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What a wake-up call!

This is one of those posts I hoped I'd never get to write, but helas, today I can:
This morning we caught a snake in our yard. Iiiaaaccchhh!

The dogs were going absolutely ballistic outside, and when Nathan (who was off to work anyway shortly) went outside to yell at them, he discovered this rather big, brownish snake just by our cars. It was quite slow-moving, because it had just fed on something (a rat?), but didn't look particularly happy...

Nathan came upstairs and told me:
- Do you want to see the snake??
What a way to wake up at 06 am!

Believe it or not, but I didn't run for my camera as the first thing I did! I went outside to "help", keep an eye on it in case it moved while the others (our neighbour Matt had arrived too at this stage, as they are flying together this morning) were attacking it.



They were very brave! They held the snake down with a rake, and chopped it's head of with a shovel. Yuk, yuk, yuk!





Unfortunately the close-up photos came out a bit blurry (used my zoom lens, so I wasn't very close at all!), but I hope you can see the whatever-he-has-eaten-hump on the snake?



Our amah wasn't too impressed either.



I'm glad the boys were still here. I now know that our amah is no big snake killer, so if we get one again and we are home alone, I'm calling Bomba (the firemen) straight away!

I'm really happy though the dogs did their job and warned us. This was one of the reasons why we got them. They sure are getting a special treat later!

The presents

Since she didn't get to open her presents yesterday, we kind of had to get up as soon as she woke this morning (at 06...) - to oooh and aaah during the whole thing!





She got so many beautiful things; Strawberry Shortcake figurines, Littlest Pet shop things, Barbie clothes, bags, My little Pony stuff, books, games and much more:





In the middle of it all! I love this ripping-presents-leaving-paper-everywhere-frenzy!

Linnea's 4th party (Extended version)

So, it rained all morning yesterday, but cleared up just in time for the party! Not that it makes it any colder when it rains, but it's a bit sad and gets so soggy, so I was glad we got some sunshine!

The birthday girl was looking stunning in a new dress (bought for the occasion in Sweden this summer):





We got a 3/4-of-the-family-photo, before it all broke loose:



The water slide was as popular as always:





And so were the bikes -



- and the trampoline:



We had lots of yummy food; spring rolls, bbq chicken drumsticks, mini burgers, lemon&ginger prawns, water melon, popcorn etc etc:




And of course, we had cake! I used the Kitchen of Jasmine again, they make really yummy stuff, and I like this idea of cupcakes to avoid the cutting-the-cake-madness. They were chocolate cupcakes with 3D icing, and tasted fab!







Here is the very happy girl, who had a lovely afternoon with her friends!



As some of us adults continued the party with a steak-dinner and some more wine, until quite late, she didn't get to open her gifts yesterday. But, she was so tired she didn't even mind... she just wanted to sleep!
I'm sure she had sweet dreams!

Linnea's party

It was a very happy girl who finally, after a very long morning, got to celebrate her birthday with all her little friends this afternoon. The rain stopped just in time, lucky us.

We had the usual setup with a water slide, kid-friendly food, and birthday cupcakes - I think everyone had a lovely time!

Some more photos will follow tomorrow.

We are ready!

Quite a few days of party planning have now reached their peak - this afternoon we are hosting Linnea's eagerly anticipated birthday party!
The food is getting prepared, the house is clean, we have borrowed some outdoor furniture for our guests to sit on, the bouncy slide and the pretty birthday cupcakes are on their way to be delivered and... it's all pretty much under control actually!

The most important ingredient was prepared days ago:





All the little birthday guests are getting a few goodies and a DVD-movie in their party bag. Planned so that their parents will maybe have a chance at a quiet evening when they bring all their little darlings on after-party-sugar-rush home later...

NOOO, it's raining!!

Maybe first time I've thought that thought here - I usually welcome the rain. But today it's really not good... Boo-hoo. Hope it stops come lunch time as usual.

We have arrived

Although I think it feels like the school year just started, we have now arrived to the midterm holiday. I must admit, it feels rather nice to have a week of relaxed living in front of us though, no school runs, not too many plans, maybe even a few sleep-ins... Aaaahhh!



As we are off to NZ in 5 weeks, we decided not to go anywhere for this holidays. Nathan is working quite a lot actually. So three of my friends and I have decided to take all our kids and go to Miri (Malaysia) together, just for two days, to get away just a little bit! That'll be fun!

Expat brat?

Lucas was playing with his Lego Star Wars men this morning at breakfast. Suddenly he pops Anakin's hair off by mistake when he is lifting him out of his space ship, and I say to him:
- Now Anakin is bald, like you!

Lucas thinks for a bit, and then says happily:
- Yes, and Mace Windu has no hair either! And neither does... erhm... Alfred... you know mummy - Batman's amah!

Slightly "damaged" by the life we live out here... oh no, I don't want my son to become an expat brat! :)

The pink run

As October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, it's a tradition at the hash that we do a pink run sometime this month. It's something that regards all of us women, and I'm sure we all know someone who have been suffering from breast cancer as unfortunately, it's not that rare a disease.





At the hash we have a few breast cancer survivors and also a lady who is in the middle of her treatment at the moment, so the breast cancer awareness is something we all support and promote - don't forget to "feel your boobies" ladies! We also sent an extra thought last night to our friend Lee, who we lost in April, who was a breast cancer survivor.

We had a lovely night last night. After the run we came back to a pink universe, where they had decorated the tent all in pink; we all wore pink, had pink drinks, pink snacks, pink goodies, pink gifts, pink ribbons, pink everything! Great run!

All I want for Christmas...

Yes, it was bound to happen, it was so loose it was just a question of days..:



He came in just before five this morning (!) to tell me it had fallen out, and we had a look together at the big gap before he went back to bed again.
And now he can sing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, my two front teeth, my two front teeth..."!

Apparently the kids at school are crazy for his new haircut too, he says they can't stop touching his head..! Ha ha! Mr Popular!

Unwelcomed visitors

Lucas has been scratching his head a bit lately and after dinner today we thought we'd better have a look, just in case... and yes, we definitely found some of these little critters..:



Well, they were bound to strike our family too at some stage. It's a first for us to have to deal with them.
Off to the store I went straight away to get some treatment schampoo to deal with it before bedtime, and when I got back I found my son looking like this:



I nearly cried... He looks like a little prison boy... Bless... (I guess there will be no family photos for Linnea's birthday this year...)

Linnea thought she wanted a haircut just like it - but she would have to make do with just being in a picture as well:

At ease

Lucas is definitely at ease with his current look. He kind of likes it, and used it today as a party trick at the birthday party he went to. He thinks the hole is very cool! (The other front tooth is quite loose too, but I hope he wont loose that as well at the same time...)

Nr 3

Yesterday it happened, Lucas lost his third tooth, one of the front ones! It had been slightly loose for a while, really loose for a couple of days and yesterday it just hang on by a thin thread. After a bit of rough and tumble with Mummy before bath time it all of a sudden popped out!
Lucas thinks he looks really cool now! And has found the hole very useful for sticking his straw through! Ha ha!

Party girls

It's been rather quiet on the blog for the last few days. Part of the reason was a big 40th bash on Saturday night that knocked both Nathan and me out for the rest of the weekend (...). I will give you a photo of me and some of my girls from that night:



Part of the reason is that nothing out of the ordinary really has happened since. Another busy week with school, swimming and other activities. Just chugging along.

Not made of sugar

Today was the first of four birthday parties for Linnea's class mates in the next couple of weeks, party season is here!
Today's one was an unusually wet one though. About an hour after we came it started raining, and as you know - when it rains in Brunei it RAINS!

It didn't seem to bother the kids too much though, most of them were wet already anyway after having played on the water slide, so they just kept playing outside in the rain. That's one of Linnea's favourite things to do anyway, good thing they are not made of sugar!

Linnea and Keira, the birthday girl:



Relaxing with Ben:



Gemma on the slide:



Rainy play:



It was a High School Musical themed party, very cool:



Even the cake was made as a HSM cheerleader uniform: