We have made friends with a lovely couple from the UK – Matthew and Emma. They have 2 children: Ava, who is in Isabelle’s class at BISS and Ethan, who is also in reception (but a different class to Oliver). They live down the street from us and have often had play dates, either at our house or theirs.
Matthew works for Tesco, and Emma and Owen have become good friends – comparing notes on shopping places, kids stuff and general Emerald/ex-pat life. Emma and Matthew celebrated their wedding anniversary yesterday and we volunteered to have their 2 kids for a sleepover at our place so they could really enjoy their night out. Isabelle and Oliver were super excited to have their friends stay for the night.
The two 7 year old girls were an absolute delight as they quietly played – DS player, dress up, colouring, etc. The two 4 year old boys were as loud as 100 kids – ALL the cars out (and Oliver has over 100), ALL the balls out from the ball pit and ALL the train stuff out. They cannot communicate with one another unless they are shouting, and generally enjoyed being boys!!!!
This was the first time that my 2 had enjoyed having friends stay the night (they have previously enjoyed sleepovers with their cousins, but this was the first time for friends). Owen and I were expecting to have a REALLY late night, but it was all quiet by 10pm, so not so bad! We thought that they might sleep in a little bit as it was late for all of them, but 7:00am this morning and the boys were up, loud and waking everyone else!!!
Ava and Ethan are lovely children and we will definitely repeat this experience – so good for our 2 and the payback will be lovely for me and Owen! 🙂
Ethan, Ava, Oliver and Isabelle
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