Whaley Bouncy Birthday @ Loewen Gardens

I had been prepping Asher for a while by repeatedly telling him about the event, so he knew that he was having a party that day.  

It was held at The Pantry @ Loewen Gardens, and the invite list was the same as last year :)  Besides his very dear cousins, there were the playmates he meets more often who are basically the second generation of Mummy and Daddy's long-time friends.  It was nice that more of the kids (and parents) could come this time around :) 

Think The Pantry suited our needs very well. We wanted somewhere fun for the kids, somewhere with nice food (good coffee was a bonus!), and somewhere not too far from our place. It worked out well, I think, with the children occupying themselves at the many play spaces, the adults seemed to enjoy the food, the cake which the cafe made was delicious, and we even had an impromptu post-party of sorts at the trampoline. And at the end of all that, no cleaning up to do!! Yippie!

Didn't really deliberately set out to have a whaley theme.  It kind of just fell into place.  Whales are one of the creatures that Asher really likes, and basically his party centred around what he liked.  He liked the place the last time we went there, he likes whales (among other things), and whatever was in the party pack he also personally liked.  Yes, he really liked what was in the party packs.  After packing them the night before, I had put them in bags on the floor all ready to be picked up and brought along.  In the morning, Asher didn't come to wake me as usual, but I awoke to the sound of rustling plastic bags and realised he was rummaging through the party packs!  He wanted to take everything!!  He wanted to keep the water squirters, to play with the aeroplanes, to blow the bubbles....he didn't get around to seeing the cookies or he'd ask to eat them I'm sure, and if he saw the stickers, he'd probably have peeled them off already. 

I extracted him from the treasure and told him it was for his friends, but he didn't want to accept that.  Somehow in the end, I can't remember how, we managed to distract him, and at the party we covered the party packs in case he refused to have them be given away :)  Yes, like I said.  He really really likes the stuff in there. 

Prepared some noise makers or 'shakers' for the kids to decorate.  It was quite a hilarious process to make them though.  I had put some beans inside the folded paper plates to help create the noise, then glued it close.  After making the first one I happily beamed at Jon and said, "Ta Da!" while shaking it.  It make noise for two shakes...then silence....the glue hadn't dried...my beans got stuck to the side!!! So I had to quickly pry open the plate again and try to stuff in more beans.  But cos it was half glued shut, I had a little bit of difficulty holding the plate flat, with the result of having more beans get stuck to the side!  But in the end managed to get some in the middle.  Then I left it alone to dry :) 

The second try, I thought I left the plate long enough to dry, but again, after two to three shakes...silence!!  Scrambled to get more beans inside again.  Decided to not shake any of the rest until the next morning, just to be sure! :)) 

All ready for the guests to arrive.  Those yellow balloons didn't last beyond 30mins.  Either cos some burst, or cos they were hijacked by the kids.   But that was the whole intention anyway, for the kids to play with the balloons, and not just be decor :)

Lots of spaces for playing

Checking out the Christmas decor

The giant cake.  The owner of the cafe, Jane, told me that it was a 12 inch cake.  But she didn't say how high!   I generally like savory food more so I found the icing much too sweet for me, but the chocolate sponge was really good, and by the end of the day I had eaten wayyy too many slices of cake.

Gathered the kids together in the hope of getting a group shot, but in the end could only get 6 of the 7 on the sofa

More play spaces

The start of the post-party trampoline fun

Fun with adults

Even more fun with no adults!

Group hug!

Tao pok!

Getting tired

This was super fun.  Emma's Dad went under the trampoline and pushed the kids up with his legs, making them fly!  The kids had no idea what was happening and why they were flying cos the bottom of the trampoline was opaque, but they absolutely LOVED it! :)

Taking a break

Post post-party!

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Asher, I love you more than you know.  You bring me so much joy, and I feel so blessed to have you in my life.  You have taught me many many things by what you notice, what you say, and I have loved all our little excursions together.  You enjoy going to the zoo, to the beach, to the Botanic Gardens.  You absolutely adore running through fountains.  You love the playground - in school when it's time to go to the playground you always eagerly shout "outdoor!".  You are very observant, and often spot little things that I don't even notice, like the way some animals move and tiny aeroplanes in the night-time sky.  You love books, and you enjoy reading together very much.  Your memory also often amazes me, like how you rememered what the fat penguins did on Philips Island, how the rhino in the zoo looked at you, what characters are in your books, etc.  You are also getting cheekier and chattier, and I love getting an insight into what goes through your mind.

You are such great company, lots of fun, very sweet, sensitive, and loving.  Caring for you has not been without it's difficulties, but the love and happiness you bring more than out-weigh all that.  I love you for who you are.  I am so amazed by how much you've grown, how much you've changed, how much you've developed, and I can only thank God for all this.  Happy Birthday Sweetie! 

  

Celebrating 2 in School

We celebrated Asher's birthday in school two days early since his birthday fell on a Sunday.  Got some small party favours for his classmates which he happily shared out one-by-one, then had a simple cake cutting session at their tea time. 

I ordered an agar-agar cake because some of his classmates can't take dairy.  With a regular cake, they'd miss out on the fun.  Thought the cake was really cute and I was a little bit afraid that Asher may not want to cut it.  He sometimes gets upset when something gets cut up or broken, and he will keep asking for it to be put back together, even though sometimes it's utterly impossible, e.g., if you broke a cookie in half, or already sliced a fruit...how do you put it back together?  A new cookie will not do.  That broken cookie must be put back together.  Having had several run-ins with this idiosyncracy, which hits at the most unexpected times, I really was a little concerned that it'd surface in school.

BUT

Thank goodness that wasn't the case at all.  In fact, he acted completely different from what I expected.  He happily slashed away at poor Cookie Monster!  Hacking and slashing and cutting!  I had to stop him after a while to make sure we could actually cut the cake into proper pieces to give out.  I guess the feeling of cutting agar-agar can be quite interesting - firm yet soft, smooth, and not messy at all.  And after cutting, the line seems to disappear somewhat. 

Anyway, the cake was yummy.  Not the mushy type of agar-agar.  It was firm with a slight crunch.  And very fragrant too.  Will definitely order from this lady again :) 

 C is for Cookie!

Slashing away

Not the most flattering photo for me, but it was our only family pic

Think this is the school's usual birthday set-up.  Thought it was grand for a little boy to sit at the head of such a large table!

After everyone had their (second, third, and even fourth!) serving of cake, Asher asked to cut Cookie Monster again.  I relented and let him have a go, which resulted in Cookie Monster's very injured eye.  My friend commented that it looked like Cookie Monster got into a gang fight!

It was simple and enjoyable.  I'm glad we did it for him :)

Birthday on Sesame Street

Josiah's birthdays continue to be well thought out with lots of effort put into the theme.  Kudos to Jo for all her effort!  Last year it was Superman, this year, it's Sesame Street :) 

Aren't these just great?

Jo even baked muffins and decorated them the Sesame Street characters

Asher decided to come as Cookie Monster (he chose from Elmo, Ernie and Cookie Monster), so I helped him make a prop of a half-eaten cookie.  He went on to make a few more cookies with colourful chocolate chips.  They were meant for Josiah, who very politely used the plate for his cookie even though it was really meant for playing with :)



Ernie & Cookie Monster munching on cookies together

We were the earliest to arrive and the two boys had a good time playing.  It's great watching kids this age play together cos they interact so much more, and I especially love when their adorable antics rub-off on one another.  Whether it's climbing up and down the stairs while making some funny noise, tap-tap-tapping their feet as quickly as they can on the steps, or playing catching through the tunnel, it's just so so fun and heart-warming to watch.

The twos may be terrible, but they are also terrific!

Roaarrr!!

Playing at the stairs

Birthday Magic

Popped by the Mok's place to celebrate Joe's birthday.  Been a really long time since we saw Jo Claire, so it was great that the two kiddos got to play together for a while.  Discovered that though they haven't met recently, she's very familiar with Asher cos she hears about him almost everyday.  Her grandma reads to her a storybook which has a picture showing a set of parents, two sets of grandparents, and two children - one male one female.  So her grandma would say that the little girl is Jo Claire, and for lack of another boy, that Asher is the little boy :)  So she was more than familiar with his name, and just needed to match the face to it.  By the end of the night, ask her who Asher was and she could point him out :)

Was super happy that Asher ate well there too!  He's been going through a phase where he doesn't want to eat much of anything.  All the food he normally likes to eat he'll shun.  The only things he eats kind-of regularly are fruit and some veg (carrots esp).  Even then, it's not a given that he will eat the fruit/veg offered to him.  He's been losing weight, and has lost his little paunch.  And it can be very frustrating and worrying for me.

But by some miracle, Asher asked to eat 2 bananas, and happily gobbled down some briyani ("colourful rice") and white rice, and slurped up some of the soup that Jo Claire was also drinking, which was a power-packed bowl of veg, dried scallops, soy beans, and ikan bilis.  What a vast improvement from the day before where he only had 2 biscuits for breakfast, about 1 tablespoon of bee hoon for lunch, and a handful (his hand, not mine) of blueberries which garnished his Grandpa's birthday cake.  He had also refused to drink his pre-bedtime cup of milk.  Oh, the joy of seeing him eat!

Hanging out in the play area

Being a cheeky boy and making a soft-toy dolphin dive onto Jo Claire's head again, and again and again :/  She was very sweet about the whole thing and didn't banish him from her play area.

Where's Asher?? 

Taking a kangaroo's hat to wear during the cake-cutting :)



Artichoke

To celebrate my father-in-law's birthday we went to a fairly new establishment called Artichoke at Sculpture Square along Middle Road.  The place is immediately inviting, and the smells emanating from the kitchen are mouth-watering.  The place serves my kind of food - Moroccan & Middle-Eastern influenced with fresh ingredients.  We ordered way too much, but what fun to try the many dishes!  The menu there changes frequently to keep things interesting, and often the best dishes are written on the wall.  Loved the lamb short ribs cooked with chermoula spices - so well cooked the meat just comes off the bone; the hummus and babaganoush with bread were what they are meant to be - flavourful and comforting; the beef stew was excellent - robust, rich, extremely tender, but not stodgey; the moussaka was lovely - light with a lingering flavour; the leg of lamb served with seven veg couscous was perfectly done; and the popcorn chicken was a fried food indulgence that lived up to it's name - it really comes with popcorn :)

One of the few pics I had a chance to snap.  Beetroot with feta and a sprinkling of nuts.

Their offering reminded me very much of Mecca Bah in Melbourne, and I was quite pleased to have a place to go to in Singapore for something similar.  I would have taken pictures of everything if my hands weren't so tied up with Asher - he was fussing and not wanting to eat even though ordinarily, he'd eat everything on that table!  In the end I only took pics of the first dishes that arrived.

Anyway, the place serves brunch too, so might pop by there another day to try it.  But we'll definitely be coming back again some time!

 Drawing for the first 1 min of the meal.  

There was essentially no meal for him since he didn't eat dinner per se...

He only had some fruit garnishing Grandpa's cake

Choo Choo, Austin's Two

Headed over to Dawn's place for an early 2nd birthday celebration for Austin.  Lots and lots and lots of toys for all to play.  In line with Austin's liking for trains, Dawn adorned his birthday cake with a colourful set of trains.  Happy to know our gift was appropriate too - a train set!

Birthday on the Wild Side

It was Asher's first theme party.  Jo Claire turned one, and Jo and Joe threw an animal themed party.  So Asher turned up as a penguin (well, just the picture of one on his romper.  I had no time to go do anything elaborate), and Jon and I wore the Esso tiger tails :)  Yes, that was our uncoordinated family.  A pair of tigers gave birth to a penguin!?!  I had grand plans for coordinating a penguin outfit for each of us, but it remained as just that - a plan. 

But I guess most families formed strange animal sets.  Joe was a cow (complete with udders! His greeting to everyone, "milk?"), Claire was a pink leopard, while Joanne was...a human, heh :) 

There were lots of kids who all made themselves at home in Claire's play area, Asher included.  He ran to show me a pillow around his neck, disappeared, came back with rings on his arms, disappeared again, came back with some rattle thing, and the process repeated itself over and over. 

Even the cake was animal themed!  The children clustered around Joanne as she cut the cake, and they were saying which animal they wanted to have. 

The Moks

Asher and the birthday girl

Eyeing the animal cupcakes (and wine?)

Rissy and Asher

It's always nice catching up with old friends, and I remember the food was yummy (gimme sambal prawns any day!).  I also made the interesting discovery that Asher is ok with mildly spicy food.  He shared some of my mee siam goreng and was able to take it, almost oblivious to its spiciness!  Maybe it's cos I eat so much spicy food, he got used to it in the womb, and maybe even my breastmilk was spicy?  I have no idea. 

Anyway, happy birthday Claire!

Anya's Turns One

Anya celebrated her first birthday with a big bang at Scrumptious Cafe.  We got there a little late and the other kids had already started playing at the play area attached to the cafe.  It's equipped with a trampoline, a rock wall, and a modest collection of toys and books. 

Anya had the most gorgeous cake in the classic shape of a number 1.  It was really one of the prettiest cakes I've ever seen and suited the occasion to a T!  There were girlish butterflies, sweet flowers, and other pretty designs.  Made cutting the cake seem a bit of a pity, but after tasting it, yum!  Who cared about the design anymore :)   

I think my favourite part of the party was watching the three cousins interact.  It's always hilarious to see the results of what happens when we put the three of them together.  But it was also sweet, because it had been a long time since all three were in the same place at the same time.  I think the last time was at Asher's birthday. 

Anyway, time really flies.  It really doesn't seem so long ago that Anya was born.  I guess I forget that as Asher grows, so do the other babies around him :) 

Well, I'm sure she had a great time on her birthday.  With lots of cake, lots of friends, and lots of love, what's not to enjoy? :) 

Gimme, gimme, it looks yummy! :)

Mmmm...yum!  It is great!

More, more!

Asher giving his dear cousin a birthday 'blessing' :)