Boulder Badminton Club is 10 yrs old!

When we first moved to Colorado, we didn't have a local place to play badminton. About 8 of us got together and formed Boulder Badminton Club. We went through many venues and finally landed up at City Park Rec Center as our home to Boulder Badminton Club. We went from 8 players to about 40 players per night(on a good night) and even got featured in the newspaper once!!

When we left for the Philippines, Steffen took over the club and grew it even more and everything was super organized.

This week we were proud to celebrate our club's 10 year anniversary. I can't believe that it's lasted this long and we're still there! With Steffen's systematic membership payment plans we were able to throw a rather posh party for about 65 people and even gave out awards and raffles!!

We were very pleased with the turn out of the event and even had some original players showed up and it was good to see old players again! Everybody seemed to have enjoyed the night and left with good spirits!

The party hosts

The crowds listening to Steffen's speech

I got flowers from Steffen!! 

Cutting of the cake

The cake (i didn't make it)

The food(check out the posh chafing trays i borrowed from my friend Diana)

Mingling of the crowd

And of course crafts and tv to entertain the kids in the Kids Corner!

Girls weekend away in Las Vegas

Hish is infamous for doing something different every year for her birthday. So, this year we did a Girls Weekend Away in Las Vegas. I was hoping to convince a few mothers in our group to go as i think it's important for them to get away and do something on their own once in a while. And i'm so lucky Alan believes in this too! hehehe..

So off to Las Vegas we went! It was the first trip we've taken together and we had tons of fun and laughter and got to know more about each other(good and bad) a little better. We also got a great deal and stayed in a very fancy room at Venetian, which was 700 sq foot!

Our trip started with a few hiccups with Spirit Airline which i can safely say is the worst airline in the world. I thought we were never going to get there. But we landed and rushed to our Cirque Du Soleil show - "O". Hish and I enjoyed that show tremendously, while Addy had her fun in the poker room.

Hish and I with our Cirque du Soleil mask

At the entrance of the theater

The good thing about being in a city that never sleeps is that you can eat at 2 am!!

And walk around at 2:30 am!!

The 2nd day we took the day slowly and looked around Las Vegas and went scared ourselves witless on wimpy roller coasters and walked till our feet cried. That night we dressed up and treated Hish to a posh dinner and a night out!

All fresh and ready for the day

Buffet breakfast to last us all day!!! 

Addy and I taking random pictures while waiting for Hish to pick a pair of sunglasses for 45 mins!!!!

Ready for our ride!!!

My legs sticking out while Addy's legs are curled up in fear!!

Good ride, we're all smiling now..

This is how we look like during the ride!!

Enjoying a beautiful view from Stratosphere

All dolled up for our night out!

Hish's posh birthday dinner

Our birthday girl

All three of us

On the last day, i took the opportunity of a free morning to catch up with some ex-colleagues that happened to be in Las Vegas also. We went for a yummy dim sum breakfast and then off shopping for a few hours before it was time for us to catch our flights!

Having dim Sum

All in all, it was a fantastic trip and i'll definitely look forward to the next one!! :) Thanks to Hish for another "new" experience!

Siew Gin in Vegas, Boys in Boulder

Siew Gin is checking out crazy world that is Las Vegas this weekend, so I get to look after the boys..

We managed a trip to Boulder today, stopping off to check our Mikes Camera where we met our old friend Mike D who runs the store,

Check out my tongue

Then we got a chance to see Spiderman who was visiting Boulder

Spiderman !!

And a stop off at Cheesecake factory for lunch

Hurry up I'm hungry Daddy!

Thanksgiving 2012

The Chandrasekaras traditionally hosted our Thanksgiving meal, but since they were visiting Texas, Hish stepped up and offered to host! She made the turkey and stuffing while the rest of us brought the rest of the side dishes. It was a miracle but the turkey was actually cooked on time and dinner was only delayed by 1 hr but only because my roast potatoes refused to brown!!

It was a fun Thanksgiving and we had Tangkwa and Tim join us which was a nice little addition. After a satisfying feast, we played a mean game of Taboo that left Tim breaking into cold sweat! Guess whose team he was in?? hehehehe..

Anyways, here's some pictures of our Thanksgiving meal and turkey!

Hish's beautiful and yummy turkey 

The rest of the crew

I get to be in the picture!!!

Hish given the honor to carve.. :)

Thanksgiving Technology

The boys and Tangkwa were not that impressed with Hish's 1967 TV  (to be fair it does have color !!) so decided that using cool modern day technology was the better option.

Don't disturb me now, I'm busy watching stuff

Yuri's Baby Shower Cake

We know Yuri from Damith's parties and they've always been the sweetest couple and always gave nice compliments about my cakes(hehehe). So, when they told me they were expecting back in June, Rob had signed me up for a baby shower cake!

Anyways, as we had a party earlier in the night which resulted in a late start(12 am!!!), i finally settled on a simple design for the cake with a new pair of booties(which i had made ahead of time) that i got to try to make. I also got to use more than 2 colors.

The cake is a lemon cake with cream cheese with strawberry filling and cream cheese frosting.

Photography Class - Lighting

This weekend, I had the chance to attend a Lighting Photography Class taught by Erin Manning. It was an interesting class for me as it's something that i have very little familiarity with. I've taken some pictures in our little "studio" in our basement and haven't been happy with the color, this class does open my eyes to what i could add to my "arsenal"!

What was really exciting was we got to take pictures of models!! I felt like a pro and had to direct the models to do what shot i wanted(which of course i had no clue, haha). But it sure is a lot easier to take pictures of beautiful people!!! :)

Anyways, here are some of the pics that i took. It looked a lot nice of my 1x1 inch LDC screen on my camera!!

But i have lots to improve on and no, i can't do magic. These people are just good looking. And no, i can't make you look this good!

Tang - What you doing - Nothing !!

Uyen and Siew Gin conspired to persuade our new friend Tangkwa to cook us Thai food, how you may ask?

Siew Gin:  Tang - What you doing?
Tang: Nothing?
Siew Gin: How about Thai Food?
Tang: Sound Great, lets do it !
Siew Gin: You're cooking
Tang: Oh

Lucky for us Oh turned into great food at Tang's house, the kids enjoyed playing Wii and a good time was had by all.

Of course we may have to do a redo to really check if she can make Thai food or not...

Selection of dishes, all were yummy !!

Ready for the feast

Tyler goes to a pool party

Tyler was invited to one of his classmates 6th birthday party. It was held at his school pool and Tyler loved the idea of going swimming for a party.  The afternoon was very cold and snowy, so luckily the pool was an indoor one, and the water was super warm.

Cody tagged along as Siew Gin had a photography class and also enjoyed playing with all the other kids in the den afterwards. It is funny to watch them all play together

Tyler ready to dive in

Cody practicing taking pictures

Tyler and Cody doing the arm dance

Blowing out the cake