Birthday BBQ

We had a family BBQ to celebrate Hinata's 11th birthday in conjunction with Matthew's birthday which will be in two days.

When we built our house in Japan, we decided to get an extra section next door to make a nice backyard when we live here one day. We have been in Brunei for the last 5 years so to make it easier for everyone to look after it we just put down some gravel. So not too pretty greenery garden but at least we have our own space for all the family members to get together! Our family is getting pretty BIG!

Dad and Rua:



Our friend from Singapore - Shem joined us too:





The birthday boy Hinata with Runa:



The yummy food:



Luckily we have a relatively quiet street so the kids can run around:





Luca:



Yosuke was very happy after few beers:



Mum and Mako:



After a big feast the kids had lots of fireworks! Made them even happier!!









We had a very nice ice cream birthday cake (which I couldn't get a photo of - it was melting away so fast!) to finish this great family party :) Happy birthday boys!!

Wheels

The other day when we went for a walk to a park all the kids had different ride ons - how funny!

Runa on her unicycle:



Oliver on his scooter:



Hinata on a ray-board:



And Yuzuki on her princess bike:



Luca was in his buggy:



Once we got to the park Luca decided he just wanted to walk and walk and walk!





He is so stable - growing so much everyday!

Summer vegetables

Shinobu came home with this goodie box the other day - full of beautiful summer veges! Yum!

Full course haircut

The boys had a haircut today. Now Oliver tells me he needs a haircut. He tried the three course haircut this time.

Cut:






















Shampoo - this was something new!









And blow dry:





Big smile with a new haircut :)



Luca was very good too. He didn't need to sit on my lap. He sat there by himself like a big boy!

Power testing train

We took Matthew to the airport the other day (second time in 10days). While we waited for our train we found this special train at the station. I have never seen this before but everyone was taking photos so it must be a very special one. On the side of the train it said power testing carriage.





Oliver was so upset when the train left without him...



But getting on another train made him smile again :) :) :)

Evening walk

We are loving spending our early evening outside our house. It has been very very hot since we got here. We only had a proper rain once in the last three weeks. During the day the sun is too strong so we tend to stay inside and have to keep the air con on. But around 5:30pm the temperature drops and a nice breeze kicks in.

It is a special time of the day for Oliver to be able to ride his scooter around with his little friends & cousins. And time for Luca to enjoy the fresh air.

There is a new housing development under construction right beside our properties. The boys enjoy watching the heavy vehicles.



Sometimes Runa brings little Rua outside so that Luca has some company :)



The other day Oliver's little friend from next door wanted to catch some cicadas in a little temple. So we went along.  We don't normally walk these little streets and some parts were very new to us.

We found a greenhouse growing eggplant on the way:





We could hear so many cicadas but couldn't catch many :(





We saw an awesome sunset on the way home.



I hope my boys find what we have in Japan as special as I do.

Captain Oliver and First officer Luca

On one of our holiday flights we got to see the cockpit of the same sort of plane that Daddy flies.

Captain Oliver (in his pajamas) :

Luca straight away knew what to do:

For sure our boys are interested in airplanes!! Making daddy happy :)

Me and my girl

Luca looooooooves Rua ♡

Big smile from a little boy

My smiley boy - So cute!!

Kishiwada Festival

Japanese Summer is here!! - After a quick dinner at our sushi place we got changed into our yukata and Jinbei and headed out to the firework festival in Kishiwada (15min drive from our town).

We invited Stefan and Su to come along:





Quick change and we all looked very Japanese!



We were very lucky Goichi dropped us off right at the event spot and got there nice and early without any trouble.







I just looooove Japanese festivals, especially the fireworks. They had more than 3,000 fireworks over one hour. They had some tricky ones this year like smily faces, love hearts, sunflowers, Japanese flag etc (unfortunately I was too busy watching them and couldn't get any good photos of them).





Oliver tried some games:







Stefan buying Japanese treats:



Luca with his beer!?



We had so much fun together. Both of my boys were amazed by the fireworks - not scared at all!
I hope we get to go to more of these while we are in Japan this summer!

Flying back to Japan

Guess who brought us back to Japan?!