Early Mid-Autumn Celebration-Sept 27

It's all from a sudden thought of lantern fun for the kids...that a mid-autumn celebration came about. Topics over the lunch has been what food items to bring, where, when. Eventually we settled on Sept 27-Sunday and involving 5 families. Well, suppose to include Ms Joan Tan who decides to abandon us and choose to spent time with her mother. She scores a point again being anti-social. Haha! Anyway, our menu looks tempting and interesting. Val decides she will bring her home-cooked curry chicken and soy bean curd. As for me, I will prepare fried beehoon, hotdog, quail eggs, fishball & cuttlefish balls and chicken bites, the non spice items so that children can eat. Geneve had been given the task to get satays while Joanne has been thinking and thinking what she will brings... and eventually she brought something that most children enjoys-Bubbles! The group arrives almost the same time-6.30pm, coincidentally! Same comment on Golden, size is big that was not expected. Golden was the usual excited over guests coming. Ashley too.. but unfortunately not so for little Cieran. He has a little shocked to see the group coming into the house and gave me that gesture of 'scared-scared'. Poor little boy, this mummy had been updating Ashley about friends coming, but not to little Cieran. Sorry... mummy will remember to pre-am you next time. :-p After 'loading' the food on the table, all of us went for a short tour of the house before we attack the food. It was a busy time where mummies and daddies have to take feed their children, eat while keeping an eye on the little ones...etc. But I suppose all of us are having fun despite all has been busy at 'own itinerary'. Geneve was the 'official photographer' for this gathering by default with her professional camera. Haha! I am sure she has lots of fun with her new gadget. Next, we proceed with our lantern walk. Little ones and adults walk slowly to the playground across the road. It was not surprising that the children eventually divert to playground play, and bubbles instead of lanterns. Val bought sparkles for the children as well, and Ashley had the most fun from it-I believed! Little Cieran was busy 'chasing' after his sister, wanting very much to hand over her lantern to her (lantern was being left aside for bubbles and sparkles play). It seems like Janelle and Ashley are good friends now. Where's Phyllis?? hahaha... she has been busy chasing after her Kai Teng! Kai Teng was trilled over the slides, maze...etc and was real busy exploring this new fun place. Phyllis indeed has lots of exercises at the playground till she has to raise white flag and headed back home. Little Matthias was having fun too... watching the bubbles in the air. Baby Joshua was very happy too. He was easily amused by almost anything. Real cute! Ashton was having fun at bubbles and sparkles as well. He chose a blue bottled on his own, bet that's his favourite colour! Slowly the group gets smaller at the playground and more headed back to the house. Well, little babies need feeding and gets tired... but the older children, such as Ashley was reluctant to go back. Haha! She and Janelle decides to continue their bubbles play at the car pouch area after deserts. The night ends with food, fun and... little accidents. Ashton was scald on the finger by sparkles, Cieran was scald on the feet by sparkles (I only realised when I shower him coz he didn't cry), and Geneve's husband-Alex got his slippers dripped with bubbles soup. Hahaha! But it ended well.

Happy Mid-Autumn to Everyone!

Mum's Birthday at Park Palace

Another year passed, it's mum's birthday again! Last year, we throw a birthday surprise for her on National Day as it was her 'Da Shou'. This year, we had to celebrate her birthday on weekday instead of a weekends. Know why? Well.... coz mum had planned her day with lots of programs. Her own celebration starts on Fri on a weekend cruise, followed by Monday evening a opera show. Monday was her actual birthday. Since she already has program in evening, we had to arrange a lunch instead with only 2 youngest grandchildren celebrating with her. Lunch was arranged at Grand Palace restaurant at Grand Park Cityhall Hotel. I remembered the kung-fu soup served in teapot which I believed mum & dad will like, thus recommend this restaurant for lunch. I called Rachel to reserve a private room and pre- order the soup. How can a birthday without a cake? I went on to check what cake best suits mum and Phyllis suggested me to try Glace cake made by Japanese Chef. Japanese cakes tends to have a lighter sponge of which elderly would prefer. I went in the website to have a look. Hard to make a decision... In the end, I decided to select different slices of cakes instead of a whole cake so that we can them all with almost the same price. :-) The food is yummy at Grand Palace. We ordered few dim sum, a vegetable dish, a mixed roast item, a fish and a noodle dish...and of course, the kung-fu soup served in teapot. I am glad that they all like the soup I recommend, especially little Cieran! He kept asking for more 'tang'! :-) All of us have a sumptuous meal. Glace cake was the desert serving as last dish. Joanne commented that it was kinda special to have cake slices instead of whole cake. Refreshing idea! kekeke.... Happy that they love the cakes as well. Mum who doesn't like heavy cakes with buttery was also praising that the strawberry shortcake was light and nice. All of us get to choose a slice of our liking. We all like our choice except for Eric. he had chosen a green tea cake and he doesn't like the cake texture. 3 slices were left behind, of which we kept 1 for Vernon and Ashley each. Another slice I was initially intend to keep for Jeremy, but mum had packed it for Joanne instead. Never mind lah... just don't mention about cakes to him...haha!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!