Christmas 2011

All quiet in the house now... someone's been, ... we'll share more pictures tomorrow.

Our Christmas Eve 2011

There's nothing better than sharing a meal with family and today for Christmas Eve lunch not only have we had our family in the compound but also our house guests for the last two weeks, Mairead and Eoin on their honeymoon from Cork.

We had a lovely lunch of turkey and salmon (well done Donncha) but all the kids were interested in was presents!

Homemade bread

It's Christmas eve and everyone is in good spirits. Nothing better to start the day than with some homemade bread. I think's its my best loaf yet but it now seems to be expected every day (gulp...)

Garden Facelife

It's been a quiet couple of months for us thus the lack of updates and photos. We do though have these pictures to share. The digger came in at the end of October and we had our first swim today. The excitement on the kids faces say it all! It's going to be a true Christmas in the tropics for us this year!

The arrival of the digger did result in some complaints from our Timorese gardener as it tore up the path at the side of the house. He wasn't impressed.

December is not the best month to be trying to get a pool finished given that we get more rain at this time of the year. We also had to wait for a new type of liner to arrive which delayed the process slightly.

But all that is now forgotten, everything is more or less installed and the green light for the first dip was given earlier today. It was a lovely first dip with the kids impressed that they had plenty of space in the water.

Next challenge will be to sort out the garden but that's something we have a plan for and need to set that in motion after Chinese New Year. Thank's to our friendly neighbors for their patience with the ongoing work and we promise it will finish some time next year !

School's Out!

School finally broke up today after a very long term. To celebrate the season and end of term, Ayden's class had a special visitor to their class party today. Kids are getting smarter - initially one of the kids said it's Ayden's Dad! And afterwards Ayden said to us that it was a Dad because he recognized the voice! They each got a present and afterwards there was party food with more cakes and candy canes than the kids could eat!

And of course plenty of presents for Mums to take home!

KK Swimming Dec 11

It has been a very busy weekend for the McCarthy family. Whilst I was in Singapore for the half marathon (photos to follow), Donncha and the kids (together with my parents) were in KK for a swimming competition.

Only Jack and Iman were down to swim as Ayden was below the age requirement. Iman did well winning a medal for all her races bar the 50m backstroke. Jack in his first swimming competition was keen to compete but the waiting around broke him down resulting in a meltdown and refusal to take part in the relay. The back-up plan? Ayden who was raring to go took Jack's place and got his well deserved bronze medal. Thankfully this spurred Jack on and he returned back in the pool the next day and eventually won a bronze too.

Overall a great experience for the kids and adults and especially as the JIS team did particularly well coming second overall.

Liz Million @ JIS

We've just has book week at JIS with two visiting author / illustrators. Sonia Leong, a Manga illustrator came for the older students and the Junior school had Liz Million, an accomplished author and illustrator. All the kids in the Junior school have been raving about her all week and this morning parents were invited to join the Reception kids when it was their session. All the kids (and parents) loved the session and not only is she very talented but also very entertaining.

Luckily, Ayden, Jack and I had a chance to meet Liz when we dropped by into the libray mid-week and the boys were well chuffed with the drawings she personally did for them.

Boys Play

Jack and Ayden have been keen on making "camp fires" on week. Not great for the environment but it keeps them occupied for a while. They plan is to toast marshmallows on the fire but building the fire seems to be enough fun and they eventually forget the original plan!

International Day on 11/11/11

The school couldn't have picked a better day to host International Day this year. The usual parade was in the auditorium for the first time which made a nice change from sitting in the heat. It's always so nice to see all the kids dressed in their national costumes or cleverly as famous countrymen or national symbols - gotta love the vegemite jar! The McCarthy family consisted of 2 Irish and 1 Bruneian this year. Iman did some talking to introduce her classmates and Ayden did well talking into the microphone that Mum is from Brunei and Dad is from Ireland!

Our Miss Ireland with best friend Nadiya

Jack sitting with his class

Iman's class

Great outfit from Myanmar

Jack's class

Dr Who & buddies

Jack's International Restaurant

Two years ago was Iman's International Restaurant. Basically with the combination of International week and food as a topic, the year two classes host an "international restaurant" with parents providing food typical of their home countries.

Jack chose bergedil, which are beef and potato patties. We were not short of choice for lunch with various rice, noodles, potato dishes and snacks not to mention the huge range of desserts but for me the dish of the day had to be the Gambian Joloff Rice - truly amazing!

It was lovely to spend the time at school with Jack and like most of the kids that day, he was very proud.

Ayden's 5th Birthday Party

Ayden had his long awaited birthday party on saturday morning. we had a big bouncer slide for entertainment and food was provided by a roti man which went down very well with parents and kids. We love stress free parties!

Ayden the first to get a roti just before his friends arrived

And the first slide down