Homework

This year Oliver's homework load doubled. In Singapore if you are at a local school the K2 year is a preparation year for Primary 1. They cover pretty much what they will be doing in Primary, adding, subtracting, spelling, reading (spelling and reading in Chinese too of course...)

Well... Oliver is struggling with the extra exercises he has to do both during the week and on the weekends. I told his Chinese teacher he is struggling with his Chinese tests (you need to learn 10 words a week) and now he has got an exemption from it. Less stressful for me too.

But Luca cannot wait to have lots and lots of homework he says. He insists he gets some while Oliver is doing his. So I got him a writing book which made him very very happy :)

I guess this will continue till they have completed their schooling years. We have just started this journey, I am so not looking forward to it :(

Celebration Dinner

Our Japanese friends Kei and Tetsuo had a double celebration the other day. Tetsuo's birthday and their wedding anniversary. We picked a place just 10min walk from our condo, Hua Yu Wee, which is a very popular local Chinese restaurant.

We have driven past this place so many time by taxi, but somehow we have never been in (even being here for over 3 years!). I read a post on FB about this restaurant just the other day and really wanted to go - yes such a powerful tool! I was very excited to try some of their signature dishes.   

The front of the restaurant looks like this.

You wouldn't expect to have this huge area at the back!

They were still celebrating Chinese New Year. So they told us we had to order out of special set menus for CNY, but in the end we managed to order from a la carte menus. I didn't expect a Chinese restaurant to be so flexible... The staff there were very good too. They made sure someone who could understand English came to serve us.

We tried scallops, prawns, chicken and more. All the dishes were just divine!! We had lots of laughs while eating. I do love going out with other families. You can certainly try more things plus the kids are happy to play with their friends - giving us more relaxing time all together :). And it is BYO!

With Kei:

We couldn't leave the restaurant without trying their signature dish - Black Pepper crabs. They didn't look so big but they all had a very good amount of meat inside. very spicy, super tasty! I think this will be one of the places for us to take visitors from now on.

Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary Tetsuo & Kei!

Cheekiest smiles :)

Girls Day 2015

The 3rd of March is called "Hina matsuri" and we celebrate the health and well being of the girls in the family in Japan. Last year I managed to make it semi-special (you can read the blog post here), however this year I just didn't have time to do anything.

I wanted to make sure I took some photos of our beautiful girl at least.  She has grown so much - no more baby - she is a true tomboy!

Happy Girl's Day Ashley!!   

Time to say good-bye

It is always sad to say good bye...

We are already looking forward to our next holiday together. Thank you so much for the wonderful weekend - Pete, Isabel, Lucia and Oscar!

Miri Getaway - Day2

We started off with a very relaxing breakfast together.

Once the kids were done we took them to the kids club (which wasn't there when we lived in Brunei, such an awesome facility!) so that us adults and Ashley could have a proper catch up. 

Then we (?) came up with a great idea for the day. Pete and Matthew would take the kids (except for Ashley) to the crocodile farm, while us ladies stay by the pool!! Ahhhh such a wonderful way to spend the holiday. Isabel and I had a great time alone (Ashley fell asleep after 30min or so).

Yogi Isabel in the empty pool...

I managed to properly catch up with Sarah, Hannah's mum too.

Once the others were back there was no stopping. The kids went wild on the bouncer and never stopped going down the slides!!

I think everyone was completely exhausted by the time we got out of the pool that day. But it wasn't the end of our day. We drove to the boat club and had a little play while the sun was setting.

The food at this club is always great. A wide selection and all very fresh plus very very cheap!!

Miri Getaway - Day1

What a fabulous holiday we had in Miri! It felt quite strange to be back there actually. When we were in Brunei it was the most visited place for us as I had my orthodontist there. The place hasn't changed much at all. We stayed in the Marriott Hotel where used to stay whenever we visited Miri. Such a great hotel with very nice swimming pools. I now think that's all you need to have a relaxing holiday to entertain the kids.

We got adjoining rooms for us. It was slightly extravagant... 

 The kids room:

 Our bedroom:

This trip was planned to catch up with the Ferans from Brunei. We saw Peter and Isabel in Singapore a few times last year but we hadn't seen the kids for a long time!

It took no time for the kids to be the best mates again. They had a ball in the swimming pool for the rest of the afternoon. 

While we were at the pool, we had a lovely surprise reunion. We bumped into the Hansman family. Hannah and Oliver used be in the same baby group in Brunei and were very good friends. It felt so strange both of them are almost 6 and are now the oldest of three... time does fly!!