Pure Energy

My little darling turned 7 last December! Little Bee, thank you for being such a burst of brilliant sunshine. Thank you for being a sweet, understanding soul who always knows how to comfort me and makes me feel fuzzy, warm and beautiful. And thank you to all her close friends who spent her birthday with her! It was so memorable for her, and she was truly, truly elated!

I had never seen a little girl with such indefatigable spirits and such positive energy. You chatter incessantly and are always in a constant motion of energy. You are fearless - never hesitating to talk to complete strangers, even if they are adults. You have a curious soul, always asking questions endlessly. Most of all, you are always generous with your smiles, oh, how brilliant they are! 

With such energy flowing in Little Bee, it is only natural that she requested for a gym party....right at the same venue where she celebrated her 4th birthday - JWT Kids Gym! I know she relished the perpetual movements of vivacity and felicity - the pure freedom of carefree abandon. And that is just like my baby...sparkling, unfettered and buoyant, with nary a worry in her jubilant mind. 

Around 15 of her classmates celebrated her big day with her. The day that she is officially a big kid at 7 years old! They romped around in gym contraptions that I shudder to be in. 

They showed true physical resilience as their little bodies contorted, jiggled and boogied to loud, rambunctious music. They went through countless obstacle races, showing fine determination in the face of some heart-dropping challenges. Most of all, they giggled, guffawed, squealed and laughed together as if they had known each other forever. 

The goodies for her friends

The rock-climbing wall was a huge hit!

The start of the obstacle courses! 

Finally ended with an exhilarating flying fox to bring the kids to the dining area! 

The latest craze in her class right now...

Bubbles everywhere!!! 

Even Big Bee enjoyed herself thoroughly! 

It was a very gratifying evening for Little Bee indeed. She went home, basking in the warmth of her friendships, grinning ceaselessly. 

Happy 7th birthday to the most radiant angel in my life :) 

Port Of Lost Wonders

With Big Bee blossoming into a tween, it is increasingly harder for us to find activities that would engage both the Bees in a way that both would be equally enthusiastic and absorbed. 

Which was why I love the Port of Lost Wonders so much, because even skeptical Big Bee was charmed.

 

We were invited to a birthday party at the Port Of Lost Wonders in Sentosa one Saturday last month, and could literally sit back and admire the Bees indulging in so much water play that they were shrivelled and brown by the time they emerged from underneath the scorching noon sun! 

Our good friends threw a party under a marquee in the Port of Lost Wonders for both their daughters, and what a party it was! All the kids were excitedly playing with the myriad slides and water features, and it was quite a feat to lure them up halfway through their water play for party games and the cake-cutting activity! 

The Bees were getting a wee too old for kiddy party games, although Little Bee gamely plodded on with the other toddlers and little kids. Looking at her with all these kids, it struck me once again that my baby girl is growing up really fast as well! What a deja vu feeling, because I seemed to have felt that whimsical, bittersweet whiff of emotion when looking at Big Bee a few years ago, and now it is Little Bee's turn! Nooooo......!! 

Big Bee, on the other hand, was getting all excited discussing about her latest craze, Taylor Swift, with Alexis, another 9-year-old daughter of a good friend. Boy - kids are getting more sophisticated at a younger age these days! They made me dedicate incessant Taylor Swift songs to them with the DJ, and were joined by an equally enthusiastic Little Bee. 

The party ended with much squealing and reluctance to emerge from the captivating water playground. But at least I know where to spend a lazy afternoon where both the girls get to enjoy themselves equally well! 

Rock Star!

*Very backdated post!*

It is no surprise that Little Bee is a party queen. She would start planning different-themed birthday parties for herself way before her birthdays, and would never fail to impose her fussy opinions on my choices of goodie bags, cakes, party decor, etc.

Goodies for the party! 

For her 6th birthday party, she wanted a hip hop dance party with her kindy friends and cousins. We booked a studio and a hip hop dance instructor who was really good with kids, and just let Little Bee and her friends boogie the whole afternoon away!

A hip hop party was great to shake off the excess energy from highly excitable kindy kids, so that they were well-behaved and suitably subdued by cake-cutting time!

Little Bee had a wonderful time playing and bonding with her friends and cousins. As we watched them bid farewell to one another, I had a bittersweet feeling that these kindy friends whom she had been seeing daily for 3 years may not be meeting up that regularly once the hectic routines of primary school start. I pray fervently that she would retain her innocence, naivete and zest for life even in the next chapter of her life.

Happy 6th birthday, my little baby girl!

Birthday Chronicle

As Little Bee's 5th birthday approaches next month, she has beautiful memories of her birthday party with her best friends and has stopped asking me what else I have planned for her 5th birthday. 

A couple of days after her birthday party, she wrote a sweet-sounding journal entry in her diary, and I thought it encapsulated all that she felt, minus all those bombastic vocabulary words that adults use - which makes her little entry all the more endearing. 

In case the image is not clear, here was what she had written, with spelling help from me. 

"Today, I had my 5th birthday party. All my friends from my class came. My favourite part is putting make-up on my face. I am very happy because I have lots of presents."

She experimented with using some squiggly decorative fonts and cursive handwriting, hence some parts may be illegible. She drew the large, twirling and twinkling disco ball, the long catwalk runway, her birthday cake and her friends in her diary.  

As she approaches her 5th year in life, I could also sense her gradual maturity and cynicism, much like Big Bee now. This is evident in a conversation with Little Bee today: 

Little Bee: Mummy, who gives us all those presents under the Christmas tree? (she refers to all the anonymous presents under the tree that I always claimed were from Santa Claus, haha)

Me (looks at her with big, quizzical eyes): You should know the answer to that, right?

Little Bee: Is it Santa Claus?

Me: (nodded hesitantly, wondering if I should tell her the truth right now!)

Little Bee: (looking cynically at me) But, Mummy, there is no Santa Claus, right? Is he real?

Me: (dumbfounded and still undecided if I should tell her the truth, so decided to throw the question back to her!) What do you think?

Little Bee: NOOooooo....he is not real, he is just a fantasy! 

Me: (decided not to pull her leg anymore) Yes...you are right, Santa Claus is a fantasy figure!

I do miss my sweet, little innocent and naive babes :( 

However, that being said, the girls (even Big Bee!) still enjoy the thrill of receiving presents from "Santa Claus" - they will usually each receive a couple of mysteriously wrapped presents with unfamiliar handwriting of their names on the presents, and the sign-off of "S" - hmmm, I wonder who that would be? ;) 

A Diva's Party

After Little Bee's 4th birthday party last year, with all her childhood playmates and cousins around her, she told me she wanted a 5th birthday party with all her best friends from school. Throughout the year, she would give me suggestions on the type of birthday party she wanted, and the 2 topmost on her list was: 1) a party with a gigantic bouncy castle, after seeing her jie-jie's 8th birthday party or 2) a fashion party! 

I thought a fashion party would be really fun for someone vivacious like Little Bee, after attending a similar party that Big Bee's friend organised when they were 6. 

Which was why we decided on a fashion party fit for a diva to celebrate Little Bee's 5th birthday. And we organised it a month earlier because we wanted to catch all the little kids before school closes for the holidays.

All ready to rock and roll! 

 

Party touches - no prizes for guessing the party theme, which was decided by Little Bee!

So, on November 6, we threw a bash alongside the great folks from Curly and Spike with a glamorous makeover party. All the girls from Little Bee's class were thrilled!

The transformation of Little Bee...

However, the 2 boys who turned up were a wee bit bored, although they could still get their hair done up. On hindsight, I should have organised more activities for the boys like racetrack building and lego assembling etc. 

The scene from outside the salon was one of organised chaos - 12 kindergarten kids sitting in different makeover stations, having their nails painted, their faces made up prettily with lashes drenched in smouldering mascaras, their hair curled into the latest princess fashions and or styled in a hip colour like green or red for the boys! 

There was also an art and craft table for the kids to work on woodblock decorations while waiting for their turns, although I would appreciate more attention from a party coordinator for this (I had to eventually turn craft teacher for the kids, and had to ask Big Bee to be my assistant!).

Big Bee didn't look too pleased at having to babysit so many little kids, but she did a great job that day!

Big Bee, being the cool tween, only got her nails painted and spent the whole party being the official photographer, just like her daddy! It was also an excellent opportunity for her to get to know her little sister's good friends, just like how her sister had gotten to know many of her friends!  

The highlight of the party was definitely the sizzling photoshoot with solo photos for individual fashionistas and an enamoring group photo as well as a dreamy fashion parade. The photoshoot was straightforward, with the stylists honing the photographic modelling skills of the kids - they each had to pose in different mannerisms in front of their gleeful classmates but all of them excelled in the art of photographic modelling!

I was absolutely delighted with the enchanting fashion parade! I opted for a slow-tempo music, and once the quixotic music wafted through the speakers, the lights dimmed, the disco ball overhead threw chimerical and bewitching fairy lights all around the room and the runway lit up with enthralling spotlights! 

The parents of all the kids were imbued with much excitement, and were so busy snapping photos of their strutting kids on the runway that we resembled the ubiquitous paparazzi on red carpets in show business!

Being the birthday girl, Little Bee had the opportunity to sashay down the runway multiple times, partnering each of her little guests. She looked shy yet bold, demure and daring. Being the convivial girl that she is, she was probably adoring all the lavish attention on her! 

All in all, Little Bee and her friends were really thrilled and elated with the party. The girls were posing and swaggering like superstars, and the boys - albeit a wee tad more shy - were displaying really cool stances during the photoshoots! I heard from the parents thereafter that they had difficulty getting their girls to wash off their curls and makeup! 

Best friends forever??

More importantly, Little Bee was surrounded by all the little kids who are her best friends - pals whom she spends every day in school with, over the past 2 years. I hope she will find this birthday party as memorable as it is for me :) 

The divas belting out the birthday song

My Little Baker

July 30 marked the first of many consecutive weekend birthday parties that the girls would be attending - all the way till end August! On this day, Little Bee was invited to a baking party - her first! - for her classmate HY's birthday. 

With birthday girl HY

My 2 girls relish in making homemade cards for their friends, and here is one for HY! 

Little Bee, being the gregarious creature that she is, had been looking forward to this good friend's party the entire week! So, it was no wonder that she was hopping about excitedly, with zealous anticipation, the entire morning before the party. 

I love baking parties because typically, parents would not be allowed into the premises during the initial process for hygiene reasons. Hence, I was able to go for more an hour's shopping around the premises, while waiting for Hubby and Big Bee to join us after her usual classes. 

Eventually, I went to peep at Little Bee, and was proud to see her meandering around different friends and the baking instructor in full confidence and ease. I guess I could throw this little girl anywhere and she could survive on her own! 

With her best friend, Sara, and her beloved jie-jie

It was truly gratifying and a wee bit bittersweet to see my little one giggling and chuckling with her friends, frowning in concentration when it was time to ice the cupcakes, munching away on snacks while fooling around with good friends, and singing the birthday song heartily in her booming loud voice. 

With her 2nd best friend (in her own words) Chloe

My little one has indeed grown up, ready to join the ranks of her big sister...and now where would that leave me? Sigh. 

Hard at work lathering the icing on the cupcakes

Big Bee joined her little sister and provided her with some help during the icing of the cupcakes. It was beautiful to stand aside and observe the dynamics between the 2 of them - their teamwork, their mentor-student relationship, their cute little chats, and their little scuffles now and then! 

It was amusing to see Little Bee totally ignorant to the baking instructor's directions when helping to decorate her friend's birthday cake, and sprinkled rainbow rice and sugared hearts on the cake a few more times than was allowed. I guess it would take her some time to learn and understand the rules of establishment, being the maverick that she is now. 

In any case, it was a novel and meaningful idea for the kids to take turns decorating the main birthday cake with little sugared trinkets and rainbow rice. 

In all, we had a fun-filled afternoon in the party, and certainly looked forward to more of such parties to come! 

I must say these cupcakes were absolutely delicious!!! 

A Spellbinding Party For An Extraordinary Girl

Magic. Fantasy. Animals. Friends. Laughter. Squeals. Excitement.

That was how we celebrated Big Bee's 9th birthday party - together with 20 boisterous, articulate and very bold classmates and good friends, 2 little cousins (Val and Chloe), her grandparents and us. 

We had both been planning this party for a while, exploring different party options and discussing what she wanted. Being an opinionated young lady who always knows what she wants, she highlighted that she wanted to invite this particular magician whom we had seen performing last Christmas. Although she was usually quite the skeptic and cynic, even she was amazed by his feats when she witnessed his performance last year. I remembered we discussed his mind-blowing tricks for days on end thereafter. Furthermore, his magic shows incorporated a lot of little cute animals - all unharmed and pretty happy - so Big Bee was even more impressed. 

So, it was a simple magical party that she wanted - with her best friend, very good friends from kindergarten and close P3 classmates. The guest list was drawn up by her, invitations were extended by her to all her friends, rsvps were collected by her and doorgifts were meticulously selected by her. Organising a birthday party for a big kid is indeed easy for the parents :) 

On the day of her birthday, she was beside herself with excitement. Soon enough, all her friends streamed in and I had never seen another bunch of more outspoken and precocious young ladies! It was a drop-off party, so there were only 2 parents around - and maybe that explained why the girls were so rambunctious and uproarious!? Throughout the party, I had to calm a few of the more assertive ones, especially when they were over-zealous during the magic show! 

After some truly active free play amongst themselves, the magic show started with 30 minutes of magic workshop which I thought was rather dull, but Big Bee assured me that her friends loved it as they could learn magic tricks. The workshop was rather interactive, with the girls coming up to conduct magic tricks, but I found the poor assistant magician being overwhelmed by some rather domineering girls! 

When the main magic show started, the atmosphere was sizzling with stunned and fascinated girls with gaping mouths and stupefied gasps. There were advanced tricks with fire, lights, animals and many others that we found impossible to break his code! All the guests, including the adults, were awed. After the party, Big Bee told me some of the girls were slightly frightened of the magician Joe, because they are worried that he might change them into animals!

Joe the magician put up a magnificent 2-hour show for us, inclusive of a cake-cutting finale, as well as an individual photoshoot of all the guests with the 3 main animals - a cute furry bunny which all the girls absolutely adored, a sunny canary and a snowy white dove. His magic show was also highly interactive, where the whole family and most of her friends had the chance to help perform some tricks on stage too. 

The highlights were undoubtedly the photoshoot and the fact that the kids can pet the animals and play with them. Joe had 2 assistants with him, and they were all absolutely friendly and chummy with the kids too. I really appreciated them hosting Big Bee's party, and she certainly enjoyed herself to the maximum. 

Gradually, as with all fun parties, guests gradually streamed home, but Big Bee continued her party with 2 of her best friends Rachael and Lizzie in our home, playing and yakking merrily all the way till 6.30pm!

From her cheery grins and animated chatting, I could tell she was blithe and delighted. Happy 9th birthday, my darling Big Bee. You will forever be my baby, despite the fact that you are fast reaching my height!

You can read about her own account of this party in her blog here :)

All Ready

The goodies are immaculately wrapped

The cake has been selected

The food is ordered

The entertainment is set

Her good friends were all invited

A party is brewing again

And we can't wait!  

A Party For A Princess

Little Bee's ultimate dream is to be a princess. She is a vision of royalty perpetually, enjoying decking herself up in little pretty trinkets and long dresses. Hence, when she requested for a princess party for her 4th birthday, I could not resist her endearing request.

Hence, on 28 November, we threw a little party for 18 of Little Bee's closest pals and cousins (together with the grandparents) - little kids whom she had played with regularly in our circle of friends. She was anticipating this party for a whole, constantly bombarding me with questions on how her 4th birthday party would be like. We selected the theme of "princesses and princes" for this party, and dressed Little Bee up in her favourite Disney princess, Belle, from Beauty and the Beast.

Finally, when the day arrived, she woke up bright and early to immediately exclaim excitedly "It's my birthday today!"

We decided to throw the party at JWT Kids Gym at UE Square this year, as I had previously enjoyed a few terrific parties at this same gym. Therefore, I was not to be disappointed by this party, as the folks from JWT Kids Gym really made the party so hassle-free for me! All I had to do was to order the food and cake, and buy the goodies for the party kids - and that was it! Hubby and I did spend a fair amount of time searching for individual presents for each kid, as the age groups of the party kids were too varied for homogeneous party bags, but we enjoyed the process thoroughly!

Some highlights of the party included:

1) Seeing Little Bee's friends trickling in, and the thrill on her face as she greeted them cheerfully, accepting their presents with a delighted smile while leading them into the gym like a gracious host.

2) The exuberant party host, Shah, and his helpful staff, who made the party so memorable for Little Bee.

3) The wonderful games that Little Bee and her friends enjoyed so much starting with a competitive yet crazy obstacle race, followed by a zany limbo contest that got the kids all exhilarated and warmed up. 

These kids turned absolutely delirious when the party host took out a gigantic colourful parachute cloth, involving the parents in the game. 

The highlight of the games was definitely the flying fox, with all the kids eager to launch from the start of the flying fox right into the food table for the cake-cutting session. Little Bee was the first to descend from the flying fox, accompanied by a tune from a Disney princess movie theme song. Talk about grand entrances!

4) I enjoyed the food break with all the kids eating and the parents idly chatting around them. More importantly, this break gave me some time to decorate Little Bee's 2-tiered princess castle cake with her favourite Disney Princess toppers - Belle, Aurora, Ariel and Cinderella!

5) The look on Little Bee's face as Papa brought out the cake, complete with candles and toppers, was priceless. The atmosphere was dense with the usual child-like excitement as everyone sang Happy Birthday to Little Bee, whose eyes could not leave the cake for a nano-second. Big Bee was right beside her, lending her support and gamely instructing her what to do.

6) Lest the kids thought the party was over with the cake-cutting session, more exciting games await them soon after. The party host gathered all the kids for a hilarious session of "dance and freeze" game, followed by a magical bubbles session where the entire gym was dim and filled with sparkling bubbles, enchanting all the kids from the very young to the big ones! Everyone was immerse in his or her little world, at one with the bubbles, chasing them and trying to burst them.

Intense fun followed after the idyllic bubbles session - the parents were all asked into the gym for a feisty foam ball fight versus the kids! Parents and kids, all armed with several foam balls in all sizes, stood in a face-off with each other. The moment the whistle blew, hysterical frenzy broke loose! The kids ignored all rules and dashed all around the parents, throwing the balls incessantly at us - it was a matter of time before the parents were fatigued although the kids were imbued with boundless energy levels! That was truly uproarious.

7) The finale was truly dramatic - but befitting Little Bee's gregarious nature perfectly. She was made to walk down a long red carpet to a little raised platform (where I was seated with all the presents for the little kids). As she strode regally along the red carpet, to the tune of another Disney princess movie theme song, holding a big bunch of balloons and surrounded by her closest friends and family around her, her smile had never looked more radiant nor luminous.

As she perched on the raised platform, calling out the names of each of her friend with gusto, giving them their presents and extending her arms to hug everyone, I could see how Miss Extrovert was enjoying being the centre of the party.

She might become more shy as the years grow on her, she might prefer much smaller parties, but for now, I am happy that she was elated with her 4th birthday party, hoping that this is a gem that would be indelible in her little mind.

Happy 4th birthday, my little one. Time is swift indeed, as I see you growing up from the baby we all fussed over to an (almost) big kid now. And to Little Bee's friends and cousins, she was ecstatic that everyone could join her to celebrate her 4th year in this wonderful world.

All the adorable princesses and princes at the party!