Unfolding July's Folder -- Charmaine's Birthday

~*Charmaine's Advanced Birthday*~

For Charmaine's birthday this year, Make-A-Wish Foundation organized an advanced birthday party cum concert for her at Grand Hyatt Hotel.



Charmaine had always dreamed of singing in a concert with all her favourite people in the audience. Hence, the birthday party cum concert idea was born.

Before the event, char and jase had to attend singing lessons to prepare them for the stage.


This was taken two nights before the event when the kids were at my (in-laws) place for the first time.




The day finally arrived!

The kids were really thrilled once they stepped into the suite.

I was too; I was busy taking photos.








Other than the usual fruits, we were greeted with a box of delectable chocolates from mezza9. The little bouquet there was presented to char by the sweet people at Hyatt.




Very soon, they started getting comfy and hauled their snug blankie out of the bag.




It was big char's birthday the day before.




After that, everyone got changed while waiting for the staff to cue us to go down.



It was really funny when cyn blurted out that she felt like how a mother would feel when her daughter got married. The anxiety of it all while fussing about everything and waiting for the magic moment to arrive.













While waiting, the kids rehearsed their parts and boy was cyn anxious coz they were still forgetting their lines and steps then.








We were famished coz the party got delayed and hence we called for room service.



I lurve the food! The fragrant chicken rice, the succulent roast duck. Yummy!

Appropriate caption for this should be: The fat greedy pigs












Advancing to the ballroom










There was a kids magician dressed as a clown there to entertain the kids.



kh was dragged up on stage. He looked really silly and the kids were having a ball of a time laughing at how silly their godpa looked. We shared the same table with a boy who had survived cancer and he was called on stage to pop the balloon above kh's head by aiming a dart at him from afar. Oh how I love the boy's winsome smile!

After that, the clown got jase and char up on stage to engage them in a trick or two.

No photos of food at all! Quite rare for someone like me who usually takes more food pics than human pics. We were busy snapping memories of the day's event.

All of us didn't eat a lot for the lunch buffet as we've already eaten our fill but I must say that their ice cream station was the best! Never eaten such good sorbet and chocolate ice cream at a bufffet before.


Next, it was time for the mini concert.




Jase and Charmaine's duet Lenka - The Show
Charmaine's solo Miley Cyrus - The Climb
[Click to open in new window for video description]




Encore [Click to open in new window for video description]




While singing, a birthday cake in the shape of a blue pony was wheeled out on a trolley. That surprised all of us as we weren't informed about it.

Charmaine was really thrilled by the blue pony cake.






Award presentation for our feisty princess




The adults agreed that the blue cream from the cake tasted really weird and it left our tongues blue.




Taken by my sis i-phone from another angle while Jase marched in front on purpose, huge balloons in his hand. I love the candidness of this photo.






My sis thought Jase looked really like Precious Moments boy boy and wanted a photo with him no matter what so she asked me to "lure" him towards her and took a pic together in front of the mirror coz he thought it was fun to do so.






My hip mummy loved leopard "preens".




We are family... My dad and sis spoilt the pic by not sticking out their tongues.




Friends are family.




Thank you Make-A-Wish Foundation for making Charmaine's wish come true and Grand Hyatt Singapore for hosting the event.


Back at the suite, the kids were tired but char wanted to "swim" in the bathtub no matter what.




The rest stayed over but kh and I went back home.

The next day, cyn told us that the hotel was not only giving cyn and the kids free buffet lunch but extended the invitation to her lovely friends who were there with them the day before too. We were really touched by their kind gesture. Being greedy pigs, of coz kh and I couldn't turn down the invitation.


Here there we were at Straits Kitchen which was serving lots of local and Asian food. Yummy yummy!








Seeing wenz morph into a lapis monster...




We got inspired too.



Do you eat kueh lapis by peeling off layer by layer too? I don't, but the boys do. I prefer to chow down my lapis by biting off.


Feisty girls




All of us had a satisfying lunch.





Thank you once more to all the good people at Grand Hyatt!


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

~*Charmaine's Actual Birthday*~

Charmaine's actual birthday was coincidentally my off day. I arranged with cyn to bring the kids out for some "beach" fun at Hard Rock Hotel pool. The kids hadn't been to the beach for a long time and they were starting to miss beach outings.

Cyn decided to keep the place a secret for she wanted to surprise them. Big char was supposed to join us but could not join us in the end for she had caught some bug.

When we were in the cab, char kept asking where we were going and we dropped hints here and there. Very soon, she was really excited when she guessed Sentosa. To her, Sentosa is synonymous to roller coasters at Universal Studios. After our trip there in May, she has been constantly asking when she could sit on her favourite roller coaster again.

Soon we reached Sentosa. I explained to her that the place was so big that we were going to explore another part other than Universal Studios. In my heart, I went "uh-oh" for fear that she would be disappointed.

She was disappointed.

She went "Huh......" in a droning manner to show her disappointment. But she didn't remain disappointed for long for once she saw the simulated beach pool, she could hardly contain her excitement. By then, Jase was clearly excited by the sight in before him too.

They started asking mummy if she brought their swimwear and when cyn produced their swimwear out from her bag like how a magician pulls a bunny out from his hat, the kids literally squealed. They had no idea that mummy had their stuff in her huge bag all along.



It was a joy seeing their expressions.


So here we were at Hard Rock poolside! The kids were so eager, they immediately kicked their shoes off to feel the soft sand under their feet.



[Some bimbotic exclamation aside: Gosh! Waist length. I think this is the longest I've ever kept my hair until.]


EeW! I could never ever sit in the sand like that! They loved it though and was frantically trying to burrow themselves into the sand.



Look at them! So happy to go into the water.




After putting on their goggles, they were all ready to swim.







They started to pick up some stones from the sand which looked really like the colour and had the texture of a chicken's eggs. From there, we busied ourselves searching for "eggs". Whenever they collected a handful (which isn't a lot considering how small their hands were), they would head back to shore to find a safe spot to bury them.


Next, we went to the kids water playground.





Char was really afraid to slide down and asked me to accompany her. We ended up sliding a lot faster since I was very much heavier. In all honesty, I was scared too for I really could not control the speed we were sliding at and I was very afraid char would get thrown off.

After that, she did not dare to slide down anymore. Even though she was laughing away, I knew she was scared. We coaxed her to try it on her own as the speed would be slower but she did not want to.

On the other hand, Jase was sliding like a pro. He could do it on his own but he always needed me to stay somewhere near him as he was afraid of the bigger boys. There were some boys who were really rowdy and they just ran and cut the queue in front of Jase when he was walking up the stairs gingerly for fear of falling. They also loved sliding down and creating huge splashes. Some of them remained in the water at the bottom of the slide which resulted in the next person bumping into them.

I used them as example to tell Jase what and what not to do: wait for the child in front of him to slide down and move away completely before sliding down himself, move aside immediately when he reached the bottom and to climb out of the water on his own.

He put everything into practice. Even though it seemed like a small matter, seeing Jase sliding down smoothly and knowing how to move to the side once he got to the bottom made cyn and I so proud of him as we watched nearby.

He's a big boy now!


Next, it was time to build a sandcastle. We did not have sand equipment with us so we could only build a sand mountain.








Feisty mum and babe doing some super hero poses.




They wanted to do some "real swimming" so they started paddling like how dogs swim and boasting that they were swimming.







Cyn was talking to me about something when out of the blue, char started spreading sand paste on cyn and said, "Mummy, I help you massage."




All i could do was to laugh like a hyena. I hoped the word "exfoliate" stuck in her vocab bank. Cyn commented that I'm always teaching char bimbotic words.


mums & babes






Their eggs collection




Love this pic!




The sun had set and it was time to go. If not for the gnawing hunger, the kids would not have agreed to leave the place at all.




After showering and feeling all refreshed, we advanced to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner where kh joined us.




The good people at Hard Rock presented an ice cream topped with whipped cream and candles and sang a rock birthday song for char.



Look at her gleeful cheeky look up there!


Perspective



She took a few spoonfuls of the dish and left the rest untouched for it was too sweet. By then, we were all too full to help her finish.


Up on the stage for a parting shot.