Zelyn's Terrific 2 Part II

Not any surprise elements involved for the theme to be Minnie Mouse since Zelyn is very big on it. Anything with Minnie Mouse simply result in her shrieks of  "meemee".

The preparation turned out to be rather tricky all because I am totally nether IT nor design savvy thus honestly the above invite is a major project which I am really glad it turned out well. Not withstanding the numerous search engines went through and figuring out the different program of editing and identifying editable or non editable downloads. One would have exclaimed "aren't minnie theme stuff supposed to be in abundance?!" but to my horror, they are not as easily available as it can be, probably due to copyrights issues? Can I just say I am very proud to achieve the above mentioned. Geez, the extend mummies go to for the kids.

Invite is basically the very beginning of what's more to come. I have been pretty indecisive on the decorations and dessert table which are gaining loads of popularity in the recent parties. SO at the very last minute, it was decided that dessert table is a must but the headache of food tents and labels stepped in. Thankfully over a casual conversation on Whatsapp with a friend proved to be my savior. Coincidentally her daughter's 1 YO party was along the same theme with ours thus she generously loan us her artworks and decorations.

Party favors have been decided as soon as the invites are established and it took quite a while to source out the materials for economical reasons. Day in day out when time can be afforded, it's off to party stores online or physical stores to sniff out ideas. It was a very very rushed project and the three poor adults have to burn midnight oil to complete them partly as it was not as simple as assumed and time taken was considerably much longer. They are completely handmade from scratch and I got all excited looking at the end products!

Okay back to the party. Zelyn's Godma Sue Lin was very kind to help us book the venue, thanks Godma! Her cake was picked up en route to the venue and it was really challenging balancing the cake, crossing fingers and toes it will not collapse during the journey. Trust me, I had aching arms upon arrival at the venue and get to breathe normally again, yes it is that exaggerating. Serve me right for trying to be special, not ordering the conventional cake but it was all worthwhile when the birthday girl and the guests go all ga-ga over it, tasting good too according to feedbacks from the guests.

When we reached the venue about an hour before the party, we received a great shock! The remains of the earlier party is still present and we needed the space for our caterer supposed to be due in a short while. Helpful Godma who came earlier to offer help with the setup was quick to contact the clubhouse staff and the guys actually remove the stuff themselves. One hiccup down and receiving a call from our caterer confirming they are reaching in a few mins set my mind at ease to concentrate on the decorations. To avoid any confusion, gave them very precise directions as to where our party room is located. So we busied ourselves with the decorations which was completed in less than 10 minutes. 

Major boo boo happened next and it is totally embarrassing and ridiculous. The caterer have yet to arrive and my guests are trickling in by the minute. Big embarrassment of a party without food or so it appear, much more on us, the hosts. Called them repeatedly but nobody answered the call. When I did managed to reach them, they claimed that the food had been setup and payment made?! My relatives then suggest on the possibility of wrong delivery to another venue at the seminar room that they pass by. We rushed to take a look and indeed the food is exactly the same as what I have ordered. Ridiculously the host of that party did not even verify the caterer and food, blindly accepting and paying for it. If we had not make the attempt to verify with them, they have no idea at all it was a wrong delivery! I had to blast at the caterer for them to be back immediately to settle the mistake, FAST. My guests are without food and drinks, can you imagine how bad the situation is. It was great that my relatives decide to take matters into their by hand carrying the trays of food, walking the distance and down the flight of stairs that resolved my major crisis. If you do wish to know who this lousy and irresponsible caterer is, I will be more than glad to share. Please avoid them at all costs.

The rest of the evening went on beautifully without a hitch even though we were really behind schedule. Despite the hiccups and crisis, we had a wonderful party. A big thank you to all whom attended for your presence amid your busy schedule and the generosity with the gifts and red packets. Do accept our sincere apologies if we have not been good hosts.

As I am recapturing all these moments and uploading all the pictures, the smile on the little princess bring a smile on me. All the efforts are definitely worth it.

Zelyn's Terrific 2 Part I

We try to make it a point to have a family dinner for each of our birthdays which we have been on track for the last few years. Guess the arrival of the children indeed improved our family bonding activities rather significantly.

It is quite a challenge deciding on the venue of dining especially when I am the only cracking my pea brain for every single celebrations. Leave it to the hubs and nothing will be accomplished for sure, ending up in negativity and frustrations.

In all honesty, the crucial objective of celebrations is for all to come together, dine and catch up. Then again since it will be destroying my calories plans, better make it a calories worthy one right?! As usual a last minute mad rush and check saw us in Traders Hotel for dinner. The selection of food was not that great and quality of food is reasonable. Worth mentioning will be the fresh sashimi, cold prawns and roasted meat. 

We had requested for the cafe to arrange for a slice of cake for the birthday gal since gathered that it will be too late for one upon reaching home. They did make some efforts to decorate the cake, nice gesture. As you would have guessed it right, the children are overjoyed to see the slice of cake, more so the candle. Birthdays equate to blowing out candles for them which matter most, cake is secondary.

Hmm, only realized it now that I am penning this post that we forgot to get a family shot - just the small family of 4 of us!

Only managed a few selfies with the princess which she enjoyed loads. One of the only limited ways for her to look at the camera. Great to entertain her as well.

Terrific TWO

Our little princess turned TWO!

Cliche as it might sound, honestly it did not seem too long ago when we are still battling with her milk strike and on my end pumping like a cow striving to store as much milk as possible to prolong the exclusively breastfed status. It was a tough beginning, pretty much an uphill challenge and maintaining the momentum is equally challenging but I must have to say I did rather well. Deserve a little pat on my back again.

She had improved tremendously on her milk feeds and food intakes, very adventurous in trying out new food and always eager to ask for our food! Generally she take her 2 square meals of staples for lunch and dinner plus 3 regular milk feeds of 240ml each. Despite the intake, she is still below the 50% percentile for both weight and height but I am not harping too much on that since she is feeding well healthily. I am slacking quite a fair bit on the 5 days rules theory as it is quite impossible to adhere to when it comes to table food being given ever so frequently. She started consuming outside food much earlier and frequently than Zethan at the same given age. Good and bad if you ask me. Well a lot of times, it is pretty much beyond my control so I can only say close both eyes and shut both ears is the way to survive. 

She is quite a fast learner and has no qualms in expressing her wants. When she could not express her wants verbally or rather we could not apprehend what she is asking for, she will persistently repeat herself or ensure that we followed her to be shown what she wants. From my observation, she observed how I pronounce words by the movements of my lips so perhaps she is a very visual person? She is currently into 4 words sentencing though it's usually expressing her wants e.g I want milk milk, I want eat apple etc. There was this once she go, I want eat apple, go cut! She love imitating our actions and language thus we would have to be constantly on our toes when we converse in front of her. Our communication always ended with WHY and frankly I am quite certain she is just imitating Zethan  and does not truly understand the meaning of WHY. It can get pretty annoying yet amusing to hear her whys.

This lazy mummy here did not really coach her in many areas thus I am ashamed to say that she has yet to master the basics like colors and shapes. Being an animal lover, she knows the animals and the sounds they make BUT somehow she love to name the DOG as meow / cat! We have always corrected her at every given opportunity yet in vain, this is one tough nut to crack! Don't even get me started on numbers or alphabets, we are way way behind. Okay okay, I have to kick myself at the butt to get her started on colors soon! Let's see when the 'soon' will come true! 

Oh did I mentioned that she is a music lover too and sing her own tune and make up her own words but we could kind of figure out what is she singing. Her fav songs are Bingo, Twinkle Twinkle little star and the latest is Barney's I love you, you love me. Okay I don't know what is the title of that Barney song which is not surprisingly since all along we are no big fan of this purple dinosaur. She started off calling Barney as mummy and after a few tries she managed "Barney" really accurately. She is totally not afraid of Mascot, bravely and happily high five with the gigantic Barney considering the big dinosaur is on stage and we are not, the sheer size did not frighten her at all. Guess no surprise here either, she demonstrated her feisty and garang traits since early toddler hood.

With her, I fully understand why every child is different and an individual. Both children are so similar and yet so different, unique in their own ways. Amazingly a lot of actions and habits of theirs are so similar, it almost feel like exactly the same, hard to believe but definitely true. It sound unfair to compare both of them which is a constant reminder I give myself but trust me, subconsciously I do that all the time and it is so hard to quit doing that.

Shall post on her birthday celebrations, actual day's family dinner and the eventful Oh Twoodles party we had on sat night! 

Nature

I am such an ironical hypocrite who can't make up her mind at most times. Part of me is always about close to nature, catching some sun, catching fresh air amid greens. However I do not always practice what I preach simply because I am so not an outdoor person, prefer to stay out of the dark for fear of tan skin and perspiring is not my cup of tea. In theory of course it's good to have but in reality, it hardly happen.

The last walk we took in the park was ages ago and it is not even in the morning, evening walk that it. Honestly I do prefer evening walk as there will not be glaring sun, blasting heat and purely we are not very morning people thus evening translate to no rush and much more do-able. But hey we do need Vit D right, to build up our immunity a little and it does them no harm to perspire at times.

And so one of the sunday morning few weeks back, we try our very best to be up slightly earlier than usual, try to settle breakfast fast and try to get out of the house fast. We did it! BUT it was not that early after all, arriving at the park close to 11am. This time round we decide to explore the other side of Bishan-Ang Mo Kio park instead. From the carpark entrance, we were only greeted by a group of foreign workers playing baseball. Nonetheless we went on to unloading the stroller, bicycle and us included. 

The sight of a water park brighten us up immediately but we thought to explore the park a little first before settling for water play, maybe yes maybe not as there is no spare change of clothes. We took a long walk around the whole park with Zethan in his tricycle and Zelyn bravely walking along, well she rejected the stroller. Tried to take some photos of her but it is so frustrating to have a model who looked everywhere else but my phone. We managed to coax her into her stroller before completing the other half of the park back to the water play.

Did not appear to be a good idea for some water play as the sun is really bright and the heat is getting unbearable. Still I allowed them, how could I bear to disappoint them being shown the water park yet exclaiming we will come another day again. It's as cruel as offering candy to the kids and taking it away at once. Despite melting under the hot sun (refering to me), both kids who are water babies was giggling non stop so the priceless innocent smiles they wear is more than worthwhile. We had about 30 minutes of fun at the water park before it get too scorching hot and unwise to stay under the sun. Had to nag and nag non-stop not to wet themselves but in vain, Zelyn is still all wet. 

Exactly it is just a very simple water park with some meandering little canals for children to waddle in and a mini jacuzzi water feature which the meanders branch out from. One interesting feature is a little metal gate at certain juncture of the meander that act like a dam offering some science education for the older children to understand how does a dam works. You can catch a glimpse at part of the dam at the photo of Zelyn attached below.

We would definitely come back again, hopefully soon. Oh just a word of caution, the water park only operate over the weekend and certain timing only.