Birthday Celebration Part 2

In the morning during breakfast...my baby turns 2! How you have grown, little one!

Ellis' 2nd Birthday Party

With Emily

Cake by Lana, as usual. I grew up eating this and Ellis will too!

Of course, after the cake cutting (& when most guests left) was when the real fun started. I gave up fighting off food stains. After all, the requisite pretty family and cake cutting shots were done.

Of course, no 2 year old party would be complete without a tantrum or two. Here's Ellis' current strategy - throw herself on the floor when made to do anything she doesn't want to do. That would be me grabbing her and trying to wipe off chocolate stains.

She was much more interested in the stairs and elevator located just outside the function room where we held the party than in the party itself. Her routine - climb up the stairs and take the elevator down. She didn't do it in reverse to the chagrin of the adults who had to accompany her on her many trips up and down.

We had a Noah's Ark theme. The party theme and main activity - baking and decorating cookies - was organised by my friend Cindy of myfunbuilders; do check out her site! In all the confusion, I only managed to snap the backdrop at the end of the party. There were also some really cute animal beach balls which I used as decor and gifts - again forgot to snap them in the flurry of activity. (Note to self: Assign a photographer for future parties. If, there are future parties.)

Here's Ellis eating cake (again!) with Shayne. I think she had at least 3 helpings, more likely 4. At that point I was so exhausted I didn't really care anymore. My excuse was: It's her birthday.

And one last shot before we wound up for the day. These are my friends whom I have known like, forever! It's rare to get a group photo nowadays :)

Ellis Makes a Mooncake

Oh yes, she did. School had the kids making snowskin mooncakes on 1st October, Children's Day. Which is one day before they celebrated the Mid Autumn Festival. Ms Lou told me that Ellis enthusiastically rolled the dough with a rolling pin, pummeled and shaped it into...this:

The mooncake was place in front of her purely for phototaking purposes - she kept trying to eat it and I had to pull it away from her mouth while still trying to get a shot of them together. Naturally, she got upset at having her tasty creation repeatedly snatched from her.

And to finish off, here is Ellis going "Cheers!" and clinking her milk mug against the jug.

CNY '09 Trip to KL - Part 2

More photos from the trip...

26.01.09

This girl loves sitting on everything and anything. She particularly loved opening the hotel wardrobe and sitting on the raised bottom - which was the perfect height for her.

Family shot, together with my cousin Thiam Wai (aka the caged animal)

New year garb - not completely new because she'd worn it once before to school. But it's the only cheongsam that she has, so. (Her jumping and running during the 1st day of CNY tore the seams on the side!)

I find this shot really cute because it shows how teeny she is - she's holding up those breakfast order forms that they hang on hotel doors. Something about the length of the cheongsam as well.

And this series wouldn't be complete without the mandatory shoe shot - here she pairs chinois style with Daddy's crocs.

CNY '09 Trip to KL - Part 1

We made our annual CNY trip up to KL, Malaysia to visit my relatives on the 25th of January, the eve of Chinese New Year. My maternal grandma or "Tai-po" (greatgrandma in Cantonese) to Ellis resides there, as do my youngest Uncle, Aunt and some of my closest cousins. This is the 2nd time that Ellis has travelled overseas, the first was last year when she was 3 months old.

Here we are at the airport before our flight. Much as I had lots of barang to carry, I didn't want to drive up. The prospect of having to handle Ellis for a 5 hour car ride was too daunting. I was pleasantly surprised by the facilities at Terminal 2. There was a "Family Room" - a pretty large room with a TV and couch, and changing rooms adjacent to it. Outside there was an indoor playground where I plonked Ellis to kill time while waiting to board.

The plane ride this time round was not as easy as the year before. She didn't like being strapped down and was very cranky as she was sleepy and couldn't settle. Longest 45 minutes ever.

More shots since we were bored while waiting for our room to be cleaned up at the One World Hotel in PJ.

Photo of the Day 23.01.09

The kids were asked to dress up in their CNY finery for school today. I pulled out a gift from my ex-colleague Dora - it's a cheongsam and "fur" trimmed vest set that she bought in China on one of her frequent business trips there. 

I think kiddy brocade cheongsams can be found here, but the vest is pretty unique and the mums and teachers at class were so tickled seeing Ellis in it.  I'll probably put the girl in it again for actual CNY since it went down so well today!

Happy 1st Birthday Ellis!

Ellis Turns ONE!

Her grandparents, Kisu's parents flew in from LA specially for the occasion and we threw her a dduk (Korean rice cake) party, in Korean tradition. We got a professional photographer to come in and there are lots of colourful shots from the food - I'll post those photos once they're ready.

Here we are on birthday morning. It's 8.56am, the exact time she was born. (i.e. the same moment a year ago where I heaved a sigh of relief after 13 hours of labour)



The princess on her birthday in hanbok from grandma (halmoni) and grandpa (harabogi).

Gramma in the background and pre-headgear



In full traditional gear, playing with her gold rings and bracelets





The little pouches the rings and bracelets came in - I thought they were so pretty I had to post them. The characters on them are Fu (prosperity) and Shou (longevity).



To end, a series of photos that had Kisu and I cracking up because of Ellis and her hilarious expressions!







Happy Birthday Ellis! Mummy loves you and is proud of you little one!

Kisu's Birthday

The best picture we got during lunch...waitress took it for us but I guess she wasn't used to our camera...sigh


Back home with the (lana - yum!) cake

e: if i sit here really, really quietly, the big people might let me have some of that later...


daddy says to smile for the camera, but that cake is looking mighty tasty...


oooh...is that buttercream i spy???


chop chop people! enough of this photo business already - let's get me some of that chocolate frosting!