Tyler is 7!

Tyler turned 7 today. As it was a school day with a field trip, we didn't get to bring any cupcakes in for any celebration. I did drop off some so that he can have a little celebration with his friends.

I can't find any of the birthday cake pictures, but here's one from him opening his card. As you can tell, it's still dark outside. It's because we all had to wake up at some ungodly early hours in the morning to wish him Happy Birthday before he goes off to school!

But our little Tyler is growing up to be a nice little boy. Still a little shy. He's doing well in school and keeps up with our demands! :)

Checking out his birthday card..

Though we often treat him like a big boy, he's still a little boy who wears his pirate birthday card on his head!!

He and his classmates

So, as a tradition, i make a little fuss about wishing the old child goodbye and Tyler remembers when we wished 5 yrs old goodbye. So this year, we wished 6 yr old goodbye!! And for once i remembered to video it. It is quite a sweet time and makes their mommy weepy. But Tyler must be made of the same stuff coz he also got a little misty-eyed. 

Here's a video..

Unexpected presents

The boys were presented with a few unexpected presents for their birthdays:

Uncle Steffen and Auntie Anne dropped by on Sunday to specially deliver the presents. The boys were super pleased. We were happy to get to catch up with Anne and Steffen! What a nice surprise.

Sienna delivered the presents to badminton. And the boys were super psyched to get bows and arrows finally!!!

Trip to the bank

Since the kids got a bunch of money for Popo and KongKong and tooth fairy, they've accumulated quite little pile of cash. So, we took them to their banks to deposit them.

They were quite pleased with their bank accounts.. :)

Cody's 5th Birthday

Our little cutie pie is 5! He is a very outspoken, funny little young man at the moment and provides me with hours of laughter. He is still very sweet and likes hugs and kisses and is currently still in the mode of writing love notes for people around him(me, Alan and grandparents)

I had asked him what he wanted for his birthday and he asked for balloons! hehe.. and when i said "how about pajamas for birthday present?", he was equally excited and happy! Is this going to last? I think not. :) That's why i'm writing it down! 

For his birthday, we managed to get Popo and KongKong to join in for his morning birthday song this year. 

In the evening, we got the neighborhoods kids to come by for a quick impromptu birthday party! 

Checking out his birthday cards

Our birthday boy and his balloons

Birthday song

Such a cutie

Happy to have a song sung by their neighborhood friends..

Kids Birthday Party 2014 - Knights Party

Due to demolition of our kitchen, i had somehow dropped the ball on the kids birthday party this year. I did try to convince them that they didn't need a party, but they were adamant about having the Knight's Party that I've been talking about for 6 months!!!

So, after finding out that there was availability at the local rec center, I immediately book the venue on the spot, sent out some invitations and started on my last minute panic mode preparation.

This year, i made some goblets for the table, knights outfits based on their knights outfits for the boys and flower garland for the girls. I also sewed the goodie bags as an effort to reduce the pile of material that's clogging up my basement.

Because of the dire state of our kitchen, I had taken Alan's wise advice to cater most things and even bought the cakes *gasp* and to mask the fact that i didn't have a fancy cake, i had bought an awesome castle model to present the cake with! The boys seemed quite pleased with it(yay!!).

We had an awesome response to the party this year. EVERYBODY replied with a yes(38 people!! Though we did get a few cancellations on the day due to illness). Not bad for a last minute party! On the day of the party, we had invited the guests to have a pre-party swim with Tyler and Cody. Most people also made it to the swim(amazing). And after about an hour of swimming, everybody headed to the party room which was frantically being set up by me, Addy and Irene.

We barely put everything down and the kids were all over the table, eating and drinking!! They must have been hungry. After the food, we had some party poppers activity. It was very amusing to watch their expressions of confusion trying to get it to pop. We did get most of them to pop. Then it was cake time. The boys each took a turn to stand up and had their birthday songs sung. After the cake, i decided to break out the confetti. Unfortunately i only bought 3. But we managed to convince the kids to pick up the confetti and throw them in the air! They had a lot of fun doing that!!

And with that the party ended. Goodie bags were passed out and the boys from the party were excited to find out that there is a shield and sword to go with their knight outfits!!

All in all, i think it was good party. A little stressful with the tight timing and prep work due to a location event. And the party felt a little bit like a whirlwind event as everything happened within 2 hrs. But Cody said, "it was the best party ever!", so i guess it was good enough! :)

The knight outfits and flower garland

Alan was a popular person in the pool

The big boys on the slide

The littler ones in the paddling pool

The spread for the party

The kids table

My handsome knight

Tyler and his friend Matthew

Cody's cake

Tyler's cake

Enjoying the yummy sandwiches

Clinking their goblets

Trying to pop the poppers

Look at their faces

Caught one in action!

Tyler and his cake!!

Cody and his cake

Cutting the cake

Tyler a little too happy to hold the knife

Confetti fun..

Lots of fun.. and LOTS of clean up!!!!

Cody is so happy to see his old friend

Here's an album of the fun day!

Kids Birthday Pictures Album

Halloween 2014

I can't believe it's Halloween once again which is usually the craziest time of the year. But since i dropped the ball on the kids birthday party this year and also the school didn't require us to attend any Halloween celebration, it was actually quite nice and relaxing! That's why i'm blogging tonight!!

The kids were looking very dashing in their knight's costumes this year. We had requested for some authentic knights costumes from England and grandma, as usual, came thru and even made a special belt with scabbards which made the kids very happy(mommy too!!) because they can put their swords away!

Alan was wearing a crocodile looking dragon for the kids to slay while i just grabbed whatever looked warm! We had a rather early trick-o-treat outing so that we could go and celebrate Tyler's birthday after. And the kids really enjoyed it this year! I think they finally get it and was excited to do it! :)

My two dashing knights

Giant spider attack

A little role play

Slaying of the crocodile.. i meant.. the dragon

This pose cracks me up!

Tyler is sick of taking pictures..

Some interesting Halloween decorations

One of the nice carvings

Trick or treat!

The boys happy with their loot!

Tyler's first naughty joke

Today Tyler said to me:

Mommy, can you spell "I MAP" and add "nis" to it??

Hmmm... is this how it starts?!!