Japanese school

If we live here when the kids are at primary school age, they will be going to the same school I went to for 6 years when I was little. It will be less than 10min walk from our house which will be very convenient.

The other day Yuzuki asked us if we could come and pick her up from school so that she can show off her cool cousins to her friends and teachers. Sure we can!

Hineno Primary School:

The boys enjoyed watching the rabbits before getting to her after school playroom.

It used to be where the kindergarten I went to was when I was very little (yeah, I was there 30 something years ago...) so the building was very very old and they decided it won't be strong enough if a big earthquake hits. So they have built a brand new after school activity center at the back of the school. I was very impressed. The building they built had three big rooms and lots of outside play area with a big deck. I liked it was facing the field and overlooking the mountains.

We had a sneak peak of kendo practice in the gym too.

Yuzuki showed the boys where to get some leaves for the rabbits. They enjoyed feeding them so much. 

Yuzuki will be thrilled if we ever end up sending the boys to the same school as her. We will see where we end up in a couple of years time :)

Luca's 3rd Birthday

Matthew did a very quick turn around after being here for work to join us for Luca's 3rd birthday celebration. We had a very nice family morning together. The birthday boy has been waiting for this day for soooo long. Finally his special day was here!

We started off with giving presents. Ashley got Luca some T-shirts:

Oliver got Luca a learn to read Lego book so that he can read it to him:

And a great big present from mummy and daddy:

Yeah! Green scooter!!

Straight after breakfast we went outside for a test ride. He couldn't be happier! Now he can scoot to kindy like Oliver (I am not sure if that would be a good idea or not...). He has been on Oliver's scooter so no hesitation from him. He was zooming around so fast!

We planned to go somewhere special but unfortunately the weather was very marginal :( In the end we just stayed home and had a very relaxing day.

In the evening all the family members got together (except for Goichi and Mako who had to work even on a Saturday! ) for a celebration dinner.

Very happy to be the center of attention:

Time for some cousin photos - It is lovely to have the kids of all different ages here. The big ones can look after the small ones very well :)

And time for the birthday cake. Luca requested a dinosaur cake but I couldn't find any so this is what he got. "The dinosaur attacking the monkey cake"

This time the candles were lit :)

Happy birthday Luca!

After the cake Rui arrived to join the grandkids photo shoot. It is getting harder to get the bigger ones together as they are now teens. I think mum was vey happy to get these photos taken. I must print them out for her.

So that's it for this year, all three birthday celebrations are completed. We are so proud to be their parents :)

I want a pet

Oliver has been asking me for almost a month if he could have a pet that he can keep at home. He tried to train Luca as a pet dog but it hasn't been too successful...

So these are the conversations we have had over the last few weeks. When I give him an answer he goes away and thinks on it for a day or two then comes back with a new idea.

Oliver: Can I have a pet dog?

Me: They poo and pee lots, you will need to clean up after them yourself (I know Oliver is not keen on this).

O: How about a cat?

M: They poo and pee lots too.

O: How about rabbits?

M: They poo so much and they eat the walls.

O: How about hamsters?

M: They smell and you need to clean the cage. Lots of poo and pee.

O: OK I am going to have some fish then.

M: You will need to clean the fish tank, can you do that?

O: No.... not by myself...

He must have though about this for a while. It was three days later he finally came back with a big smile on his face.

O: Mummy I know what I will have - A pet rock! It won't poo nor pee. I will paint it red and put a string around so that I can walk it. I will also make a bed for it. Do you think it's a great idea?!

M: You are genius Oliver! You couldn't have any better pet than that!

Ashley's hair

Ashley's hair is so long now. She looks very different depending how her hair is styled each day. Matthew is always asking me "are you enjoying your doll?" YES I am indeed, thank you - having a daughter is such a special feeling :)

Love my garden

I always mention about the cherry blossoms in April which is just wonderful but being here at this time of the year is very exciting too. Our garden looks very green and I get to plant lovely colourful flowers.

I am spending an hour or so each day in the garden. It is so relaxing and therapeutic. I get to do it while the boys are at kindy and Ashley is having a morning nap - Just perfect! 

Back on the school bus

The boys were very skeptical about going back to their Japanese kindy. But it didn't take long to change their minds. After a day at kindy the boys came home with the biggest smiles and told me "Japanese kindy wasn't boring at all! We had so much fun!" I was so happy :) 

The main reason I put them in the kindy while we are here was for them to learn more Japanese and build more confidence speaking it. 

Unlike their Singapore kindy they don't do much academic learning here. They do more singing, gymnastics, walking to parks etc. Yes, exactly what my boys need during their term break. 

I just love the door to door service here. And the kindy doesn't start till 9:30 so I don't need to rush the boys in the morning at all. They wake up when they want to and still have lots of time for breakfast - much less shouting and screaming in the morning for sure. 

Oliver always picks the language up much quicker than Luca. Luca is doing much better this time tho. He is greeting in Japanese and can understand much more now. Only problem is that he thinks he is speaking Chinese... I really hope they will make the most of it.  

Luca

He has such a beautiful smile :) :) :)

Very predictable

We had a family breakfast by the pool on the day we left Singapore. No, we weren't at all surprised where Luca ended up...

naked and soaked....

Fishing with daddy

Matthew took Oliver for a special treat just before we left Singapore. I was very pleased they had a chance to do something with just each other. It is of course nice to do things as a family but we end up being more stressed and the boys play up more as you know...
We should plan these date activities more often.

Oliver caught 6 fish with 6 rods. Well done Oliver!  We all ate fish for dinner and loved it!

Another tough flight

I am not sure why I don't learn by now - traveling with three little ones alone is NOT A GOOD IDEA. We originally planed to fly via Hong Kong with Matthew this time. Staying overnight at the Disney hotel and visit Disneyland to celebrate Luca's birthday. But as the school holiday started the two Disney hotels were fully booked :( so I had to make the decision of flying Malaysian via KL like last time or fly ANA via Tokyo alone with the kids.

When we got to the airport we were told we could be on both sectors. When the time came to collect the tickets they told us there were some issues with Ashley's names in the system that they cannot fix so they won't be able to give me boarding passes from KL to KIX. They tried so long to fix the problem by the time I got the tickets it was already 8:55. Guess what time our flight was leaving? 21:15.

Of course this was the only time the queue in the immigration was so long and each person took an extra minute or two to get through. I was confident the counter people had warned the gate people when they gave me the tickets but I almost lost it when Luca decided not to walk anymore. Plus our gate was so so far away... I don't know how but somehow we got to the gate and the people at the gate were the nicest people ever and helped us get on the plane. Phew!

I had another issue getting our transit tickets in KL but managed not to miss the connecting flight either. We were very lucky this time. I think in the normal situation we would have missed both of the flights...

Once we got on the plane to KIX Oliver was very good and went straight to sleep but Luca was over tired and couldn't stay asleep. He woke up so many times, like every 15 min :( That upset Ashley a lot and took her forever to settle too. I had a bassinet seat but she was in there only an hour or so. It is always the case when your child finally settles the seat belt signs come on, why why??

I really didn't understand why they had to start the breakfast 2 hours before getting into KIX. Them turning all the lights on and making lots of noise woke Ashley up for the day. It was 3am Singapore time...

Anyway the trip over here was extremely stressful but we managed to get here and I didn't lose any children! It's a miracle!

Soooooo good to be back home finally.