Happy Birthday Caitlin and Kieran

This year's birthday celebration for both children are again simple yet warm affairs. We ordered their fav ice cream cake with their fav cartoon characters and we invited the grandparents as guests.

Caitlin is FOUR!

Kieran is SIX!

Our happy family, Kieran's Starwars ice cream cake and Lego Starwars fighter and mini figurines (which actually belongs to papa).

At around his birthday, he also graduated from the Yamaha Junior Music Course. We are not continuing him for the JXC course when the children will start to learn their lessons unaccompanied by their parents. However, we will continue to let him learn music and we are planning to buy a piano. This course has given him a great start in music education. When I flipped through the Primary One Music book, I can't help but feel how easy it is compared to the rigorous music training in Yamaha. 

Kieran’s 5th Birthday

Today is Kieran’s fifth birthday. As I am writing this, he must have given away the birthday goodie bags to his classmates and has met my mom who is bringing him home from school. We celebrated his birthday last weekend and he had a really great time enjoying the company, the ice cream cake, goodies and presents!

Kieran’s birthday is the most significant for me because it means that I am a mother for the fifth year. On this very day, five years ago, my perspective on life changed considerably.

How I wish I can fit work into my schedule instead of family life around my fixed working hours. Perhaps one day, the world will recognise the need for an all-rounded life for all workers. Perhaps one day, the world will glorify and empathise with the role of mothers.

It is unbelievable how long we have come on this journey. I wish the best of health and the most peaceful of mind to my loveliest children, and I wish blessings on the children of this world, who are the future of this world we love.

Birthday

I'm officially 33 years old today. I don't feel like being 33!

I have two lovely kids (who sometimes aren't very lovely), a great husband who's also a doting father to our kids, a job with nice boss and colleagues, a relatively secure future, parents who are willing to sacrifice themselves to look after my kids while I work, a messy house and a loving home. That's more than what I hope for.

Thank you hubby for the lovely Chef Icon New York Cheese cake. My favourite birthday cake which I request for every year!

Daddy's Birthday

We celebrated daddy's birthday with a hearty lunch at Roma Deli's and Tom's Palette ice cream. Yummy! Then we walked around Bugis before going back to my parents' place. We only brought Caitlin because the grandparents won't be able to handle both children at once, and we couldn't bring Kieran in case he throws a tantrum outside due to being over tired.

Kieran's Happy Elmo theme Party

Kieran turns TWO on 10 October 2013.

On the Sunday before his birthday, we held an Elmo theme party for him at grandparents' home. He loves his Elmo and would hug him to sleep every night.

Kieran's present from Papa & Mummy - a Ybike! 

Little Caitlin is all dressed up for the party & she gets a nice present too - a sweet baby seahorse which sings soft lullaby music. Doesn't it look like her?

Kieran enjoyed the celebration and he even asked me, when we were home yesterday, whether we could go to grandma's house and have another birthday party.

Celebrating Hubby's birthday

On 23 May, hubby & I had a date at Chef Icon which makes really delicious sandwiches and cakes. I personally love the New York Cheese Cake and hubby likes the Chocolate Trovana, so we had dinner there, and brought home a small Chocolate Trovana to celebrate with our little Kieran at Home Sweet Home.

This is our little happy family at the same place, same day, same birthday, with the same type of cake but one year apart. Look at how darling Kieran has changed over the one year! He's slimmer and more shuai now!

Kieran is a little darling. He's so obedient and clever lately. He's very curious and wants to poke his nose into everything. I was moving the clothes rack to another room and he insisted to help. But its dangerous for him to move it. I told him  “危险啦！” He actually turned around to look at me and said “不会啦！” Huh! For a 19 month old, he can reply me like that! He is also starting to ask "Why?" although I'm not certain whether he's just saying Why for the sake of saying or he's really asking, but I was reading a book to him, and at one point, he asked "Why?". I explained the reason to him and he seemed to understand. Very proud of my little Kieran :)

Hubby's birthday

Hubby's birthday is just round the corner. I've got him a lovely gift and placed it on our bed, waiting for him to discover it by surprise.

I got him a Solvil Titus watch. Its slightly black stainless steel, battery operated watch which looks modern and sleek. It will look great on him and I believe this is the style he likes. 

I got him Solvil Titus because it stands for "Together Forever" or 天長地久 and that is what we hope our love and relationship will be. And also because hubby is a sentimental person.

His current watch has been worn for quite some time and it went faulty at times, so I guess its time to get a new one. Besides, the only 2 things that hubby will truly shop for and enjoys shopping for are watches and shoes, besides the usual digital gadgets and smart phones. So I think he will appreciate a watch as a gift.

So here's the watch I got for him. Good taste right? Haha

Baby's First Year Big Day woes!

Baby is 8 months old! Which means in 4 month's time, he'll be celebrating his One year old birthday! Oh no! How do we celebrate it? Where should we celebrate it?

I'm thinking doing the following stuff for his Big Day:

• Show baby's Photo Album - Documenting baby's growing up journey from birth. Thinking of using Snapfish.
• Baby and Family photography package - We can take this when he's 11 month old and then display it during the party. A friend uses StudioPlay and the result is marvelous. Hopefully we can get a good deal of similar package at a baby fair. Speaking of baby fair, I'm going to update ongoing baby fairs at Expo here! I'm also going to get family T shirt customized for the photo shoot. My friend recommended Pixiethreads.
• Birthday party venue - Thinking of using a relative's condominium function room. Still sourcing for good venues.
• Games and toys - thinking of renting or bringing along some toys for baby to play while the adults are enjoying the food.
• Decorations - thinking of a decoration theme for baby. Maybe monkeys? We kind of like monkeys. Haha. And we'll have a nice display banner with baby's name and possibly picture.
• Buffet - We'll need this if we invite all our relatives and some of our friends. If its a close-family-only small celebration, we'll only need cake.
• Beautiful First year cake for baby - Mummies on forum suggest Pine Garden... will look around for good cakes.
• Choosing items that gives us a glimpse into his future - I don't know whether you have heard of this 抓周.  One year old is the time when baby is asked to select an item from among many items spread in front of him and the item he selects will give us an idea what he will be when he grows up. I'm not sure of the accuracy of this but it'll be fun!

So many stuff to think of and to prepare!