Shopping

Last minute hubby decided to do some major shopping for.......Christmas?

Bought a Nissan Sulphy since his car is reaching the 4th yr next March. Initially he wanted the Qashqai, I didn't like the look. The SA showed us the Qashqai Premium, which is nice - it has those glass sunroof to con the children to sit down quietly to look at the stars or... to make life difficult for ourselves when they keep insisting us to open up the sunroof or to have that whiny che-che to complain "the lights shine to my every side". But it's not ideal, I felt it was a squeeze behind.
He's been wanting to get a SUV, my standard very high, one glance and pointed one to him in the distance "that is nice!!" Walked closer, it's a Murano. "Of course nice lah! Expensive of the lot!!" he said. But I don't like SUV and I'll panic if I drive it. It's like a man's car.

Next in line was Latio, which I hated the design and told him I prefer the Sulphy instead. Latio is cramp at the back and SA agreed that it's not used-to-seeing-it since we've been driving a Sunny, Sulphy would feel a little spacious. We didn't look at Teana, it's looks nice on the website now but didn't look attractive when we were there.
Strange? This time round he doesn't keep asking me for my opinion "which one do you like? Which one do you like?" 4 years ago we car-hunted in Ubi area and he asked, my answer was "whatever is comfortable with you, you're the one paying not me!" Go to another showroom, he asked again. It continued a few times until I teased him and said "let's go to Performance or C&C". He kept quiet and continued walking. I nudged che-che to ask him to stop walking and he ignored me. Hee! But after we test drive the Qashqai Premium, he did ask me. It's nice that he gets my opinion and frankly I know nuts about car. But I do realise that he normally choose the car that I keep eyeing (shucks! he didn't know I was eyeing on the nice-to-look at but impossible for us to drive Roadster????? - Anyway not suitable since it's suppose to be a family car). Happy with the purchase? Ehh.........he'll be the one driving it most of the time so he should feel happy. He must feel comfortable with what he's paying, as long as it's a car and can get us anywhere I am happy.

But I'm a little sad that we're going to bid it farewell soon. This car served me well, and I had such close attachment to this car coz' I was the one who sent it for all the TLC (tender loving care) treatments at Tan Chong. This car sped along with me on the expressways with no camera snapping (thank goodness); this car saw me through my whole pregnancy - with my belly sticking out and driving till I birth and get to sit in the front passenger seat like a handicap (stitches painful) on the day I got back home with mei-mei. I took extreme good care of this car cleaning the leather, hubby don't even bother, until the day my Ms Subaru came. I didn't sit in his car until about 2 weeks later and was angry with the way he treated his car.

Jayden's 1!

11 months ago I went for Jayden's man yue. And today he's celebrating his 1st birthday. His parents must be so proud of him.

29th Dec 07

29th November 2008 - with daddy

The happy family

The invitation card :

Athena was so happy when she received it, saying that Jayden also likes Mickey like her and he's having a party just like hers. And better still when her party mood is still there, barely a week after her own party. She kept chanting that Mickey Mooska etc... in the car which drove me mousey crazy.

She did "so well" in the party ..... meaning she kiasu queue up for cake telling us "don't worry, you take care of Aricia I get the cake for you.."; for goody bag; munch her cake; eat her jelly- all the junks. I didn't have to worry them much coz' they already had their lunch & tea break @ home before we left the house.
Anyway, she also enjoys parties coz' she knows that's the time mummy closes one eye. Somehow I'm grateful it's the end of the month - we've had too much cakes this month. And Pine Garden has been informed to send me my compliments Lychee Martini cake next week. Her eyes never left the table - really funny to observe her. (People might think we're greedy; must get our money worth kind of people. Hee!) I know she likes the one with the castle. But when I asked her who's cake is nicer she diplomatically answered "my birthday cake you buy". I thought the cake is very beautifully done up. And oh boy! you should see the number of favor bags given (2 families' invited guests) to the children and the plates they used for the cake - Mickey Clubhouse plates. I am thankful I bought Athena's favor bags way before otherwise they are the ones clearing up all the stocks in Singapore (that is if they purchased in SIN). Hee!

Aricia tried to blow off the candle from afar n her saliva dripped on a girl's head. Hahaha!

Compliments given to the nice jelly too! Mom can't do the colouring thing with SSC cake pan. What I saw was such a great motivation for me to try to do it. Nah! I think I'll give up even before I do anything - too tired!

The party was short - infact perfect time for children's party.

Oh! Did I mention I bump into my ex-team girl there? She's now a mother of 3 and she's so slim. Jealous! Jealous! And like what A mentioned I've ballooned - sad....... 2 years of snowballed and not achieved New Year Resolution which shall be pro-rated and snowballed to next year. I had better do something next year.

Photos :

Ex- team girls

The victim

I often think that my lil' girl is one I should not worry, she won't let others bully her. But I think I am wrong.
Or perhaps she knew she's older than Iggy, so she gave in.

She will fight with che-che over toys but she gives in to Iggy. Which I think leads to Iggy being spoilt. He cries for no reason; he deliberately bangs his head against the wall; he hits the children. Tell him to stop he does it again. You hit his palm when he's naughty; he gives you the other palm.
I know this could be a passing phase and he will get over it but ... he doesn't seem to understand that we're lecturing him.

So far he's hit Aricia a couple of times (during the time when KZ was on home leave), he snatched the things away from her very roughly. He hugged her until the 2 of them fell and the last one made Aricia remember it so well - she refuse to let him hug her or when we suggests "hug hug" she screams a loud "NO" and runs away. Oh well, goes to show that the hard bump on her head didn't cause her any brain damage.
But it has come to the stage where Aricia is so afraid of him. Mom said that Aricia is over- reacting. I said it's not, it's coz' she knows it has happened more than 3 to 4 occasions. Hit her once twice, she cried but then stopped and continued playing with him. Hit again etc.... after some time my daughter also not stupid not?! She's afraid of him. So whatever fear she has now is really fear. Many times now when I go to mom's place, Aricia will ask me to carry her instead of walking into the house herself.
Then it made me ponder over what mom's reaction - "over reacting". Was she being defensive towards Iggy? Many a times, I feel that they're spoiling him and that his cries is not the real cry but the 'yang or' type and tell them. But still... they continued to hug him. What can I say?
Did mom not understand my lil' girl. She may be the chilli padi everyone calls her. But when she cries real loud and when you see a total different behaviour, you know something's not right already.

Angry? Don't know to say angry or not lor..........I mean he's still young. But then to have your own precious one (mothers will protect their own) being hit and have that fear, it saddens me. I told myself I'm going to bar them from going close. I'm so afraid it'll do harm to her psychologically.

Aricia word recognition

Aricia is able to recognise Japanese characters better than Chinese characters. I wrote the word 妈妈 - mother on the whiteboard and she stared at it. The moment I started writing hiragana, she opened her golden mouth. I jumbled up the words and she was still able to read it.

Over exposure on Japanese language? I think so -- when I'm showing her pictures >
"Aricia, this is grapes. 这是葡萄" Her response? ブドウ
" Aricia, this is apple. 这是苹果" Her response? リンゴ

But if compared with Athena, Athena was able to read her Chinese words better than English where she had to read them phonetically. But if I read and ask Athena to point out words, she does get some anwers right.

Which is the reason why I need to get Chinese materials for mei-mei.

Aricia is able to read some animals English words in her own pronuncation. Very impressive! Must admit her absorption is better than che-che.

So for those who don't believe that Glenn doman don't work. It works! Well for both my children. I don't know if Athena's ability to read was due to that.

This week

It's the school hols and I find my life remains the same - busy!

So what have I been up to? Basically whatever time I can find; I blog a little (very way back in all my entries) and do some materials for Aricia on top of her daily home sessions. When I am done, I need to go through the 2 books (the themed preschool book + preschool Math) for Aricia - plan what I want to teach her & do up a time-table. Still have sufficient time to teach & relax at the same time, not much of a hurry to let Aricia cover so much coz' she still has another 2 more years before the tyrant me will start 'torturing her with loads of books'. Other than that, this whole week I've been kept on my toes.

Monday
Went down to Vicom to check on my IU. They said no problem but I received summons for going through ERP gantry without a card. They said it's the problem with my cashcard but I found it strange, coz' I don't have the same problem when I inserted my card into hubby's car IU but he encountered the same problem in my IU. But..... don't you find it frustrating especially when it hasn't been working and suddenly when you took your time off to bring car down; they tell you no problem/ or the thing suddenly work out fine?!?! Anyway, they said they are going to help me appeal for this summon I received. Let's hope it's waived, if not I'll be fine more and maybe be jailed. Hee!
Night time - her Berries class

Tuesday
Morning : brought Aricia to the sinseh for her follow-up.
Did some printing out materials for her Speed-Reading (thanks to Mei - from KL - who scanned them for me. I only needed to print them out. Still that took alot of time, coz' I need to cut and put them according to the pages in a book.
Then was kept busy with the celebration in school.
Hmm..........Aricia seems to be very frightened of Iggy, she's been bullied by him many times. More to be posted on this topic in next entry.
Night time - her Hanyu Pinyin class. Since Aricia was with me, I packed in some work for her to do. And ..... my dear lil' girl can finally read "ma ma" - mother for me. So happy!

Wednesday
Morning : All so ready and geared up to gym today. Came out of the room and she cried when she saw me, cling onto me - my heart sank and I changed back my clothes. No gym! Feeling obese. I felt guilty too for leaving her at home, next year I won't feel guilty when they are in school and I am FREE!
I brought her to Giant for a walk after dropping Athena off in school . Funny! When I need to relax now, I find Giant very therapeutic. Signs of me turning into a marketing Ah soh? Not really, I meant the things that I bought - chocolates, big pack of Calbee Hot & Spicy chips, Korean strawberries - Therapeutic huh?
I spent some time with her and then left to do some shopping. I came back $300+++ poorer.
R introduced me to these books by LDA called Stile, it uses the same game grid as I have. And what better way for Athena to indirectly learn her English & Math is through games.
1) Stile Math - is for Year 3 (our P3) . Very expensive! $119.95 for 9 books. They have for different levels and since it's so bloody expensive, I thought getting advance level would be more worth it, moreover I can start training her for P2. Hee! (not that she's strong in Math, I'm going to scream at her mistakes..) They even have Stile Starter which I thought it's quite interesting for Aricia and perhaps also suitable for the "18-12=12 Athena" but like I said I want my money worth. Hopefully next time Aricia is smart and don't need the Starter books
2) Stile Literacy (can't seem to find in their website the link, they probably changed the name) - is also for Year 3. $119.95 for 9 books. The lower levels are easy for her, the lady boss kept asking me to get them but I think that's easy for her already. Also, they have Stile Starter.. (which means I need to get the grid as well) which I might consider getting for Aricia provided her language acquistion is good - I can save the money. The books I bought for her includes : Comprehension, Grammar & Punctuation and Spelling & Phonics. These are really interesting but expensive coz' of the different levels. Provided my hubby is super rich, I wouldn't hesitate to buy all.
3) Sequencing book for Athena, I plan to photocopy it so Aricia can get to do it. It's for K2-Year2 level. I think it's fun way of learning as compared to her usual sequencing card.
4) Daily Oral Language - very interesting! The children read the text and circle out the spelling or grammatical errors. Hopefully these will help her boost up her level of English otherwise I may have to really consider sending her to British Council or Morris Allen. I wish I can teach... not when the mother can also make stupid grammar mistakes when writing (blogs) and have all the mistakes pointed out by her free English teacher - sister.
5) Chinese set - it's flashcard and they have textbook and workbook which you have to buy separately. 5 different levels, I bought the basic one. Why? My GD cards should have helped Aricia right? On the contrary, she doesn't absorb Chinese as fast as her che-che. I went through the box to see the words, with this cheap amount for the whole set. I can save 1 year of Berries - chinese enrichment class- fees. I've asked hubby to look out for me the rests of the 4 sets when he goes Shanghai (he just got back!!). When he heard "can help you save Berries fees," his eyes sparkled and obliged to help. But prior to this last recent trip, I asked him to help me source for a game - he refused. Argh! I want to fly to Taiwan and China - buy materials for them. Some time in Dec when I send my car for servicing, I'll bring Athena down to the place. Let her try the other Stile products to test her level. Anyway so it means.... yup I'll be teaching mei-mei chinese & time-table has to be up. And then I thought I should convert the spare room into a study room. I have lots of materials which needs a place to store & a nice table for the children to do their work and easy for me to supervise them. You see at the rate I'm going and the joy of teaching them... I think it'll be a long time more before I decide to go back to the workforce. Hmm.. maybe can consider in teaching huh? Night time - her music lesson Came back home, I was packing up the cupcake picks which I took out for her BD cake decorations.. and then che-che saw what I had bought during my crazy frantic purchase in September. I bought some additional cupcake picks -next time can present it to my children when I do cupcakes. Hee! Hello Kitty, Strawberry Shortcake, Pooh, 12 Dancing Princess, Care Bears, Sesame Street and Mickey Mouse. Cute hor? ** I opened up the kitchen cabinets and gasped at my collection of things. Though they're all nicely categorised and stored.... it's going to be a hassle when I move and if I move. Will need one special kitchen cabinet for all my/their stuffs. Two parcels came today, my GD Picture Dictionaries are here. Yay! And another parcel is a German CD. I am still expecting another 3 more parcels. I have no idea what happened this time round, usually it's quite fast for me to receive my shipments. This time, I have one parcel which I bought the earliest of the whole lot and it's still transiting somewhere in US. I was so afraid that the GD Picture Dictionaries would be lost too coz' it's the most valued of the 5 parcel I'm expecting. I can't wait for the time when Aricia outgrow all these educational materials I have. By then, I'll have to do a garage sale. I'm like running a mini-school like that with all the things I have Thursday Went to her school to collect textbooks and buy her school uniform. There wasn't any queue when I was there so I was lucky I managed to finish everything within an hour. Got back home and was organising her things - writing names on books; sharpening pencils/colour pencils. (thank goodness I am a lil' smart, I bought battery operated sharpener from Popular the night before.) ironing the labels on her school uniform. I have this fear of her losing her things in school - she's that careless! After that I had to sew on the hook for her belt. The school uniform feels heavier now. There is no way I could pass down my uniform to her - serious! Colour faded; thin material; not sewn on badge. Next thing I did was to glance through her textbooks. She's already advancing in her Math, the only worry I have for her is her subtraction. As for English... it's introduction to nouns, pronouns, verbs etc... I'll leave that to the teacher to do the explanation. But what I can help her is the flip chart I have. Chinese - no worries. She was reading the book while waiting for me. Oh, speaking of which.. I let her do the exam papers for Chinese early this week. First I let her try MGS paper, she scored 91.5%, then I upped the standard and tried RGPS - 93%. Not bad huh? I'm very impressed. Next step I should try those papers by St Nics, Chinese High... those chee-na schools and see her standard. Whole day it seems I was busy hemming up her school uniform hoping mom's sewing machine can help with a faster job while I designate KZ to help me wrap up the books. Then I realise how stupid I was, I forgot about the shop in Tampines market - the lady can alter clothes. Argh! Night time, I was packing up her room and organizing the assessment books on her table. The urge of doing a study room is stronger. Asked hubby, no reply. I do not want to waste $ on renovation and then we move. (Moving? Ehh.......let's just say we were looking but since he is out of country all the time, we are not that hard-core house hunting type) Alot of packing up. Packed up the candies (from Halloween & some I purchased or from goody bags) in the fridge and will bring it over to mom. It's quite a big bag. Cleared!

Busy day for me, I got home from her school at close to 11am and at 10+ I was still in that clothes. Showered and managed to relax a while before preparing Aricia's materials & blog. Goash! My side table is in a mess!!

Friday
Half of me tells me to let Athena go to school, another half tells me to be lazy and don't rush here and there (drop her in school, go upstairs to prepare Aricia, go for class, come back Tampines pick Athena up, go back home) after the tiring day I had the day before. In the end, I let her pontang school. Whatever had happened to my "don't let her pontang school too much" mentality? Brought the 2 of them to Suntec after Aricia's class.
First stop, Pizza Hut. The 2 of them were so noisy!!

Second stop - The Bear Workshop where Athena wanted to get some thing for Andrea. Aricia had so much fun pushing the mini-stroller in the shop.

Third stop - The kids play area on 3rd floor. Athena had been asking for a kitchen set, I want to surprise her for Xmas. I went to look-see look-see first at ToysRUs.

Photos :

Aricia seems to know how to smile for the camera when I tell her to now

Athena's so blur..... went to dress up Chloe instead. Chloe was given to her by Aunty Jasmine for her birthday

She decided to dress Andrea up in the angel outfit that came with Chloe

Came back home, I went down to clean the car interior. Have to clean it at least twice a week, it's even dirtier when you have kids sitting in the car day in/day out so now may have to resort to cleaning it more.
When I came back home, KZ told me Athena kicked her mei-mei. I was furious with her. I don't deny that Athena can help to take care of her sister, she's a good help.. but I have told some her 'jealous streak' is very strong. Now you know how strong it is, she's observed to have been hitting her mei-mei; rough with her; and this time she kicked her. And I'm not pleased with her. I threatened not to bring her to the BD party tomorrow and she can forget about the kitchen set I was getting for her. She'll expect no presents this Christmas.
Call it wrong parenting style; very negative statement; childish of me to say all these to a child. But if you're me and you face her stubborn-ness and speaking nicely to her doesn't seem to help...
During our outing with the other mummies @ Botanical Gardens, the mummies did mention about my 'negative'. I know they meant it well for me and I do make an effort to tell her nicely but she don't listen but their words are a constant reminder to me as well.But how can I argue for the fact that when I'm lenient and soft with her, she takes advantage of it and makes you angry within the next minute? One mentioned the style she used for her child and it worked. I really wish it will work for Athena. I'm having a tough time trying to discipline her and bring her up to be a highly IQ and EQ person. Perhaps I should suggests that they let Athena stay with them for a year to see what I mean. Why am I so suay? And I told helper and my family, it's not that Athena is not loved. Look at her birthday cakes and 3 celebrations for a child whereas mei-mei only had one. Even KZ said I'm not being fair to Aricia (I think so too) Athena is the spoilt brat. All the more I expect her to listen to me when I tell her once and nicely. I have to speak to her in harsh tone then she listens - which means I'll get more heart-attacks & gotta speak to her like this for the rest of her life / or my life.

Officially 6 yrs old

My baby is 6. Can't believe how the years have slipped by in a wink of an eye.

For her school birthday celebration, she wanted Princess theme. I remembered she liked the birthday cake E and V had earlier this year. I went down to Prima Deli weeks before to get the cake, but minimum order is 2kg. Too big for all the little children, so I ordered another cake for her - 1.5kg so.... last minute included the K1 children as well.

I wanted Aricia and Iggy to be part of the celebration since it's her last birthday celebration in school, I asked permission from Teacher Linda the day before and she approved. I'm so grateful!!

Photos :
The cake orginally comes with the ballerina ( on right), I bought another 12 dancing princess figurine + banner to put on cake.





Then Linda asked if I wanted to take photos of her giving her friends their favor bags. It was really nice of her to suggests this, I thought she would try to kick me out of the school asap.Or maybe she thought since it's the last year "this whole family of ye-ye; ma-ma; at-yi; dua-gu; dua-kim; di-di and the nosey mummy" will poke their head in any window so she try to do a good deed. Hee! Whatever it is, really grateful.
The children thanked Athena as she gave out the goodie bags and I overheard one boy in K1 commented "ai yoh...so small...." Funny!

12 Dancing Princess given to her class girls:
1) Bag - online from US
2) Sticker - online
3) Pencil - shop in RM
4) Candies
5) Puzzle
Power Ranger
1) Bag -online from US
2) Stationery set - from shop in RM
3) snacks
* bought some tattoos as well but in the end, can't bear to give them away to the children.
The MCH loot bag was way too small for me, so I used it for the K1 children. It's all snacks for the children

Glad it's finally over!--- till next year (huh? again??)

Did I make myself clear

Just one day after her birthday celebration, she told me "mummy, I like Ariel..........."

The rests is history.

Haha! I think the best solution is I go insane and don't remember a thing. I hope I won't suggest anything next year.

Post party / heart attack

Had a heart attack when I saw the bill.

It came to a total of $1381++ for this short 2 hour party. Worth it? Yes, it's worth coz' it took away the hassles of me doing everything myself. But it also took away the thrill of it. Would I do this next year? Nope! But I can be a party planner and then earn that much from all these.

Athena's 6 : The Party

Invited children who came:
1) Alexandra
2) Aleciabeth
3) Amanda
4) Benecia
5) Beatrice
6) Braxton
7) Caresse
8) Caylee
9) Elizabeth
10)Faith
11)Ignatius
12)Melia
13)Nathan
14)Keverne
15)Shyanne
16)Victoria
17)Wei Teng
and not forgetting the birthday girl and her sister. That makes 19 kids. (Favor bags prepared for 2 other younger siblings who didn't attend as well)

The party started at 2pm with 4 other kids, the rests all came strolling in after that. The playtime in the small playground was 1 hour - I thought that's too long.
Then they proceeded to another area for games. First was a game called Duck Duck Goose then another game that involves music & newspaper was played.

Iggy was so funny! He saw that Braxton and che-che were holding hands together, went up to them to try to separate them. And Athena told me later at home, "mummy, just now Braxton say we like get married like that." Haha! Innocent children

Pinata was next. What a disappointment with the quality!! It dropped from the beam and then it can't break open! Little Beatrice was selecting the sweets and I was more gan-cheong for her - "take the sweets Beatrice, don't choose" at the same time put some in the bag for her. I didn't have to worry about my 2 children.

Adjorned to the party room. Food was laid out on the little table for the children. I have always liked the idea where the children sits down infront of a kiddy table and have their meals - that kind of party. (Yah, if I intend to celebrate again and make it small - this is what I might do.) I ordered the KFC Chicky Meal for them so that they get the toys from KFC as well.
The adults were treated to :
3 x Western Platter (consists of tuna, chicken and vegetables sandwiches served with fries and fresh salad)
3 x Western Platter (consists of fish n chips, calamari, buttered prawns served with fresh salad)
but on party dat itself, noticed there were some shellfishes
3 x Japanese Platter (consists of 66 items of sushi/sashimis each platter)
Quite a spread, worry parents would go hungry. I should have ordered 2 platters each.

Sang birthday songs before and Aricia was so happy. I could hear her shrieking voice. Cakes were then distributed. Then I realised that we were given chocolate. What happened to my lychee Martini? So disappointed!!

The childrens' favor bag was distributed; they gave balloons and then we left the place. I bought her a Minnie Mouse helium balloon, but it broke loose and flew away. She cried and I quickly went back to FnR requesting for another coz' it's not at our ends; not our fault.

Tired!

Photos :

Athena's 6 : Pre-preparation

Theme : Minnie Mouse

I thought it was weird of her to choose Minnie Mouse coz' it's for toddlers. But oh well.. she's making my life slightly easier where I can get some favors locally, otherwise I'[ll start blaming her.

Slight moderation : She wanted a Minnie Mouse which I thought it'll be difficult to get solely Minnie Mouse stuffs + I did a combine shipping for both girls' parties (Which means, I had some of Athena's birthday stuffs since August) so eventually I thought a Mickey Clubhouse will suit fine and I'll do a Minnie Mouse cake for her.

Venue : After a few emailing to various places namely RIM, GGB, GK, I thought I'd try Frisk N Romp since they mentioned about Disney theme in the month of November. I thought how perfect it would be since Minnie Mouse is under Disney. I went down to book the place in October, then it was a different theme and needed to check it out again in November.
In November, I brought Aricia for a playtime once and I was pleased with what I saw. Great! Everything with that Mouse - perfect!

Birthday card was sent out in late October. Just as I sent out mine, I received another MCH invitation card from a friend for her son's 1st BD.
I didn't wait for their cards, instead chose to design her card again - personalized.
Had it printed out in a photo shop and then paste on hard paper and sent it out.

Feels really weird - I mean the envelope. It's very light!! I don't have anything else to put in the envelope coz' no need to put itinery and no need to put other rubbish inside. Hmm.... hope FnR don't disappoint me.

Favors :
Favors for the children were packed 2 weeks before. And becoz' she decided at last minute she wanted to invite her YJC friends & no time to do online shopping, I had to differentiate the toddlers' bags and the rests. So I went to shop for more things for the lil' 6 toddlers.
By then as I kept buying and buying things , I realise my goodie bag is not big enough. I needed a bigger bag. @ Jachelle's birthday, Athena was given a very cute polka dot bag - which I tried to find but only left with 3 in the whole of Singapore. Argh! Since I was at PS, I thought I should just get bags in Spotlight to DIY afterall all I needed was red and white to make Minnie's dress pattern. Easy peesy! Bought white bags and red sticker dots... and then when I got home, something just prompted me to look at Minnie's picture once again. Argh!!! Her dress is red with white polka dot. I'm so blur to think it's white with red dots. Thank goodness, I didn't stick the dots on all 22 bags - it'll look more like chicken pox!!! So I printed the pictures of Minnie - for girls and Mickey - for boys, used my Mickey puncher to punch out some papers and stick on the 4 corners.

I needed to identify the bags since they're going to be different. I wanted to do a luggage tag, so that they can use it on their schoolbag (that is if they want to use it), but I couldn't find the string. (Not enough time for online purchase) What I did finally was clip-on type.
Had to use Photoshop to do the tag.

Packed the bags about 2 weeks before her party and my home was really messy (it still is - I haven't had the time to clear the 2 childrens' favor bags)

So messy! It was an eyesore for me but I didn't have any choice

What went into the bags :
Older Children
1) MCH Conehat - from Kiddy Palace
2) MCH Blowout - from Kiddy Palace
3) Sticker - online from US
4) Memo Pad - from ValueShop
5) Mechanical pencil - from ValueShop
6) Toy - from ToysRUs
7) Tattoo - online from US
8) Biscuits x3 - from Giant
9) Popcaps (which took me a long long time to try to recall where I had seen it)- from a shop in HM. And the boss was kind enough to let me go through all his boxes to dig out Mickey & Friends
10) Chocolate biscuits (like the Meiji Panda biscuits) - from Meidi-ya
11) Tissue - from the provision shop (hee!)
12) Personalized mint - done by me
* @ last minute put in raisins as well*

Toddlers
1) MCH Conehat - from Kiddy Palace
2) MCH Blowout - from Kiddy Palace
3) Sticker - online from HK, suppose to be for the Pinata but FnR are doing everything for me so I packed them up for the children. Moreover, it was too late for me to order the same sticker for the older children
4) Mechanical pencil - from ValueShop
5) Toy - from ToysRUs
6) Water bottle - from ValueShop
7) Biscuits x3 - from Giant
8) Popcaps (which took me a long long time to try to recall where I had seen it)- from a shop in HM. And the boss was kind enough to let me go through all his boxes to dig out Mickey & Friends
9) Chocolate biscuits (like the Meiji Panda biscuits) - from Meidi-ya (couldn't find the small packs anymore so the younger children are really lucky to get a $2+ biscuits from me)
10) Puzzle Twister - online from US. Suppose to give to all children but with the increase no. = not enough, but I'm still stuck with some
11) Personalized Hershey's - done by me
12) Toothbrush - from ValueShop
13) Stamper - from MiniToons
14) Hairclip - from temporary stall in RM (didn't give anything extra to the boys)
* @ last minute put in raisins as well*
**NB: For those who are interested to know, you are able to find Mickey head gummies in Cocoa Tree - very expensive $4.50 for one big pack. I didn't buy coz' to give one child one pack is too much, if I pack them separately - don't look nice + hygiene reasons. Also, you can find Meiji chocolate (the one that I put on her home-baked cake) from Giant and a few places. That costs $2.50.

Overloaded huh? But I was lucky that I didn't get that much favors online since I knew that Mouse is always hanging around Singapore somewhere; I only needed to search the whole island.

Favors for the adults :
I did a mass production together with Aricia's birthday preparation. Everything was packed nicely (in the same coloured organza bags - pinkish tones) and kept aside until the day comes.


Other knick knacks :
Usually what I'll be busy up to the neck would be all the nitty gritty details, games + catering. But this time round, I decided to try to do it outside so my work is so much easier. Moreover, KZ was on 1 mth home leave which will definitely leave me no time to prepare anything.
I didn't have to do the video montage coz' I don't think they have any projector or whatever to screen it. And oh please.......we'll only be that room for less than an hour or maybe more. Don't think anyone would be interested in it.
Poster?
I think my designer is too busy to help me with this. And I was trying to prepare for the home party, I thought I'll have no time to go down to send for printing etc.. And.... no more wall space in their room now!!
Decorations??
I did prepare some decorations at the same time when I prepared Aricia's BD party. So was lazy to do simple photo collage - even for the party in FnR. Tired!!

Food
There's a surcharge of $80 if you bring outside food in. And I was thinking of doing jellies in Mickey Mouse head, and cut some noris (seaweeds) in the puncher I have - & pray hard nobody has diarrhoea after that coz' I used it to punch the papers first.
I had to consider if I wanted to do outside catering. I'd spend over $150 for sure + $80. Worked out the costs & more thinking-skills and decided that it's better to stick to what they offer. Makes my life easier, so I don't have to worry if the food comes or not.

Birthday cake
I learnt my lesson! After I realise I didn't have any figurines to do a 3D cake for Aricia, I quickly made order online for che-che (just to standby) some figurines.
I tried emailing one of those well-known online baking place to see if they can customise a cake for me. Proud! No reply. I emailed again, no reply. Some people emailed and no reply again. I wonder how these people can do business!! And mind you, I was a little kan-cheong. Bengawan Solo serves nice cakes but their designs are very simple. I want those 3D over-the-top kind of cake. So I went back to Pine Garden. They can't do the Mickey Clubhouse for me, says infringing copyright blah blah. No choice, had to make do with the normal 2-tier cake and pray hard they do a good job for me.
Since I ordered 2-tier, I was able to choose 2 flavours. I ordered the top smaller cake - Triple Chocolate Layer and the bottom bigger cake - Lychee Martini. Ooh............can't wait to eat.

Looking forward to tomorrow's party. Let's hope it's worth the $$