Monday 7 April 2008

Eventful Day

At last, the nail-nibbling day arrived for me.

(Sorry this is so late. The internet connection was down over the weekend, so I could just do it now.)

It all started with Gadget-daddy asking, "So what do you want to do for your birthday?" And I thought meeting up with my blog-buddies would be great. He teased and said sorry he could not fly people in from Australia, Canada and the US. ;)

So I had to be selective. I knew I couldn't manage anything meaningful if the crowd was too big. So the "natural selection" was for families that I've come to know "pretty" well, and it so happened that 2 out of the main 3 bloggers and their kids I want to meet already know Gadget-daddy. I felt altogether comfortable and safe, if that is of any concern. Too bad "a gift from god" could not make it, but Mummy-yeoh, who first told me they would be out-station could come instead, so that was great.

So here's what we did...

We arrived a little earlier to get the place ready. A great disappointment was that they were washing the pond at the water park so we could not hang out at my initial plan. Plus, I had wanted the bring the huge market umbrella we have, but it could not fit into the car! (So smart of me...or I just thought you could stuff even an elephant into Gadget-daddy's car trunk!)

Met at the butterflies enclosure, and took the early ones around while waiting for 2 other families to arrive. I had thought we'd go to the bunnies next, but Gadget-daddy said to go in. So we sew the aquariums and then basically broke into 2 groups for the benefit of the kids. 3 families hung our mostly at the 2-4 room, while the other 2 families were at the 4-6 room.

All the while, Gadget-daddy was out hunting for KFC for our lunch. Finally he got them and we all haded back to the outdoors for our picnic lunch. Gadget-daddy had set up all the stuff in the two shaded seating areas available when we arrived. We fed the children first, then a couple of Mommies had to act as DBKL* as usual. Then the party packs were given out so that the kids could have some things to amuse them while the adults chatted a little.

It was only while we were eating that I managed to get the families introduced and what's their blog called. (On the way back, Gadget-daddy congratulated me for having organised a bloggers meeting. Face-to-face apparently is a biggie... Really?)

We brought alphabet pasts in ABC soup for the kids, potato salad and sandwiches and bought fried chicken. Soft drink and some water was most needed for a pretty hot afternoon. We had brought the birthday cake, but after all the hours outdoors, I thought it was best to leave that out. Dobn't even dare to look if the cake had become goo. (Checked a couple of times it there was any smudge marks on the box from inside.)


Soon, we all packed up, said our good-byes. The sky told of rain on its way. As my friends leave one by one, I felt a little sad. To Ann and Angelia, I felt like I actually did not get to chat as much as I had wanted to, as we all had to attend to our kids. (But at least maybe now we can think of smaller meet-ups and sit and chat more.) But I was really glad to see my boys and Jlow's family getting on so well. Of course they already know Angelia's boys and they just want to do all the boys' stuff together. It was also good to have Mummy-yeoh and family with us, to see a bit more of you guys apart from the Sundays at church. :)

Max fell asleep on the way back and Micah a little while after we arrived home.

Anyway, back home, the first thing I did was to put the cake back into the freezer. It took me hours to sort out the 2 huge baskets of stuff. Before I finished, Max cried for a feed and he quickly put a sleeping spell on me. I fell asleep only to wake up almost an hour later and finished clearing all evidences of a great outing.


Later my mom, sister and brother came over for a visit. We decided to sing the birthday song. I was a bit apprehensive taking the cake out... and...

My cake came out intact after all!


So we did have the cake after all. :)

What a wonderful day. Thanks, you guys for the lovely gifts.



Mummy-yeoh and family gave the therapy session of a sun-catchers painting set.
ann made the loveliest birthday card.
Thanks too, for the book vouchers. Great idea from a gift from god.
Lotsa goodies to munch (Thanks, ann and angelia) while my mind devours on John Clare's poems (Thanks Daddee Yah!).

Then my brother-in-law and wife gave a lovely potted plant. It now sits on our dining table, and will do so until we have not enough space for more people to sit for a meal. I suppose then it would go out to the porch.

What a wonderful day. Thank you, my friends.
Thank you, God, for family and friends.


p/s- I really enjoyed preparing the party packs. For the moms and dads it was easy, as in I knew what I wanted to get you guys. The kids were a little trickier, because some things were limited, so I try to give same stuff to siblings so that there'll be minimal squabbles at home. For the little lady, the only little lady with us, it was easiest. :)

---------- Daddy's gift pack---------------------- Mommy's gift pack

* DBKL - Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur, is our city hall and one of their main jobs is to look into waste management. When we say you are the DBKL, normally it means you clean up the platter so that food is not wasted.

16 comments:

JLow said...

Hi Moomykin,

Glad you liked the poems. I wasn't sure what to get you, in fact thought to (and did!) ask Gadget-daddy what authors or book(s) you may like.

I came across this poem-book about the English countryside, and kinda recalled that you had spent some time there (??) Given you are a lit major, I thought I couldn't go wrong with poetry anyway!

Thanks again for the special day- yes, a special day for us too. Too bad Wife (or shall I start coining her Hot Mummee as Ann had started!) had to join her folks for ching ming that afternoon; I was really enjoying the food despite the heat; I think you kinda figured that, seeing me repeatedly go for your potato salad! Caitlin was also quite tickled with the idea of eating alphabets!

FYI, we finished all the tidbits from the gift pack within 48 hours! And we were delightfully surprised to find a tightly-packed tupperware of alphabet pasta in there too!

*lynne* said...

Happy (belated) birthday!! :-) glad you marked it in a special way this year !!

Ann said...

Hey...glad you enjoyed yourself as well that day! After all it was supposed to be YOUR day and not ours! But you have a way of making everyone feel special! What a true mum!

By the way....did I accidently take out the apple hand cream that I thought I put into the bag? If so, I better locate it again coz it has yourname written ALL over it! :)

Lee said...

Hi Kathie, happy belated birthday greetings.
Guess it must be nice to meet bloggers we only know by their callsigns.
Well,one of these days I shall balek kampong, and will look forward to meeting you and Ann.
You stay easy and have a nice day, Kathie, best regards, Lee.

Banshee Creative said...

I've only used some of the mummy gift pack (really love the thought that went into all the party packs!). the stress ball might be useful to reprimand my kids cos it can swing around...muahhahahhahahahhahaa ok Im evil.

will blog soon :)

Mumsgather said...

Oh sounds like you had a really wonderful day! Happy Belated Birthday. My birthdays are usually so uneventful. Can you smell some sour grapes around here? Hehe.

Moomykin said...

jlow,

Thanks for coming and bring your family. Too bad we'll have to wait for another round before we see your Little man. It was a pleasure to meet Hot Mummy and to see Caitlin in person at last! :)

I was in UK only for a couple of weeks, but it was like a dream come true - for all the Enid Blyton books we've read from young. But, yes, you're right that I also love poetry. :)

You should have packed the potato salad back. I actually gave the extra to my sis that night. Just too much for us. She was happy too. :)

Glad you all like the snacks. Now Caitlin can have more alphabet pasta at grandma's. Maybe it could help her pick out a few letters from there. Hahaha... The novelty of reading out of your soup!:)

Cheers!

Moomykin said...

lynn,

Hi! Thanks.

Hubby is very good to me. Always try to meet my fancy, especially on my birthdays. Usually I'll just go,
"Oh, anything is ok. No need to fuss."
But this time I thought it'd be a good time to meet some people. :)

Moomykin said...

ann,

Thanks! I love fussing over people, actually. Me the busy bee. So usually we have a big do for my older sister, coz she loves the fuss, but the rest of us just keep things simple for ourselves.

Hey, I did see that hand=cream, now that you mention it. I took that out of the bag when we got home cos I did not want the boys to mess with it...let me try to locate that...

Thanks. :)

Moomykin said...

u.lee,

Thanks.

It would be a pleasure to meet you the next time you come back. Maybe then we can go eat something you find hard to get in Canada, like good banana leaf rice or Nasi Kandar. :)
That is if you like spicy stuff. Probably no Nyonya restaurants can match up to your wife's. ;)

You have a good day, too.

Moomykin said...

angelia,

I love your boys. And you are just so amazingly great with them!

Slowly enjoy your party pack, especially the mask. Must take time for some therapy for self. :)

Say 'Hi' to the 4 guys under your roof for us. :)

love,
Moomykin and the 3Ms!

Moomykin said...

mumsgather,

I usually have uneventful birthdays too, just dinner with family and a cake. The cake more because the boys want to blow the candles out! hahaha...

Maybe this year you could do something special. Go for a holiday? :)

Mommy-yeoh said...

Hey, couldnt log on for some time as Sara fell sick. Wanted to tell you that we enjoyed ourselves although I was a littel zombi-sh on that day due sto lack of sleep and we love the gift packs. Especially the tit bits and oh the latte :)would like to gather again to get to know other mummies better.

Moomykin said...

Mummy-yeoh,

It was a pretty good day for us all, wasn't it? So glad you guys enjoyed yourselves.

If we could, maybe, we can try another meet up... but maybe not so soon. Gadget-daddy's starting to get really busy with work.

p/s- the Latte on sale now at econsave!!

Banshee Creative said...

Awww you are very kind lah.. they drive me nuts some days but all the hugs and kisses etc are worth it.. I dont have it altogether haha if I had it altogether, I'd be able to have a clean house, dont yell at them and lose that mummy belly ahha.

I need to get rid of this cold, UGH.. more to blog soon!

Moomykin said...

angelia,

we are all human. I think if our kids are angels all the time or we are to be all the time, there must be something very VERY wrong!

They'll be monkeys and we'll have to know there'll be nuts! Hahaha...

Yes, there are times we are rewarded with a nice surprise from them and we;ll know it's worth staying home with them: Oh, Like when Micah comforts his brother and vice-versa when the other is in pain. Or when they actually share and play so well together. Those are treasured moments. :)

Take care, my friend. Get well soon.