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Celebrations

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Ethan’s Birthday – School Celebration

February 3, 2010 in Celebrations, Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones | 3 comments

A few months before his birthday, I had already discussed with Ethan that he was gonna have a small celebration in school with his friends and another one at home.  And when asked what birthday cake he would like for his birthday celebration in school, he had replied that he wanted a Thomas the Train birthday cake.  And because his favorite number is 2, he also wanted the train with the number 2 to be on the cake, i.e. Rheneas.

I could not find a picture of Thomas with Rheneas, so I managed to coax him into agreeing to have a cake with Thomas, James and Percy on it.  And that’s how I ended up ordering this cake:

 

I thought the bakery did a great job and the cake looked fantastic…well, as long as Ethan likes it 🙂

The celebration in school began around 10:10a.m. (because I was a little bit late arriving with the cake), and Ethan was given the honor of placing the FOUR birthday candles on his cake.

Then we all sang the birthday song, in English and Mandarin, and Ethan promptly did a great job in blowing out all the four candles.

He also cut the cake three times! LOL

I had also prepared party packs for Ethan to give out to his friends.  In line with the Thomas and Friends theme, I had wanted to get Thomas party bags, but alas, I had been unsuccessful.  I also enlisted the help of friends and relatives (you know who you are, thank you very much!) to help me look for them in KL and Ipoh, but they were all sold out.

In the end, I decided to make simple party packs myself in the form of Thomas paper bags.

In addition to being in *theme* with the event, paper bags were also environmentally friendly as opposed to plastic. 🙂

I also *converted* some Winnie the Pooh yoyos into Thomas yoyos, as one of the party favors.

It caused me several late nights, but it was well worth it.  Ethan had fun and so did I! 🙂

Sporting the Skirtie

January 15, 2010 in Celebrations, Growing Up, Hannah | 4 comments

 

I stumbled upon this custom-made fleece skirtie which I had gotten for Hannah when we were in the States.  It was too big for her then, but look at her now!

Good thing I still managed to squeeze her into it…she’ll outgrow it soon, I’m sure!

She looks like a little lady in it, doesn’t she?

Oh, by the way, Hannah has been shortlisted as one of the finalists for the Cutest Baby of the Planet 2009 contest!  More details to follow next week as I find out what we need to do. 🙂

Guess who’s on TV?

January 9, 2010 in Celebrations, Entertainment, Ethan | 2 comments

Ethan received a huge letter from Playhouse Disney last Monday, and this is the note that was included inside the letter:

 

Playhouse Disney also included some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and My Friends Tigger & Pooh stickers for Ethan as a little gift.  And our little boy immediately wanted to stick them all over his books.

In less than 5 minutes, he was already complaining, “It’s not enough Mommy!  10 stickers are not enough!”

Well actually, last weekend Pete had already seen Ethan’s face appear on the Playhouse Disney Birthday Book for the month of January.  It caught him by surprise, because I had told him Ethan’s photo was not selected due to the fact that PHDC did not inform me (they said they would if the photo is selected).  So anyway, Pete was the only one who saw Ethan’s face, and since that day, I had been waiting to capture the clip on video.

And finally…..I did!   It’s very poor quality because of the lines caused by the refresh rate of the TV, but we can definitely clearly see it’s Ethan!

 

Ethan has been *hinting* that he wants to be on the PHDC Birthday Book ever since we returned from the States.  He loves singing the Birthday Book song and naming all the names of the kids in it.  I am so glad that I made his dream a reality 🙂

Our Christmas this year…

December 31, 2009 in Celebrations, Ethan, Hannah | 3 comments

…was definitely a joyous occasion.

Coupled with the fact that we were away from Malaysia last Christmas and now that Ethan can talk a million words a minute, this was definitely a Christmas that did not contain a dull moment.

This year, Ethan (especially) has been looking forward to Christmas, counting down the days every day since the 20th.  He would ask us how many more days to Christmas, and we’d tell him 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1.  And in the days leading up to Christmas, he was my little helper, helping me hold the tape while I wrapped the presents, and also bringing the presents to arrange them under our Christmas tree.

And on Christmas morning, he woke up cheerfully and greeted everyone, “Merry Christmas everyone!”

We knew then that he was ready for his presents.

 

…and MORE presents!

Some “sharing” of Christmas presents amongst cousins was also apparent, especially the colorful toys.

Little Hannah, who was celebrating Christmas for the first time, decided to have a little beauty sleep of her own, and only awoke past 10a.m. (which is why she is still in her jammies).  Here she is *showing off* her blouse and jeans Ethan *got* for her.

And then much later, after she washed up and got dressed, here’s my little princess, sitting pretty on her *throne*.

On Boxing Day, we celebrated baby Caitlynn’s full moon.

I think Ethan was the one who enjoyed the cupcakes the most.

…at least I *thought* he looked like he was enjoying it the most! 🙂

And then when we got back to Penang, there were more presents to be opened!  Yup, we kept some at home because we knew Ethan would love opening presents everywhere!  In fact, he would readily offer his gift-unwrapping services too!

…and another one…

Just makes our day to hear him say, “Wow!!  Thanks Daddy and Mommy! I LOVE it!”

Here’s the look of JOY on his face when he opened one of his presents: A Mickey Mouse KITE.

Ain’t that precious?

And after that he said, “I want MORE presents, Mommy!”

Weddings and Bravery

December 24, 2009 in Celebrations, Ethan, Hannah, Parenting | 5 comments

We received several wedding invites in the recent weeks, some of which Pete decided to go it alone, simply because it would be too tiring for the kids to attend.  However, we did bring the kids to a couple of wedding receptions (brave as we are!); one was a dinner reception of Pete’s nephew, and the other was a buffet luncheon.

Took the opportunity to take a family photo with the view of the sea before the dinner reception started.

 

Hannah was VERY interested with the candy cane wedding favors we received…

Never mind that I had to pick it up over and over again each time she *dropped* it…as long as she’s happy, yes?

Of course, it certainly helped that we had very *willing* baby sitters at the wedding too…here’s a precious shot of Hannah with Kor Kor (her godma too!) 🙂

And crystal wall hangings are ALWAYS a very good distraction, provided parental supervision is present.

And what about our little energizer bunny, Ethan?  He was busy running around with cousin Jonathan; in and out the banquet hall they went, chasing after each other, hopping here and there.

No wonder he was the first one to knock out…

Not long after, Hannah followed suit…

Oh, and what about the buffet luncheon?  No pictures from that one, cuz both kids were at their most active levels and I had no time to whip out the camera, and before we could even say “Yum Seng”, it was time to go home! LOL

The Finishing Touch

December 13, 2009 in Celebrations, Ethan | No comments

We put up our Christmas tree last week.  And guess who had the honor of putting the Christmas star at the tree top?

 

Easy does it….easy easy….slowly, THERE!

Sending love and doing it his way

November 7, 2009 in Celebrations, Ethan | No comments

A couple of days before Ipoh Ah Kong’s birthday, I took Ethan card-hunting.  We were looking for a birthday card for his granddad, but I had no idea it was so difficult to find one specifically for granddads.  We saw loads for Moms, Dads, Grandmas, Brothers, Sisters, even Aunts and Uncles.

Anyway, we found one just in the nick of time.  Ethan chose the card, and I helped him prepare the card to be sent. 

 

Ethan wanted to sign his own name on the card, and I gave him the pen to do it.  That was when I discovered my little boy could write E, T and H all on his own!  I guided him to write A and N, and then we sealed the envelope, he helped me glue the stamps on it, and happily put it in the post box.

Ah Kong was very pleasantly surprised to receive the birthday card, and Ethan was just as happy!  What an awesome way to send love! 🙂

It was Mommy’s birthday!

October 27, 2009 in Celebrations, Ethan, Hannah | 6 comments

…and no prizes for guessing who had the most fun! 🙂

I had an enjoyable little birthday lunch treat at McDonald’s with Ethan:

 

Then in the afternoon, I took Ethan to the playground for a few minutes:

 

 

We had dinner at home.  I cooked a simple dinner of conchiglie (Ethan calls it “shell pasta”) with pasta sauce and steamed sausages:

 

And Pete surprised me with a birthday cake, much to Ethan’s joy, of course!

It was a carrot, walnut and raisin brownie-like cake topped with cream cheese frosting.  A healthier option to the regular birthday cake, and it was also an ingenious idea to get some carrot into Ethan 🙂

Ethan told me specifically “I don’t want the raisins Mommy.  YOU eat the raisins!” (but he ate the walnut and carrot willingly!)

Hannah’s Baptism

October 23, 2009 in Celebrations, Ethan, Hannah, Milestones | 3 comments

Last Saturday, October 17 2009, little Hannah was baptized in church, in a simple meaningful ceremony.  She didn’t really put up a fuss at all, although at times it was hard to keep her hands away from everything; from grabbing the book, from grabbing my hair, my pendant, and from being ever-so-wriggly!

In fact, she was so active that I could not position her properly for the holy water to be poured over her head.  This here is my attempt…

 

Hannah was curious to see what was going on…

I had to pass her to Daddy, the expert…and that also, some of the water entered her eyes! 

Of course, there was the compulsory family photo after the end of the ceremony,…errr… positions all a bit out, but everyone was there nevertheless. (baby in front is NOT Hannah…that’s Phoebe, her cousin. LOL… Hannah too busy with *other* things at the back)

I also wanted a family photo of just the 4 of us.  We didn’t have many of those, but I discovered that it was becoming increasingly difficult to get a proper shot.

Hannah’s baptism of course calls for a reason to fill our tummies…and fill them we did, at Mama’s… No photos of the food, sorry! 😛

With 2 kids to attend to, it’s rather impossible to whip out the camera, set the macro and focus…but trust me when I say the food was definitely scrumptious!  To quote Ethan, “Smells…..LEEECious!!!!” 🙂

A Handy Happy Birthday to Daddy!

October 13, 2009 in Celebrations, Ethan, Hannah | 2 comments

We had a very simple at-home celebration for Daddy’s birthday recently.  I had asked Ethan what cake he wanted to get Daddy, and he had consistently replied, “Handy Manny cake!”  Maybe he sees Daddy as being very handy in the house 😛

Anyway, much as I wanted to bake the cake myself, there was no way I could have done it as nicely as this ordered one:

 

Maybe someday when my kids are able to help me in the kitchen, I’ll be able to bake something nice like that… hehehe…

Anyway, Ethan surprised Daddy with a “Tadaaaaaa!!!!”  We sang the birthday song, blew out the candles and cut the cake.

And the person who enjoyed eating the cake the most?  The little boy in green in the photos above!  He donned a green shirt, just like Handy Manny did on the cake 🙂

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