I love how birthdays fall on the weekend. For Amanda, its falls on Sunday, this year.
Its was a whole weekend of fun and activities.
Seeing how everyone enjoyed Amanda’s One-year-old party…
I was encouraged to throw another party this year, an occasion to gather the friends and kids and to have fun!
This year, Amanda chose the Hello Kitty theme, its pink enough, and I am reserving other characters, Dora or Minnie, or Barney, for her future birthdays.
Even with the help of the event planner, who did the setup, I was also feeling stressed about the shopping of party favors and games for the kids.
The day before, Amanda was really excited about the much bigger version of herself.
The very cooperative Amanda posed for me in front of the massive poster.
We were out Saturday morning, for some final shopping for the party.
We had her favorite fries, fried chicken and chocolate sundae for lunch.
Amanda sits very still in her chair and finishes her wings / drumsticks, every time.
Yum Yum!
The little girl prefers wearing her hair up in tiny buns these days.
And had these cute little curls, when we undo her little buns for her afternoon nap.
Cute hair. Cute foot.
It was tiring running after and dressing a well-rested toddler.
We almost have to pin her to the wall, just for this shot before getting out.
I’ll Poof! everyone in the room to my P-A-R-T-Y!!!
Running towards the balloons!
Wow!!!
Recognizing the balloons she saw earlier in the day.
Indoor.
Outdoor.
Our Lil’ judebabe is TWO.
She is very sociable and is comfortable around people. And very quickly, with strangers.
Play her favorite track and she will dance for everyone in room.
Put her in a dress, and she will dance and twirl around the room in it.
Put her in the playground, she climbs up in agile movements, and goes down the slide on her belly.
She would be playing with her dolls and kitchen sets this minute but gets on her tricycle or scoots around the house on her scooter next.
She is well-liked, and readily greets Daddy’s n Mummy’s friends and everyone in our estate.
She sometimes surprises people and me, because she greets them loudly and even before I had the chance to ask her too.
And her “Byes Byes”…, well, she won’t stop till you acknowledged her.
I guess I started early, even when she was a young baby, I would carry her around the room, greeting people.
And say our Byes, when we leave.
I know it’s too early to tell, and kids become shy when they grow older, but at two years old, I am glad that she is close to what i hoped for her to be.
Girlie…
And finally… figured how the pedaling works…
In her red ‘convertible’
Time for Birthday Cake!
Amanda could sing the Birthday Song in both English and Mandarin, and knew it was her birthday, but she didn’t sing or clapped along, like I expected her to.
She must have been overwhelmed with the number of people at her party, with about 60 in the room, and with the rest waiting outside for the BBQ dinner to officially start.
In total, we had more than 120 guests.
Things then start going out of control, a 3 year old blew out the candles on the cake (the only thing I was upset about), I expected the cake to come with a cake knife, but it didn’t and the “Hello Kitty” on the cake turned out distorted, and also it started to rain on and off.
Normally the control-freak-me, would have gotten upset, but the atmosphere was so great, that the party guest didn’t mind moving the tables in and out, and there were enough cakes, sweets, party favors, games, activities for the kids, and the adults loved the food and there were lots of booze for them.
Even though it was supposedly to be a party for family with kids,
But we live in community made up of staff of the company that Amanda’s Grandpa built, Everyone, young and old in our estate came. Even though, we didn’t formally invite some of them…
Which was perfectly fine with us, since the party wasn’t just for Amanda and the kids, we wanted it to be for everyone we know!
And judging from the many empty bottles of Chinese rice wine, I think the long-times comrades of Amanda’s Grandpa, had just as much fun as their grandchildren.
Party Activities…
Bubbles…
Balloons…
At first, the kids didn’t know what to expect but after they heard that there were lollipops, sweets, and small toys in the pinata, the bigger boys (they secretly channeled the power of their favorite heroes) used their might to hit and break the pinata.
Either the quality of the pinata was too good, or it was filled with too much goodies, that made it difficult to break.
With the little damage, we decided to rip open the pinata for the very eager kids.
When the content fell out of the pinata, the frenzy began, kids were screaming and picking up sweets and toys on the floor.
After the pinata frenzy, there were clay dolls for kids to paint and calm down.
Amanda wasn’t interested in the clay dolls, took pictures with some of her party guests –
Selina, the other very popular baby girl of the night.
It would have been a perfect night under the Stars / LEDs…
If it didn’t rain…or if the electric power didn’t go out…
What a party!!!
I think we were pretty lucky that the power went off, at 9 plus, it was time for the kids to return home too!
I was glad that the handy reading lights and other flashing toys came in handy.
When the lights came on, those who stayed, had another round of BBQ food.
I didn’t eat till most of the guest left, I was too busy with the activities and chatting with friends.
We requested the mobile BBQ stall to stay till late… we were lucky that they prepared a lot more than we told them to.
As the turn out was much more than we expected.
That night, we returned home late, and I couldn’t sleep.
My legs were tired. And Amanda was sleeping with the nanny in her room.
It wasn’t till 5a.m., when Amanda woke up wanting to look for us, and it was then, I was only able to sleep with her in our bed.
On Amanda’s birthday, the next day, we had lunch with Family. Amanda’s GrandParents, Grand Uncles and Grand Aunties.
And in the evening, we brought her to the newly-opened indoor playground. With few of her favourite 哥哥s.
With her recent bout of skin infection, I have been hesitant in bringing her to the playground.
I decided it would be a treat for her if I just relax.
She had so much fun that day, that I brought her to the playground again with Helios 哥哥.
The new indoor playground, has a fun slides, sand pitch and a pool for kids to fish.
I pity the poor fishes, who are subjected to the severe mishandling of the kids.
Click here for Amanda’s Birthday weekend album.
I am need to improve in my time organization.
So many things to do, so little time.
*Tsk Tsk*
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Such a nice party!!! I would want to do the same for my kids if I live in a village where everyone knows me or my family (like the village I grew up in Malaysia) :-) Amanda is a very lucky girl.
kam >> I think this ‘village’ is the only good thing here… :) wide, open space and safe environment in our estate to grow and socialize.