Old MacDonald Birthday Party

Today was the day, I have been working so hard for - Oliver's First Birthday.

People talk about mums going crazy organising their kids's 1st birthday, now I know what they mean.
I have been driving up and down the road for the last few weeks, looking for something special to add to Oliver's birthday party. Those who live in Brunei must understand it is very difficult sometimes to get what you want here. I know I should have thought about it much earlier and did more shopping while I was in Japan.

I googled and learnt how to organise a good 1st birthday party. The site said it is best to have a theme. So for Oliver's 1st party I picked "Old MacDonald Farm" as a theme (two reasons, firstly he loves animals and secondly his grandparents in NZ owns a kindy called "Old MacDonald Country Kindy"). The invitation said - Please wear something farm-like.

Being the king of dress ups, Oliver put his duck costume on!



This is how our living area turned into a farm with lots of Oliver's little friends!



Some walking animal balloons (they were fantastic! I think all the kids had their turn to walk them around!)





Food table (those sausage rolls were fantastic as usual, thank you so much Nicole)

And I got this Happy Birthday Flag finished on time (this was my first sewing project I talked about in the previous post) I was inspired by my neigbours mum who made the birthday flag for her grandchildren. Thank you so much for letting me copy the pattern! It turned out fantastic!!



And it was time to blow first birthday candle - Luckily he had Lucas to help him out. He didn't have any idea what was going on.





The cake

Some of his big friends came to help keep the party going. Here is Katy instructing the little ones how to play the match the duck game.



This is how much Oliver is spoiled! So many presents!!!



Oliver had such a busy day so we decided to open one present tonight. He was given a special BRIO dog (this toy brand is very popular in Japan too!) Thank you : )



Thank you so much everyone who came to make his first birthday special. He is so lucky to have so many nice friends.

Birthday Boy

Oliver is ONE today! (check out his new hair style)
We love you so much ♥
He had such a great birthday with all his little friends. I will upload more posts tomorrow. Somehow the internet is so slow tonight : (

Yes, time for a haircut

Oliver before the haircut, yes I know, he really needed one.

We decided before his First Birthday, Oliver should have a hair cut. Some people told me he has such  nice hair and long hair suits him but I know it will grow back very quickly. I just wanted him to look nice and boyish on his birthday. So off we went!

Luckily we managed to get a slot at the very busy Jacky's hair studio yesterday.

Oliver loved sitting on the proper chair and really enjoyed (or didn't notice) his haircut. Last time he had a trim, he sat on the waiting sofa and cried a bit. This time - no tears, no scream : )
You can see how relaxed he was from these photos!



Jacky cutting Oliver's hair



This is so much fun!!

Unfortunately I forgot to take fresh-after-a-hair-cut shot (yes Boel, I am listening to you...) but you can see his new hair style on his birthday post.

Hash Rekki - Take 5

Nicole, Boel and I are laying the hash next Tuesday. This is my first time to lay one. We decided since we all live in the same simpang we should lay it just across the road from our house. Our first rekki attempt (Take 1) was 10 days ago. You can see how we did from Boel's blog . On that day basically we didn't come out of the jungle how we wanted - we could not find a way out so we had to turn around and walk out the way we came in.

So we asked our neighbour to come and show us the way out few days later (Take 2) - we thought we were doing so well until we came to the last part of the run - water reservoir, this was supposed to be mostly dried out so that we can walk getting only knee high wet. Let me tell you what happened - We had to swim!!! Ben, Claire and Simba went first. They were walking confidently (even though they were in the water up to their waist (Simba the doggy was already swimming at this point) and suddenly they went down in the water. It got deeper and they couldn't touch the bottom!! We were all soaked (as you would when you swim in the lake!).

We weren't sure about this deep part of the reservoir so we went out for a rekki again (Take 3) this time in the pouring rain / storm. Please don't ask us why... As you can guess we didn't get too far on that day. But we now know for sure the reservoir will be too deep to walk across and looking too dangerous since it has been very stormy and rainy recently.

So somehow we have to find a way to come out of the jungle bypaassing it. Hence Take 4. This morning Boel and Nicole went in again to find a way out. (I had to go to Geckos so I didn't go) Since the men had their hash at the same site on Wednesday we thought it will be easier to follow their paper to find the trail leading to our pass. It wasn't that simple - They lost the paper half way through and didn't get anywhere.

We had a little meeting this morning and decided by looking at the map Boel's Garmin watch shows us, to do another rekki this evening. So off we went AGAIN. This time we were quite confident that we will find our way out easily. Should be right? This is our 5th attempt!!



Very nice and jungly



We stopped for a gummy break.
Boel and Nicole

Now all we have to do is go in again (this will be Take 6!!) on Tuesday afternoon to lay it with proper paper. We are sure all this hard work will pay off. It will be a fantastic run! and on on /shout out will be at my place - What sort of food do you think we are preparing - very hard to guess ha??

I am very excited now! It is going to be a great hash!!

Time for a hair cut??

Oliver has had a crazy amount of hair since he was born.
Maybe time for a hair cut?! Or should we leave it wild and let it grow even more? What do you think?

Ready - Set - Sew !

Finally I opened my purchase from Japan. A brand new sewing machine. I am sure some of you will be proud of me because I am already onto my first project - something for Oliver's birthday which is in less than two weeks time. I had a test run of the machine. Boy, it is 10 times easier to use than the one my mother used to use. I am quite excited !! I hope I will be as good as some of you : )

Great fun at Geckos

We went to Geckos this morning. I have bravely volunteered to be one of the coordinators for the Friday session so recently it became our Friday routine. It is not a difficult task but a little commitment for a mother of a young child (but I enjoy it very much). It was quite busy today though, having a few more new families joining us. Great to see Geckos doing so well!

On Fridays we get to use the kindy sandpit for 1 hour. They seems to have lots of different utilities for the kids to play. Today we had two kitchens in the sandpit and a trampoline and seesaw etc etc in the play area.
Oliver was so delighted to be there. His eyes went soooo big and he took off!!



Slowly taking each step



Yattaa---!!

It was very interesting to see him crawl over those blocks. He was concentrating very hard and testing each step before he put all his weight down. He didn't want to give up - he was so proud of himself.



Hi mummy I am here!



I dressed him very boy like today (I thought) but some of the mothers were still asking "how old is she!?" Maybe he needs a hair cut??



One hour felt very short today (I think a nice breeze helped the parents being there). When we got back to the play room Oliver got his snack. He sat very nicely at the table. I think he is learning lots of social skills.

A relaxing morning

This morning I got up and went straight to my car (well... by the time I got up it was already 7:10 so most of the people are normally up and about...).

I wanted to try the Yoga class offered at RBRC. I used to attend Yoga classes twice a week before I had Oliver. My problem is that I got so inflexible since I started to work in Japan - sitting in the office chair, being on the computer so long each day. Doing yoga I regained some of it back. But you know once you stop attending the class you lose it very quickly.

Last week my Japanese friends told me this Yoga class is very slow and relaxing. I needed slow and relaxing. People think living in Brunei is very relaxing and you have lots of time to yourself. I think I used to fall into this category before I had Oliver. Now my everyday life is occupied with Oliver.

Even though I am back in exercising when I am running in the jungle or jogging with my friends, I don't get "total relaxation".

The class this morning was fantastic! The emphasis of the class was stretching the whole body muscles and feeling completely relaxed, both your body and mind. We spent half the class just lying on the floor! And that actually felt great!! I felt like I have been to a proper massage.

I am hoping nothing will come up on Thursday mornings so that I can keep attend this fantastic class : )

In ♥ with Watermelon

Oliver can feed himself cubed food now. He eats pretty much everything but recently he is so into watermelon. I give him some to occupy him while I prepare his lunch or dinner. If I have any left on the side plate he just stares at them.

Yesterday Linnea came to visit Oliver while he was having his watermelon. She asked if she can have some like Oliver. When I got a plate for Linnea Oliver looked very confused - why is she having MY watermelon!? He got over it very quickly though as he enjoys her company more than extra pieces for him. Sharing is good, Oliver!



See he can pick very nicely



and into his mouth

It's funny to see he eats from the biggest piece. Whose DNA I wonder, mine or Matthew's ??

Back on track

Back in March Boel, Nicole, and I decided to participate in the Adidas Sundown Marathon 2010 /10K run in Singapore.

We used to run together regularly and we really enjoyed running together. But for the last two months or so we haven't exercised much - Boel injured her leg when she ran the Hong Kong marathon and she had trouble even walking for a long time. She is still not 100%. Nicole has been busy with her work and I myself lost enthusiasim for running after my Auckland run in March. I think it was partly because I didn't enjoy the race as much as I thought I would because of all the different conditions on the race day plus I took Oliver to Japan for two weeks and didn't really exercise while I was there (you know it is very difficult to get back into the routine).

Luckily I got text messages - we should start running again from tonight. So off we went. It was a little bit hotter than we felt comfortable and we were so annoyed by the people flying kites. While we had a break from running our excersise spot down the road turned into a kite park - so many people with kites and of course their kites crash and we get caught on the loose strings. We completed 5ks in the end. I felt quite positive about it.



Yeah we are back running!!

We have (only) 16 days to train for the race - maybe a wee bit late to train for it but I am sure whatever happens on the race day we will have a fantastic girls trip to Singapore!! (I wonder how many km we will cover when we shop before the race!)

Bring it on!

Singing away

This is how Oliver enjoys his upstairs play area. Singing away ♪ & pushing his truck happily. He does this for almost 30 mins at a time!! It won't be too long before he can walk by himself. Just wonderful to see him developing. I am a very proud mummy!

New play area

Those of you who have been to our house know our upstairs living area has not been utilised. The main reasons for that was first, we didn't have much stuff to fill the area with and secondly, we didn't have a gate to prevent Oliver from rolling down the stairs. Last week we finally got gates put in to baby proof the area. And my friend Yasuko gave Oliver lots and lots of toys to fill the space (as her family is moving back to Japan). Hence we are using the area more now!

One of my friends told me when I put up a post on home improvement I should have photos - before and after. Well guess what? I forgot to take the before photo again... But I will be making more changes to this area so you will see the difference when I post more photos. Anyway this is how it looks now.



The baby gate



The new upstairs living area

Oliver loves the baby jungle gym (walking up the slide) and the wooden track that he can push around. I feel very cosy being upstairs as the floor is covered with parquet (downstairs is all covered with tiles).



Oliver knows how to climb up but doesn't know how to slide. Instead he dives off!



Yes! This is fun!!

One day we will buy a new sofa and a TV, but meanwhile this is a fantastic play area for Oliver.



Look mummy I can walk!

Mother's Day present from Oliver

This afternoon Oliver took me to Kiulap while daddy was working.
He got this Japanese Cherry Blossom Reed Diffuser for me.
He knew exactly which credit card to use to enjoy 35% off the marked price (very clever boy!). He picked this present to remind us of the cherry blossoms we saw in Japan!

Thank you Oliver ♥ I am so lucky to be your mother.

Happy Mother's Day

It is my first Mother's Day. To celebrate this special day, Oliver kindly woke up at 4:30am to remind me how wonderful it is to be a mother.

Matthew is flying all day today, so I am sure Oliver will take me out for shopping in the afternoon and buy me lots of goodies. I know he has his daddy's credit card :)

While Oliver is sleeping peacefully (YES!) I am going to enjoy my coffee and special Mother's day edition of NZ House and Garden.



♥ ♥ ♥ Happy Mother's Day ♥ ♥ ♥

Geckos Bake Sale

Yesterday at JIS, the little kids and primary kids had their annual Athletics Day. Yes - Oliver is still too small to participate in any of those events, but as a part of fundrasing for Geckos (the toddler group at JIS) we were offered to put up a Bake Shop at the site.

I knew exactly what I wanted to bake - Hello Kitty Short Bread, Gingerbread People, and My Famous Peach Danish (well...famous in our house).

I found the Peach Danish recipe (it is so easy, you cannot call it baking...) in NZ House and Garden magazine (Thanks to M&D). I must have baked over 100 Danish already just to have them at home. But believe me, they are so easy to make and so yummy! (Especially freshly baked in the morning). Unfortunately I forgot to take photos this time.

I went through a phase of buying lots of different cookie cutters in March and April. I am not sure what made me decide I need so many different cookie cutters but I bought 15 or so in total. Some in Japan and some in New Zealand.
It was about time to bake with some of them!

I packed all the cookies and Danish and went to the sale site.
By the time I got there our stall was already full of goodies!!! It was such a hot day. I felt so sorry for the kids running in the track. But this hot weather helped us to sell more drinks : )



You can see my gingerbread people and hello kitty cookies in the photo. They are the closest two items on the table.



Keira selling drinks



My friend made those gorgeous gingerbread cookies! They were sold very quickly.



Misuzu and Heather

Our sale started at 8am but by 10:30am we almost sold out of everything. It was such a success!!
I really enjoyed being involved in it.