On Sunday I celebrated my 33rd birthday!

It was wonderful…I got woken up to my family singing “Happy Birthday” and I had our birthday tradition of breakfast in bed. You know you’ve been married 10 years when you look at the breakfast spread and think, “oh yeah! I forgot that was my favourite food!”

My kids gave me some really cute handmade gifts, and my hubby secretly enlarged some of my photographs and hung them in the house.

On Saturday, hubby and I had a beautiful patio lunch at Cobar Restaurant in Eastbourne…the weather was phenomenal! (the next day, not so much!)

My mum made a delicious spread of my favourite japanese foods for dinner on Sunday night.

Did I mention hubby did all the chores and I was able to fit in a nap during the day.

*bliss* I tell ya!

Today I got my first blog award! Carla from “My 1/2 dozen daily” awarded me a “Kreativ Blogger Award”! Thank you *hugs*! Carla has four kids as well, and is the creative mastermind behind “Moralia’s Weblog“. Her homemade cards are the best!

With this award, I am supposed to tell you 7 things you may not know about me:

1. I have braces on my top teeth. I should be getting them off this year! (post edit: my braces are off now! yippeee!)

2. Hubby and I sang “Shower me with your love” by Surface at our wedding. It was the first time I had ever done something like that. My lips started shaking whenever I looked out to the audience because I was so nervous! I tried to focus on my hubby to get me through it.

3. I hate that I care way too much about what people think!

4. My hubby and I can speak Japanese. Since Japanese is our second language we are finding it difficult to teach it to our children, but we are trying to introduce words and sentences here and there.

5. I attend Playcentre with my daughter once a week (Playcentre is a parent co-operative Early Childhood Centre). I really enjoy playing with the kids at Playcentre and mentoring adults who are adjusting to the “juggle” of parenthood.

6. I am a Christian. When I have difficulties I turn to prayer for comfort and clarity. I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

7. Our youngest daughter was born in the car during rush hour traffic!  My husband was on the cellphone to “111 emergency” (back in the days when we could talk on the phone and drive) as we inched along the Terrace Tunnel in Wellington. I was in the backseat screaming through contractions (thank goodness for tinted windows!). Apart from the fact that I gave birth in a car (!), I felt that the birth went smoothly and my body just knew what to do. When the baby came out she was just amazingly beautiful. I was in awe! Although my water broke in the car, there was hardly any “mess” . Thankfully the messy part happened after I transferred to the ambulance when we were out of the tunnel! (phew!)

And now I would like to award the Kreativ Blogger Award to the following bloggers who make me smile. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have already received a blogger award (or two…or three, or four etc etc ?!).  Just like Carla, they have a wonderful outlook on life, and inspire me to be better!

• Centsational Girl – Kate has inspired me to tackle my decorator’s block and try new things. Her home decorating tutorials are great!
• Chez Lee – Sarah is a fellow Wellingtonian (ex-Brit) who writes about her wonderful adventures she has with her two girls (with number 3 on the way).
• Clover Lane – Sarah has lovely posts that make me think and ponder and nod along with. The photographs she shares are pretty yummy too.
• Karen Cheng’s Snippet of Life – Karen’s posts are always light and fun. I love all the fashion outfits she tries on and shows us.
• Katherine Marie – This is my most recent find. I drool over her photography, and the ideas she comes up with to do with her children
• nienie – Stephanie’s blog, is probably the first blog I started following. She has amazing strength in spite of the  difficulties she faces every day.
• Small Notebook – Rachel recently had baby number 2, but still finds time to write posts that contain really interesting tips and posts that I can relate to.