Fancy Wig Pool Party

It has been a very social week for us. Mid week halloween party, visitors from Brunei and the weekend poolside fancy wig/glass/dress party for our friend Fiona's 40th.

I borrowed a pink afro wig and bought myself and the boys a pair of glasses each. I should have taken more photos of the boys before I got to the party as you can guess they both managed to lose them during the night!

Here is Luca ready to party!

During the day we had a big storm but it turned out to be a very beautiful night. It was on from 5pm but by the time I managed to shower and dress all the kids it was almost dark...

Lots of people were there - I had trouble recognising some of them: 

Lots of beautiful food:

Matthew came home from work halfway through the party:

Nicola, Naz and me!

The kids enjoyed playing soccer, riding bikes, bear hunts (?) and dancing on a blanket dance floor.

Time for a cake. Happy Birthday Fiona! 

(I was very happy with this photo - iphone takes great photos!)

Hair down

Red & White or All Black?

The last time we watched Japan vs New Zealand was September 2011. Oliver was 2 and a bit and Luca was only 3 months old. The boys have grown up as great rugby fans and we even have another little All Black cheering for both teams. 

Unfortunately Matthew was away flying but the rest of us enjoyed the game. Japan even made an attempt for a try!

We knew the All Blacks would beat Japan big time (and it was the result...) but I am happy when I asked Oliver which team he is cheering for - his answer was "I would like both Japan and New Zealand to win" Such a good boy!

Japan will be hosting the 2019 RWC and there will be even some games in Osaka! Oliver will be 10, Luca 8, Ashley 6... hmmmm I think there will be a good chance we will be there :) 

Christmas shopping

Boel and Beenal wanted to get some shopping done at IKEA (really?). So we decided to meet up there. It has been almost 2 years since I saw Beenal last and of course it was her first time to meet Ashley. I was so excited!

As we always do, I put Oliver into the playground (and left Luca at home with Matthew) so we had only Ashley during our shopping :)

They had some lovely Christmas stuff out already. I had no need to buy them now as I can go back and get them later in the month but watching these two I felt like I should! (and I did a little bit...)





It still feels strange to see as soon as Halloween is over, it's all about Christmas in the shops here in Singapore. Even the TV show Boel and I watched the previous night (they were having a playdate at a Christmas tree farm?) put us right into the Christmas spirit. I am not complaining at all, I love this festive season!

Ashley and Beenal:



It is very nice to be close to Brunei where our friends can pop over for a visit. I really enjoyed catching up with you Beenal and of course you too Boel!

Guess who is back in town?!

We had big hugs and "we miss you"s the other week but... she is already back!

Our mutual friend Beenal happens to be in town this weekend but had nobody to come over with. So Boel happily got on the plane this morning and spent the afternoon with Ashley and I (Beenal was on the night time flight out of Brunei) and later met up with her.

It is always easy to hang around with Boel as she always knows what she wants to do. This time she had looked up this Swedish cafe "Fika" in town. When she arrived we got into a taxi and headed out for a girl's lunch (thank you Matthew for looking after the boys).





The place was very busy and had quite a large menu for a little cafe. Lucky I had an authentic Swedish person help me choose. I ordered "Pytt i Panna" - Diced potatoes, onions and beef with sliced beetroot. My very first Swedish dish other than IKEA food and some meat balls Boel cooked for us in the past.



It was very nice - a huge dish!



Boel had a shrimp and egg openface sandwich:



We had to share a dessert as we were too full to have one each. We ordered a slice of Swedish brownie with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream "Kladakaka"- it was very yummy!



I will go back if we are in that part of town for sure. The place was very clean and had lots of light. The only problem was it was very echoey with people talking so you can imagine we would have problems if we had Luca with us right?



After lunch we enjoyed some shopping together (AGAIN!) at Raffles' City and I managed to came home with a new dress and a new pair of earrings.



In the evening, Matthew had to work :( but I miraculously put all the kids in bed by 7:30 and enjoyed a nice quiet dinner and some fine NZ wine with Boel.



Tomorrow we are meeting up at our usual place - IKEA in the morning.  I haven't seen Beenal for over two years now. I am very excited! (Plus I heard they have already got some Christmas stuff in stock...).

Halloween 2013

It is just fantastic to live in a big condo like this. You get invited to lots of social functions for both adults and kids almost every weekend! This week it was time to celebrate Halloween. To be honest I never celebrated Halloween as a child myself so I am gradually getting the hang of it each year.

For dressing the kids, Luca was easy. He wanted to be a spider and he stuck with his wish but Oliver didn't know what he wanted to be. Up until yesterday he wanted to dress in Transformer dress-ups and then suddenly he decided he would be a spider policeman... so he ended up in his spiderman dress up with a police uniform on top of it. At least he was happy when we left home.



A little bit silly version:



I ordered Ashley's outfit online in Japan. She looked very cute in Halloween colours. As you guessed she didn't last for long even though she had her cute outfit, she went to sleep not long after we got to the party...



It was very challenging to get all the kids ready as well as myself, plus cook the food I was to bring and leave home on time without Matthew. Unfortunately he missed out on another party because he had to work :(

Anyway the kids watched a special Halloween edition of Disney on TV all afternoon so they knew exactly what to do when we got to Christina and Fabrice's place. "Trick or Treat" and fill their bags :)



Soon after we got together with the rest of the kids for "trick or treating" - no need to walk far they just need to press buttons on the elevator and go up and down the tower.



It was a bring a plate party so I made some bloody finger sausages with some Halloween pasta and of course some sushi shaped as Jack-o-Lantern. Not bad effort ha?




Lots of spooky yummy food:





The place looked great thanks to the hosts.
Christina and Fabrice:







All the kids had a ball and way too many sweets before bed!!











Christina even organised some craft activity for the kids:





Some couples photo time!







And of course group photos:





Happy Halloween everyone, and now it is not too long before getting into the Christmas spirit :)