Hokay, here comes the massive post.

How can anything to do with Minibean not be massive?

This was supposed to be up last week but then procrastination got the better of me, and with this week finally getting more relaxing, I finally can give this a little more attention and finally journal it down…. or else if it ends up like her birth story, she will be six when anyone finally gets to read this.

It all started in a panic on Saturday morning, when I woke up to realise it wasn’t quite in the morning…. a very cranky little miss had refused to shower nor change, and had insisted on wearing an old and faded dress for her big day.

Just when you thought one female is hard to deal with, the elder lady, in the form of my mum, had insisted of not going for the party, and just as we got Minibean changed, she decided to tag along.

So, by the time we finally headed out of the house, it was almost 2pm, when we had to pick up the cake, and we had said the party would start at 3pm.

BREAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTHEEEE.

And some miscommunication really didn’t start off the day in a good note. Apparently many of the SMSes sent out didn’t reach the intended recipients, and a big apology to those who didn’t get it.

BREATHHEEEEEE MOREEEEE.

***

Finally shoo-ed the ladies out of home and made our way to event venue.

We reached AFTER some of the first guests arrived.

Andy and Evelyn were there only a minute or two after we did, so they were conveniently roped in for event set up.

And it was pretty apparent from the graffitti that the failed aspirations expected out of your children, will tragically befall on your grandchildren.

The event set up crew, in their gay outfit.

The fairy chest Mummy bought for Minibean, so that she could play dress up for the day!

I am not sure who was more excited. I was quite excited to grab this at ELC’s sale and it consisted of a pair of fairy wings, a magic wand, a butterfly braceful, a sweet hair band, and a tutuskirt.

Like I said, i seriously have no idea if I had bought it for the birthday girl, or for myself. Giggles.

But I finally managed to coax her into dressing up for the occasion, before I was accused of hijacking her presents and toys.

We started with the balloon blowing, and after last year’s agonising attempt, I told myself I shall keep away from any sort of blow.. uhm, chores this year.

The bear balloons turn out awry especially with the heads almost unnoticeable with the bear body overly inflated.

Looking at this picture makes me happy, cos she looks truly… happy. Isn’t it amazing how when we are young, all the happiness is just so… pure and untainted.

Maybe that’s what innocence is all about. Everything is just in fragments of simplicity.

Jie jie Evelyn with the birthday girl.

The balloon blowers who brought so much thrill to Minibean and other kiddies.

One of my favourite pictures, of Minibean and her great-grandfather. He is 94 and in great shape, and shows how much he pampers her when he heads out to shop alone just for her. He is an amazing man, and hit off well with my mum!

After Evelyn jiejie had tied up her hair beautifully for her, she started to slip into vanity mode!

So posey!

It wasn’t long before Eddie and Victoria joined us, and here are the early sneak peeks to Minibean’s presents from them cos she couldn’t wait to rip them out of the packaging.

Problem with handling a three year old is that… they will do ANYTHING to make sure you can’t.

From jieije Victoria.

Seriously, don’t ask me where she gets these poses from, I ain’t gonna claim responsibility for any of them!

Cash register from Eddie (which was her favourite toy of the entire day and gotten so much of her attention), and PlayDoh from Victoria, which is her present favourite toy in the evening, and the very set I sat through with her last evening.

Special plates and cups for the kiddies. Mummy couldn’t resist and insisted on using them as well.

Apparently the horse club has a junior member too.

I wonder if that’s why everyone was wearing a Polo top with “3″, cos Minibean was turning, well.. 3.

And something got the guys’ attention!

And… what could that be…?

A pink bike which obviously got Axel’s attention as well.

Upon fixing everything (gee, does it really take so many men to finish fixing up one?!), they realised there wasn’t any air in the tyres, and had to fetch it to the petrol kiosk to get it pumped.

With the party caps not utilised after some of the kiddies pulled out (hand, foot mouth, gasp! Or Mummies who didn’t turn up), I made the girlies wear the caps.

The poor girlies were made to do a Minibean with me!

Hahaha, apparently whenever Minibean poses for a picture, she likes to do this pose!

Minibean’s playmates for the day, and it was just funny….. look where Minibean’s right hand is at.

I have to emphasize that she was just trying to feed the jiejie, but the jiejie didn’t want to be babysat.

I insisted that this is a picture of nubile, young girls. I fit right in!

Finally food for the earlybirds!

The Mee Siam was pretty awesome with my mum raining compliments on it too. Victoria’s dad dropped by as well and it was a pleasant surprise, and I believe most of the guests had only good things to say about the Mee Siam.

Things started to spiral a little out of control when the bubbles were handled over to the screaming kiddies.

And I kid you not, I don’t think any of the past parties was as tiring as this.

Photographer of the day! Though I don’t know when will I ever see light of the pictures!

The kiddies were having fun, and the adults took turns cos everyone was maxed out after a while with the little fights over the pink bottle, who gets what, and who spills what.

Lifesaver came in the form of Siren who had the patience to speak sense into the kiddos and the difficult kidults hahaha. We were very the flowery. So girly and sweet. Hohoho.

The amazing Janice, who was the only work-related friend I invited cos many others were involved in Sitex, and I adore this girl to bits. One of the nicest chicks to work with, and she was thoughtful enough to make it down.

The funniest part was when Marco turned up and the first person he greeted was Janice, and I was told how great a singer she is.

Marco then said hi to Jiali.

Then said hi to Victoria.

Then Eddie. Andy, and others.

Apparently my tiny brains forgot I had known him together with Jiali 12 years ago, and he had met the others through me during WSA.

Silly me!

The guests were almost all ready for the cake cutting.

And with 2 days of lead time, I was just glad I managed to get the cake I had wanted to get her.

Though not really. I wanted to get her an zoo-theme cake, but then didn’t have the time to get the cake dress up done, so it was substituted with animals marshmellow!

An awesome cake from Pine Garden, which was also the place I made an order for her 2nd birthday’s cake.

This year, the flowers and the cubed letters got to me.

And with their anniversary discount, this 2.5kg cake, cost me less than $100.

The cake in its full glory!

This was the hardest part. To get the kiddies to stand together, WITHOUT sticking their fingers into the cake.

Which proved itself to be an ultimate challenge.

I digress, but my arms are getting really bulky. Boo!

Finally it was time for the cake-cutting. It was really cute when Axel broke into a sweet solo of birthday song, and we were rushing to finish the song so we could cut the cake as soon as possible so the kiddos would stop assassinating the cake!

Right after this Minibean wanted the knife cos she wanted to cut the cake.

You can only imagine the mess thereafter.

The fabulous Mr and Mrs Ho. Thank you for gracing the events. I had asked them down so to encourage the newlyweds to, well, you know…. BUT, I think I have successfully put them off for good.

Can see how reluctant the birthday girl was because she was just too eager to get herself dirty with all the bubbles-blowing and running around the garden.

My poledancing buddy! Thanks babe. Words can never express how thankful I am.

Me and the little cutie just before he had to go .

Marco, Minibean, Jiali and me.

Twelve years. Wow.

And thanks Marco, I really appreciated your pointers

Adore this! Everyone looked so… happy!

12 years on.. since we met on the day we watched Titanic.

It got dark and we went out for a tiny break.

And trust me, my knees were vibrating so badly cos I was trying not to break Eve’s legs with my weight.

Thanks Sherry and Uma for making it! And indulging in my requests to look kiddy for the occasion!

The fabulous babes even dressed up for the occasion, sorry if I didn’t host you guys good enough but I really, really appreciate you guys for turning up

And *drums roll* the time had came for the all important…. gift-opening session. And never did we expect the exhausting process ahead.

Christmas came early, right before a real pine tree.

The very first one is with Uncle Eddie’s pressie.

Jiejie Sherry helping with getting the cash register out of its packaging. And you need screw drivers to get it out of the box! Why so much hassles?!

Like I said, my favourite picture, and she is looking at the camera! Such a little poser.

Sherry berated me for being the only one staring at the camera, while they were busy undoing the cash register.

More camwhoring.

Can you imagine how long the cash register took us?!

And how much energy we spent on it?! Look at the others behind chillaxing one corner, while we did all the work!

Next up, the top from Uncle Marshall, Auntie Jessica and Baby Axel.

And the gift from Jiejie Janice!

A toy saxophone! Which Minibean always asked Mummy to play Twinkle twinkle little star!

Of course, it has also somewhat became Mummy’s toy.

And her posing with Mummy’s present.

Finally the cash register was freed from the screws!

Uncle Eddie and his great choice of pressie.

Mummy’s pressie of a vet tent! With her great grand father helping out and making her a really happy little camper!

Uncle Eddie, as usual, was sweeping his hair.

Next time, whenever she wanna “run away from home” she could very much have her options of the vet tent, or Thomas the train tent.

A pretty white dress from Tua Ee Po.

And another fabulous gift choice from Uncle Andy and Jiejie Evelyn!

We linked the 2 tents together, and she had fun just crawling around it. I tried to do so but I got stuck.

And she had fun tunneling and amusing the adults with her excitement!

The pram from Tua Ee Po and the…… bastard hybrid of Elmo and Big Bird from Allan and Jin which she adores so much that she brings it for a walk every morning in the pram.

And here begins of her new pose, with the pouting and all.

Present from Jiejie Cheyenne!

A bouncey ball! Which raised plenty of eyebrows from the adults hahahaa.

A cool vest from Uncle Marco!

And here’s the pout again!

Someone has to blow the bouncey ball into shape, somehow.

Test ride to make sure it is childsafe. Ahem.

Don’t ask me what my fingers were doing. It really isn’t what it seems.

It is safe for Minibean, though Uncle Eddie looks very wrong in this picture.

The pressie from Uncle Kishore.

Treats from grandparents.

Did I say about how grandparents will always put their aspirations of what their children cannot achieve?

I tried it, and it works like the real thing!

More pressies!

More pouts!

And the animal book.

She loves animals and I am just very glad that she does.

Another dress from the grandparents.

Colouring book from Jiejie Cheyenne, which I am going to keep far far away from any of my bags.

Some other pictures, of the nice little socks dressing up the venue.

The elmo… looks wrong.

Thankfully, we found out it was Elmo dressing up as Big Bird. Hahahaha.

And another salah present from Jiejie Cheyenne, which is a caterpillar game that Minibean kept wanting all of us to play with her with.

And yes, Minibean turns 3!

Last but not least, her creativity shows when she tried to “zhng” her ride with the starry stickers!

The gift unwrapping process had Uma and Sherry saying, “I didn’t know how tiring this can be!” when we finally were done with it.

And thanks to all others, who send plenty of hugs and kisses her way.

Thank you, really, and we would really love to have you with us.

***

The night proved to be too alluring to miss and after getting her showered, the adults were in for some relaxation programs since everyone was maxed out by the end of it.

It was damn tiring, but yet somewhat, quite “high”.

So… we ended up at Ang Mo Kio, singing karaoke.

And this is one ugly picture to sum up the concert Cheyenne and I put up with “Xin Bu Liao Qing”, though if you ever find a video of us screaming when a bomb pack exploded on us, it really wasn’t us you see.

Damn unglam lah but damn funny! So many many emotions injected into the song, until Andy took over and sang the male’s version. I still think our version rocked.

Concluded the night with November Rain, and someone actually sang. But it was a lousy shortened version, and we ended up having this wild idea of picking up a guitar from Andy’s and adjourned to a park for more ROCK session when the karaoke joint closed at 3am.

We had supper at McDee’s, and I learnt how to say, “Lei Sei Chaat Hoi Di lah! Ham Kar Chan!” with plenty of gusto!

Woohoo!

We ended up at a park, and when we looked up to the skies, it was one of the most beautiful skies I have ever seen in Singapore. Plenty of stars littered the sky, it was clear, the night was cool, and the company was great.

It was a night of music, though we didn’t even manage to sing a complete song at our rock session, but that prompted me to get a set of game to play so we can rock on!!

It was a very beautiful night, which only ended when it was 7am in the morning.

Quite nostalgic.

You know how when we were teenagers, we used to stay out with friends at the seaside or some park, and just.. chill?

And I, remember the sky from that night, that none of us could resist just watching it, a little longer with the countless stars, bright and define, shining down on us.

***

Hey sweetheart, hope that in years to come, the memories of each and every of your birthday, will be one that is beautiful and filled with joy, that will remind you constantly how loved you are.