket. Sparkling apple and grape juice! Ashley was quite impressed having some "big girl drinks".

Lovely evening drinks and nibbles with our extended Bayshore family :)

James and Nicola:

The kids gathered to sing Happy Birthday!! Our kids are so lucky to have so many friends!

Cutting the cake - doesn't she look grown up?!

The cake disappeared very quickly. It was such hot evening, all the kids were swimming until quite late. 

Our extra happy birthday girl!!

It was supposed to be an early evening thing but we ended up having dinner together too. It is so easy when you have eateries right there to serve hot food.

More Hello Kitty bottles!!

Luca and gorgeous Aisla - as you can see Luca is trying to be cool (he thinks he is Damian McKenzie...)

TJ and Oliver:

Yuka and Zuiyo:

The kids enjoyed some Chinese food while us adults had Thai and Indian. Thank you all for coming and making Ashley feel so special! 

In the coming three weeks we will have two more birthday celebrations. Oliver is next and Luca right after. Very busy time of the year for us. I still cannot believe the pace our kids are growing. They will be teenagers in no time at this rate :( Please slow down!!!!

Ashley's 4th Birthday - Part 2

Last year we put on a big birthday party for her at home which was pretty much what I wanted to do for her. So this year I asked her what she wanted to do on her birthday, she picked to spend the day with her best friends. Very good choice!

After school Ashley's little friend Frida, her brother and her mum came along to the indoor playground. It was amazingly empty so the kids had the place almost to themselves!!

Snack break!!

Ashley and Frida :)

From the playground we went to the Hello Kitty Cafe to have her birthday dinner (phew! IT WAS a super busy day!!) It is located in Terminal 3 at Changi Airport. Very good location for us. 

Ashley was very impressed to find Sakura and her family who came to join the celebration with us. 

Hello Kitty and our 4 year old princess:

Sakura and Ashley:

What to order... everything is Hello Kitty!!!

Ashley got a special present from Sakura - matching pink Ariel dress :) :) :) - so cute!!!

Thank you Keiko for coming along and taking a family birthday picture for us! Ashley had such a great time!!

Happy birthday to our tomboy/princess Ashley!!! We love you very much. 

Please stop growing up so fast!!! 

Ashley's 4th Birthday - Part 1

She has been so super looking forward to this day. Every day for the last month she was asking me if it's her birthday yet.
On the morning of her 4th birthday her brothers woke her up! Very early in the morning since Oliver had to catch his school bus at 7:05am.

Very sleepy but she was very pleased to find a huge Ariel birthday banner!

Unfortunately everything was quite rushed - here are the birthday pancakes with a big 4 on top. 

She was too distracted by the piles of presents in front of the pancakes...

Time for her to get wild and open all the presents !!! Since we were in NZ in March the presents from her Kiwi family were already opened but I rewrapped them so that she had lots to open :)

Sibling picture under the birthday banner:

It was a very busy day for the birthday princess. She had to get into her cute dress then walk to school (she was wearing the same outfit last year at her special high-tea party too, I wonder if she has grown much or not...).

Once we arrived, she got to do the birthday cake with her classmates. Luca and her best friend Sakura joined in too. 

Super smile from the super birthday girl :) :) :)

The whole class singing Happy Birthday to her!

Cutting the cake :

I also got in the photo for a change! Happy Birthday Ashley!!!

The celebration continued after Kindy too. She got to spend the whole afternoon at the indoor playground with her best friend Frida from her class!! Please read the next post about her fun birthday playdate :)