In the morning garden

My little Igglepiggle spent the whole morning in the garden today. Of course he picked his current favourite pair of gumboots. They get quite hot in this weather but I don't need to worry about him getting bitten by red ants etc so perfect for his playtime in the garden.

Today's activity was collecting red seeds in the garden and cleaning them with water and putting them into the drain one by one.
Here are the photos.









It was quite overcast this morning with some breeze. I had a can of cold drink under the fan and enjoyed watching my boy play so happily.

What a lovely morning!

Nice...

Found this gorgeous hibiscus blooming in the garden today. I love the vivid pink, makes me feel very tropical.

Test drive

Matthew and I have been looking to buy a new car (as we have only one car right now). We test drove one car today and it was pretty good.

We thought Oliver should have a go as well and he test drove a Mini.





The toy car was at the Hua Ho department store and it is very impressive. You can drive the car yourself or it can be controlled by a remote control. Oliver just loved it! but we ended up not getting it (my concern was that he would get very obsessed with it and not play with any of his other toys).

We might just have to visit Hua Ho every now and then to have more test drives!

Water boy

Oliver loves spending his playtime outside. He found this new game of watering everything with his watering can.
In these photos he is watering the plants but sometimes he waters my shoes, his push bike, and even our cat!
He must love keeping things clean and moist!

Neighbourhood brother

Now that Oliver is a bit older he can play with the neighbour's kids. He often plays with Lucas (7) and Linnea (5) from next door.

This evening Oliver heard them having fun on the trampoline and off he went and got his gumboots on - ready to join them.

They had lots of fun and giggles together as usual (not many tears today).

When it was time for everyone to go back in the house, Lucas said "Oliver can be my little brother!"
I said "that would be great but you know being a big brother, you have to look after him and even change his nappies"
He thought about it for a while and said "Ok if you do it half the time, I will do the other half!"
Bless him!

Oliver is very lucky to have such a great neighbourhood brother.

Choo-choo

Ever since we visited Japan Oliver's obsession with trains has been getting serious. Half of the day he is saying "densha!, densha!"

He also developed this funny densha dance- he points his index fingers up in air and keeps walking around shouting densha! densha! densha! Matthew and I are laughing so much.

It is taking over his sleeping time too - the other day he was asleep but talking in his sleep "choo! choo!".

Very cute but a bit concerned with his obsession...

Star Wars Birthday Party

Oliver was invited to a very special Star Wars birthday party on Saturday. It was to celebrate our neighbour Lucas's 7th birthday. I knew how much effort Boel and the family had put in to prepare the party so we were very excited to be there!

Do you remember I was making Oliver's outfit? I managed to get it done 15min before the party started! But guess what?

He fell asleep while I was getting ready! Bless him! Can you tell what he is dressed as?



Oliver slept for almost an hour in his buggy but woke up very cheerful and couldn't stop eating corn chips. What do you think of our little Yoda!?



The party house was well decorated, and we were greeted by dressed up birthday boy and parents, Star Wars snack and drink table and more!



The birthday boy Jedi Lucas.



Proud parents; Boel (Princess Leia) and Nathan (Jedi).



I think this was a hit! I heard lots of kids saying "Oh I need another Yoda Soda!"



The bigger kids played 3 different types of Star Wars games and each time they completed they got a star sticker on their badge, how cool is that? Linnea kindly gave Oliver three stars even though he didn't participate.

Boel has been raving about this surprise she prepared for the kids. And it was a great surprise even for us adults. I didn't even know the 501st Legion who are aparently the biggest Star Wars costume group in the world existed (you can read more about them on Boel's blog)

The kids eyes almost fell off when they walked in! Oliver was very scared and held onto Matthew like a koala bear - but he didn't cry, maybe because he was a little Yoda!







The group photo.

And it was time for a very cool birthday cake : )



Oliver left the party with a Star Wars goody bag and inside there was a very special gift. The group photo they took an hour before - nicely framed! He was very impressed and talked to the photo for quite a while...



I love that parents put so much effort into their children's birthday here. Things we can get here are limited so you need to plan very well and in advance to make the party special but it is certainly great fun!

Oliver's birthday is not till late May but we need to start thinking about what we can do to make it extra special!

Toddler gymnasts

Every Friday we have sandpit time during the Geckos session. This week one of the mums approached us and offered to run a toddler gym.

Silke used to run these classes back in Germany so she knew exactly what she was doing and gave us some great tips.

We started the session by singing a song with some body motions so that the children know its time for exercise. And then, time for a full on obstacle course. Oliver couldn't stop smiling, he enjoyed it so much!











To finish the session off we played some games (rabbit and fox & fire, water and storm) Oliver was giggling so much!
It was great to have a little bit of structure in the kids play time. Oliver is surely looking forward to the next session.

Superhero book week

At JIS they are having their annual book week and this year's theme is superheros! Yeah!

The children in Geckos are too small to participate in this event but we took part in dressing up as superheros on Friday.

Matthew took our car to work the night before, Oliver and I got a ride with the Watsons. We had a lovely photo shoot before getting in the car together.
Here is Batman Oliver excited to go to Geckos with Linnea and Lucas.



Spidergirl Linnea and Oliver.



Lucas (Wolverine) and Linnea showing us the superhero pose.



When we got to school Linnea took Oliver's hand. They were so cute together!



Unfortunately not many Geckos kids were dressed-up (as we had very short notice) but the school was full of superheros!
I got lots of "very cute Batman!" comments (Oliver is pretty cute you know!)
You can see more photos on Boel's blog : )

My first attempt

I might be crazy but I need to complete an outfit in a few days for Lucas's birthday party (our neighbour who is turning 7). I left it too late to take it to our tailor who usually makes Oliver's dress-up clothes : (
I have never made clothes before... Well we will see how it will turn out (I really should have started last week...)

Splashback - completed

Some of you might remember that I was working on my second mosaic project before the holidays. It was completed just before I left to Japan and is now proudly enjoying its spot in our kitchen. I still need to clean up a little bit (been really busy since we got back!), but looks great ha? (To be honest it was very hard, harder than the mosaic ball, because you need to keep all the pieces straight all the way... I think I like the random one I don't have to think much!)



Thank you Paula for letting me complete it while you were very busy packing up to move back to the UK. I still haven't found the stand for my mosaic ball so when I do I will put up a photo, I promise!

Kiwiana in Brunei?

Look what I found in a Brunei baby shop!



Pukeko, Silver fern and Sheep!!!

Two more weeks...

..until the Chinese New Year celebrations. The shops are getting ready, it is quite a hassle to shop around this time of the year, as they play super loud music over and over again! Well... I cannot spend long in the shops so maybe it's a good thing : )

Happy Birthday Boel!

It is our neighbour Boel's birthday today. We were invited to have some peach danishes and lovely coffee to celebrate her birthday morning.

Yesterday when I saw her, her voice was a little bit funny (as in she has a cold or something) but today the poor birthday girl almost lost her voice. Luckily no other real flu symptoms she said. We will be going out for her birthday dinner tonight - I hope she will get her voice back by then!



Happy Birthday Boel!

Gumboots

I got a pair of gumboots for Oliver while we were in Japan. Since we are having so much rain recently it is a perfect time for him to try them out!

He wasn't too sure about them at first but once he decided he loved them, there was no stopping him!





Unfortunately there weren't many puddles he can go in at school. We walked through lots of them around our house, next time I will have my camera ready so I can get his gorgeous smile!