So here's the highlights of the party.
Me and ND slaved through Sat and Sun morning to get the house ready. Poor ND spent Sat night blowing up 50 balloons and this inflatable castle that we borrowed from Yeeyee to keep the kids entertained. ND actually woke up on Sun morning with aching arms.
Caleb posing in front of the castle and the balloons.
He was really pleased and excited with the whole setup.
The two stooges relaxing one corner before the start of the party.
Caleb's holding on to a laser gun and a pirate sword made by me and ND. We spent a fair bit of the morning trying to practise balloon sculpturing in the hope of giving them out to the children. Unfortunately, it was a lot harder than we expected. We gave up after bursting like 20 balloons. So that was all we created. (Yes, the things parents do for their kids!!!)
Our very first guests and they came very well coordinated with the theme.
They bought Caleb a military dress up set as his birthday present and he wasted no time in adding them on to his SWAT team t-shirt and army pants.
He loved the present so much that he was going around like that throughout his party and even now, when he comes home everyday, he'll put on his helmet, binoculars, carry his army knife, grenade and handgun and zip around the house. (Actually meimei likes them too... shall post pics of her in them later)
Meimei dressed in army green and munching on a marshmellow.
Daddy was the best. He wore his army pants and army t-shirt and he wore his army helmet which comes complete with camouflage sticking out to welcome the guests. Unfortunately, we were too busy and tired out to take a photo of him.
The guests having a wild time at the party.
We were really blessed during the party coz other than presents and great company, I had a free entertainer for the kids and a balloon sculptor.
Uncle Adrian entertained the kids quite a fair bit when he covered his face in his army scarf and pretended to shoot and catch the children. Yah, the kids were screaming so much and so loudly that I was worried that either the police would appear or the kids would get nightmares at night.
After a while, Uncle Chris joined in the "fun" too, although he looked much, much less threatening than Uncle Adrian.
As for the balloon sculptor, well, I mentioned that me and ND gave up trying to create any thing for the children after our failed attempt in the morning and so we left our balloons and pump by the inflatable castle. Aunty Linda came along towards the end of the party, saw the balloons and started coming up with lots of lovely creations for the kids. The girls had different kinds of flowers to hold and to tie to their wrists, the boys had swords. And she was so fast and looked effortless in creating them, I was truly amazed. Unfortunately, we were really quite tired out by then and didn't take any photos of her lovely creations.
Another big highlight of the party was the cake. The birthday cake is always one of the biggest highlights of my kids' parties coz it's homemade by Yeeyee. And as usual, we tend to stress her with our themes and make her crack her head to come up with new creations.
This year, with an army theme, naturally Yeeyee had to come up with an army cake. (I think she watched too many movies) coz she created a battle scene with army soldiers on the cake. It was a tiramisu cake this time round. Naturally the kids could not eat it but she had non alcoholic versions served in little cups for the kids. What really impressed us all was that she even managed to print a photo of Caleb wearing an army uniform and doing a salute. And get this, Caleb didn't take the photo at all. Yeeyee made her husband spend his morning searching for a suitable picture and he superimposed Caleb's face onto the photo before printing it out and the result was so good, nobody knew that Caleb's face was superimposed.
Overview of the cake. See there's a first aid tent, a tank, barracks, barb wire fences, and even soldiers on boats. When Yeeyee brought out the cake, the guests were all very impressed and of course the most excited was the birthday boy.
Front view of the cake
A closer look at the soldiers.
After the excitement over the cake died down, we had the cake cutting and photo taking sessions.
Singing the birthday song...
Familee photo
Extended Familee photo
Extended Familee photo from my side
Photos with Godpa
Photos with the kiddos at the party
Yeeyee's family photo
Caleb's fav girl's family photo
So, my boy didn't get any birthday kiss from his fav girl. When I asked Kimi's mummy how come there's no birthday kiss, she acted coy and said, "this kind of thing cannot force you know..."
That's true from the Mummy's perspective. And thankfully, the boy didn't think very much about it as well. He did think a lot about opening the presents he received as soon as the guests left and I have to say he was blessed with very nice gifts that he really liked. Thank you everybody!!!
Oh, so the boy had such a great time at his party that night that when we said our goodnight prayers, he asked me," Mummy, are we going to have another party for my 5 year old birthday?" I told him, "Oh, maybe not. We can do something different and celebrate as a family instead. We don't need to throw parties every year." He started his string of whys after that when I explained to him that not everybody have parties every year to celebrate their birthdays.
Well, I've got one more year to psycho him about it. Hopefully, I do not succumb to peer pressure again. It shall be the battle of the wills!
