Spain 2017 Summer - friends reunion

After dropping our bags at the apartment we walked to this plaza to meet up with our Singapore friends who now live in Qatar. We love exploring by walking. The kids were excited about everything they saw. These pictures were taken right outside our apartment. Yep, it was a very hot day!

3 minutes later - already stopping for some water.

Huge rubbish/recycling bins!!

Our little princess enjoying the walk:

I think we walked uphill for 20 min or so. This plaza was quite nice with a playground for the kids and some restaurants surrounding it. But it was so hot!!!!

And we were reunited!!! Gabi and her boys were visiting her brother who lives in Barcelona. We saw them in April this year but it was such a treat to be able to see them again (unfortunately Ben couldn't join us this time). 

We had some late lunch together - Very relaxing!

It was great to have friends who are from a Spanish speaking country (I told myself when we visited Barcelona last time to master Spanish before we came back but somehow it never happened...). I can order things but cannot understand if the waiter questions me back. 

Yummy tapas and cold beer - cannot go wrong!

After a good feed and some more cold beer we moved to a different plaza. In Barcelona the streets are organised in squares and lots of gathering places are around. Such a great idea. 

Best friends - Rafi and Luca!

I like these two pictures I took :)

This playground was much better than the first one. Having the tree and the gate made a huge difference to supervise all the kids. 

It got busier and busier! Some people were even having a kids birthday party. Such a nice community feeling.

Another mission for the day was to meet up with our Spanish friends Victor, Sara and their daughter Maria. We were so so so excited to see each other!!!

Maria is now 3 but she has grown so much taller than Ashley. 

And she looks so much like her father!!

I think it was the best way to spend Day 1 - just chilling out with friends and letting the kids run around to get rid of the excess energy so they could go to bed regardless of the time difference. After saying goodbye to our friends we walked back to the apartment to bath them and headed out again to find a place for dinner. 

I noticed while we were walking, Ashley and Luca are just like me.  Stopping in front of every single shop they see and of course deciding on what to buy!

The first two places we had in mind were already fully booked :( But we managed to find a good place nearby. Time for some Spanish feast! And beer of course :)

As you can see we ordered way more than we can eat... This happened throughout our stay. Everything looks too good! Oh I wish I can live in Spain one day. 

Eiraku Park

Oliver and Ashley made friends while they were at Japanese kindy during the holiday a while back, Haruichi and Kannna. Their mother Asami is such a nice lady and I enjoy catching up with her. Each time we are back we make an effort to get the kids together. It takes a while for them to relax around each other but by the end of the day they just want to spend more time together.

Eiraku Dam is located 20min drive away from our Japanese house.
We knew there wouldn't be many cherry blossoms flowering but we still wanted to give it a go. This park is beside a dam and I remember coming here for school excursions when I was little. It would have been so beautiful if all these trees were blooming. Well, someone else had the same idea and brought their picnic lunch but no SAKURA!!!

At least the kids enjoyed the nice view looking over the dam:

The kids were slightly disappointed when they found out no lunch under the blooming trees :( but they didn't mind it at all once we got to the playground. Time to run around. 

They went up and down this huge slide over and over again. 

Great big park with lots of climbing frames etc for kids of different ages. 

Ashley loved the trampoline mountain:

Oliver had a great time playing ball with Haruichi. He exhausted Haruichi out but kept on kicking the ball for a long time. 

Ashley and Kanna:

I think the next catch up will be in summer. Thank you Asami-san for a fantastic day. We had such a wonderful day!

Fun afternoon / evening with friends

After the goodbye party for Olivers' class, Oliver and I visited one of his classmates' condo for an afternoon playdate. It is quite nice to do things only for him sometimes.
His best friends Colin and Hiroto were there too. They had such great fun playing soccer and games. Oliver even made some new friends, including another Oliver!

Ayako, Kiyoka and I found a great spot by the pool:

Ayakos' husband joined us too:

We stayed on for an early dinner. We had some pizza delivered. Us adults enjoyed a couple more glasses of nice wine each, while the kids were playing nicely together. Ayakos' oldest, Nene showed Oliver how to make things with aquabeads which is very popular among the kids at the moment. 

Thank you very much for having us, Tokunaga family. You are such great hosts!! 

Farewell playdate with Sena

After the fun morning at Ayako's place, I had to rush home and get back into the taxi with Oliver. One of Oliver's classmates, Sena, is leaving Singapore for good. For the last playdate with Sena, we took the boys to tenpin bowling in Kallang.

It didn't take long for them to get into the games. In the end they were so addicted and didn't want to leave!

Oliver was extra happy as he got to play even though he has an injured pinky. Even better, using his left hand he got the highest score ever! Yes the gutter stoppers were up, but still quite an amazing score don't you think!?

Thank you all for the great afternoon :) It was very sad to say goodbye to special friends we made. We must organise a catch up playdate one day in Japan!!