Rainbow birthday party

I found this American lady's blog a while back (I think when I made felted birthday crowns with Merryn). In this blog I saw her gorgeous rainbow birthday party she prepared for her daughter and was determined to make Oliver's 2nd birthday party as special and colourful.

Unfortunately around 12pm on the day of the party the rain started... It has been nice and sunny all week but...
Nothing I could do. The party still took place with lots of lovely friends squashed inside our lounge (I'm sorry everyone...)

The food table covered with rainbow colours:



Our bar turned very colourful too!



I set up a craft table for the kids to make "rainbow crowns" using colourful feathers and glitter glue. I asked Katie to help me with this craft table and she did a fab job! (Thank you so much Katie). I was very impressed with the kid's work - they were so into it and very crafty.





I thought our lounge area was reasonably big...



Luckily the rain sort of stopped halfway through so some of the guests could play outside and breathe properly.



And this is the moment Oliver has been waiting for - The birthday cake.



He blew the candles out perfectly and was very proud of himself. And he even got to cut the cake with daddy.



One of my very talented friends did a fantastic job baking this cake for us. - Woooooow it's a true rainbow cake!!



The party bag - a set of crayons and a rainbow ginger cookie (also baked by my lovely friend Beenal!).



I hope everyone had a great time surrounded by happy colours - Oliver certainly had a ball!



Thank you everyone for making my special day extra special!! (Photo: taken by Boel)

The colourful details

Here are closer shots of the party details.

Jellybeans were a hit! I only see them in certain shops in Brunei, for this party I bought them in NZ - well planned!



Rainbow fresh fruit plate - this was very easy living in the tropics, lovely colourful fruits are always available to us!



Rainbow ginger biscuits - baked by my lovely friend Beenal.



And the cake was baked by her too.



Rainbow paper mobile. I followed this tutorial.



Party bag crayons - wrapped in rainbow crepe paper.



Yarn eggs - I made all 7 rainbow colours, but one collapsed when I popped the balloon and 3 didn't dry in time : (
I found how to make them here.



And finally a rainbow teepee but because of the rain it was a no show. I am going to sew the ends together so that I can use it for parachute play.



It certainly was a quite a job putting everything together but I really really enjoyed it!

Oliver house

I know we are spoiling our Oliver - but we would like to do it while we can. When we were in NZ in April, Oliver got to play in his cuzzies playhouse. He loved it so much we thought it would be a great present for him.



There was a special delivery for Oliver on late Friday evening. A big truck came and left these bits in the garden.

hmmmmm what are these for???



A very curious 2 year-old.



Before the work started:



Within a few hours it looked like this:



Oliver was so excited watching "Oliver house"(this is how he calls it) being built.



And this is the final product - "Oliver house"



Matthew and Oliver had a lovely time up there. Playing cars, looking over the greenery etc etc. I even went up there (I know I shouldn't being heavily pregnant but I had to see...)





I am sure he will be spending lots of time in this!

The rest of the birthday.

After a lovely morning at home we headed out to the yacht club for Oliver's birthday lunch with some of his adult friends. Well that was the plan anyway, but by the time I parked my car I had a very sleepy birthday boy. I thought he would wake up when I moved him into the buggy but no - he wanted to stay asleep. So I had a nice lunch for him!



Luckily he woke up before I finished off the chocolate cake and got to blow out the candles : )



In the afternoon Lucas and Linnea came around to celebrate his actual birthday with him. He was so excited to have another birthday song and a mini cake. Because he can blow out the candles again! You can see some great photos here in Boel's blog.

And one more special treat from mummy to a birthday boy - Totoro dinner!



He loved it and ate everything off the plate!

Happy birthday once more my beautiful boy. I love you so much.

Kiwi symbolism

We gave Oliver this special necklace.

It is a New Zealand Hei-Matau (fish hook) which represents strength and determination. It is also said it brings peace, prosperity, abundance and good luck.

I also found out it provides good luck and safety when travelling over water so is often worn by travellers - perfect for someone like Oliver who travels a lot!

Birthday morning

I had a plan this morning to wake and surprise our birthday boy with presents. Well... Not often I wake up before him - no difference this morning. He woke up and called "mama! mama!" from his room nice and early at 6am.
I dragged myself out of bed with two wrapped presents and a camera in my hand.

Oliver was certainly confused but very quickly got the idea. I sang happy birthday to him and he wanted to sing it over and over again with me! What a clever boy!







He got a watering can, a trowel and a fork from mummy and daddy.

Then it was time for a special breakfast. I made a special lunch for him for boys day earlier this month, this time it was one of his favourite characters - Ampanman pancakes with two candles of course. Daddy and Oliver have been practicing blowing out candles so he knew exactly what he was supposed to do!





I love the look on his face when he figured out what was on the plate.



Blowing out the candles.



A very happy birthday boy!



How old are you Oliver? - Two!!



And tasted good too!

A lot more happened today - I will be posting more photos later : )

Feeling the beat

Oliver has a new guru - Lucas the dancer. When he goes over to his place he feels the beat!
Check this out!

It's a rainbow

I have been busy organising Oliver's 2nd birthday party (hence not being able to update my blog as often...). We wanted to have the party on his actual birthday but unfortunately Matthew won't be here. He asked for a special day off then guess what?! his company kindly gave him a day off in Perth! I just laughed.

Anyway the birthday party preparation is keeping me very busy. I managed to hand out most of the invitations to Oliver's little friends and the good news is that lots of them can make it to his party - lucky boy!
I just cannot believe it has been a whole year since his last birthday.

I like picking a theme for the party - this year he is having a rainbow party!

Here is my creative birthday invitation (inspired by my crafty friends! Thank you!).



Lollipop birthday invitation



It is going to be a very colourful party!
As you know parents are more excited then the birthday boy : ) It will be great fun!

Daddy-playdate

Matthew enjoyed daddy-playdates this week. Instead of mummies get together, daddies got together to chat and have the kids play together. What a great life style we have! I am so glad he can see so much of Oliver and still have a full time job.

Kids enjoyed snack time together.



Check out the big big smile on his face!



Emma, Oliver and Lucy.



Play time on the swings.

I am sure Matthew will have a lot of these daddy-playdates when our second baby arrives : ) Only 4 more weeks to go!

Family excursion to...

Today we tried something new. The three of us visited a hair salon together. One of our friends recommended this place so we thought why not try it. We booked a room just for us.

Oliver went first in this cool jeep chair!  He just woke up from his nap so he wasn't too sure what was happening but with a DVD playing Tom & Jerry in front of him, he was pretty content sitting and getting his hair done.





You can see how much hair he had... this time we decided to go for quite short.



I love the short hair on him - now he looks more like Matthew I think.

Matthew had his done very quickly and it was my turn! I hadn't had a haircut since I was in Japan in early March so was looking forward to it. The best part was getting my hair washed! The lady was so good, combining the wash and the massage.

I love this sitting in the chair and getting my hair washed (instead of lieing down during the wash, more comfortable, especially with my big big belly).



I am very pleased with the outcome : )



Matthew and me-looking good ha?

Beard Papa is here!

While I was getting my hair done, Matthew and Oliver went upstairs (by the movie theater in the Mall) to get me a treat.
It is a Japanese shu cream shop where I often got afternoon snack for work when I was in Japan.
Very crispy puff pastry/bread and nice cold custard and cream inside.

I cannot believe it's here! (A little bit expensive $2.30 a piece but it's worth it!!)

Pizza chef

This morning Oliver had a playdate at little Lucas's place.
He has so many cool toys and the boys had a blast.
Lucas's mom had special lunch for them - make your own pizza!

Oliver was quite distracted by so many exciting toys he left behind to come into the kitchen to make his pizza hence he does't look too excited making the pizza, but he did it! And it turned out beautifully!

Oliver dictionary

When you talk to Oliver you need a special dictionary to figure out what he is saying.
For example:

He says = he means

sock = gum boots
ana = another
sit here = chair
sit here = table
dgar = digger
nana = banana
breakfast = breakfast
breakfast = lunch
breakfast = dinner

The dictionary is getting bigger everyday...