Tuesday, June 28, 2011
The Thomas Birthday Party
29-June-2011:
This was not my children's birthday. It was a friend's and it happened in January this year. Long time ago, I know. This was one of the biggest kids party that we've been to. It was held in their residence community hall at Lake Edge Puchong and had a Thomas & Friend theme - Dom's favourite. The parents spent about RM5k just for event management alone, not including the food and other miscellaneous things.
First thing we noticed when we arrived, or rather the first thing Dom noticed was the bouncy castle! The kids went wild in there, except Emily who was too young and too nervous to go near it.
The kids sat in here while there were tables for the adults outside the hall.
There were toys - all Thomas related, Thomas cup cakes, Thomas decorations, etc. Each child got a Thomas party pack. The birthday kids' (there were 2 of them) faces were printed on the party bag. In the bag were a Thomas toy, chocolate bars in Thomas themed wrapper with the kids' faces printed on it and some other stuffs.
And of course, the birthday cake was a Thomas one.
Later, there was a clown who came to tell jokes. It was more suitable for the older kids. Em didn't bother at all. Dom enjoyed it for a while but later asked why the clown talked for so long. In the end, he went off to play instead.
Makes me wonder, will I ever host such a huge party for my kids? The answer is most likely no. Firstly, I don't think I'll spend a few grands on a party and secondly there are only so few people in my life that do matter to me. I don't see the point in inviting all of my colleagues to my kids' birthday, for example. It will make sense to invite Dom's or Em's friends however. It's their party and they should have their own friends. But last year when I asked Dom if he would like his friends to come, he said no, he only wanted his cousins. I think he is so like me. I would want only the people who matter to celebrate my birthday with me too. What's your take in this?
Just Photos
Then, There was CNY
28-June-2011:
You know, CNY was half a year ago and I've just uploaded the photos. I don't quite remember what happened anymore. For reunion dinner, I had to spend it with my in laws. It was good, don't get me wrong, but I think my pre-married reunion dinners in Ipoh were better. :-)
This year, we ordered food from Dragon-I (or was it I-Dragon) restaurant. It was a take-away and according to Saimun's dad, business was very good as there were lots of people waiting for their take-aways. I think people hardly cook anymore for reunion dinner, especially in Klang Valley. Most would eat out. Majority of the restaurants would run two sessions during that evening - one at 5pm and the other at 8:30pm - either too early or too late, which is why I always prefer to eat at home.
The next day, we had the usual thing with the in laws and then a friend just flew in from the US, so we spent the afternoon with her instead. On the 2nd day, we went to Ipoh. I'm trying to make this customary and so far so good. A thought came in to mind, however. What if (when) my grandmother passes away? Will people still gather in Ipoh like they do now? It's hard to imagine, really. I remember my cousin posted a photo on Facebook of the food that they ate on their reunion dinner. They were the same dishes that I used to have as a kid, year after year. Nothing has changed for over 30 years. Surely my grandma is the one who's holding the family unit together and also the main reason things have not changed for so many years. I'm not sure if things will still be the same if she's not around anymore.
Anyway, we had good fun. My children had fun. :-) You can see that some people were drunk at the end of the night.
First of all, I think my daughter looked like a princess. :-) This was at my in laws' place.
One of the few family photos (of the 4 of us) that we have.
After that, the children performed lion dance.
These were taken in Ipoh (the shop).
These were taken during dinner.
Art Attempt
28-June-2011:
Many months ago, I think it was during Christmas or Dom's birthday that I bought a pottery set for him and a bag of air-drying clay. We've only used it once since, mainly because we haven't gone out to buy more clay although he asked me to several times, and also because I was dreading the mess. The last time we used it, I think I spent more time cleaning up than actually making the pots. Anyway, we made something and Dom gave them to two of his teachers. Here are the photos. They're a bit ugly and irregular, but we were amateurs and Emily was disturbing.
Here are they before they got painted.
And after they've been painted. I have to admit I did all the painting for him. He lost interest after the messy part.
Next, I did some artwork myself too. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to do more because of the lack of time and soon lost the momentum. I'm trying to gather up momentum again but it's not easy. Hehe. So, here are two pieces that I've done back in December last year.
The first is a copy-cat abstract flower - something just to test out what I could or couldn't do:
The 2nd one is an abstract from a photo of Dom and Em. Dom was holding some corn flakes in his hand and Em was taking the food from him. I love this. After this piece I've not had any ideas as good as this. There were a couple of botched jobs after this one which I wanted to redo but haven't done so.
sda
