Zelyn is Three's Part III

The simple reason why there is another birthday party is simply because the firstborn get to have birthday parties for 3 years thus to be fair, the same should be extended to the gal as well. Make sense right? Nothing fanciful but fixed on a home party for the close friends and relatives only, keeping it as small as possible. However the ambitious mummy would like to surprise her and her guests with a pretty & delicious cake. After all food does not matter for a three year old but the cake certainly do! She did her sourcing around and decide on a rainbow cake with hello Kitty and My Little Pony even if it means traveling all the way to the east for collection of cake. Emailed for more information, design what I would like to have and purely leave it in the good hands of the bakers, crossing fingers & toes it will turn out well. Food was catered with a mini buffet style thus self collection too, easy peasy & fuss free. Goodie bag for the little guests were similar to that for school friends with added pack of milk in the bucket. We are all set to go!

It was a great party with the manageable number of guests thus we get to catch up with most of them without having to rush around. It was a leisure party, everybody eating at their own pace and interacting freely with each other. Children get to play with each other leaving stress free dining and mingling time for the adults. Finale of the party would definitely had to be the birthday cake! All the guests were wowed by the awesome colorful cake, the birthday gal included. Birthday songs were sang, the all smiles birthday gal blew out her candles and cut her cake all by herself. More compliments once the cake is cut revealing the rainbow cake within. Feed backs were positive being not too sweet, fresh cream is light and cake is soft and fluffy. Definitely a keeper for future celebrations!

Zelyn is Three! Part II

Following the school celebration on the actual day, we went for high tea to have our family celebration. High tea at Marriot Hotel. Food was not fantastic with limited choices and food not replenished. That's not the main point and does not matter that much. The celebration with the family for the gal is what matter most. So hours apart on the same day, she get to blow out candle on her second cake!

Zelyn is Three!

Now she is at the stage whereby sometimes she can rationalized and other times she does not answer to the question asked. One day she ask for Hello Kitty cake for her birthday, the next day it's My Little Pony and another day it's Peppa pig. The list go on and on before she exhausts her choice and return back to Hello Kitty again. To cut my agony and prevent myself from losing more hair, I have decided to make do with my choice! Gathered that so long as there is a birthday cake for a birthday celebration, she will be elated right, no?!

So to simplify matters, convenience would be the key point as to which cake and design to order. The mummy proceed to the nearby mall and ordered a Minnie plus Daisy cake with pandan sponge covered in fresh cream. No headache of driving way out for collection since there is a timeframe for school celebration. Grabbed some cutie candles from Daiso, all children love blowing out candles, don't they so the more the merrier. As ever being bitten by the practicality bug, this mummy decide to give out 'goodie bag' in the form of a bucket of sand play toys. No prize for guessing it right, yes definitely it's found at Daiso too. I got lots of eyes staring buying close to 30 over sets of the sand play toys from Daiso.

It was a quick celebration, bringing in the cake with many wows from the other three years old. Lighting the candles, singing the birthday song, oh bonus here she got herself a Tamil birthday song courtesy of the form teacher as requested by the principal. Zethan came over to join the fun and have a piece of cake, not that he is a fan of cake. The cake is a hit with the children and some had to be stopped for asking third helping.

Minimum effort, minimum amount spent for the priceless look on her face, how could we not have birthday celebrations!

Photo shoot 2015

Happen to chance upon a photoshoot package and wasted no time jumping into it since our last photoshoot was about 2 years back. Coincidentally it time for the gal's 3 years old birthday or rather as part of the birthday celebration. Customization of family tees will not be in time and we gave up the idea of sourcing for family wear too.

We decided on Botanic Garden as the venue and pretty much left it to the photographer with the only criteria of solo shots for the gal for her birthday. Perfect weather with great sunshine contributed to the lovely results, which is more than satisfactory exceeding my expectation. The children are exceptionally cheerful and smiley who appear to warm up very well with the photographer which is amazing. It is a known fact that the duos tend to freeze and looked out of place in front of camera. He did well in tickling the duo pink. We perspire buckets but looking at the end results, it was definitely more than worth it.

Meh Meh 2015

The year of goat. 

The usual year after year for Chinese New Year. A tad special will be the duos sharing sibling wear from Elly for the first time. Decide on it quite late thus most of the designs are out of sizes either the shirt or the cheongsam but still considered lucky to get hold of one.

Day 1 - round the island house visiting, day 2 - praying at Loyang TPK, day 3 - River Hongbao, day 4 - movie day "frogmen". Pretty punch sum up the festive season with a gathering with both godma!

Thank you & Farewell

March 2015 is a month of rememberance, more so 23rd March in particular.

It is the day I start a new job albeit with a heavy heart and swollen eyes no less. While driving to my new office (and still is), heard the announcement over the radio of the passing of our founding father. It was a very solemn morning with sad music playing in all major radio stations as a respect, for the whole day. It was heartbreaking to hear the formal statement from the PM whose father had passed on and yet had to put on a strong front as PM of the country. During lunchtime, we happen to dine in the vicinity of SGH and our boss kindly offer us a few mins to pay respect at the temporary tribute  tentage. It was more than tough to keep the tears in check, a min or two of silence was observed in front of his portrait and the air surrounding us felt really heavy and dense. 

Most of us monitored closely on the updates of tribute sites and when or where his body will lay in state. The queue was horrifying on the 1st day, snaking round to many locations around Parliament house, e.g. Raffles place etc. Crowd control had to be deployed with rejection of public adding on to the queue. Queue were then routed to Padang and even so, it is meandering round in the Padang. Tents are built by the SAF to provide shelter for the public, volunteers help to hand out water and snacks, vendors provide snacks and drinks FOC for those in queue. It was a heartwarming week and the unity of the citizens whom have all put aside their indifferences and came together for a sole purpose. Just when the night came after a whole week of planning on joining the queue regardless of 8-12 hours wait are to be expected, I came down with high fever. Try to sleep off the fever but in vain thus was very upset. Even though we have went to our nearby CC, one of the tribute center to pay respect with the kids in tow, I had wanted to be there.

And so it happen that the following day, just one day short of being the last day before the state and private funeral, we got news from friends that parents with kids have been given priority queue and the wait is less than 30mins. Almost immediately we changed and lug the firstborn with us. We have not brought the girl for fear that the queue might build up and it will be too exhausting for her. The walk to Padang was quite a long one but pretty much manageable for us. It was very hot since nearing noon but we took comfort in the tents for shelter along the queue as well as drinks and snacks offered generously to us. Yes, we got to pay for respect to him, no dry eyes. The tears came automatically once stepped into the compound, the quiet and solemn hall where his body lay in state.

It poured heavily on the afternoon of his funeral, the moment the gun carriage leave the Parliament House. Clearly everybody wept for him and while the rain poured, nobody made any attempt to leave their spot lining the route the cortège were passing through. We watched the whole ceremony live broadcast, in front of the tv as a family. More tears flowed.....very emotional day.

We have what we have today because of you, your beliefs and your fighting spirits. Thank you & Farewell!

Zethan's Superb Six Part III

A big surprise for the firstborn! Never did he expect to have 3 cakes for this year's birthday, the third definitely a grand finale to complete his big day. As usual it was a last min arrangement and nearly did not manage to pull through. Baker was too packed but accommodate at the last min for this beautiful art piece. No specific request, gladly leave it to the creativity of the baker with the theme 'Star Wars'. Outcome was fantastic! The only flaw, cake was without his name, me at fault too for no reminder.

Anyhow we had a simple dinner with the family at Two Chefs before heading home for his surprise, R2D2 chiffon cake. Soft and not too sweet! Another priceless look on his face, what a great birthday!