baby girl's 5th - may '07

yes, yes, i know my girl's almost 6 years old come may, and i'm still writing abt may '07! haha.

well i'm collecting memories, so there!

and every year we go thru the same cycle. a few months before we'll start thinking, hmm, how shall we celebrate our kids birthdays this year? better not spoil them with something elaborate (not that we can afford it anyway...). what would be biggish enough to include all the people she loves but affordable? and we'll usually end up with a little poolside party at our condo. quite ingenious, really. there's the pool for the kids to splash abt, while the parents can hang out and do their thang at the poolside cafe. simple, clean and fuss-free. i just couldn't be bothered with more otherwise.

except this year, daddy's away overseas during little princess' birthday, so mummy's not abt to fuss over a party with guests, no matter how small. we just decided on bringing a cake to school in the morning, and a little family dinner with cake in the evening. little did we know that dear old aunty lei wah had also organised a little surprise party for baby girl after school at her former kindy specially for her friends from church. that was a very nice and thoughtful additional birthday party, complete with cake, finger food, fun games and prizes, and of course, birthday presents. i learned how to set up a very simple game that can get a little messy but one that the kids really love - the sticky, squishy, gooey game. just place cheap corn flour in several plastic containers, mix with water till u get a slimy goo, and drop different food coloring into each container. so u end up with yellow, pink, blue, green and purple slime which the kids can sink their entire hands into and just have a good time. just don't let them do it with their best clothes on. they absolutely love it. ingenious.

and i also learned how to make a very simple kiddy decorative cake. thanks to the ever resourceful aunty lei wah. buy a regular round butter or pound or chocolate cake, spread warmed jam on top, and decorate away with multi colored smarties or m & m's. simple and again, the kids absolutely love how it looks and what's on top. simple and fuss-free is right up my alley. the other 2 nicely decorated cakes were provided by my kids "birthday cake fairy godmother". they looked great and tasted great - a rich chocolate cake for her schoolmates, and an orange poppy seed cake for the family feast, which included mum's wonderful oven-grilled lemongrass and turmeric chicken wings!

so while we thought we'll just have to settle with a very simple birthday do, turns out that baby girl ended up with quite an extravaganze - 3 birthday cakes, 3 parties, and lots of presents from her favorite friends. so, simple's not a bad thing, eh?