Birthday celebration

My dad turns 62. How time flies..

This year, he decided to celebrate his birthday with his brother's and sister's family. So it was a nice family gathering with my cousins as well as for the kids to get together, besides Chinese New Year.

My dad booked 2 tables in Hua Ting, Orchard Hotel as we have lots of kids. We have a total of 7 kids.

Danielle was wearing her white dress which god-ma Marianne bought for her,


while Caleb was wearing a polo shirt which my friend, Juliane passed down.



I have to say, my relatives are all very punctual. We arranged to meet at 7pm and by 645pm, we were all here. I love it when people are early and punctual as it saves a lot of time.

The food only came at around 730pm and the kids were already starving and cranky. So we ordered plain rice for the kids first and they all ate that without any complains. Haha...

The first dish was the longevity buns, compliments from the restaurant. If you are wondering whether the tree could be eaten...well, we tried, but it wasnt possible to break it, what more eat it!



We had lots of dishes! There was roast pork, bbq pork (char siew), deep fried white bait fish, an individual portion each of cod fish,



another individual portion of pork rib which was absolutely tender and tasty. But I was already quite full.



As for the kids, the first few dishes werent dishes that had gravy or went well with the rice. So Caleb mainly add rice with char siew, without any sauce. However, when the more kids-friendly dishes arrived (bean curd, veggies, fish), the kids were already quite full. Haha.

Oh well..but nevertheless, I still managed to stuff a few mouths of fish, bean curd and veggies into Caleb's mouth.

Before the next dish arrived, Caleb would scooter off to play with his cousins, running all around, outside the restaurant!


He especially enjoyed playing with korkor David.



They played catching and when Caleb couldnt find David, he would whine and look really worried and depressed.

Here's a video of the cousins together! They were screaming away and looked like a bunch of sugar high kids!



There was even a point when the manager of the hotel had to come up and warn the children not to play until so rowdy as the vase almost toppled down on them as they were pushing each other against the table. But of course, he said it politely...but from his looks, I could tell, he was trying to exercise his patience and was controlling as the whole hotel's quiet and peaceful ambience were disrupted by this bunch of over-enthusiastic children who seemed like they had been deprived from play since birth!

After all that, I finally decided to place Caleb on the pram to cool and calm down.


It was dessert time and we had a very nice and light mango cake with coconut shavings at the side.


We were celebrating not only my dad's birthday, but also both my aunties'. Pak Leong's birthday happen to fall on the same day as my dad while my Gu Ma's birthday falls during the same month. So it was 3-in-1 celebration!





By the time everything ended, it was already 10pm. The kids were tired and the parents too from having to chase after them, feed them and calm them down etc.

I do wish for more gatherings like this where the cousins can play happily together.... but has to be in a more kids-friendly environment!