Another Birthday and a lovely visit

Well having the two kids means a great deal of birthday invites.

Here's another one for us this weekend, with an invite to our good friends Keith and Adeline, and baby Francesca's 1st birthday - how cute is this!

Here she is, such a big girl now, sitting up, crawling round - Mary and I even got the opportunity to feed her until she slept in her push chair. Miss that now Amy and Ollie so grown up.

Yes Mum Adeline is an absolute talent at making specialize cup-cake for any event, birthdays, corporate branding - well anything! Look at these Princess ones for Francesca - so cute! Happy Birthday Francesca. Let me know if you want Adeline's number for your birthdays!

Here she is with Mum and Dad, having just had her birthday song sang to her. She, well Keith, did a great job at blowing the candles out! Cough Cough!

Some catch ups with friends and kids we have not seen for a while, all growing up so so fast. But so lovely to see them, so lovely to see that we're remembered and so lovely to see the smiley faces - and new babies on the way soon too.

Here's some just gorgeous photos of Bubbles - John and Z's baby girl. We have not see her for too long. Last time we spent really quality time with her was on Nikoi Island, when we play and played and she befriended Amy and Ollie like brother and sister. See what I mean - not forgot, just delayed hellos and fun.

Amy took the stage a few times of course. So here we are:

Daddy look at my balloons -

Daddy look at me, I just did all these jigsaws alone (with a little help) and I am very proud of myself -

Daddy look at my funniest face I can pull at the moment (hmmmm!) -

The funny thing re this one for me in this one is - look at all the girls in the photo, then look at the boys in the photos - so Mum and Dads, notice a common theme and then look at all the absolutely stunning kids! Yep all Eurasian - just gorgeous! (plus check the gorgeous Z in the middle, another Bubbles number two with us in 10 days - thinking of you all Z/John, can't wait to meet the new little lady!)

Mary even got to make new friends as Filipinos were in the gang of girls. Nice shot ladies!

And then we got to chill after a lovely party and our very good friend Carole, now sadly not with us in Singapore any more, but back in UK came to visit the kids. We'd been out with her and friends the night before which was great fun. Time for kids to say hi, and time for her to hand over the pork scratchings she so kindly shipped over for us - YUMMY!!!!

Another LOVELY weekend in Singapore - thanks everyone for making it fun!

A monumental day

She can write her own name now! OK first attempt was a little back to front but you get the idea, and then hey presto - check this out!!!!!

This was a week or so ago, so bookmark that date.

I think she is very proud of herself.

I certainly am - well done Amy. Love Daddy xxx

Lizzy's Birthday

Another weekend, another birthday.

Todays was Lizzy, the 4 year old daughter of our good mates Dave and Jacqui. A lovely birthday at "The Playhouse". Somewhere I have not been for an absolute age. So it was great to see them again, and have fun with the kids in tow.

It's located on Rochester Park, actually a road, that has loads of black and whites we call them (colonial houses), converted to cool bars and restaurants. This one called Playhouse has a kids play group thing beneath it for sort of 2-7 and upstairs for 7 and move is more PS3 and X-Box. All up it's great.

So 20+ kids, all playing, jumping, eating, drinking and all in Princess attire or boys in super hero stylee as you'll see. Very very cute! Just check the scale of the luncheon. But worked like clock-work. Kids were amazingly well behaved!

Startin early? The girls on the hard stuff at the party - yep that's neat apple juice in there folks!

Balloon tying - flowers, swords, animals etc etc.

"I will NOT drop my balloon flower not matter what I am doing Dad!"

Queuing up for something. That something, I know not what. But anyways, cute photo.

"If I do this I look like a meringue Dad, look!"

"I'm just looking for the other 98 of them Dad!" (Sorry you'll need be an 80's child to get this one probably!!!)

Sorry no Ollie in this as he decided not to come with us, he went bowling instead. So a day of Amy for this blog.

Here's some clips of the kids going absolutely crazy - the guy in the middle organising this has the patient of a saint doesn't he!

Dance anyway you want to, dance anyway you please, dance anyway you want to, but stop when I say "FREEZE"!

Hmm Amy you really think that is what a Princess would do??? That's a mighty long tongue sweetheart.

The birthday girl with friends, Lizzy is 3rd from left. Not sure but I think the girl in blue may need the toilet?

Thought Bubble; "If no one is looking, I reckon I could get this cake under my dress and off home with me - I like it?" (actually serious note, an amazing cake and all made by Jacqui and Jacqui's Mum's fair hands, beautiful thing!)

Also great fun for adults as kids were more than looked after, so we had some down time to chat and enjoy too. Mr Stella kept me company, as well as Dave, Simon and friends that were all really lovely people. Great fun was had by all!

I even met a new King of a New Zealand village, quite amazing. Having his body tattoo'd the hard way. But what an amazing chap!

Thanks Jacqui and Dave - and so therefore to close a lovely snap of you both. Lovely to see you all. xxx

Another lovely fun packed week and weekend

Wow a busy one.

I take Amy to school wearing shorts, t-shirt, tattoos showing, thongs and maybe a slight hint of Australian accent. Ms Pat approaches me and explains that she's teaching the kids re balance and surfing, then asks; "Could you come in and present to the kids on surfing?"

I'm like; "Eh, sorry I have no idea how to surf, and never have surfed - sorry!"

Ms Pat; "So sorry I just assumed!" Type thing.

Ha Ha - so Mary and I deliberated and we thought, hey why not. So I did it. I had to visit Amy's class and became teacher for an hour. I loved it, and I think the kids did too. How cute.

I did sort of quiz for them to make it interesting and engaging, using the lap-top to present to them.

We had this wobbly platform to get them balancing and pretending to be surfers, whilst on the lap top I had surfing videos and rock music playing to get the kids in the zone and balancing like real surfers.

Amy was pretty damn good it has to be said.

Even Ms Pat, Amy's teacher, had a go.

They even sang me a lovely lovely song afterwards to say thanks.

I think Amy was quite proud of her Dad coming in to school to teach, ha ha. Check out her moves.

Bless Dev, we really like him. Ollie's mate from school and within the condo. So I promised him and the kids a trip to Universal, yep another one. What a blast we had, although heavy rain stopped play about 5pm, but despite that we had a lovely day with him. Even Uncle Gordon and Aunty Thes came along too.

Trying to do some different photos here, but some same old same-o of course - yep the Far Far Away Castle, again - this time + Dev though.

But love these with Puss-in-boots. These are lovely.

Here's one of me and Puss trying to do the "big eyes" look from the film.

Amy and I even managed to get puss-in-boots "shuffling - classic!

We go to one of Amy's favorites - Donkey Live. Which is a virtual/cartoon character type show of Donkey singing in his night club. Somehow this cartoon interacts with the audience, can see you and actually has lip sync to whatever the actor playing Donkey is saying. It's amazing. Amy loves it because you can sometimes actually get to speak to Donkey - today was a good day for that!

So I get pulled in the audience by Donkey, saying who is the man in the second row sat behind the little girl, he looks like Prince Charles. The Amy starts saying hello donkey and gets pulled out in front of the whole audience and speaks 121 with Donkey assisted by Raoul the assistant for the show. It goes like this;

Donkey; "what's your name?"

Amy; "Amy."

Donkey; "how old are you?"

Amy; "Three."

Donkey; "Are you married?"

Amy; "No!"

Donkey; "Do you have a job?"

Amy; "Yes!"

Donkey; "Where do you work?"

Amy; "Japan!"

Donkey then asked a loaded question (the answer should have been Donkey of course!); "What's the best thing at you have seen at Universal today?"

Amy; "My teacher's name is Ms Pat."

Donkey; "OK let's re-ask that question. What is your favorite thing in Universal Studios today?"

Amy; "I like dragon roller-coaster!"

Donkey; "OK this is the 3rd try. Amy what is your favorite thing in Universal Studio that is maybe something with 4 legs, that is grey, that has long ears?"

Amy; "Donkey!"

Huge applause and laughing of course (I was actually looking at her and pointing at Donkey to help her - ha ha!)

Donkey finished with; "I think we have a new show in the making, called Amy Live!"

We also had Dev having to shout "5,6,7,8!" to start Donkey's finale song.

Even when finished and the curtains were down Donkey was still shouting out goodbye to Amy, an absolute classic Amy, you had everyone in fits of laughter - well done. Just a shame no photos are allowed in there.

"I love you Donkey!" - says Amy.

"We love you Donkey!" - says Amy, Ollie and Dev.

And another

Another fantastic weekend just came and went.

Saturday had Rosie's birthday poolside in Condo Costa Rhu, a panicky one as it had been pouring literally all day up to the afternoon. So so lucky as it stopped just long enough for the kids to have the party before raining again. Check out all these kids, ha ha! Ruth actually had 6 girls having a sleepover that night - OMG.

Happy Birthday Rosie, and thank you for a lovely party.

Yes my lovely daughter is indeed squirting water straight at me. I have learnt my lesson now so always wear swimming shorts and a shirt I don't mind getting wet. Love these shots, check that face out ha ha - she absolutely knows she is being a cheeky monkey!

Lazy days again for the kids. This was lovely to do this, as we just sat around chatting, splashing in the water, floating about, playing together - very nice. Sorry not more of Ollie as he disappears on his own, where we still have to stand and watch Amy 100%.

Check out the "mergirl" - no lessons yet, this is all self-taught and we must get her having lessons to polish her technique off. But half the battle is getting the kids used to the water, no issue there methinks!

Interesting snaps of me and Mother Theresa (it was raining a little - hence the headgear), again created by laying on the floor and angling the camera upwards. Nice shot of the condos behind.

Sunday we had Ollie's mate, Dev, come to have a day long play date. This kid is such a nice guy, so polite, so caring - in fact when he got home he sent me SMS and email to say thank you for the day, calling me Mr Brian.

A very busy day, with lazy Sunday morning, then off to Kallang for a big Japanese lunch, then a quick go at the arcades for the kids as they had been very good.

Amy got right in the mix with the boys too - here she is driving like a lunatic in a head to head race with them.

Amy and I even squeezed a quick game in too.

Then off to a very rainy game of football for me with the kids playing behind, then a VERY achy drive home to prepare Vietnamese Pork salad for everyone. Dev's words were "Mr Brian, this is awesome". Dev you can come back ANYTIME you like pal.

In fact, we've already planned next weekend and Universal Studios to have an Ollie/Dev weekend again.