Jazreel Turns ONE

Venue ... FIDGETS
Date ... 25 October 2009 Sunday
Time ... 10am - 12noon
Party Theme ...Princess & Unicorns
Pre-party works in progress...

I know i know...I previously promised myself no more elaborate gender/age/liking specific goody bags. But being me, I can't resist! Esp when I see ....these!!! Fairytale Unicorns (how mythical sounding is that???) bubble necklace (how fun and pretty at the same time!)

Too  bad the Fairy tale unicorn goody boxes went OOS then discontinued whilst in the midst of deciding my orders. So in the end had to order the other unicorn boxes. With of course, my usual organic goodies..... :)

Sticky name labels :P as a gift and I also use one each to label the goody boxes.

Invites, my labour of love.

The scrapbook layouts I did for the guests to put polaroids of them taken that day.

Party Day - The mad rush pre-guests arrival. Hubby, under my directives, rushed around fetching stuff and putting up the posters. Dear Grace came early to help out with little Clarence, thanks dear! The FIDGETS staff were great, kudos to them for going along with my wierd requests like replacing all their offered IKEA plates and cutleries with my own unicorn theme ones. Even the napkins are replaced. I also asked them for only pink and purple and white balloons, but end up not using them coz I have my own.

Tables all set...and I forgot about the 1st birthday princess dessert plates in the end!

Posters Up!

Close up of 1st Birthday Milestones Poster, another labour of love.

I love this pic of my princess "ascending" her throne with this haughty look on her face. :P Ma ma helped me feed her the porridge I cooked that day to feed the toddler guests. It was sakura chicken broth porridge with organic pumpkin, minced pork and garden peas.

Goody bags. Hubby, right after teasing me for being so fussy about the party, proceeded to line up the bags in alphabetical order. Talk about fussiness! But must thank him in the end for it did speed up the handing out process somewhat. :P

I love this cake. I bought the figurine of Princess Belle celebrating her birthday, gave some instructions to the baker, and also requested that she make a unicorn figurine. She was fantastic....her unicorn even has lovely eyelashes (click on pic to see blown up)!!! She also added a pumpkin carriage for me, and i love the sweet flowers lining the stoned pathway up to the castle door....a castle out of a fairytale. I wanna stay! I also love the details she put on the castle turrets. But best of all, whew, the guests like the taste of the cake too!

Her Friends....

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Thank you all for your treasured presence and lovely presents!

Actual day, took leave and brought her to Peekaboo. It's really fun going out alone with her, spending two-on-one time. She loves the balls in the ball pit and scattered around the playground, always striving to have one in each hand at any one time. And she will make sure that they are the same colour too.

Daddy hiding under the balls playing hide and seek with her.

We had lunch at AkaShabu, and Jaz entertained herself as usual with the cutleries and plastic bowl.

I brought out baby jar food for her, but she didn't seem to like this flavour. We ended up giving her some of our food, and so she had grilled fish and rice for the first time. AND chewed ") *beaming*

Jazreel's 1st lesson at Aquaducks

4 October 09
Was really pleased to get a back to back time slot with gorgor, but as was helping some mommies arrange Aquaducks trial, I didn't start Jazreel yet but just brought her for her trial. She enjoyed it very very much and took to the water like a happy duckling.

Picnic and Lantern Festival

Some outings in Sept and Oct with friends. (Belated Posting)

Jacob Ballas Picnic
A hot sunny day in Sept, arranged a picnic at Jacob Ballas Childrens Garden with some friends. These mommies have babies all born between Aug-Nov08, and some also have another bigger child like us. We potlucked, and met at the sheltered area next to the sand pit.

HOT! Though sheltered, the weather was so hot hehehee. Jovann and the big kids had fun in the sand pit. We were baking not 1 hour after starting, but it was still fun, the bigger kids enjoyed loads running around kicking ball (we brought one), or basically just making noise. :)

My contribution - The organic snacks.

The overall feast.

The small cool ones...

The big red and sweaty ones.

Lantern Date #1
Met up with Auntie Jamie and Auntie Hsin Dee with their 3 kids at Botanic Gardens one cool evening in Sept, for the kids to play lanterns. I must say I enjoyed this, it sure was wacky carrying lanterns through the quiet and tranquil Botanic Gardens, playing bubbles on the huge grass patch near the Symphony Stage, strolling round the pond which in the day was filled with ducks, swans and tortoises, chuckling at Malcolm and Jovann's shouted conversations during the stroll, and our very very frequent stops to light a candle that went out. Very unusual and fun hehee. Many a times we laughed guiltily at the thought of the despairing looks many a dating couple must be throwing our noisy kids.

At one point of time, Jovann and Malcolm kept up a shouting commentary in chinese whether or not there was fish in the pond. And their lanterns kept going out, as that day all of us are using candle lanterns besides Eunice and Jazreel. Poor Uncle Peter was repeatedly lighting and relighting them hahaha.

Lantern Date #2.
My experience with the candle lanterns previously prompted me to get these great find - individual battery operated dome lights that could be attached to ANY candle lantern. COOL! I put this in Jovann's Thomas and Friends lantern (which I realised later that I was lucky to get, as Thomas lanterns seemed to be sold out everywhere, thumbs up for early shopping!) and Jazreel's Chang Er lantern. :) Problem solved! Very pleased!

We had dinner with Reubern and Rochelle at West Coast Plaza. At this dinner, Jazreel helped gorgor wiped his mouth for the very first time. :P

Made a quick trip to NTUC to buy some neccessities, and discovered this kinda sausages targetted at kids, containing interesting mix of fruits or vege. Cool!

Then the kids had a ride on the animal rides, before we proceeded to West Coast Park this time.

There was a happening carnival going on, but hubby didn't wanna go near there, so we took a slow stroll in the park, before retiring to Macdonalds for drinks.

Jovann accidentally spoiled Reubern's lantern (so sorry Reubern :( ) and Reubern wanted to trick Jovann into eating chilli as revenge. hehehehehe super cute.

The Busy Bee Store

Cute isn't it? Brings up an image of a cute, hardworking little bee buzzing around getting busy and doing nice things. I love that name. Its an online store of a friend, and I just love browsing her Stephen Joseph products just for fun. Actually have been eyeing her stuff since early this year, and my most yearned for item was her Stephen Joseph Gogo bags. Personalised with the child's name. But as Jovann's old kindy doesn't encourage bringing bags AT ALL, no point I get one for him then. So in July, I only got him a giraffe bottle buddy instead, to hold his own mothercare giraffe bottle! It has his name prettily embroidered on the strap, very nice!

But as of Oct 2009 when he changed to a school where you HAVE to bring your own school bag, can you imagine how excited I was????? So, I got him THIS! Has his name on it of course. :)

How cute is that?? I made my order to BusyBee before realising I should have let Jovann choose his first real school bag himself. So I showed him the 20over choices the next day and let him choose, and the first design he pointed to was the DINO one! Whew. I waited in eager anticipation for this and for busybee to send it in for personalisation, and on the day I presented the bag to Jovann after school, his eyes lighted up! the next morning, he ran like the wind to his teacher and said "Ms Diana! Ms DIANA! Look? My NEW dinosaur bag!".

Was contemplating whether to get for Jazreel too. Must be fair right? But at that time, none of the designs really caught my eye yet. Until in October a new ladybug design came out in pink (prefer this much more than the old orange one). So now Jaz has a bag too!!! This new design is so so sweet. Oh yah, btw, I also got her the matching lunch box to store her snacks, raisins etc heee.

Then for Christmas, I ordered quite a few personalised books for the 2 of them, plus some friends and cousins. Had a great time choosing the titles. Jovann and Jazreel now has Dinosaur Land (what else???), Mother Goose, When I Grow Up, Bye Bye Diapers (Elmo). The dino book features a boy called Jovann who rescued the endangered dinosaurs from an erupting volcano, and When I Grow Up is about a little girl (I got one for each of them) Jazreel who started thinking about what she wants to be when she grows up, and in the end realised that whats most important is not what job she holds, but that she has put in her best in everything she does.

Our friend Auntie June is running (or has it ended??) a raffle on her blog, where you could stand a chance to win a Santa Book if you follow her raffle instructions. I think I missed it as I didn't have time to blog that week.

Jovann's 3rd Birthday - Sentosa Resort & Spa

Sept 2009 (This post is belated)

This year we decided to do it differently. Booked a family suite at The Sentosa, and checked in the whole family including Ah Gong and Ah Ma and maid. Ah Gong didn't stay though coz next day he has to work.

It was exciting checking into the suite! We were all very pleased with the size and comfort. So fun!

Master bed, with a cot for Jazreel.

Living area with comfy sofa. Jovann just opened a birthday present, one we let him chose from his pile at home. This one is from Auntie Alicia.

His Dino bag!

The 2 good sized double beds next to the living area heeee...

Cute little pair of room slippers for the little ones

After checking in, we set off to have lunch at Imbiah Lookout.

My plans was to watch the Extreme Log Ride (3D) with Jovann and Ah Gong and Daddy, then go for the Luge & Sky Ride. But after lunch, we decided to send the maid, Jaz and my mom back to the resort, after which it started raining! I kicked myself for the delay, was very dissappointed. Jovann was looking forward to "sitting the black car" which he glimpsed earlier. Well, hope tomorrow can do it!

Ah Gong at Underwater World with Jovann.

We had a rocking good time in the log ride hehehe! Jovann was braver than I thought! the only time he was scared was when the "crocodiles" appeared next to our raft hehehe!

After that, back to the resort for a lazy afternoon siesta at the Pavilion with Ah Gong. We had tapas, and Jovann had his pasta noodles soup. :) He had a good appetite that afternoon! It was idyllic sitting beside the tranquil lilly pond, sipping tea and juice, and observing monkeys on the distant roofs.

Had a swim in the pool. Silly me thought I packed Jazreel's swimsuit but I didn't! Brought her in with her rompers anyway hehee. What a splash, she really enjoyed herself swimming with gorgor.

My plan was to treat Jovann to a nap-less afternoon. Hahahaa....he loves it but was very very hyper and naughty towards evening time. Especially during cake cutting!

He knocked out before dinner. Just closed his eyes and slept on the couch throughout dinner. Poor thing. Jazreel took up the responsibility of entertaining the waitresses. She made a lot of noise, but was happy with her crackers and teething biscuit.

Back in resort, wearing superman PJs for the first time. Check out the red "underwear"!

Next Morning!

Rise and Shine. A fun bath for the 2 of them!

Breakfast in suite.

Yeah! did the luge ride that morning! Very very fun, Jovann enjoyed himself so much. I was the one slightly apprehensive due to the wet floor but by the time it ended I felt it wasn't enough.

Dolphin Lagoon. Took a bus and reached there just in time for the show. Jovann enjoyed the bus ride and the show itself very much, he was glued to the show, and wanted to pet the dolphins after that so we bought the tickets for photo taking. :) I felt the dolphin carers are very responsible young people. They know that it may be risky for the dolphin if Jovann (in my arms) suddenly kicked out and hit the dolphin with his legs, so they asked us to take turns patting her. Me first, then Jovann, so that I can control Jovann from sudden movements and also to make it a calmer experience for the dolphin.

Sigh...time to check out.