Happy 5th Birthday Oliver

We just cannot believe it has been 5 years already since we first met our beautiful son, Oliver. He has grown up to become such a nice big brother to Luca and Ashley.

We are busy celebrating all our kids' birthdays' within a month. I think it is a good thing as the kids don't need to wait long till their turn.

Oliver has been looking forward to this special day for a long long time. Every day since Ashley's birthday he has been asking "How many sleeps till my birthday??"

I didn't put on a themed party as I have done previously. His first one was Old MacDonald , the second one was rainbow party, and the sushi birthday party for his third. His 4th we celebrated with his special friends, the Brunke family who came to visit brand new Ashley all the way from Brunei. Oliver was very keen to have Knights and Princesses party this year but I didn't have enough time to organise it this year so maybe something we can look forward to next year.

On the night before his birthday we made party bags for his classmates. At his kindy it is the norm to have the birthday cake at snack time and distribute party bags at the end of the school day without a party. I am not a big fan of party bags but I didn't want Oliver to miss out handing them out on his special day.

So we packed 34 party bags - great family activity!

It took a while for the birthday boy to fall asleep - he was just too excited...
This is the last photo of Oliver being 4 years old.

The next morning Matthew and I were up early enough to put balloons on his bed to surprise him. But as soon as we started to prepare some breakfast he came into the kitchen asking "why there are lots of balloons on my bed??" well... you are supposed to stay asleep till until we were ready and wake you up with surprises...

He looked confused but went back to bed for a while in the end. Once we were all up and ready to start his special day, we sang happy birthday while Ashley showed off her cute little birthday dance.

Ashley and Luca got Oliver a learn-to-read book each. They were both about castles and knights. Oliver is so into them at the moment.

Then the big present appeared from mummy and daddy:

More Lego!? We know he doesn't need any more but it's his birthday - he can have what he wants!

I found on the internet how to make Lego Ninjago pancakes. What would I do without the internet ha?

It was also his last day of term at the kindy. On your birthday you can wear dress up clothes or just casual t-shirts etc. Oliver chose this lion t-shirt as he loves blue knights and their symbols are lions in the Lego castle set (Do you remember this T-shirt Peter & Anna? He is finally big enough to wear this cool shirt you got him from Africa!).

We all went along to drop Oliver and Luca off at kindy and rushed back to pick up the cupcakes so that we could return to school before their snack time. Oliver really wanted Super Mario cupcakes. Another birthday wish come true :)

It is very nice that they let you invite the siblings and friends from different age groups. Oliver had TJ, Luca and Rafi joining in. 

With his classroom teacher Mrs Spyte and Chinese teacher Chen Laoshi.

He was very proud to have Matthew and I there to celebrate his special day with all his friends.

Happy birthday Oliver - we love you so much! (Don't grow too fast please...)

Japanese coffee morning

I have met a few Japanese families through my friend Kei from downstairs. As Oliver and Luca go to a local kindy I don't meet many of them myself. Kei has a daughter in an international kindy and a son in the Japanese primary school so she knows way more Japanese ladies than me even though she has been in Singapore less than a year.

The ladies are very easy going and I enjoy their company. I decided to invite them over for a coffee morning at my place. Here in Singapore I think coffee mornings among Japanese ladies are less common as they can lunch or coffee out in a cafe normally. I was kind of excited to have them over - it felt like I was back in Brunei (I do miss my Brunei lifestyle a lot!), except I had to bake and set everything up myself!

I made peach pies, corn fritters, pancakes and this rolled spanish omelet. I found the recipe on Pinterest and wanted to give it a go. It was quite simple - especially when you know how to roll sushi. It has cream cheese, baby spinach, grilled potatoes, red pepper and smoked salmon inside. It was the perfect way to serve it as we had so much other food and everyone could try a piece each.

I hope I can make this coffee morning a regular one. It is nice to speak in Japanese with others. I enjoyed it very much. Thanks ladies for coming. 

Expansion in the minimart

The minimart/supermarket in our condo changed owners almost 12 months ago. Since then they are in constant expansion mode.

The shop shelf space has doubled, we can now purchase some freshly baked bread from Delifrance and most importantly their alcohol section has got much bigger!

The only problem is they are still deciding where to stock the products and every time I go things I want to buy are in different places. I have to say I can get pretty much everything from downstairs now. So convenient!

More selfeis

My beautiful family :) :) :) 

Biking at the ECP

Having Matthew at home on the weekend doesn't often happen at the moment (before the boys were in kindy he often got the weekends off without requesting of course...). So when we do we have to make the most of it. We thought we would get a bit sporty and head to the ECP. We have this amazing facility just 10min walk away from our condo but we tend to forget... We really should go over more often.

TJ has his new bike and Oliver's balance bike was finally fixed and ready to go. We thought the best thing for the boys to do would be a bike ride. Matthew rented a bike with a kiddy seat for Luca and off they went!

It was such a perfect morning for it. I wish I had my bike with a baby seat for Ashley so I could bike too. Oh well, walking by the sea was just as good anyway. 

I didn't need to walk too far. Our little princess fell asleep straight away. I sat by the beach and enjoyed the peace and quiet. I should have taken a magazine or a book with me. It could be better activity for me instead of looking at my iphone!

They went quite far. According to Matthew they did about 6km each way. Poor Oliver must be so tired, Matthew forgot the fact that he wasn't biking, he was on his balance bike, kicking all those 12kms!!

Luca enjoyed telling Matthew to go faster and chatting all the way there and back.

Special treat - nice iceblock after great exercise. Well done boys!

We will be getting Oliver a new bike soon. So next time it won't be as hard as this time. Luca also wants a bike but we cannot trust him on a balance bike just yet. He is so unpredictable... might try him on the scooter first (he insists on biking tho, such a strong minded boy).

Sleepover

Oliver was so super excited to have TJ over for a sleepover. This is the first time his friend came over to stay overnight. TJ is a year older but they get along very well, especially this year. I think Oliver has grown up a lot and they can play for hours without any issues at all.

They played a bit of wii mario kart before dinner:

All the kids eat well when they are with their friends. They demolished the dinner in no time and enjoyed these huge meringues Nicola sent over with TJ.

They decided they wanted to have a shower themselves. So I left them to it. They thought it was the funniest thing and couldn't stop giggling :) So cute!

After the shower they watched the Lego movie - again they just couldn't stop giggling. I guess everything is so funny when you have your friend staying at your place!?

It was a hot evening so they decided to have ice cream instead of having popcorn while they enjoyed the rest of the movie.

Luca wasn't left out, he enjoyed his huge chocolate ice cream. And he made sure he laughed so loud when the older ones were laughing.

Once the movie was over I sent the boys to bed. I arranged the bunk bed so that Oliver can sleep on the top and TJ sleep on the bottom. They were playing with the torches for a while then came out and asked me if they could sleep side by side. Why not!?

They both slept very well. 

In the morning the kids enjoyed pancakes for breakfast. 

Oliver asked me how many days TJ would be staying at our place - 4 days or 5 days mummy?
I am very glad it was such a success.

Cousin's grandparents

Singapore is certainly a great place to catch up with your friends and relatives. Even for a short time when they transit we live so close to the airport we can pop over and see them, or they can come and visit us in our condo.  I got a text from Merryn the other day saying the Fenwick boy's other set of grandparents are transiting in Singapore and she arranged for them to deliver a parcel to us.

The boys were at kindy so I took Ashley with me and met them at the Crown Plaza hotel.

Ashley was due for a nap and did fall asleep in the taxi. I was worried once she meets Una and Jack she might start crying... But no need to worry. She gave charming smiles all around!

It was very nice meeting you Una and Jack. Hope you have a wonderful trip!

O&L

The boys are a real handful at the moment. They fight all the time and both annoy each other so much. But sometimes they can be so nice to each other - running around and giggling together.
I wish they could always be like this.

We went around the condo for an evening walk today and found this big moth. The boys say it is pretty but to me it is just too scary - way too big! Can you see one in the bush behind the boys? 

I found an article on FB about this moth. It is the Lyssa zampa and is also known as the tropical swallowtail moth. It is Singapore's second largest moth after the atlas moth and is native to Singapore. I don't mind seeing them outside as much but I've already been chased by it in the hallway in the condo. Yeeeak!

Cosy afternoon

It rained all day on Sunday. We had to have the windows closed as the rain was quite heavy. Using the aircon on a cool day makes the kids too cold.

So they were all wrapped up in a duvet  - nice and cosy plus CUTE!