Right in time for Mothers Day

I get a buzz each time this plant flowers. The plant itself looks quite dead with only a few leaves on it but when the flowers come out - so nice! Great timing for Mothers Day :) Made me smile.

Family weekend gathering

We had such a great family afternoon-evening-night with our Japanese friends. I mingle with the mummies from Oliver's school quite often but Matthew hardly gets to spend time with the daddies. We invited the Ozaki family and the Tokunaga family. The kids had a great time in the swimming pool while us adults enjoyed some cold beer and wine.

We also had an early dinner downstair:

Ayako's youngest daughter Sawa:

Everyone wanted to spend more time together so we came up to our apartment. 

Matthew is very good with babies and Sawa seemed to like him a lot too!

The daddies:

And the mummies:

I am not sure how many bottles of red wine we opened... Everyone had a great time. For sure I did, I laughed and laughed so much. Lots of funny comments and stories from all the drunk friends ha ha ha!

Thank you for joining us. We need to plan another get together soon! 

Fish!!

Today's lunch at Bayshore Park.

Siphon Coffee Machine

This is a siphon coffee machine I gave Matthew as a birthday present almost 15 years ago. When I went back for a holiday to Japan I found it in the kitchen cupboard. I thought sometimes when we have more relaxing time to enjoy our coffee together we could try make coffee using this.

This method of coffee making was introduced to Japan between 1912-1926 from Europe. According to coffee lovers it brings a better taste and aroma and of course it is fun to watch!

Well it is very simple. You put some hot water in the bottom glass balloon then using the alcohol lamp you bring the water almost to the boil. The ground coffee is set in the top part with a cloth filter.
Once the water almost reaches the boiling point all the water will go up to the top. When you take the heat away the coffee will start to come down.

I definitely enjoy the coffee made by this machine. And the kids love watching our morning experiment too!

Pictionary night

Family fun day by the sea

It was such a perfect day to be out with our active kids. We took them to the ECP. There used to be a beach club we often spent the weekends at but it is gone now and only a big patch of grass remains. In a way it turned into the perfect spot for us to play rugby with the boys and Ashley and Luca to run around with their kite.

We really should bring them down here more often. We forget how lucky we are sometimes to have such a great facility just 10min scooter away.  

Our first attempt - Raclette

I was invited to a fancy lunch party at Ayako's a while ago and experienced my very first raclette at home. It was so delicious I really wanted my own cooker. So? My super husband managed to bring one home from Australia! Here we are testing it for the first time.

For the kids we tried some cooked eggs and cheese with pineapple!

We bought a cooker that has a teppanyaki plate on top - what a great idea!

I think it took much longer than Ayako's machine as her one was more enclosed and the heat kept well. We were still very happy with it though and ate way too much in the end!

Dinner on the balcony

It has been so nice to be in NZ and Japan during this holiday. But we are very happy to be back in our Singapore home. Back to having friends over, rugby and dinner on the balcony!

School Holiday fun

Luca and Ashley are enjoying being at home and doing lots of drawing and writing together which is rather nice. The weather has been perfect for us to sit outside even during the day. Luca loves listening to CDs while he does his artwork. I am truly sick of "You're welcome" song from the movie Moana though...

When he had enough he went on his balance bike but kept on talking. It is quite nice to spend a good amount of the time with each kid alone (Oliver was at school and Ashley was having a nap). 

Nice family evening

After an early dinner we decided to play swing ball on the balcony. We hadn't played it for such a long time but the kids were actually much better at it. Oliver especially having started tennis lessons, he could hit the ball super well. Great way to get rid of excess energy before bed :)

School holidays started

Hooray!! I definitely feel like the spring holiday has kicked in. Luca and Ashley are off kindy for one week for a term break from today. Even though Oliver is still at school he has an extra day off (Wednesday) and two half days. Very easy week for him. Then he will be on his Spring holiday for a month!!

I was in such a good mood today, maybe because of the beautiful weather we had?
Matthew was home too so we took the little ones to the pool. The Williams had the same idea and were having quality family time in the pool.

Naz and Naima came down too. It was such a relaxing morning/afternoon together.

As soon as Oliver is off school we are going to NZ for 10 days, then to Japan to enjoy cherry blossoms. Very exciting time of the year for us!!

Kite flying & rugby at the ECP

Since Mana Mana Beach Club closed down we haven't gone to the East Coast Park as a family. I was there a couple of weeks ago with Kei and Chie and thought it's time for us to spend an afternoon there.

We had a late lunch at the Hawker Centre, then headed to the beach.

We parked ourselves where Mana Mana used to be. The ground is now covered with some grass. Look at our kids - they are so grown up!! 

Oliver's finger is not 100% yet so he was only allowed to run around and practice kicking. He was very happy that he could play some rugby again.  

Matthew and Luca spent quite some time on the beach running up and down with the kite. There was the right amount of wind.  Could have been better with some more but we managed to entertain the kids for a long time. 

Lovely to see Luca running around so much! Which meant not constant talking right beside you. 

He was teaching Ashley how to fly the kite too. He is a very good brother. 

Our fun afternoon didn't last long as we could see a huge storm moving very fast from the city. We had to pack up quickly and went home. Next time we go, I will make sure we have more drinks, packed fruit and a picnic blanket. 

Rugby & Drinks on the balcony

YES!! Super Rugby season is back! This afternoon both of our teams, the Sunwolves (Japan) and the Crusaders (NZ, CHCH) were playing. The Sunwolves played quite badly against the Hurricanes (NZ) in Tokyo. We didn't expect to win but Oliver had to walk away halfway through the game as the final score was 83-17 :( But at least we got some tries against the NZ team.

Right after that game, there was a Crusaders vs Brumbies game. Matthew got back from work in time to have couple of beer with James while watching the game. It was a very good game. 17-13 to the Crusaders! Yeah!

To spend the rest of the evening, I had more friends over to have some drinks and nibbles. It has been so incredibly windy that we hardly used our balcony for the last 3 months. Crazy!! 

It was definitely nice to sit outside and socialise. 

The kids were happily watching some movies and playing together. 

Suddenly we heard lots of noise - some fireworks started right in front of us!! We had a great view of it. It lasted over 10min. 

Most of the boys had to fly the next morning so people went home reasonably early. I really hope the wind will die down soon so we can do this more often. 

Fun siblings time

It is very nice to have a moment when you are sitting by the pool relaxing and notice all of your kids are playing nicely.

Oliver and Luca taking selfy:

I must remember to take siblings-photos more often. They are growing so fast.