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! 

  

Doughing It the Second Time Around

Asher wasn't too keen on dough the first time we played with it.  Suspecting that it was because it was too wet, I tried again, this time being careful to mix just a little water each time such that the end result was quite dry. 

Helping to mix the flour and water

Kneading the dough

Shaping the dough (well, I did the shaping, he told me what to make)

Decided to bake the dough to set it so that he could paint them.  He really enjoyed this second bit.

Dog, man (was supposed to be 'Daddy', but it looks so unflattering I just called him 'man'), fish, and a poor rendition of Ernie (think the ears should have been more to the side, but anyway, they fell off after a while and he became Elmo)

Master Nair at work

Getting more paint on his brush

Yellow fish

Yellow everything else.  When everything was painted, he decided to paint the newspapers!

Thoroughly engrossed in his art work

An out-of-point remark - his eyelashes are so long! *jealous*

It was a successful session I think, and when I've time we'll try it again with a different colour or two :)

Home & Decor

We've started doing some art at home occasionally for the last month, and Asher seems to enjoy himself most of the time.  He's ok with drawing and painting, but he showed a marked dislike for dough play.  Tried to use homemade 'recipes' for these things cos I wanted to make sure that he'll be fine if he ate the stuff.  Thanks, A, for the inspiration!   

The dough playing session started out fine enough.  He was intrigued with the lightness of the flour and interested in the way it changed texture when water was added.  Initially he didn't mind getting his hands into the stuff, but then he decided it was much too sticky for his liking (think I had added too much water), and started trying to flick all of it off, with the fine result of coating the floor (and me) with dough bits.  Thank goodness I have tiled flooring!  Will definitely try this again, but gotta make sure the dough doesn't get too sticky for his liking! 

Hmm...in-te-res-ting...

Get it off me!!

Painting went much better.  He enjoyed using his hands to spread the coffee paint (essentially coffee without sugar for a brown colour) and blueberry paint (crushed blueberries and some corn starch with water for a pink/purple colour) on paper, and attempting to make hand prints.  He eventually decided to use the spoon I had used to mix the paints up as a brush, before reverting to the use of his hands.  In the midst of all this he had also found amusement in mixing the colours together, which resulted in everything turning brown!  But at least there was no mess on the floor :)

 

Drawing with crayons was the easiest logistically (thank goodness for washable crayons!), and had the prettiest results.  He got to chose from many colours and it's easy to scribble clearly. 

I've now put up his artwork at the corner where his play area is.  Had read somewhere that they deserve the satisfaction of seeing their work being displayed.  Don't know how true that is, but it sure gives me satisfaction hahaha :) It's probably true that the mummies appreciate their children's art the most.  To me, they really are masterpieces for keeps!  (Though for the coffee painting...I'm not sure...will it grow moudly??)

Christmas Craft

Christmas is coming!

I really wanted to get a tree this year (as I did last year, and the year before that), but I didn't get around to it. There's been too many things going on! Jon's gone for his knee op, so he's on crutches for 6 weeks; and other stuff too.

So I decided that, like last year, I shall create a 'tree' to liven up our home this festive season. My brother had several years ago given me a short string of lights he bought from Thailand that came with little purple baubles that you could blow up and attach to the lights. I had never found a place to use them, but last year used the string of lights to create my 'tree'. I had wrapped the lights around my lamp-post, and put a teeny tiny tree (about 4-5 inches high that Jon and I had bought from IKEA long ago) on a stool next to the lamp. That was last year's 'tree'.

This year, I decided to make my 'tree' more tree-like. My raw materials were the same string of lights, the pack of purple baubles, the last little bit of aluminum foil, the box that the aluminum foil came in, the cardboard tube that aluminum foil was wrapped around, plus a scrap piece of ribbon. Oh, and to hold everything together - blu tack!


I took this photo after I was done, so not all my 'ingredients' are shown :)










The final result! I must say, I'm quite pleased with it!



















I gathered up all the presents we've received, and those I've wrapped for others, and put them under my 'tree' for this photo. Kept them all back under the table in the corner of our house again cos don't want Asher getting at the presents when he plays :) The 'tree' is in a prime spot!



With the lights on...



















...and the lights off!
















What do you think of my 'tree'? :) For one thing, it's definitely eco-friendly!! All material was readily available or reused/recycled scrap! Very much in line with the 'green' effort these days :)

A Regular Sunday

After church we headed over to my parent's place as usual for Nasi Lemak and conversation. My brother and sis-in-law came over with Aidan too. It's always bustling when both babies are around, but a very happy kind of bustle it is :) We all take turns carrying the two boys. I like to think of it as one big happy family where Uncles, Aunties, and Grandparents all have welcoming, open arms :)

We tried to take photos of the boys together, but as mentioned previously, taking photos of more than one baby is a hit-and-miss thing. One or the other is usually moving (i.e., blur photo), or not smiling, or looking away from the camera.


Baby sumo! :)











This is so typical, and something I find so funny :) First Asher, then Aidan smiled. Just try to imagine them in smiling in the same photo, heh.













Aidan's wearing a shirt I designed for him which says "quah-la" on the top left-hand side cos he's loves 'koala-ing' on people! It's adorable watching him find the most comfortable spot on your shoulder then slowly fall asleep :)





















For dinner we ordered pizza from Pizza de France and Jon & I left totally stuffed with pizza! We had eaten pizza the day before, and I was eating pizza the next day too cos of leftovers! Honestly, my weight went up by a few kilos after those three days!!



My Dad judging the Baby pizza eating competition! Looks like Aidan's got a head start :O)












Battering the referee!






























The squeaky toy my Mum bought for Aidan :) See how much he loves it!








My parent's place is now fully equipped to handle the night-time routine for both babies. So we can bathe our kids there and settle them to sleep if we stay late, which is great so we don't always have to leave early, while the babies don't have to stay up late. We've tried it once with Asher and he fell asleep after his bath as per normal, and we were able to transfer him to the car, and out, and to his cot without him waking up :)

It's quite sentimental for my parents to have the babies bathe at their house I think, cos they have told us many times about how as kids, my brother and I were bathed at my grandparent's house after family dinners there, and we'd fall asleep and continue sleeping all the way home. I guess it's like coming full circle for them. It's their turn to be grandparents, and it's a meaningful tradition to carry on :)