Big brother

Oliver loves our simpang brother Lucas. He is like his real big brother you know. Wherever Lucas goes, Oliver wants to go with him. Whatever Lucas does he wants to copy cat him. If I need to convince Oliver I just use "Lucas would like you to... or you can play with Lucas after this...". trick and it always works :)

On Friday we went out for sushi lunch after school. Oliver was in heaven!





It was so cute to watch them together. Oliver just wanted to be like Lucas!

School pick up

It is very nice some of the daddies are available for school pick up too!

Aren't you exhausted?

I am so happy that Oliver has settled well into the nursery environment. He doesn't cry when we drop him off in the morning anymore. He even went without us today! Boel kindly took him to school with L&L and dropped him at nursery for me. He was just fine :)

I am amazed how much they can fit in one day - they had cooking and PE today and must be very tiring to them. But every day after school Oliver somehow gets so much energy. He really wants to run run run! If you are JIS parents you might know how far it is now to get to the car park from the nursery class room right? Oliver just runs nonstop to the car park... he is so fast!

Cooking class

Our little chef must have had a fantastic day at school. When I picked him up he said "FUN!!" with the biggest smile on his face.
Today they had their very first cooking class. Every Thursday nursery kids will do some cooking. They baked raisin cookies today.

The best part? They get to eat them!!



Yum yum yum!

First time in the pool

On Sunday Luca had his first dip in the pool at the yacht club. He loooooves his bath so I was kind of hoping he will be happy to be in the pool. Nope he didn't enjoy it at all : ( Maybe because the water temperature was quite low? or just too much to take in? Not sure... I hope he will be better next week when his kiwi cousin and grandparents join him in the pool!

What's happening in the class room

I like these little whiteboard updates from the teachers in nursery class. As you can imagine it is very hard to get accurate information from Oliver. He can tell me associated words but not really in full sentences yet. Also if I ask him questions he would say with a big big smile "yes!" to almost anything...

Our little boy is busy busy learning and exercising!

Zumba on the beach

Again?? I must be addicted to Zumba ha!? After a fun and hard 90min of Zumba on Friday, I still managed to drag myself to the beach in Jerudong yesterday for more Zumba!

Boel and me:



Lots of Zumba crazy people gathered.




There were some technical problems with the sound system.



Meanwhile we decided to use a car stereo to get our music going.



The ZIS - Enrique:



Zumba Zumba Zumba!!!





Beautiful sunset as a back drop.







By the time we finished it got dark and the full moon came out.



It was fantastic! Great music, great atmosphere and great work out.

Luca with a Koru

I took the same photo when Oliver was around the same age (or slightly younger). The koru is a loop - a spiral shape based on the shape of a new unfurling silver fern frond and symbolizing new life, growth, strength and peace. I really like this Koru greenstone on our boys. They look strong and very Kiwi.

It was such a mission with wriggler Luca tho, he just didn't stay still. I must have taken close to 50 shots and finally got something close to what I wanted.





Our boy is now 4 months old. We are so happy that he is growing so well and always smiling!

Luca and Lucas

The best entertainment for Luca is little kids talking to him. Here is Luca with Lucas : )



I love his chubbly giggles - makes everyone smile : )

This is how you watch Rugby

Matthew and Oliver watched the England vs France game yesterday (Well... sorry my lovely English friends).

A bowl of chips and drinks in the stubbie holders : )

Join the party!

Well I have only been to Zumba classes 3 times so far but be brave and join the party! It was a charity event - all the funds were donated to Pusat Ehsan. The whole 90min Zumba was led by Zumba specialist Enrique Salomao from Australia!! (he is originally from Brazil).

To keep up our party spirit Boel and I went to nail art in the afternoon to get our Party nails done.



Here is Nicole and I arriving at the party venue!



I was so impressed by the number of people gathered to Zumba - there were over 250 people there!!



Can you see Boel on the stage? She was very cool!



Susan:



I wasn't too sure if I could last for the whole 90min but I did it! Well done me!
The exercise buzz is highly contagious. Now I am addicted to Zumbaaaaa!! (Thanks to you Boel Watson!)

Old country cottage

One of our friends told us about this "Old country cottage" (she is relatively new to Brunei but knew about a place we didn't!!). Boel and I decided to try it out this morning for our late breakfast. It was not too difficult to find but I didn't know why we haven't noticed the place before - apparently it has been there for the last year or so.

The place was reasonably busy when we walked in. I was a bit worried it will take forever to get what we ordered. But to my surprise it was very quick! I had "Da old cottage breakfast" which came with nice pancakes, chicken sausages, beef bacon, grilled tomatos and baked beans - for just $5! The drinks were priced reasonably too (coffee, latte are $3).

I really liked the cosy surroundings, especially the patchwork wall hangings. They had several in the cafe. (Can you see the Halloween one behind Boel, Merryn?).



Very nice way to start the morning - we had a very busy day after this, nails, sushi lunch and... Zumba Party!!!

Are you Japanese?

This morning I went to a Zumba class to get some exercise. It is great to try something different, you meet new people and it is always lovely to have a chat. Here is a conversation I had with a lady.
Where are you from?
-I am from Japan!
Oh really?
-Why? where did you think I was from?
I don't know but I thought Japanese ladies always wear nice make up and have their hair done very nicely. What happened to you?
-Well because I am in Brunei and I am here to exercise!!

I must look very tired and run down...

Bath time fun

This evening Luca got a special bath - Linnea came around and helped me. She is into babies and is very good with Luca.

She wiped Luca's face with a cloth, soaped his hands and body and splashed some water to make him laugh.
She also insisted on drying and putting cream on him and dressing him. Luca loooved every minute of it!





Thank you big sister!

The weekend is here

Until Oliver started nursery we didn't really care which day of the week it was. But now the weekend seems very important to us, especially when Matthew gets a day off and we can spend the whole day together.

This morning we took it very easy, had breakfast, coffee and spent some time in our backyard. Oliver really enjoyed throwing his rugby ball to Matthew, showing his tackling skills (against the rugby ball...), checking out the jungle, dancing and playing music in "Oliver house".



Luca also enjoyed some fresh air.



Just the perfect way to spend a Saturday morning! I love it!