Something to blog about

Just some of the stuff we accumulated over the Christmas and birthday period. Thanks to those who gave them.

Got some book vouchers from Aunt & Uncle for Christmas and came across this book. Decided to get it for myself because of all the interesting cupcakes inside. Hope to try out some recipes soon.

The party - part deux

We had the second party last evening at Safra Toa Payoh. Princess was really excited about it. All her classmates were invited. Some kids had to cancel last minute as they had fallen ill. It IS flu season and the latest bug is one which attacks the throat, and that is what princess succumbed to last week. Apparently now, me and hubby are both coming down with it. I'm glad party season is over, well, at least on my part. Hehe. And after this year, I am not going to do anymore large scale ones. It's too tiring. A sign of aging? I shudder at the thought. People who know me well, know that I love parties, planning them, and having them. There are simply not enough occasions to have them and maybe it's because I am unwell but I really can't imagine planning another party. Haha.

It was with regret that I had to pick a Friday evening to have the party but it so happened that it was the actual day yesterday. The traffic jams along the PIE, and rain made it worse. And being a Friday, people were rushing out of the office or heading into town to shop, party, etc. I had initially planned on a weekend party but I missed the booking by mere minutes. I was calling the wrong number till someone eventually answered the phone and some parent who called before me got the Saturday slot. Shucks! I'd like to thank K for getting me the booking using his membership. Thanks much.

There were 3 caterers to choose from and we went with Kate's Catering who had 'party packs' on their menu. I made some pasta for the kids, fried broccoli & corn, some fishballs courtesy of Aunt Nana, jelly made by mum. Thank you all.

On the menu, we had -

1. Traditional Fried Rice with Crab Bits
2. Fried Bee Hoon garnished with Lettuce
3. Fish Fillet in Sweet and Sour Sauce
4. Mild Curry Vegetables
5. Japanese Tofu with Vegetables
6. Chicken Satay
7. Macaroni and Cheese
8. Broccoli, Baby Corn and Crabsticks in Oyster Sauce
9. Fried Fishballs
10. Konnyaku Jelly

Baked cuppies in the morning and had P and her boy J over for breakfast so no time or energy to prepare lunch. Cooked some Japanese rice, and put some seasoning in it and put them in mould to shape. So that was princess' lunch.

These are pics of cuppies in case I couldn't get them photographed in the evening. My camera doesn't do well indoors. So I wasn't taking the risk.

Time for cake... thanks Uncle Joe for lighting the candles.

Here's the birthday girl blowing out the candles on her cakes.

Last but not least, thanks to everyone, for making the effort to attend the party. Thanks to P for ferrying the drinks in the boot of her car. ;P and hope all the kids had a great time. I know princess did. Thanks, too, for all the wonderful presents.

For those who had posted comments in the past few days, I'm sorry, I will try to reply soon. And little corner of mine, thanks for the award. Will claim soon. Meanwhile, I need a break to rest a little after all the upheaval of the past two weeks. See you soon.

B****ing!

I started off the day being kind of 'stone'. Went to bed at almost 1am, after ending off a party at 10pm last night, and preparing for it half of yesterday. But had to drag myself out of bed as we had a morning party today starting at 9.30am. It appears I made a very wrong judgement call in going for it. I shouldn't even have bothered. As it is, I was having a headache, and coming down with a sore throat, and possibly flu. Probably caught it from the princess. The experience has spoiled my entire half day, and possibly the rest of it as the scene plays itself over and over in my mind.

I had informed the mother that I was just going to be there for an hour as my girl is having ballet exams and training is very intensive at the present moment till exam day, thus we cannot miss even one lesson. Teacher made it very clear from the start when we signed up for exams. However, princess was ill last Saturday so we had already missed one class. I would have dragged her there if not for the fact that she was totally miserable and not in any state to dance.

So imagine the rude shock I had when I told the mum I was leaving and she turned round and told me 'how can you be so rude?! It's S's last party here and you are leaving for a ballet class? S is missing her ballet class too!'. What the f*** was that all about???!!! I'm sorry about the language here but I am still p**sing mad that someone can be so rude. Did she look in the mirror when she said that? The fact that I even made the effort to go there even for an hour when I could have just told her downright straight that I couldn't make it? I was totally knocked off guard and I could just feel my heart jump out the moment she said that. I had the total shock of my life! The appropriate thing to say would be 'I'm sorry she has to miss the party and maybe we can catch up again or something'. I turned round and said it to her, 'how can you say that? I already told you beforehand that I will be here for a very short time'. When I said that to her, she said, 'oh, I was only joking'. I tell you the way she said it was anything but joking, more an accusation. Moreover, you don't say someone is rude then turn around and say it was a joke! How rude is that?! I mean it's S's birthday so of course if you chose that date, you have to sacrifice her ballet class. And besides, she is not doing exams! I bet you, if it was her daughter doing exams, she wouldn't be saying that! There were also 50kids. Tell me, would you notice one kid gone missing?!

I was so totally upset and met M on the way while I was leaving, and she tried to console me. I had to be very strong to stop the tears from flowing as I kept thinking, my goodness, what are the ballet mums gonna think of me going in there and having red, crying eyes.

I had a similar incident last night when one of princess' classmates came very late, after her extra ballet class, and she didn't have very much time to play. But I didn't accuse them of being rude by coming so late.

I just have to let it all out here because I just can't keep it in me and stew in it. Hopefully by getting it all out, I will somehow be soothed.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 6th birthday to our dear Princess. May she be blessed with a good life, free of worries and be in good health always.

THE party

I can't believe that I am sitting here at 3am and doing a post! Why I am awake at this ungodly hour is because the princess woke at 2plus coughing and I couldn't fall back to sleep after being woken. Thus I am here now. I should be snuggled up in bed recovering from the excitement of the past few days, with the princess falling sick the day before school started, on Thursday, and all the buzz with preparing for her party happening at the same time. It was a test of my endurance to the limit. I've never been so challenged before, taking care of a sick child and surviving on very few hrs of sleep a day, and doing such a huge amount of work at the same time. She seldom falls ill, and hardly this bad. And it had to happen now of all times. Since Friday, she was waking up in the early hours of the morning - 3am, 5am, and then on Saturday night, after baking the entire day, I was all ready to rest early so I'd be up bright and early, and all rested for Sunday's madness, but no, our friend had other ideas. She was coughing continuously we all couldn't even go to sleep till after 12am! And considering I had to wake at 6am to prepare the food, I was in bits! I just have to thank the good Lord that I was in good health and able to accomplish loads.

I am never EVER going to have a noontime party again! It's crazy! I just have to say I'm VERY relieved it's all over. But then again, I have told her that this is the last big party we are having. She has agreed to it. From next year, we will only have a few very close friends, and I do mean it. I know of poor G who said that, when her girl turned 6, but still has no choice but to have big parties. Haha. Speaking of which, I'm sorry G and her family were not able to make it due to family commitments.

Preparations started earlier in the week when I made the pasta sauce to freeze, then baking of cuppies on Saturday all day. And finally on Sunday morning - baked chicken wings, prepared sushi rice and ingredients, iced cuppies, rolled sushis, etc.

I almost abandoned the sushi last minute as I was very rushed for time. However, I'm glad I persevered and was rewarded. My shifu, Minako, says I did well, that they were nice and round, and not like mountains this time! Hurray! That's what stress produces? Haha. Perfect round sushi! Yay!

Photos didn't turn out too well. Most were blur. Sad, as I used 'auto' on the camera. I usually do 'manual'. I mean how bad can 'auto' turn out? Beats me!

On the menu we had sushi, pasta in bolognaise sauce, chicken hotdog, some little salad, baked chicken wings, which were prepared by moi. Then I ordered fried beehoon from the market stall downstairs my place; curry chicken from a hawker stall in Suntec; canape and chocolate coated strawberries courtesy of princess' godpa from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf; pizza from Canadian 2 for 1; some fruits. Am glad all the pizza were gone, and pasta too which had half a pot of sauce remainder. I panicked and quick thinking me got godpa to check if he could help get some from the outlet. Thank goodness he managed to get us more pasta. I can't thank him enough. And also the lovely coffee which was a hit.

The curry chicken was loved and devoured by all. Lovely with the beehoon or the crusty baguette.

Time for cake. I would like to thank Cranberry for showing in her blog the icing printouts and eagle-eyed me for spying them. I was actually looking a few months back on the internet for these, and Cranberry directed me to her friend Zu who printed them. Thanks to both you ladies, and it was a real pleasure to meet Zu who so kindly met me closer to my home during her lunch hour. Thanks very much.

The icing I did didn't turn out too well as I was truly pressed for time. I whipped it too stiff so it was a little tough to pipe them out, but still managed in the end. No time for perfection. Looking at Cranberry's really put me to shame. Such perfect stars.

It was a craft party, namely t-shirt printing. I don't have photos to show as I was too dazed to even take photos of the kids at work. At that point, I was just working on autopilot. Friends who spoke to me during the party, I'm sorry but at times, nothing was going through my brains.

I had wanted to do cupcake decorating with the kids but no time to even prepare the icing so that activity was abandoned. And besides, quite a number of them had to leave by 2pm, so there wasn't really much we could do.

The other activity was nail art done by princess' friend's mum, Daph. She was all prepared, with a portable fan to dry the nails, and one mum guest even asked if she was a professional. Hahaha. The birthday girl gets special stickers on her nails - her favourite butterflies.

I was, however, disappointed with the tattoo artist. I had booked her for 1pm, partly my fault, as I thought it'd be nice if she came after they had all eaten. But when I heard that some kids were leaving early, I messaged her to come at 12plus. Unfortunately, she came too late, at almost 1.30pm. I feel really apologetic that some kids didn't have a chance to have paintings done on them.

However, this artist is really talented. I mean I have seen my fair share of people doing body art, but not this kind of standard. While speaking to the artist's mum, I found out that she was the one at the recent EA Christmas party we attended just last month. No wonder, when I saw the girls at the party with tattoos, I said it to G that hey, that looks like the work of the artist I hired. These are her signature works.

She did a Rosella. For those who are not familiar with Rosella, she is Barbie as the Island Princess, in the latest Barbie movie. Rosella was a favourite pick among the girls.

Ariel was the second favourite choice.

She also does beautiful fairies.

In ending, I would like to thank so many people. This would not have been possible at all without my group of trustworthy friends and cousin who constantly help me out each time. For putting up with all my nonsense, very high standards, and all the last minute things I throw out at you. For the message that came through last night, saying, 'do you need me to come in early to help you set up?'. That really warmed my heart. I wasn't expecting that as she has a new baby to care for. Thanks a bunch, Daph. Your little prince is very handsome. And even hubby thinks he looks ang moh. I don't know how you gonna convince others that Chak is the daddy! Hahaha. I think it's because he is too fair for a pure Chinese and also the light brown hair. Hey, you think that got to do with you always colouring your hair? Hahaha. Also, thank you for the echinacea you brought for little princess. That was really thoughtful of you. And thanks, Chak, for so kindly preparing them into syringes all ready for consumption.

To the godparents, I can't say thank you enough. For everything. I'm sorry I had to dump all the dirty work on you, K, and thank you for being one of my great friends.

To Jill & Sam, thank you too, for always picking up the pieces along the way. Sis and Lyn for tidying up after, carrying all the stuff back to the house, and Lyn for playing with princess after she woke.

You guys are my rock. :)

Also not forgetting the people I neglected as I was too busy or tired. Thanks for your understanding.

Ok, ok enough already with the Oscar speech. It is time to go back to bed. Hope I can sleep now.

That should satisfy some for my week of missing posts? ;)

Happy New Year

Wishing one and all a very Happy New Year. May the new year bring lots of lovely surprises, and see many goals being achieved. As for me, I just wish for a peaceful year filled with more ups than downs. And also for better health.

What are your wishes for 2008?

By the way, little corner of mine, I stole the above graphic from you in fb. Hehe.

I start off the new year with lots of things to plan for - 2 parties, bakes for CNY and I believe, I'll only settle down after CNY. So hope I still get to blog often. We'll see how it goes. :)

Last post... I promise

We signed up for inline skating classes for princess. It's a 1 to 1 lesson and the instructor was very good - patient and nice. We were advised that the pair of skates which we purchased earlier were no good at all. There were no ball bearings in them thus she wasn't able to glide. It was a problem I noticed the past few times she tried to skate, and I thought the problem was her, but apparently it wasn't her fault. So we had to get new proper skates for her. It was a little tricky at the start as the wheels were very much smoother than the other pair. But she managed to get used to them pretty quickly. And the other instructor was impressed that she could move around quite well learning on her own in the past few days. According to him, most first-timers can't even stand up.

After a gruelling workout, it was time for a hearty lunch. We visited Westlake and were not disappointed as everything that we ordered turned out great. We had xiao bai chye (my favourite veg), sweet and sour pork, yang chow fried rice, and a cream corn and chicken soup. All 'ang moh' food. Haha. Everything was done to perfection, and I loved that the pork was crunchy and not too meaty.