Rugby practice

Oliver was a lot more relaxed and enjoyed the whole hour this weekend with his Dragons teammates. They seemed to do more handling skills this time.

He made more friends today and was smiling away the whole time. I am so glad he enjoys his rugby.

The Watson's visit

The Watsons were here to spend their last holiday out of Brunei. They are moving to Abu Dhabi in a weeks time. Having both daddies in the aviation business, the world is much smaller and traveling is very accessible and we are sure to see each other at some point somewhere in the world. But it was very nice to be able to spend their last few days in South East Asia together.

They arrived late Friday night and left on the Sunday morning flight. So we didn't have much time unfortunately...

This was the first time Boel had nothing on her "to do list" - whenever she visited us in the past we had minute by minute schedules. And maybe this was the only time we didn't need to go to IKEA as they have IKEA in Abu Dhabi and she will be doing all the shopping when they get there. But somehow the kids wanted to go to IKEA for lunch - so off we went!

Luca and Linnea were very happy in the taxi together:

Swedish family and the loft for only $299!

Linnea showed me some of the features she will have in her new room:

When we got back we had afternoon tea together then headed down to the pool.

Dinner by the pool is always a yummy and easy option!

As always my favourite part of their visit was the early mornings when they get up so early(!), being so excited to have each other and play nicely in their pajamas!

Oliver was so sad when they had to leave holding a tissue in his hand wiping his weepy eyes... We are lucky they are coming through Singapore when they depart to Abu Dhabi next week so we can see them one last time.

Condo lifestyle

I like living in Bayshore Park. It is an old condo so apartments are not so flash but it is just VERY convenient - especially for a mother of 3 all under 5. There is a food court where I can pick up some food when I don't feel like cooking, the supermarket has been upgraded so I rarely need to go somewhere for groceries. BBQ pits, swimming pools, playground for the kids. I don't get to use them often but there is a bar and spa places too. I do miss living in a huge house like we had in Brunei but this is just as good :)

Even when Matthew is away flying I have some friends I can mingle with and let the boys out in the water (sometimes hard to supervise all three outdoors). All I have to do is to dress the kids and walk down to the pool - how easy is that!?



Often someone will bring down some snacks and wine - what a great lifestyle - I love it!

Dressing up

The boys are walking around the condo in their dress up clothes - they get a lot of attention!

As always, Oliver has to catch "the bad guys" and Luca needs to "fix" some people! Don't call him a nurse though, he says he's a doctor.

AAA - triple As

Ashley is very lucky to have some friends who live in the same condo too. They are older than Ashley but she enjoys being around them. Us mummies often get together for morning coffee while the boys are at kindy.

Aisla and Alice are close ages and will be turning 2 this year. Yap, that's why I call them AAAs! Ashley, Aisla, Alice - nice names ha?




I must admit the girls play much quieter than the boys (especially my two) and I can actually have conversations with my friends and enjoy coffee!

Playdate

We certainly have less playdates here in Singapore. I guess we live in the condo where our friends always hang out by the swimming pool so we don't really need to make special arrangements.
But it is certainly nice to visit friends places. The other day, we were invited to Luca's little friend Rafi's place near our condo.

We started off our morning having some Indian breakfast downstairs (they started their breakfast service recently and it tastes pretty good!) then walked over to their condo.

Most of the condos here in Singapore have swimming pools which makes it very easy for the family with some boys with excess energy!
The kids had a ball!!

Nice to be swimming with some friends in a different pool :)

It was such a hot hot morning so by the time we got home the boys were exhausted. Luca even fell asleep while he was having his snacks - bless..

Girl's Day 2014

Somehow my parents never celebrated Girls Day when we were little, even though all three of us were girls... I guess they were both always busy working. It is called "Hina Matsuri" and is celebrated every year on the 3rd of March. The first year after your baby girl is born is especially special.

It is a very old tradition which started in the Heian Period (794-1185A.D.) At that time people believed that the dolls possessed the power to contain bad spirits. The dolls were set afloat on a boat and sent down a river to the sea with the belief that they take away troubles or bad spirits with them.

In modern times we display Hina Dolls in the house to celebrate the health and well being of the girls in the family. If you are born in a rich family Hina Dolls you display look like this (photo borrowed from Wikipedia).

The dolls are representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants and musicians. You can imagine you need to be quite wealthy to have this in a Japanese house (usually houses in Japan are tiny!).  

A set will cost thousands of dollars...

Having a girl in the family finally I really wanted to make the day special. I looked at a few dolls while we were in Japan (the reasonably priced ones...) but decided it is hard to bring them over and will be difficult to store here in Singapore so in the end I got Ashley this tiny little set.  I dressed Ashley in her pink Japanese dress for the day:



We made sure she got a special photo shoot though. Here is Ashley in front of a big Hinadan:



There are also some special foods you cook on Girls Day. 1) The clam soup - wishing your daughter will find someone who can spend her life with (kind of early for when your daughter is still zero!) since clam shells only match with the other of the pair. 2) Coloured rice cake - green, white, and pink are used to represent the land, snow and peach flower. It is shaped as a diamond and is believed to be the shape of one's heart - wishing your daughter's good health. 3) Rice crackers in 4 colours - pink, green, yellow and white representing the 4 seasons in Japan for wishing the daughter's good health throughout the year. 4) Sushi (of course!) - this has been a recent tradition having colourful sushi on the table implies the beginning of Spring.

I tried to incorporate a little bit of the above in dinner. She is still eating baby food so there was only a little I could do...



At least she was interested in the food and ate most of it by herself!!

The boys got some special treats too:


Luca just woke up from his late nap so he was a little grumpy....



Unfortunately Matthew was away flying so he couldn't cook me a special dinner :( but the kids and I had a great day. Such a fun thing to follow the traditions - I love it!

Autumn leaves

It has been unbelievably dry here in Singapore. We literally had one rainfall since we came back from Japan. Luckily it has been quite windy so we are not suffering from the heat too much - but we REALLY need a good rain.

The grass is totally burnt & turned brown and the leaves are falling - making it look like we are in Autumn! Even Oliver mentioned the change of seasons and we have been enjoying "leaf chasing picnics" in the late afternoons.

The other day, we were invited by some of Oliver's little friends to see a "leaves show" which was organised by 4 little girls. They found a spot where the winds were making little tornados taking the leaves up in the air. All they had to do was stretch their body up to the sky and think hard to get the tornados to happen. How cute is that and yes it did happen! So Oliver and Luca were very keen to go back to the spot to try the same and chase some leaves themselves.



Whenever I am out with the boys I really think they don't need ANY MORE toys! Love the nature :)

Early birthday presents

Ashley and the boys got to open their very very early birthday presents before Merryn and Dennis left. They were from the Fenwick Roses delivered by M&D express.

The boys got a cool art book each. Oliver also got a "make your own robot" kit book and Luca got a LEGO City book which is pretty much stolen by Oliver.

Ashley got a very girly present:

I wish I was as organised as you Kylie! Thank you so much for the presents. Our kids are very spoiled :)