Life at 247-1

We were invited to a nice buffet lunch with Nao-kun and his family. A 40 minute drive from home up in the mountains, the view was spectacular.

Markie's special day to celebrate his 5th year began with baaba dressing him in the special kimono, a valuable antique handed down from jiiji's generation.

Today was a special games day at Jamie's school, the kids set up different games in the classrooms and parents and family were invited to join in. Jamie's game was bowling with empty drink cans. Sophie was very excited to see her 'nii-nii' (big brother) at school, I think she felt like one of the big kids.

This year we were unlucky to have the kinder and school sports days consecutively in a row. Up early again this morning to make the lunchboxes and then off to the school by 9am.

Obviously with a much larger number of children than in kindergarten it was a little harder to take pictures and actually spot Jamie.

The children split into 3 teams, blue, yellow and red. Jamie was in the yellow team and they actually won their tug of war. Jamie was second from the end!

A busy day started with getting up around 5:30am to make our lunchboxes for Markie's sports day. We were all up and at the kindergarten by 8:30am. We had our outdoor table and chairs set up and even little Sophie made herself at home.

A nice morning for the boys to have a play at the Park next to home. Sophie went home to sleep with Poh Poh and I stayed with the boys.

We had a late lunch at the Markets, the German Hot Dogs were very big but very delicious and Jamie finished one and a half on his own. After living in Italy it was very interesting to see how the markets and the shops in Melbourne were so similar to those of Italy, not surprising if you consider that we have the second largest Italian population outside of Italy. All the varieties of cheese and hams, so tempting....couldn't resist buying some cheese to take home.

After watching 'Transformers' with Paul and his friend Patrick we went out to chinatown for a late dinner. Most places were already full but we managed to get some seats at a dumpling place that Paul recommended. The atmosphere was authentic chinese and the boys enjoyed their food too.

A first time for all the kids to meet 8 month old Chantelle at her house. They had fun playing with her toys and I think she enjoyed watching them.

We enjoyed a feast with Akane and her family at their Tomari house.