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...

Being Green

This is your green neighbour. Your rubbish bin is full of plastic bottles. You should start recycling too! (Especially since you too pass the JIS recycling station at least a couple of times a week...)

I got this text from my green neighbour a few weeks back. I know in Japan and NZ and even in Brunei when we first moved here (we took the rubbish to the dump ourselves and they had recycling bins) we did recycle what we can.

I guess I just got lazy... Now I realised I need to be more green and care for the environment regardless of where we are.

So I have set up a recycling station in the wash room and this morning, we dropped our first batch of recycling.



I felt very good - Being Greener!

In the backyard

Oliver has been spending more time in our garden. He likes being on the swing now (phew! he didn't want to go on it at all when we bought it off our friends) so almost every morning Matthew and Oliver spend an hour or so outside.

In the afternoon Lucas and Linnea often visit him and play together.

Today three of the boys played in the garden chasing balls. They had a great time. We get a nice breeze in the back yard so it is not as hot as you think! It's actually very pleasant to be outside. Me? I just sit on the patio watching the boys giggle - what a lovely life!

Crafty morning

Boel invited me to come along to do some crafty work last week. Some of us got together and worked on scrapbooking. Well I didn't have many resources nor creativity like the others so I spent the morning completing one of the birthday album kits my friend gave me for my birthday. It was actually very relaxing just chatting away and working with little bits and pieces.

Today it was my turn to host a crafty morning.

Boel arriving with her supplies!



(I had to tell her to "have a great flight" when she left).

We worked on making cards today - well again I am still getting all these ideas using crafty papers and what you can do to make them look good so I mostly spent my time observing others making great cards while working on Oliver's birthday invitations. I managed to make one card inspired by others's work (Boel is like a machine she can make so many in such a short time).

Here is my creation from this morning :

Busy Saturday

What a full on Saturday we had! Oliver got up nice and early - really early 5:30 am!! and didn't want to go back to sleep.

We had a light breakfast together and headed out to the yacht club. There were only 3-5 people there when we got there (around 9am I think) so we had the whole swimming pool to ourselves. It was just so lovely to be in the water with the morning sun shining on us.

But swimming didn't last too long when Oliver saw the playground by the beach and insisted on going there. So us parents gave up on a nice swim and ordered some food and drinks.

It turned out to be the best experience we had in a while though. The temperature was perfect with a beautiful breeze. No one else was at the beach, Oliver played happily on the slides and sand - giving both of us time to relax and even read newspapers!







Oliver loved chilling out on the deckchair watching sailing boats.



After a good afternoon nap we head out to Oliver's friend's birthday party. Their garden is perfect for kids to play. Trampolines, bouncy castle, climbing frames, sand pits and swings. They have it all! Not to mention Oliver had a ball with his little friends (There were almost 30 kids there).



Happy birthday Tom - awesome octopus birthday cake!

We got home a little bit later than we planned so we were rushing to shower and feed Oliver so that we could make it to our friend's 30th birthday dinner party. Unfortunately it took a while to put Oliver to bed so we were quite late joining the party. But we certainly enjoyed a nice quiet adults evening.

It was a full on day for an 8 months pregnant person (me!) but I really had a great day. Thanks everyone.

Bug hunter

We have had some flies in the house for the last few days. Not sure where they are coming from. Matthew has been getting them with a cushion and guess who has been watching?

Oliver can count!

Oliver has been counting when he goes up and down the stairs. He has mastered counting in English 1-10!! (still working on Japanese 1-10 tho).

Mother's Day

Yesterday was the second Mother's day for me. Matthew came back from Perth in the morning and looked after Oliver - gave me a chance to sleep in.

When I got up Oliver and Matthew gave me a special Pandora bead as a mother's day gift. I am very spoiled!

We had a lazy morning together and headed out to the yacht club for fresh air which was a wonderful choice.
Matthew and Oliver had a swim while I enjoyed yummy orange and pineapple juice. Oliver loved being by the beach and playing in the playground. Just watching him giggle made me smile lots and lots.

Such an amazing experience to be a mother, and this joy will be doubled soon. We cannot wait...

Crafty Oliver

On Friday at Geckos, Oliver made another fish! This time with his friends. Everyone had fun sticking pieces of paper on to make fish.

He is very crafty and very proud of himself!

Kodomo no hi (Children's/Boy's day)

Today May the 5th is a national holiday in Japan - Children's Day. It is to respect children's personalities and to celebrate their happiness. It is also known as Boy's Day (we have a girl's day on 3rd of March)

For this day families raise the carp-shaped koinobori flags one for each boy (or child) and display a Japanese doll (called Kintaro) and samurai helmets (Kabuto) at home.

This morning Oliver and I made paper Koinobori (carp/fish) and Kabuto together to celebrate the special day.

First, we cut lots of different coloured stars:



Then Oliver stuck them with glue - it was quite tricky but he did very well.



We coloured the origami Kabutos - a small one for his teddy bear and a big one for him.



He thought it was so funny his teddy gets a hat!





He didn't want to colour his one much but was very happy that they got matching ones!

Here is Oliver with his completed koinobori - he held onto it for a long time!



By the time we finished craft activities it was nearly lunch time. I made this special lunch for him - I was very happy to see him recognising what I made and to my surprise he ate them all! There was so much rice for a little boy!!





Happy Children's Day dearest Oliver. We ♡ you so much!

Dennis' pumpkin risotto

During our stay in Auckland we had Dennis' famous delicious pumpkin risotto for dinner one night. It tasted so good and when I saw some pumpkins at our supermarket the other day, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

So we emailed Dennis and got the recipe and made our own pumpkin risotto last night.

It turned out very nice but I didn't put enough pumpkin in so it was more like a mushroom risotto.
So I cannot officially call it Dennis' pumpkin risotto yet, maybe next time.

My little Mickey boy

Oliver loves wearing hats!

Changing points!

The boys and a girl and even us adults had fun playing with these train tracks. Saskia managed to complete the tracks and the kids spent most of the time playing with this train track.

This morning Gus and Oliver took the job very serious changing the points so that the train runs smoothly.









Oliver learned lots of cool London subway sayings from Gus : )