BBQ evening

It was such a lovely evening, a nice temperature with some cool breezes. We were going to go to Jerudong Park for a play but decided to stay home and have a BBQ.

We invited our neighbours to come over and join us, BBQ is always better with more people. Oliver was so excited Linnea and Lucas were coming over. He set the table for them and waited patiently.



They played nicely in the garden until the food was ready. They danced around in "Oliver house" and played on the swing set.





Dinner time!



yum yum yum



To finish off the night they watched a part of the movie RIO and danced around!



Nothing special but we really enjoyed our backyard dinner : ) We should do it more often!

Ready set go!

At my baby shower I received a new buggy from my lovely friends. This particular buggy works with my baby car seat I have so I don't need to carry the car seat from one place to another, I can just clip it on and push it around.

Matthew and I spent quite some time trying to figure out how to put it on. The instruction booklet didn't tell us much : (

But finally we got it! Taddaaaaaaaa!!



I can have the baby facing me! And very stylish design too! (Sorry about the nudist baby doll in the buggy, Oliver was determined "Oliver baby" had to go and pee so no nappies were allowed!)

I love it! Thank you again everyone : )

Origami

Some of you might know Japanese kids learn lots of Origami crafts when they are young. It is said Origami enhances the ability of fingertip movement and encourages brain activity etc.

Oliver is still too young to fold anything yet but I wanted him to play with Origami paper so I got some out this morning.

Result? He was more interested in the packaging - different animals. Never mind maybe next time... I found it funny he always wants to put things in line though. Very specific about it.





I hope he will learn to make things using Origami just as I did when I was a kid. I would love to pass as much of the Japanese culture as I can to my children.

If you are intersted in Origami crafts I found this site very useful.

Very Japanesey

I bought these from Japan a while ago. Today I got to use them for the first time.



Yes, paper clips - aren't they cute?

They had lots of different designs (company website) - I found them to be very Japanesey!

I am a drummer

At the moment Oliver is into musical instruments and dancing.
I took this video clip at Oliver's friend Lucas's house the other day.



He is pretty good ha?

NO NO NO I am not getting one of these for Oliver, I don't think I can bear the noise all day around in my house...

Brunei International Tattoo 2011

A while ago Boel asked me if we wanted to join them to go and see the military tattoo during the school break. I just had no idea what she was talking about so I had to go home and google it. It turned out be a very rare event that we got to go and see. It was held in Brunei this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces.

I was first amazed that the indoor stadium had perfect air-con, not too hot, not too cold, just right. And secondly it started on time!

Walking into the stadium - very exciting!



We found our seats no problem (we should have paid more to sit on the other side so that we could see the performance facing us)



Grand opening:



A man came down from the ceiling - very cool performance!



Some members of the Royal family arrived.



12 countries participated - unfortunately NZ was not participating : (



The Royal Australian Navy Band and Precision Drill Team.



There were big TV screens showing live images - the Royal Army of Oman Band.



Brunei



Philippines - I thought they were very good.



Indonesia



It was certainly great to see not only the band formation but also a good mixture of alternative performances.
Malaysia - a motor bike stunt.



China's Guangzhou Acrobatic Team - just amazing!





Snack time - we had some pizzas : )



Brunei came back with a kung-fu-performance:



Of course Kung-fu Panda was there to entertain the kiddy audience!



Grand finale



What impressed me the most was Oliver didn't lose interest for the entire show - it was 3 1/2 hours! He was still doing the conductor movements in the car on the way home. You can see more of his impressions of the show in the other post.



It was just a fantastic event, I am so glad we went!

BIT 2011 - Oliver's impressions

Taking it all in - he wasn't moving...



He quickly learned when to applause.





Look over there!



I think he was taking pictures... with his pretend camera.



He kept a very close eye on the conductors.



Towards the end he just couldn't stop moving his body - dance dance dance!



Do you think he enjoyed the show? I think so!!

My party this time!

Last night my wonderful friends Keira, Nicole and Boel organised a baby shower for me. They put lots of effort into decorating and organising the night for me. I felt guity lots of the friends had to revisit me for another party (as most of them came to Oliver's birthday party on the weekend) but thanks to the wonderful hosts everyone had a great time.



Blue decorations - hmmmmm - why blue?



I just loved the nappy cake Keira made for me - she is so clever!



Lots of yummy food : )



We played some baby related games - pretty serious stuff.



Even the examiner was very serious.



My lovely friends:







I am so spoiled - received my dream buggy for the new baby : )



It was wonderful to be able to talk to friends without stressing or running around (unlike on Sunday I was very busy & stressed at Oliver's party). I am just so lucky to have so many lovely friends. Thank you everyone!

We will be just waiting for our baby to arrive. Any day now (I want to wait for a little bit longer to prepare myself tho).

Oliver's birthday ✓
My baby shower ✓
Hospital bag is packed ✓

Bring it on, quick and smooth delivery!

So many presents!

After the birthday bash, Oliver had a huge job ahead - opening his birthday presents.



Before opening the presents from his lovely friends we decided to do family presents first. Our boy was very excited and had to sing "Happy Birthday ♪ " before opening each one.



A cool bath-able "Oliver baby" (this is what Oliver calls the baby doll) from Merryn and Dennis.



Lovely train tracks and trains! Thank you English Roses.





And more rainbows from the Fenwick Roses : ) great story puzzles - thank you!



We moved onto the friends presents but he opened the first one and wanted to play with the new toy for the next 1 hour...



Gemma, Katie and Nicole came around with more presents for him! Oliver got to open them in his "Oliver House".



Gemma reading the new story book for Oliver.



Oliver certainly is a very lucky child. Thank you everyone : )