It’s good to be patriotic from young.

“Sleep chicken, sleeep!”

“You ah chicken, don wan to sleep ah!”

“Close your eyes!”

“Heiyer…!”

*huffs*

*pouts*

“Dowan to play with you anymore!”

Ah, the worries of a four-year-old.

This certainly was the outcome at my second daughter’s seven year old birthday party recently.

The day started with some Sand Art.

Then came Games.

Oooh… Pressure mounts as the seats keep getting removed…

I’m not sure what this game was, but see those mini fans some of the Kids are holding? I got those as prizes for winners of the games. Super cute no?

Here’s Jacob. Goofing.

Then came the food. But not before a photo with the friends who made the birthday memorable.

Ok, don’t laugh. But I made this.

I heard you laughing. Obviously, I need to work on my cake decorating skills. Now stop laughing.

Finger food galore.

That was the program proper.

Afterwards, it was ‘free-style’ for the Kids and we heard comments like “Ok. I’m the King and you can be the Guards ok?” Spunky declared, “I’m the Princess!!” There was even a small fight that fortunately ended with a hug and “I forgive you.” Aww.

No, this was not the hug and ‘I forgive you’. I just wanted to show these cuties off. I just ADORE them!

And the adults who came?

They enjoyed 2 kilos of Buffalo Wings which I had them down with Shandy and finish with a Chocolate Sheet Cake. Yup. I made them all too. And the conversation went from everything on education to why the folks in the big city of  West Malaysia find it hard to give maids a day off when over here, we ASK maids to take a day off so we could have the family all to ourselves. Dang the company was good.

Food for Adults + Friends = Super Fun too!

‘Assistant Class Monitor’.

She was mighty proud.

And swim lessons begin.

Double yay!

As if all those learning and assessments weren’t enough, this week begins another round of learning and assessments. Only, this one is fun!

Ms Jun: Let's have some fun while we're at it huh?

Doesn’t the water look inviting?? I was kicking myself for coming to the pool without my swimsuit! Next lesson then. And I have to get the Kids swim caps. Messy hair.

About 10 minutes into the lesson, Spunky decided she had enough learning for the day and went off to do her own ‘learning’.

Here she is declaring to the other little kids in the pool that she can swim.

Spunky: “I can swim you know. I can put my head in the water oh. And my swimsuit is pink you know. And my goggles is pink too.”

Spunky took to the pool like fish to water. When we’re done with formal swim lessons, we’ll be making regular visits to the pool so they can all ‘practise’ their swimming.

water confidence. going to the deep end of the pool.

Guess who else is enjoying these swim lessons.

Yup. Their Mama.

The thing about extracurricular activities for the Kids like this one is how they go home ready to eat and retire for the day. After some excited recaps to their Daddy, they fell sound asleep at 9pm. Tired but happy.

*bliss*

A day when they can readily make their way to bed without coercion nor compulsion is for me a good day.

Now, we are ALL looking forward to the next lesson.

Granted we were directly involved with the preparations for the Easter Service, which saw the family rushing from one activity to another in the course of just those few days running up to Sunday.

Still, the children were delighted to have the opportunity to do some coloring during the Service, for a small competition no less!

so focused...

looking good Sweetheart...

here's Spunky & her basket of eggs..

The Littlest One was most excited about her coloring project as she had just been coloring some paper eggs as well at preschool the past week.

And… Middle Sis won the consolation prize for her artwork.

the prized pic..

Yay for Middle Sis!

The Children’s Buddy, J, won 3rd prize. Woot! *Note to J’s Mommy – remember to come collect J’s prize at Supercrew this Sunday.

On a sad yet peaceful note, we received the unfortunate news of the passing of a greatly respected and dearly loved Church Minister. On the way to Church, I asked the Hubby if it was odd that I felt a little sadness over his passing.  The Hubby reassuringly said no. As a young child who was learning to grow in her faith, this was a man I grew up watching. I always knew him to be humble, soft-spoken and just quietly going about doing what he felt the Lord had called him to do. I remember when he was conferred the Datukship, people said to him that we should begin to call him Datuk, although it would take a bit of an adjustment as he was already lovingly called Gembala (Pastor). He responded by saying that he was Gembala FIRST, and then Datuk. I have held him to high respect ever since.

To have gone to be with the Lord on Easter Sunday is beautiful.

Here’s a video clip that we watched during the Service that just wonderfully reminds us why Easter is the Sunday of Sundays.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mom and dad, today I’m not so mad, when can you take care of me, when can it be, mom and dad, I’m your eldest child, it will take a while to grow up, I’m gonna be alright to be your greatest child, oh mom and dad, I’m the on to chat, what do you think about me, let’s have tea together and talk about me forever, I wrote this song for you to remember me when I get married, I love you all, to my side being tall, give my sisters a big hug and all.

Gives a glimpse of what’s in her heart of hearts didn’t it?

And she’s learning to rhyme…

At the last check-up before today, Dr Lim announced that you were a perfectly healthy, 3.2kg, just kicking and waiting to scream it out when you finally got here, baby girl.

Mommy sent text messages out to close friends and family to ask for prayers for a safe and uncomplicated, with an emphasis on the latter, delivery. Although Mommy had gone through a ceasarian birth three years prior, Mommy was nervous about the procedure. It is after all a surgical procedure, coming with it its own set of risks. More than anything, Mommy wanted you to be born safely.

When it was time, Mommy was still nervous. Daddy held Mommy’s hand and rubbed his thumb against Mommy’s. And Daddy prayed quietly while Dr Lim, the Anaesthetist and Aunty Kitty and her Nurses team busied themselves with their instruments and equipments. Doc then said, “Ready to receive your Baby?”

(Mommy wanted to say, “Are you kidding?! Don’t you know you don’t say these things to a woman having a Baby?!”)

“Yes, we are Doc.” said Mommy and Daddy nodded.

Doc then quietly went to work, the Lite & Easy station playing on the radio, occasionally giving out his instruction to the surgical team while chatting with the Anaesthetist about football . Once in a while, Daddy chipped in, and here were the Men talking about club standings and referees while carrying out the delicate procedure of lifting a baby out of Mommy’s womb.

Mommy felt cold in that operating room. The room was cold, the table that Mommy laid on was cold, the spinal block that had been administered to Mommy’s back felt cold.

And then, You came.

Not screaming, just a soft cry, but you were kicking.

Suddenly, it was no longer cold but this amazing feeling of warmth took over. Mommy felt warm on the cheeks and as Mommy looked at you, Mommy cried.

You were so beautiful and you still are.

Everyday since then Mommy celebrates you.

Happy Birthday my Baby Girl. Mommy loves you.

UPDATE: “What?? All Words and No Pix??” Ok. Ok. Here are some.

Truth be told, this is the first time I’ve organised a birthday party for Children. In all my twelve years of working full time organising events for hundreds of adults, this project consisting of 12 Children has been the most daunting! Did y’all know that “2 hours is not enough time for a party Mommy!”??

Anyhoo. So Big Sis wanted a Hannah Montana themed birthday party this year, and with today’s economic climate, we (as in, ME..) decided we would organise it ourselves this time round. I had envisioned lots of Hannah Montana paraphernalia, colorful finger food and a good amount of singing to the tunes of this famous Disney personality.

not too bad huh? those are Ikea plasticware.

I found out however, that it was difficult to find affordable HM paraphernalia here in KK. There are loads of Disney Princess ones, and there are even stockpiles of the more recent hit with the kids – Ben 10. In the end, I’ve only managed four sheets of stickers and used them to stick to plastic crockery and other party-related items.

I bought a Hannah Montana magazine which had the bonus of a huge poster which I put up, and was able to glean ideas from it for party activities. On the day of the party, I took apart the magazine and pasted them on the walls of my Mom’s living room as part of the decorations. In hindsight, I could’ve gone to borrow some cardboard stars from someone and stuck them alongside the magazine pages to give the room a real star / celebrity / concert hall feel. Ah well.

The Children came and started off with bracelet making using beads that someone had given the Girls some time ago but was never put to use. I bought a few more and some strings and the Kids got to work. My strings were a little too fine. (See, I told you organising a Kids’ party is not a walk in the park!) Even so, most of them were able to make theirs and I got my Party Hostess to take individual pictures of them with their bracelets and with Big Sis. Sometime this week, I’ll process those photos and send them off to Big Sis’ guests as a Thank You token.

Oh. I must tell you how thankful I am for my Party Hostess, Jia Jun. The downside of doing things by yourself is being pulled on 15 different directions, and that’s just on the day itself! I was toggling back and forth from the Kitchen to the Living Room carrying out orders from my Mom (who helped with the cooking, bless her!) and organising the food table, all whilst chatting with parents.

So in the middle (literally, because they were in the living room and the food table was at the front porch) of my running around, my dear Party Hostess carried out games to keep the Children entertained. I could see that they enjoyed the last game of the day as it involved action movements to the tune of Best of Both Worlds on a piece of newspaper that they had to eventually fold into a tiny piece to dance on top of. So fun! Thank you Jun! Couldn’t have done the Games without you. *wink*

there they are. so pretty!

Menu was simple. Finger food all the way. Spaghetti in individual cups. And pink guava juice. I ‘contracted’ the Bff to do an array of cupcakes for me and those turned out cute! Everyone loved them! I’m so inspired by her cupcake stand that it’s now in my to-do list to get one for myself. The cake I baked was chocolate with cookies and cream buttercream filling and frosted with purple and pink fondant. Next time I do the cake again, I will make three layers instead of two, so folks can get more of the cookies and cream. I think I did pretty well with the filling cos I got good raves about it. The cake itself. Eh.

Still. The children couldn’t keep themselves away from the food. They kept going back and forth picking up food as they went along the program for the day. I just felt so sorry for the Kids cos temperatures was humid that afternoon causing them to thirst badly. But then it rained heavily towards the evening which cooled the air a lot and was when the party ‘really’ started with the Kids watching the Best of Both Worlds Concert in the living room, in the dark! They wanted a movie theatre effect and was at one time complaining about the lights that was on at the outside (where the parents were chilling) cos it spoiled the effect a bit.

We served the food to the Kids at the Kids table where they had an individual set of placemats, plates, cutlery and cups each. We put the cupcakes right in the middle so they could all get a piece each and put the cake in front of Big Sis, to whom we sang the Happy Birthday song and then said a prayer to bless the food. And the Kids ate. I think, serving them at their own Kids size table with Kid size chairs and Kid size plates and utensils, they get to actually eat! So that’s good.

When the Kids have had their share, and sat down to watch their movie in their ‘movie theatre’, the parents finally sat down to bite-sized food, Monavie juice (which my Mom hussled around) and had our own jabs to the side from everything about Man-U’s err.. ‘declining’ streak, to the subject of orang gaji. (Paid Help). And everyone was being kind to me about my cake.

Albeit being a Kids party, it was a fun-filled afternoon for everyone with good enough food and certainly good company. Which has always been what’s important to my Hubby and I.

I think I’m getting the hang of the whole party for kids event planning thing. I should think about making a business out of it huh?

Not!

a Smiley button for everyone!

and body jewels for the Girls. cool?

Oh. I should mention. My Husband was in charge of the Music Station. U rock Darling!

Oh Oh. And we did do the Earth Hour thing, but didn’t take pictures. We were all exhausted by that time anyway, we just plain forgot as we sat in the darkness. Tsk!