You want a piece of me??

Anna was such a star going shopping boxing gloves for me in Singapore when she was there one a one-day trip on Wednesday.
You see, I realized already my first time at kickboxing I needed my own ones, since the ones at the dojo were all too big for me - and well worn down too. The other girls had pretty purple and pink ones that they had gotten overseas, so I sent Anna on the mission.
She got me glamorous golden ones! Yeah baby!

You want a piece of me?





Or maybe of me..? :)

Birthday celebrations, final part

Last night we took the kids to Jerudong Park, to finish off the birthday celebrations there. It was really, really lovely because there was a big group of us, with kids in all different ages. They had a ball!





The nice thing with Jerudong Park is that the kids are perfectly happy just playing on the play equipment and climbing frames; which is good because there are not many rides. Although the rides they do have, seem to amuse them enough!
Mini bumper cars:





Pirate ship:



And while the girls were on the beautiful merry-go-around...





... Daddy and Lucas went on Lucas' favourite - the paddling boats:



A great, late night - followed by curry with friends at our neighbours' house. The kids fell asleep on their sofa and we continued the birthday celebrations long into the night... What a day!

Birthday celebrations, part 2

Linnea got dressed for the occasion...



... and we went for a nice sushi lunch at Escapade. Sushi here in Brunei is very cheap and very yummy, we go at least once a week, if not twice or three times! The good thing is, there is something for everybody - both the big and the small likes sushi in our family.



And after sushi, time for cake:



(Unfortunately, these cakes weren't as tasty as they looked... My cupcake was all old and stale and Linnea wasn't keen on her Oreo cheesecake either... Quite a disappointment... We'll have to do a remake some other day!)

Good morning Birthday Girl!

We had set the alarm to 06.15 this morning, to try and actually wake Linnea with her gifts - but 06.05 I had a little face in mine... asking if it was her birthday now and if we were going to come sing soon...

So back to bed she went and fell "asleep" again - and we "woke" her with singing and all her gifts - happy girl!

She got many lovely presents both from Scotland (her cousins), NZ (Grandma & Granddad) and Sweden (Mormor & Morfar) - and from us of course.
A very spoiled and very lucky 5-year old!

We then went downstairs and had breakfast together at a beautifully decorated birthday table, a great start to her birthday!

Now we're off for lunch, Linnea's choice: sushi! Later to a café for cake and this afternoon we'll go to Jerudong Park for some more fun! What a day!

Beauty sleep

Humour

I've seen these drinks being sold at the supermarket here for a while now. Not until the other day did I actually pick one up to see what they were. They come in different varieties: Antioxidant, Rehab, Immunity, Multi Vitamin, Energy, Endurance etc.

I just had to buy this one, purely because of what it said on the bottle, ha ha:





Somewhere in Australia, there is a package designer with a very good sense of humour! :)

Crafty

Linnea got many lovely craft-themed presents yesterday. This morning while Lucas was at karate, we dug into the sewing kits together. We sewed a monkey and a polar bear!
It was pretty tricky for a 5-year old (well, even for a 36-year old!) but she did manage to do quite a lot of it (with just a little help here and there), and was pretty happy with herself for that!

The 5th edition

So, time for some photos from Linnea's 5th birthday party yesterday!

We all had a lovely morning at the Yacht Club! It was really, really hot, but luckily the kids never get tired of swimming, splashing and playing on the beach. They all had a great time and both the food and the cake got wolfed down in about 3 minutes each!

When we got home, Linnea opened her presents and then it was crafty time all afternoon - she got so many lovely gifts; card making kits, books, mirror making kit, Barbies, sew-an-animal kits, My Little Pony, stickers and envelopes, dress-ups, play-doh, foam kits - just to mention a few.
A very happy day!

The invite

This was Linnea's invitation for today's party. A Photoshop creation.
I'm pretty pleased with it!



(Photo: Brett Häggkvist)

Party Central

Today it's finally time for Linnea's 5th birthday party! Yay!

To host a birthday party here in Brunei takes quite some preparation. I've mentioned several times before that there's no one-stop-shop here (the style of British Asda, Danish Bilka or Swedish Coop Forum), where you could go to get everything you need from lawn-movers to sports equipment to chicken breast. Here you have to drive around a lot, especially if you are after specific things.

This year we've opted to host Linnea's birthday party at the Yacht Club (just like when she turned 2, just slightly bigger...) so there's no thinking about food or entertainment really, it's all taken care of. Easy peasy.

Still, I've had to organize a (big enough) cake, and made sure it has the right decoration on it as requested by the Birthday Girl. I've also been busy most of the week trying to figure out what to put in the party bags. Past parties I've put DVDs which have proven a hit, with the parents above all - something to do when they get home after the party and might need some quiet time..!

I had an idea this year (that I won't reveal, might save it for Lucas' party in January!), but I couldn't find everything I needed in the right amounts unfortunately. This year, 24 little friends have RSVP their attendance, and add to that the odd sibling here and there... It'll be crowded!

I'm very pleased with what I got though. All the invited friends will get a book each, I got a huge variety so they all get different ones; plus sweets of course. I've also catered with small bags of sweets for any siblings that come along so they feel a bit included too.





I hope it'll be well received! The goodie bag is nearly the most important part of the party for these 5-year olds, and Linnea has made sure she gets one too, of course!

Smile!

When I downloaded photos off my point-and-shoot the other day, I discovered a photo that I certainly didn't remember taking..:



Our tech savvy daughter has really learned how to use the camera well! And she has long arms! :)

Round, round baby round, round...

YEEEESSS!!! I did it! Finally!!!
My knowledge in Photoshop is still quite limited, and even though I've spent the whole evening watching endless tutorials and reading tons of articles about animations - I couldn't get this to publish. (And that was once I finally managed to make it.)
But three hours (yes...) later, here it is - my first animated photo! *Proud*

(Reason for photo is the fresh haircut, of course!)

Reception Grand Ball

To celebrate the last day of school for this half-term and the end of the unit they've been studying, the Reception classes all had a Grand Ball today.
They were all dressed up as princes, princesses and knights and looked fabulous!

Princess Linnea and Ben the Knight:



Fairy Godmother Mrs Williamson & Princess Judie:



They had a feast with lots of food and did a little parade, and then they watched 'Shrek 3'.





What a great way to finish off before the holidays!

Thank you Thomas!

Finally Nathan has finished building this years Lego birthday gift from Denmark. It was a super cool blue Lamborghini Gallardo:





To be honest, it wasn't so much the construction itself that took time, it was more the fact that I'd forgotten I had been trusted with hiding this present until his birthday - and had forgotten about it! Oups!

Yi-Er-San

At dinnertime today Lucas showed off his language skills, counting to ten (and later beyond) in Chinese:



It seems like he is finally enjoying his Chinese a bit more. He's not hesitant sharing what he's learned, and nearly every time he comes home with a sticker or a stamp that shows he's been extra attentive in class!

And wait - Linnea can do it too!

Full-contact at the dojo

Today I started another something else I hadn't tried before - kickboxing!
I spent 1 1/2 hours at the dojo (yes, the same as for Lucas' karate) this morning with some good friends, skipping, boxing, kicking and making loud, grunting noises! :)




It was great fun. Quite different but I really enjoyed it! It's not exercise as snazzy-jazzy as at the gym, and the music is not as catchy - but it sure makes you get rid of all your aggressions!

First finished project!

Ta-daaa, here's my first finished mosaics creation!



I'm pretty pleased with these coasters, they came out great and I love the colours. You can see my coasters featured together with some of the other ladies' work on our teachers blog here, and here.

Since Paula, our teacher, is having a big exam coming up she has taken this week off from hosting classes. All of us ladies are having withdrawal symptoms so we've all picked up our current projects to work a bit on them at home.
I took my "gecko-bowl" outside for a bit yesterday to continue the cleaning process, and our amah came out and said surprised:
-"Oh, I though Linnea had made that at school!"

Thank... You... Very... Much..! I admit, it's a bit messy and not at all as pretty as some of the others (like Jo's bowl, which is absolutely gorgeous!) - but come on!!! Made by a 5-year old!?!
And no, I wont show it to you now anymore until it's completely finished...

A perfect ten

Since I'm a sucker for nice number combinations (I'm still disappointed Linnea wasn't born one day earlier, would've been 201005, or 051020 in Sweden, really cool numbers!) - I really like today's date! It's a shame nothing really special have happened, would've been easy to remember..! :)
101010... ultimately cool!

It's kind of just been another Sunday with another birthday party, quite normal weekend procedure. Here's the beautiful cake:



Daniel, Linnea and Ben, the three musketeers soon to become two:



Our Danish friends will be unfortunately be leaving Brunei for good at the end of the year. It's always sad to loose friends, and especially these.

Linnea will be ok, she's such a social butterfly she'll flutter on and enjoy other/new friends (she was too busy digging into the party bag to really take in the news too...). Us adults will be fine as well, there's Skype and email after all, and maybe we'll have to make an extra stop on our trip home next time, or in Denmark!
I'm a little bit worried about Lucas though, Malthe really is his best, best friend. They've know each other for more than half their lives already and they so enjoy each others company and play really nicely together. They share the same silly gene that always comes out whenever they are together!

It'll be hard to say goodbye (and it always sucks being the ones left behind), but we still have a couple of months to make the most of, to think about that just yet!

Bruneian drive-through

Nicole and I took a little drive yesterday. She had heard about this nursery that sold orchid on stems really cheap. Just when we drove up, heavy rain started and we didn't really feel like getting out of the car, we thought we would have to come back another day. But no, no problem, they didn't mind doing business with us through the car window!



Ta-da, 14 orchids on stems for only $10!

The neverending story

I'm in the middle of (yet another) huge tidy-up around the house. Mostly upstairs and to be more specific, mainly in the play area and in the kids' rooms.
It's amazing, but they have so much stuff they don't even play with 10% of it, because they forget it's even there! We also drown in all the pictures they paint and all the random toys they make (out of God knows what), it's just crazy. Toys, toys, toys. Everywhere. Toys.

With Linnea's birthday coming up, and just out of a general need, I've started a huge clear-out and tidy-up. I'm really, really doing all I can to facilitate the process of keeping their toys tidy; I've bought tons of storage boxes and I've labeled everything so that all their things and toys have their own "home".

We still have a long way to go though. The "tidy-up time" in the evening is not very popular and it's quite a struggle, but we are getting there. Sometimes they remember to clean their things up before they start another game, mostly not... But we are getting there, slowly.