Big day out -1

Ok this must have been the busiest day for us in a while. Boel and Nathan had "things to do" on Orchard Rd. Since us Roses were slow getting ready they took Luca with them and started the day ahead. 

We met up half way though their shopping at Takashimaya and had lunch at Marche restaurant in Somerset. I alway like dining there, they have a great selection from starters to deserts. You shouldn't go when you are hungry... you end up with way too much food!

The kids were dressed in matching clothes - they look so cute!

We knew we were heading out to the Night Safari at the end of the day so we tried not to exhaust the kids but they were having so much fun running in the playhouse. 

After lunch we separated into two groups - 1) keen for shopping and 2) not so keen for shopping. As you can easily guess, the boys were in the latter group and headed out to Clarke Quay for relaxing afternoon at a riverside bar. 

Boel and I covered quite a bit with our leopards. We started off on Orchard then ended up in Plaza Singapore. From there we took the MRT to meet up with the boys to enjoy some Mojitos!

I was so thirsty from the afternoon, I drank it way too fast so had to stop halfway through the glass so that I didn't get drunk before heading to the zoo. 

They had Oktoberfest in the main arcade of Clarke Quay. We got to feel the festiveness while we had our drinks.

Making an extra stop here wasn't the greatest idea as by the time we got to the zoo it was almost 8:30 - quite late to start an exciting evening :( We basically jumped on the tram and checked out the animals instead of walking the trails. Oliver was very concerned there were no fences surrounding the animals. Luca was just being Luca - nonstop talking! I was very happy we didn't have to walk any further (after a whole day of walking around...) It felt like we were in Jurassic Park! 

We went straight to the amphitheater to see the night animal show after the tram ride. It was very good. My boys always enjoy the show so I was very pleased they were both awake for it. 

At the exit of the zoo there was a fire man show. Oliver studied the Night Safari map a few days ago and had spotted these people "eating fire" so he was looking forward to seeing it very much.

I think he got the best view of it!

We were all so exhausted by the time we got home. I haven't felt that tired for a long long time... I did enjoy the Night Safari more than I thought I would but I think we will wait till our kids are little bit older for our next visit so that we can enjoy it more. And remember not to have mojitos before you go in!

Re-united

The Watson family came to stay with us last week. It has been way too long since we saw each other last. We had to introduce our new addition to the family - Ashley!

I was slightly worried as Oliver didn't quite recall Lucas and Linnea straight away when we told him about their visit. He had his photo albums out and re-checked what they looked like and what they did together in Brunei etc :( I guess 4 years old's memory is not that good ha?

We tried to put our boys in bed before they arrived on Wednesday night as it was way past their bedtime. Well... not a chance, they were all so excited. As soon as they walked in Oliver knew exactly who they were, with a big smile on his face :)

The next morning Lucas came along with me to get Oliver from his kindy:



As Nathan wasn't due in until late that night and Matthew had to work till 5ish, we decided to chill out by the pool downstairs. The kids had a ball! Endlessly jumping in the pool and giggling away all afternoon. It was so nice to watch them all together playing again. Luca of course was a little baby last time but this time he is full of personality and could communicate properly. I think both Lucas and Linnea liked him even more!





Matthew got stuck at work for an extra hour but he kindly (or no choice!? sorry honey...) let Boel and I go to late night shopping at Parkway Parade. We had just under 3 hours to shop but we managed to cover most of the shops we wanted to go in and even came home with a few things.

Funny enough since I moved to Singapore I don't buy as much.  I guess things are always there if we need to get so you tend to leave it for next time you visit the shops etc. BUT, I always manage to buy things I don't really need when I am shopping with Boel. I totally blame her! She somehow puts me into this buying-mode.



I bought an ESPRI bag which will be my elegant-looking-mummy bag, and a quite nice short dress which I don't really have an occasion to wear yet.

Not long after we got home Nathan arrived and we enjoyed catching up with some beer and wine until late (well very late!) - just like we used to in Brunei.

Birthday drinks

We were invited to our friend James' birthday drinks on Tuesday night. It was supposed to be a very low key event but in the end it turned into a great drinking night!

We managed to bring all our kids with us so we can both be there for the celebration. Ashley was in the buggy, Oliver almost asleep on the couch by the time we got there and after an hour or so he was asleep on one of the kid's spare bed. Luca? yeah.... he had a long nap that afternoon and was in full party mode with all the adults!

I love James and Nicola's apartment, firstly it is 3 min walking distance from our place, secondly it is much higher up than us (15th floor) and has a great view of the sea and a beautiful breeze.

We weren't planning to stay long but we all had a great time chatting and laughing... and when we were ready to go it was almost 1am! Guess who was still jumping up and down with us? Little Luca had his big eyes wide open, he even had a piece of birthday cake!!

The birthday boy:



Great company:









Apparently after we left, the party got even better! We are very lucky to have such good friends and they all live within walking distance. No need to worry about drink-driving. We just have to make sure nobody falls off the balcony!

Kite

Oliver had a great afternoon with his daddy the other day. They had a date afternoon on the beach flying a kite.

We often do things as a family and I guess we are spending less and less time with each individual child. So this was a very good treat for both Matthew and Oliver I think.

According to Matthew there wasn't a good wind out by the beach but they still managed to fly it high enough. Oliver certainly enjoyed flying his very own kite for the first time!

5 months

This is Ashley, 5 months since she was born. Her hair is growing longer and she looks like a girl now:



She hasn't turned over nor any sigh of teeth yet, but it won't be long!

Lego afternoon

The other day I brought out the boys little Lego (I can't just have them within easy reach of the boys... you know why!).  I rotate between big Lego and little Lego depending on how much I would like myself to be involved.

With the big Lego the boys can make something big quicker as some parts are already made and I don't need to be there all the time. They often spend more time playing with what they have made.

On the other hand, when they play with the little ones they tend to stay in the same spot for much longer. And constant rebuilding often occurs. Changing the little people's outfit, changing the wheels, what they can hold etc etc. I am proud of my boys for the amount of time they can concentrate. Luca cannot follow instruction books yet but he has a great imagination! Even the way he builds makes me laugh :)

This time her tongue

Ashley discovered her hands, feet and now her tongue! She can blow bubbles too - very clever girl :)

Singapore Children's Day 2013

Oliver had great fun on Thursday morning at kindy celebrating Children's Day with his friends. They had a dress up party in the morning. He wanted to go as Spiderman so of course Luca had to dress up too.

Oliver's friend TJ was here for breakfast in the morning and he was dressed in a Spiderman outfit too!

Pancakes for our little Spidermen:

In the evening we were invited to a BBQ by the pool. As usual the kids had a ball scooting and running around the condo till late.

Oliver had no kindy on Friday and Matthew was also off so as per our boys's request we went to the aquarium. We were lucky to have the annual passes as the queue to get tickets was soooo long.

We normally go there on weekdays when it is very quiet so it was quite overwhelming surrounded by so many people. We managed to have lots of fun tho!

The boys on the floor...

Found lots of Nemos!

And this was a new sea creature we encountered - cuttlefish. I have seen the name cuttlefish on the menu before but had no idea what they actually looked like. 

I am not going to eat cuttlefish for sure. They looked very spooky...

We enjoyed dolphins swimming gracefully in front of us:

And these sharks kept coming back to the boys:

We love having the annual pass so that we don't have to spend lots of time there to see everything. We can always go back another day. We were out of the aquarium just after lunch. We had some shopping and errands to run so headed out to Dhoby Ghaut/Orchard area.

It was a quite productive afternoon. Matthew got his ipad screen fixed, collected the free Galaxy camera from an HSBC promotion, while I got to go and spend time in Spotlight for a while. Somehow my shopping spirit was low so I ended up having afternoon tea with Oliver and Ashley until Matthew and Luca got back.

I treated Oliver with a Minion cupcake:

And this lady with lots of eye contact - she is so good.

It was a long day out but all our children enjoyed the special day :) Happy Children's Day!

Family photoshoot

We were very happy with the last family photo shoot we did in Brunei. So I was thinking about getting another one done and bought a photo shoot coupon on Groupon a while ago (before Ashley was born actually...). It was only $25 for a 90min studio photo shoot. You get 5 edited soft copies for that price and if you want any more you pay $10 for each one you select.

We planned to do it while Merryn and Dennis were here so that the kids get some photos taken with their grandparents but I managed to leave it too late to book the dates :(

As I redeemed the coupon at the very end of its expiry we didn't really have freedom on choosing the date and time for it. It ended up at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, which is a time when the boys start to get tired and become a bit difficult to control...

So this was the best we could do: (The photographer took almost 200 photos for us, I think we picked the good ones tho!)

To be honest I preferred the casual approach we had last time, this time it was a little bit more posy. And the photographer wasn't too experienced with toddlers running around all over the show. But do you agree having Luca in the photo we managed to relax the end results a bit?

I also ordered some hard copies for both grandparents. It was very reasonably priced, only $2 for 4R and $4 for 5R. 

The photographer was Japanese and we ended up talking a bit and found out he did the first RBA promotional material photos ages ago in Brunei - how funny to find a connection like that!

Oh! we need a camera!

Luca surely understands the importance of capturing the moment - like a real Japanese person!
The other day we got the bumbo chair out for Ashley.

It was her first time to be in the seat hence Luca rushed into the bedroom and got his toy camera out.

He was getting her attention and working his camera. Very intense :)









Ashley, you are lucky to have two great brothers looking out for you!