Meryl's Birthday Bash

The planning started way before the actual event. My girl had without fail fail every other day to ask me how many more days is it to her birthday and this started to increase in its frequency right after the June holidays! She had great plans, which luckily she changed (helped by me) along the way!

She started out wanting to have an all girl's party. It wasn't enough for her just to give out invitation cards to her classmates but it MUST be delivered to their home address. I was hesitant and reluctant cos so much more to do on my side and I was already back to work. Then she wanted to have it at Fidgets where she attended some parties this year. We suggested Safra Jurong and she acceded. Then we started to plan who to invite and again she insisted on all girls only. I had to explain that their brothers will all come before she agreed to have boys.

One day, out of the blue she asked me, ' Mummy, do you prefer to stay at home or to go out?' I told her I prefer to stay home and then she replied with a sigh, ' Ok lor, I think I'll have my party at home.' I didn't even know where she was coming from but obviously the party was very much on her mind!

As the day drew nearer, I decided to hold the party at the function room, complete with a bouncing castle and a play-tent filled with playdoh for the kids to play in. The theme was Hello Kitty. The whole party came with a Hello Kitty bouncing castle, wall decorations, and 2 stand alone pilars made of balloons. I had 2 dozens of helium balloons floating around in the function rooms and then sprayed 'Happy Birthday Meryl' using a X'masy foam on the glass doors. It was the most fuss free decorations I've ever had in years!!

The day came and we had a ball of our time. I think there were about more than 40 kids in total. The buffet was great and the kids had a special menu cooked by Jo. I was busy catching up with old friends and new. Best of all, I was happy that the cleaning up was so quick and simple and I get to stay at home at the end of it and play mahjong!!!

Crazy Holiday 2011

I was overly ambitious this last holiday. I wanted to get the kids out of the house as much as possible and they did and so did I. I had forgotten to include the logistics and ended up each day with multiple trips ferrying them to and fro the different places and having short breaks in between. I ended up in school most of the mornings than I would like to have during holidays and sometimes ended up spending time playing with their baby cousin before fetching one of the kids from their classes. Below is a summary of what the program was like during the holidays, more or less, cos some I've already forgotten some!

Swimming for Kyle every morning from 9-11 at either Yio Chu Kang, Hougang or Toa Payoh stadium
Swimming for Meryl on Tuesdays
Meryl's 4 days Art Camp at NAFA end of November from 8.30-5.30 pm
Cartoon Drawing classes 3 days at Kallang CC
Meryl's jewellery making class at Kallang CC
Kyle's Tennis class on Saturdays at STTA
Aikido every Friday and Sunday
Badminton every Wednesday at AVCC
1 week Vietnam trip - Ho Chi Minh, Vung Tau
Meryl's birthday Party
Christmas Parties @ Mel's @Pansy
New's years countdown party@Pansy

On the whole it was a crazy 2 month, But on the bright side, my son put on 5kg as a result of his swim class and is sporting a lovely tan (ok, more like chow tar-burnt). and Meryl had a wonderful time at her art camp despite her getting cold feet on the first day. She ended up making friends with the big che che (sisters) that she insisted that I invite them for her birthday. Our Vietnam trip went off wonderfully well and the 2 kids not not suffer, contrary to what their daddy feared, any diarrhea but enjoyed the food and massages that they got there. In fact I was worried that they may have developed an addiction! The family photo shot that I planned also turned out beautiful despite my initial concerns and my hubby's grumblings and for a mere$400, complete with an album of 40 pictures and a big family potrait. The visits to the orphanages and old folk's home was also an experience i think the kids will not forget easily.