Ballet

First time ballet class today, with best girlfriends Naomi, Lea & Paige. It was fun to look at the girls, even though everyone weren't too excited about the dance! Hannah was for some reason VERY excited coming home, and the only thing on her mind was ballet - hopefully she can be just as excited DURING next time class  :-)

Girls day out :-)

Today was a luxury day for Ketti, Ida & moi - started of with morning morning tea followed by massage, and wrapping up with lunch, were Mia joined us. Thanks/TACK for a great day girls!

Anders & Karina visit Singapore, and Dragon dancers!!

Hannah's Godparents and our dear friends Anders & Karina visited us from Hong Kong this past weekend. Was great to have them here, been way to long since we saw eachother!

Karina, or 'Kanina' as Hannah calls her, is normally the favorite for Hannah, but this time, she was completely in love with Anders :-) while Matilde was going for Karina.

Brunch at Coastes, Sentosa. Highly recommended for kids!

Baking cinnamon buns, or 'Kanelbullar', my favorite!!

Karina & Matilde reading books

It was CNY celebration at our condo while they were visiting, so we got to see the Dragon & Lion Dancers perform, really exciting.

Dragon & Lion Dancers' show

We did manage to get some 'no-kids' time as well and went to an excellent restaurang which I definitely can recommend if you like Italian food and good wine; 'No Menu'. It happened to be Morten & my wedding aniversity the same night, and since Anders & Karina are the only ones remembering this date (or actually both of our aniversities, since we got married twice....), it was suitable to celebrate together with them :-)

Skyping with Swedish cousins!!!

Skype is a central part of my daughters life, for obvious reasons, and recently, we have started to do regular Skype sessions with the cousins in Malmo, Sweden. Last session involved the Singapore cousins had dinner & Malmo cousins just had breakfast - which of course was quite confusing :-)

Hong Kong visitors :-)

Cecilia with Otto & Arvid from Hong Kong visited us for an afternoon playdate. Was great to see them again, and see how much our kids have grown!

Cecilia & I met in Hong Kong when Hannah only was a few weeks and Otto a few months, time flies :-)

'The Tiger Who Came to Tea'

Hannah & friend Paige went to see their first play 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea'. Hannah has read the book in school during the fall and absolutely loved it, and when the book was put up as a play, we of course had to go and see it. Wow, did she have some big eyes during the show, she didn't say a word until the very end, completely transfixed to the stage, was great fun to see her :-)

Well home, the only thing Hannah was talking about was tigers tigers and tigers - and how the tiger 'drank ALL of daddys bear' :-)

Celebrating the Lunar New Year with Murphy/Elmegaard!

Hans & Colleen came from Hong Kong to celebrate the Lunar New Year with us! Lots of sightseeing, playing with the kiddos, Australian Open, and best of all to catch up - long time since we last saw eachother!

Hannah will miss Colleen as she spends every awaken moment trying to get Colleen to play with her, and she normally succeeded ;-)

Colleen & Hans are off for Bali tonight, and next visitors are Mr & Mrs Trebbien Pedersen, Hannah's Godparents! (Can't wait to see you guys, hope you're enjoying Bali!)

Since all of our HK friends seem to be going to Bali right now, we felt the pressure and off we go beginning March, yiehoo!!

We ended our CNY with some great Dim Sum - and even the kids loved it!! (They better being born in Hong Kong and all :-)

Scandinavian pool party :-)

Half of our New Year's gang joined forces as same location and spent a great day by the pool. We stayed for 5 hrs and managed to pack up just five minutes before the worst thunder storm came over us, good timing :-)

 Matilde's new passion is the waterslide. She skipped her daily nap and went down the slide over and over again until she fell and cried...if she stopped? No way :-)

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Hannah's class had a CNY celebration where Lion Dancers came by, and the parents were invited to assist making 'Hong Bao' & Chinese Lanterns. It was fun seeing all the kids in their Chinese outfits and being all excited over the celebrations. Hannah was particularly all over the 'gong xi gong xi' action, i.e. if you say this, you get a red pocket which hopefully contains chocolate gold coins :-)

With below pictures, we are wishing you a 'Gong Xi Fa Cai' in the Year of the Dragon :-)

China Town with Hannah...

Chinese New Year is getting closer and the girls 'need' their Chinese outfits :-) Hannah & I went to China Town to get some 'New Years' feeling and it was quite fun walking around with her asking questions about everything, and I got to practise my Mandarin. Didn't find any dresses I liked so had to go to a regular Mall, but did find a few other things to Hannah's excitement, and we now have dragons & noice makers at home to celebrate the Year of the Dragon.

Preparing for Morten's B-day tomorrow...

Since Morten spent his B-day in Dubai, we decided to celebrate it the 15th instead. Both the girls are all hyped up about birthdays so we pretend it is his B-day tomorrow instead :)

Gifts are bought, flowers are in the vase, and today we made the cake... it is not that easy making a cake with two toddlers wanting to help.... oh well, they had fun :) Tomorrow morning, I will make Danish 'fodelsedagsboller', otherwise it is not a B-day according to my husband........!

Swedish Kids church group - without a church...!

First Swedish church meet-up for 2012 was held in a function room in Ketti's condo (thanks Ketti!) as the church is being renovated and we could unfortunately not be there. This worked out fine however, with songs, 'fika' and playtime. Was great seeing everyone again after X-mas holidays and many leaving Singapore!

Necklaces...

Most kids love necklaces and my girls are not an exception. Hannah got one from her cousin Minja a long time ago, and this morning, she explained to me that 'after school, I will make a necklace for Minja'....'and to Anie, Sofie & Mads'... 'all my cousins who live where there is snow!' :-)

She managed to make one before getting bored. Or rather, believe she got stung to many times on the neddle and gave up...!

The Stenhagens in Singapore!!

Lina, Fredrik & Max have been visiting for a couple of weeks, minus a relaxing get-away to Bali. Was great fun to have them here, the kids had a blast, and Hannah has already included them in her family drawings :)

What we did, what didn't we do....! Zoo, Night Safari, beach time on Sentosa, more beach time on the East Coast, LOTS of pool time, Botanical Garden, sight-seeing, dining out, having chilly crab with Ms. Hostensson with hubby, celebrated my 29th B-day, cheered in 2012.... and of course dealing with tired kids, over-exhausted kids, happy kids, sibling rivalty between the three of them :-) Summary: lovely visitors, you're welcome back anytime!!

Pool-time with the Hansen/Ng's :-)

Monday was a public holiday in Singapore and we had a relaxing day, i.e. no major excursions. In the afternoon, some friends joined us by the pool for a Danish 'appleskive' party (Thanks Eunice!!), followed by Thai food at a nearby restaurang, couldn't have ended the New Years weekend better than that!

B-day Party

Hannah & Matilde have been playing a lot with neighbour Devyani and were invited to her 4th B-day party. It was held at a nearby playroom, Polliwogs. It was a really nice party with lots of playtime followed by dinner (mixed American/Indian), cake & ice-cream. The goodiebags included toys instead of the normal candy, which the mummies at the party appreciated :)   (Especially after I had spent 1 hour at the dentist fixing a tooth...my face is still numb, even though it is 6 hrs since I left the place...! and to make it better, I have lost my voice...again...)

Zoo date with the Dahlstrom Ladies :-)

Ketti & I took all our girls, including the Aunties/Helpers, and headed of to the Zoo, despite the high posibility of heavy rain... and yes, of course it rained but it is the rainy season in S'pore, we are next to the equator, can't really expect anything else! :-)

Happy New Year!!!

New Years celebration together with good friends and family, nothing can beat that!!

We were 7 couple getting together at the 'Grand Dutchess' club house, were we played in the pool, watched 'Pippi' & 'Pettson & Findus' in the movie theatre, fed the kids/sent home the kids :-) and enjoyed a delicious dinner and champagne!

Happy 2012!!

Hannah relaxing in the lounge matching the interior design and colors :-)