Gift rush

Our boys are so spoiled. Since Ashley was born they got lots of presents being big brothers and of course for their birthdays. These are some of their many cool presents.



The t-shirts make them fly!!!





We now have to find a matching top in Pink for Ashley :)

Bless you!

Aaaaaa....



Choooo!!

Where is the rain?

Yumiko brought this beautiful hydrangea the other day for Ashley - lovely soft pink/purple flowers.

They are the most common flowers in June in Japan as June is usually the rainy season. But NOT this year tho... I think we had only 2 days of rain since they officially announced Osaka being in the rainy season in late May.

We are having this perfect blue sky pretty much everyday. It is nice to have some sunshine but having 34-36 degrees in June is just crazy!



I hope we get some rain soon - the plants in my garden are very thirsty...

More visitors

My dearest friends from my old work came over to meet Ashley this afternoon. Chisa has a son and Chie has two boys so Ashley was really treated like a princess!

I just love having these girls at my house, they arrive and start working in the kitchen as if it is their own house and help themselves to drinks etc. Extremely stress free guests!

Oliver was very very excited to have Keito over, he has been asking weeks when he would come and play with him again. Last time he was here Oliver was speaking in English and Keito in Japanese and they were sort of communicating but this time - amazing! Oliver was non stop speaking in Japanese to him!! I am very proud of my son.

Keito and Oliver:



Our boys are pretty comfortable around them.  Such an easy afternoon for us!



Chisa with Ashley:



Yumiko and Oliver:





While we were busy playing with the boys Chie (as usual...) finished her bottle of wine and had a nice afternoon nap on the sofa.

Hopefully they will come back once more before we head back to Singapore :) Thank you girls for the lovely presents for Ashley and spending the afternoon with us!

Visitors from Singapore

We had some more visitors! Shem and Naz came from Singapore to meet Ashley (Shem was on duty to KIX for two days).





Even though they don't have their own (yet), they are very very experienced with babies, looking after their friends or family's. Ashley was quite relaxed around them.



Nice to catch up with great friends :)



Matthew arrived the next morning so we all went to meet them again in Rinkutown for lunch before they had to return to Singapore.





I am just loving this special time with my friends in my own country! Who else would like to come and see us here in Osaka!? We are here for another month if you are keen :)

Noodle truck

After a few drinks (or quite a lot of drinks I should say...) at Luca's birthday dinner, Yosuke decided he was hungry and wanted to have some freshly made noodles for a midnight snack. So he called this truck!



The old guy was very happy we ordered 6 bowls of noodles! Only 600yen each, I think it is very reasonable. He can come any night except for Sundays and public holidays, all you need is one phone call :) What great service ha!





Oliver came and checked it out too :)





Our boys looooooved it. I have a feeling we will be calling him again soon... Very yummy!

Luca's 2nd Birthday - Yellow celebrations

As Matthew was away (or back in Singapore I should say) we pretended it wasn't a big deal on his actual birthday.
I am two! This is Luca before he went to kindy. Very proud of himself :)



When he got dropped off in the afternoon his teacher told me that his classmates sang Happy Birthday in the sandpit and they made a birthday cake for him with sand.

My lucky boy had lots of presents sitting in the cupboard as friends and family sent him some from overseas (thanks everyone!) I wanted to keep some for the family birthday party but he still got to open some.







For dinner I made some coloured noodles and some eggs - both yellow and gave him a pair of yellow chopsticks.





When Matthew returned on the weekend, all the family members got together to celebrate Luca's birthday. I asked everyone to wear something yellow :)

Unfortunately our excited 2 year old was too exhausted to stay awake - just before we started dinner he fell asleep - bless him...



Rua, sleeping birthday boy, and Runa:



Rui, Mum and Hinata:



Yosuke couldn't find yellow to wear so he had to wear a yellow piece of paper:



Oliver the big brother:



Mako and Ashley:



Time for the birthday cake. Somehow he woke up!







Happy Birthday Luca!



The Yellow Roses:



I think kids develop the most between 1 and 2. They just don't look like the same person. Luca a year ago looked like this. Still had his baby face and acted like a baby - now? He is a little human who can walk, talk and demand and even attack his big brother! We are very lucky he is happy and a very healthy boy.

Happy Birthday our cheeky boy!

I ♥ U

Passport photo

We took some passport photos for Ashley today. I needed to take them myself and drop it into the shop so that they can edit it for the exact size.

Out of so many I took, I think this is the best shot - her eyes are open, her hair is nice and fluffy and her mouth is closed :) Very cute baby!

Hey!

Are we cool or what!?