A Birthday Celebration

We had a lovely celebration last Saturday, 6th April at our home to celebrate the birthdays of Victoria, hubby and Gong Gong.  Coincidently, this day was Gong Gong's actual birthday.

Initially I wanted to have a simple steam boat party but Vic was not keen as she preferred Western.  As our guestlist exceeded ten, I figured it will indeed be a better idea to cater instead of being Martha in the kitchen myself.  So Western it was, and we finally settled for a caterer and chose food that the kids loved most - lasagne and spaghetti bolognese.  In addition to that, I also ordered a tray of Shepherd's Pie, mini chicken pies and chilled creamcheese with nestum base dessert.  From my own kitchen, I added watermelon, grapes and cherry tomatoes.

We added in decorations that morning itself as we had our cell gathering in our house the night before and so couldn't put up the balloons and "Happy Birthday" signs yet.  Daddy did most of the decoration work - pumping up the balloons, tying them up until his fingers felt numb, hanging up the HB sign.  The ladies did the last part of tying the balloons in pairs along the staircase railings.

Popo Gong Gong arrived in the morning with cousin Grace.  In the evening, Yi Yi / Yi Jiong with cousins Andrew and 11-month old Sharon (last seen when she was a newborn), Mama Yeh Yeh with cousin Theodore and Yee Sok arrived.  3rd Aunt and 3rd Uncle joined us too. 

Funny glasses for the birthday kids

The kids had a blast, running up and down the stairs from the living to the dining, with the younger boys chasing each other around the coffee table.  Toys were strewn on the floor, they build and tore down and they laughed and cried.  We didn't had to put on any music which was initially the plan, because the conversations and noise from the kids would have drowned it anyway.  This was, in my opinion, what a party should be and it was great that we could do all these in the comfort of our home and not having to worry about runaway kids or getting weird stares from strangers if we had held this in a restaurant.  :P 

Nearing 7pm, Daddy dedicated a Bible verse to Victoria from Psalm 37:4, which says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."

Mummm Mummm

"I'm almost 8 now.  But still a baby in Popo's eyes"

3 generation and a bunch of plastic cats

Despite warning telling William (who thinks that blowing out birthday candles is his official duty) NOT to blow his Jie Jie's birthday candles, he was the first to blow out ALL his sister's birthday candles....

But fortunately Daddy forgot to light the number "8" candle the first round, so the second round, Vic got to blow this off all by herself.  We had to do a little restraint on the brother, though... hehe

A few days later (12th April exactly) will be my parent's 40th wedding anniversary so to commemorate that, we opened a bottle of Carbenet Shiraz to go with the lovely egg-free, orange flavour birthday cake.

Having her cake and eating it too... yummz!

She couldn't resist NOT opening her presents, so she picked one to open first, which was from Yi Yi and Yi Jiong - a Hello Kitty watch in a sweet HK box!  She's elated beyond words!  On top of that, the day before she received another watch - digital with various buttons from a cell friend.  So, two new watches for her birthday (nasib baik Mummy didn't cave in to her wanting to buy a new watch a few weeks back)

The second present that she opened came from cousin Theodore, and it was a Hello Kitty stationery set - perfect for a girl crazy over stationery.  As for Daddy and Mummy's present to her, she asked to keep it till her actual day but later in the night, she asked me if she could just take a peep.  That peep resulted in her taking out the smaller of the two presents in the package...

Thank you Popo Gong Gong, Mama Yeh Yeh and 3rd Aunt for your ang pows.

Vic is truly blessed.  Now I tease her that there are so many "cats" in this house... she laughs at this because she knows Mummy is not a cat-person.

Happy birthday, sweet girl...

"My dearest Vic,

Take time to grow up, don't be in such a hurry.  Take time to discover and embark on your likes and passions, keep God's word close to your heart, and know that you will always have Mummy Daddy to confide in and support you.  I'm proud of you - all the time."