4 CAKES! 4 PARTIES! And all this while we were in the thick of Chinese New Year preparations and celebrations!
I think we overdid ourselves this year *faint*
But we (me at least!) had a lot of fun!
Celebration ONE - School
Both KY and I took some time off from work to celebrate her birthday in school. I always felt that something while it may seem so frivolous (both parents being around in school for her birthday), actually matters a lot to a child. And in the case of Janine, I believe it holds true. Not only was she super thrilled to see us STILL hanging around in school and setting up her cake etc, you could actually SEE that she felt EXTRA special that day. It was written all over her face. Here she is surrounded by her classmates from Gracefields who sang the "Happy Birthday" song for her in BOTH English and Chinese. This kantang mother is obviously very impressed at their billingualism.
Celebration TWO - With our CG
This was a simpler set up. We went to Uncle Geoff's club for lunch after church and celebrated for all the January babies in our CG (in this case only Uncle Joel and Janine. This lunch time celebration had to be simple because there was a BIGGER celebration awaiting us that night!
Celebration THREE - With KY's family
We had our annual reunion dinner with KY's parents on Sunday night and KY's mom never fails to cook up a storm for special family occasions. This year's reunion dinner was extra special because we were celebrating 2 people's birthdays as well. Coincidentally, my brother-in-law, Chee Tiong's birthday falls a couple a days before Janine. So you can imagine the feasting we were doing that night! Well, the little girl was super pleased with her Barbie Princess cake which she chose ALL BY HERSELF. She was even decked out in her favourite "Barbie princess" dress to match the theme of her cake! Lol! As you can see, she was one happy little princess!
Celebration FOUR - With our OH family and my family
This 4th and last celebration took place on the little girl's ACTUAL birthday. So to make it extra special and memorable, this crazy mommy decided to put more love into the whole affair and actually COOK (from scratch! none of that catering business!) a simple luncheon. And memorable it was because with barely half the food stuff ready, WE RAN OUT OF GAS! and we only had ONE HOUR left to the start of the party! Well, thanks to my mom's little electric stove, we managed to feed everyone but you can imagine the chaos! Hahaha! Oh and coincidentally (again!), Aunty Sharon and our little princess share the SAME birthdate! How cool is that! So this was definitely one party to remember!
Why are we pulling out all the stops this year to celebrate Janine's birthday? I know KY himself is wondering! Haha. Well, I think it's for a variety of reasons:
Reason ONE: Janine has started going to school and has made friends there. I thought it would make for some nice memories for the little girl. I, myself, remember fondly of those times (not a lot especially once I started primary school!) when I got to celebrate my birthday with my friends in school. Ahhh...those were like special days that stood out from the rest. So in a way, I wanted to create such fond memories for Janine to treasure as well.
Reason TWO: With no. 2 on the way, I am not sure if we will have the energy to throw such an elaborate set up for her again next year or for her subsequent birthdays. Of course we will definitely celebrate it with cakes and parties, but maybe not so many like this year. So I guess you can say its like one last MAJOR fling, going all out to indulge her in a celebration befitting our ONLY child NOW, before the new addition arrives and the dynamics in our little family changes.
Reason THREE: Her birthday falls (and will forever fall) around the Chinese New Year period. This year it falls on the THIRD day of CNY and with all the reunion dinners and CNY parties going around, its hard to pick ONE day to throw ONE party for her. So, while ideally we would like to have organised her party on ONE day, it was just not possible this year :P
So there! Justifications to the madness? Haha! Seriously, all that matters is that my little princess had a great time on ALL four days. And that she will know that as much as those days are special "just for you" days, more importantly, there are people in her life that love her and treasure her as much as we do. ^^
We love you, Janine!
No comments:
Post a Comment