Orianne's Baby Shower

On Tuesday morning I had some girls around for a little surprise coffee morning. Our friend Orianne is expecting a baby boy at the end of this month. Everyone was away in May/June so it was kind of a last minute decision to have it but I am very glad we managed to have a special morning for her and her baby.

I put some blue decorations up in the lounge. I was very pleased with the little centerpiece I put together. Her husband is also a pilot for Jetstar - you cannot say "no" to an airplane when you are expecting a baby boy right?

The food table:

Naz baked a yummy chocolate cake:

Girls in blue:

I couldn't invite lots of people as our apartment is not big but I think it was the perfect number of people. 4 little girls and 7 adults. It was nice and cosy. 

I don't know how but I forgot to take a photo with everyone together but I managed to get some group shots.

Orianne and Alice got to open some presents for the baby boy:

Lots of Oliver and Luca's friends here are girls. So it will be nice to have more boys! These three ladies are expecting to have babies in the next three months. Two boys and a girl - very exciting!

School run

The school run got even more exciting - Luca is now on his scooter!

Dinosaur

All he wanted for his birthday this year was dinosaur, dinosaur, dinosaur! Thank you English Roses for fab presents. Oliver loved his pilot outfit too :)

Japanese BBQ night

Matthew came back from Osaka with some tasty Japanese yakiniku meat. We normally cook them on a table top BBQ plate in Japan but I really don't like having the food smell and smoke in the apartment so we put them on the BBQ.

We have been having good weather recently. It was another perfect evening for some yummy meat and chilled beer!

We invited Kei, Tetsuo and the kids from downstairs. 

Ayaka adores Ashley - nice to have a big sister looking after her :)

After dinner the boys enjoyed playing Nintendo while the grownups ate and drank :) :) :)

We are lucky to have so many lovely friends here.

Maybe the tastest BBQ ever?

We were invited to a BBQ at our friends condo. It takes only 10 min walk to get there - so convenient! It is always nice to go there as our kids enjoy different swimming pools and we get to meet some new people.

The BBQ was organised by our Danish friend Tim and another Danish friend of his and his wife. Even though it was a casual BBQ they set the table and made some lovely food to go with the sizzling meat.

I loved the meat patty they made, it was cooked perfectly - juicy and so tasty! They had lots of cut vegetables to go with it which made the burger extra tasty. They had so much meat for a small group of people. I liked the way they timed cooking the meat. Sometimes everything comes at once and they get cold by the time you try them. After this yummy burger I had perfectly cooked steak just off the BBQ - Mmmmm!

Luca enjoyed having dinner with his best friend Rafi:

Ashley enjoyed her exercise. Now she can walk by herself quite well - all she wants to do is walk and walk and walk! We really need to find her a pair of shoes that fits her. Everything we have is still too big for her tiny feet.

Ashley and I went in matching dresses :)

It was such a lovely evening. We enjoyed it very much.

IKEA fun

Kei and I had a great shopping day at IKEA.

I wanted to have a look at their dining tables while the big sale was on. Unfortunately I didn't quite find what I wanted (the ones I liked weren't on sale of course...)

We had a very relaxing lunch at the cafe and took our time to have a good look in the Market area. It made such a difference not having the three little ones making noise while I was shopping!

Japanese kindy visits

Just like last year (you can see Oliver here and Luca here), I was lucky to visit their Japanese kindy to see their everyday activities. The visits were set on the last two days before we packed up to come back to Singapore. They both made some new friends and were very happy to have Ashley and I there.

Most of the friends Oliver made last year have already graduated so he had to make some new friends. His class was much smaller this year and all 3,4,5 year olds are combined.

Family craft session was very cosy and nice:

Luca's class on the other hand tripled in number. He made so many new friends. This year he was fully involved in everything singing, stories, craft activity and dancing. The teachers were very happy to see his development. 

They had mothers session on both days. 30min was set aside to get to know each other and share experiences and problems raising the children. It was quite nice. I know I am not there all the time but at least I made some friends too.

Maybe Oliver might be too old for this type of kindergarten (they mainly do singing, dancing and gymnastics) next year. But I am sure Luca will still enjoy it and maybe we can send Ashley there instead of Oliver...?

Castle building

The resting day at home turned out to be full day lego session. While we were away the half built great big castle fell off the shelf and broke into pieces. To my surprise Oliver was ok with it and enjoyed rebuilding. He was much faster this time and I was very impressed how much he remembered from last month. 

Luca is keen to NOT to follow the instruction books, he makes NEW ones :)

Ashley enjoyed being a part of it too.

By early afternoon everything was fixed and someone had a great time playing with it.

Such a wonderful toy. We LOOOOOVE Lego!