"Chicken a la Carte"

My Mum was sent this short film recently highlighting poverty and hunger. It very moving ~Alhamdullilah ~ I'm grateful for what we have and what I can give my children. Please watch it.

The fun starts for Jack

Jack was excited to bring home a special book last week and wanted to do his homework straight away. May the enthusiasm stay with him for all his schooling years ahead!

A busy Monday

Mondays are always busy. I started with taking Donncha to the airport at 6am followed by the school run, Monday morning walk (which thankfully went well today), Supasave and then this...!

Something burst under the hood. I didn't panic and just got out the car. A friend drove past and with a couple of guys nearby we managed to push the car to the side - thanks Kat. The tow truck came soon after and I was home in 45 mins and all this by midday.

Book Character Parade

Last week was Book Week at JIS. Class activities emphasized on books and reading. There were book swaps, older kids reading to the younger ones and also mystery readers - I volunteered my services to Jack's Mouse class. Jack was very good and listened to the much enjoyed Room on the Broom but as soon as it was over he crept up and said he wanted to go home, obviously thought he had shared me enough! 

The week culminated with the highly anticipated dressing up as a book character and a parade for the little ones. Iman chose to go as a fairy from the Glitterwings Academy series. I had problems chosing a character for Jack and all he wanted was to be a superhero until I remembered a Halloween costume that Donncha bought him a couple of years ago and hey presto, we have Count Dracula! He loved wearing it but drew the line when I started drawing red  fangs on the corners of his mouth. 

Jack's classmate Ian was a dinosaur and I thought his mum put in great effort into his costume.

Nina was Polly's sick dolly

Iman as Twink and I think Alania behind was another character from the book

Jack and classmates

Snow White with a pirate

Older kids were given these tags to match the character and Jack was one of them

Iman with her classmates

50 runs

Hash on tuesday was the St Georges Day run which was fun. I also clocked up 50 runs and got my pewter goblet. The kids were very excited the next morning. Jack said "Oh my..." (Grandad McCarthy - he's picked that up from you) and Ayden said "Thank you Mama". Awww....

Runny Eggs!

Here are pictures from the Easter kids hash last Sunday. Too many eggs were wasted but kids (and adults) had fun tossing eggs to each other till the egg drops to the ground or onto someone! The kids had egg all over themselves and carried on playing in it for the rest of the afternoon - lovely :-(

Amanda showing the kids how it's done.

And they're off....

Bring it on....

I think Jack could have done with opening his eyes here.

Butter fingers!

An eggy Dave!

Don't think this guy was too happy with his eggy hat.

Baby Reeham

We have a baby in the house!!! Our Sitty gave birth to Baby Reeham on the 1st of April. Unfortunately the little one was in and out of hospital with jaundice and I didn't take photographs until recently. He's a lovely baby and the kids especially the boys are smitten. Jack wants him to sleep with us. Just to make it clear the answer was NO to all requests!

Sitty's resting for now and won't be back at work for some time yet but the kids are insisting on seeing Sitty every day so they can catch up with Reeham. Makes us think back to when life was easier with babies that didn't ask all sort of questions, make crazy requests (Ayden woke at 4am today and started to demand Sprite !) and run riot all day. 

Goodbye Lee

This week the expat community in Brunei has been grieving over the tragic passing of Lee Jefford from a hit and run cycling accident which occured on Monday. Lee was one of our frontrunners on the hash. A very recent breast cancer survivor I always greatly admired her fitness and running abilities and it didn't take me too long to figure out that I would never catch up! She was also a lovely lady who always made time to say hello and have a chat. She will be greatly missed. Our thoughts are with Lee's family especially husband Mike and 12 year old son Connor. 

Easter @ Yacht Club

Here are photographs from our Sunday at the Yacht Club. 

Iman really enjoyed the colouring and crafts

Ayden too coloured in an Easter Bunny

 Waiting "patiently" for that egg hunt!

Iman's completed Easter bunny on the left

Getting ready for the hunt

Happy with their loot of mini eggs!

30,000 and counting

I'm one of those males that comes home full of ideas, starts a project and then leaves it to others to tidy up ! Well, this blog is certainly one of those projects - I started it and posted the first few postings before getting Maria a user id and password, after which, I basically abondoned all ownership and became a reader. Given the amount of travel I do (sitting in Singapore Airport, enroute to Cyprus as I type), it would be boring for me to tell everyone about the long transit hours I spend, so Maria fills the pages with news from home and the daily trials of rearing three young rascals. It's become a familiar page for my parents, friends and family to keep up with the latest news on Iman, Jack and Ayden but more importantly, I get some regular updates when I am on the road (I'm probably responsible for most of the irregular countries logged on the visitor list!)

So, to Maria - thank you for taking the time to keep everyone up to date but more importantly, thank you for keeping me close to home, even when I am thousands of miles away !!!

A Choclatey Easter

This is Jack's Easter basket from school

And some friends sent us this lovely Easter basket packed with chocolate surprises. And this afternoon we will be going to the Yacht Club for yet another egg hunt. Happy Easter to all!

Jack's Birthday Party @ Junglegym

Here are photographs from Jack's birthday party at the Junglegym. Jack had a good turnout and we think they all had a good time but kids always do at the Junglegym. And the Ben10 cake went down very well. Thank you to all Jack's friends for the presents and making it a fun morning. And thumbs-up to the Junglegym for a stress-free party - think we will be doing this again!