Happy 3rd birthday!!!

We held three separate mini celebrations for Ying Ying's 3rd birthday - with 1) my parents, 2) her classmates and 3) my in-laws. The first was held on the weekend prior to her birthday while the last two celebration were held on the actual day.

Initially, I thought of getting the whole family as in both sets of grandparents together to celebrate over at my in-law's place as for her 2nd birthday. But husband said MIL preferred to eat out - she didn't want to cook up a storm as the new maid was still unfamiliar with cooking matters so wouldn't be able to help her much. In the end, we agreed to celebrate separately so that the old folks could spend more 'private moments' with Ying Ying. So we ate out over the weekend - had a chilly crab dinner @ East Coast on Saturday and teppanyaki at T3 on Sunday.

We got three separate cakes:

Cake #1 from Smiling Orchid ($52+) - Race car theme (I was dying to try cakes from them after reading good reviews but gosh, the place was impossibly far from our place - we took 45mins by car to collect the cake!! The salesgirl was surprised I ordered a car cake for a girl. She even tried suggesting doll or butterfly cakes instead. *LOL* The 1.5kg cake was definitely too big for us but too bad that was the minimum qty for customised cakes. It was kid-attractive alright but not mind-blowing kinda tasty as compared to the 7th manna strawberry cake for my birthday.)

Cake #2 from Prima Deli ($36+) Train cupcake theme (Got the idea from fella blogger mummy *thanks tyan* I liked it because the cupcakes resembled a whole cake when put together. It was more convenient too - no cutting needed; just distribute like that! Heehee... Ying Ying's classmates all loved the cupcakes cos they were so.... creamy. Guess kids love creamy stuff!)

Cake #3 from Emicakes ($40+) D24 flavour (Husband's choice. He said his family likes to eat durian cake but hello, whose birthday is it ah?!?! I would rather choose a more interesting cake designed for children. That D24 looked so booooring. Like him. *yawnz* I had to recycle the train toy from the Prima Deli cake to make it look more attractive. -_- Seriously, I am quite sick of eating durian cakes so many times over the past few years - his father's, mother's, sister's birthdays.... all durian cakes! No more, please!!! p.s. SIL didn't prepare a birthday gift for Ying Ying for the 3rd time. I casually asked her about it and she replied sheepishly, "Need meh?" OMG. Please lah, tell me which child doesn't like pressie???? Not as if she has got so many nieces and nephews to dote on! Unbelievable. *shakes head*

(More pics coming up - got some problems uploading fotos on blogspot these days...)

Cakes aside, we took her to the Thomas & Friends show @ the Singapore Expo. I had bought the tickets the instant I heard of the show so we had really good seats - 4th row from the stage; centre; aisle. :) Guess what - we arrived 15mins before the show started and Ying Ying was chosen by an angmoh staff to be given a hat by the fat controller later in the show!!!!!!!! So lucky right? Out of so many children there!!! :) Think she was chosen because we were seated along the aisle and it was convenient for the fat controller to give away the hat after the intermission. We were so excited about it and when it was time to give away the hat, I really regretted not telling the fat controller that it was her birthday (soon) and maybe the entire audience at Expo would sing happy birthday to her. Haha!! Didn't take any picture of the exchange cos mei-mei was fussing (I was trying to nurse her to shut her up) and husband was like the type who would not take the initiative to take photographs unless being instructed. Duh! :/ Anyway, Ying Ying really enjoyed the show though husband thought the 'magic lantern festival' plot was a little lame and boring compared to Elmo's Colouring World (?) @ Downtown East and Mickey's Magic Show @ Indoor Stadium. Thought it would be great if there would be more characters like Annie & Carebelle, Bertie, James and Gordon etc...

Nearly forgot to mention we took Ying Ying to the Omnimax theatre to watch the Wild Ocean show in the afternoon after her birthday celebration in school. (Yes, husband took time off work that day *yeah!* We like the gift of time!) That would be our 3rd time there - have watched Grand Canyon and Dinosaurs Alive before that. It was a bit boring though educational as usual. I wanted to watch wall-e but husband said it was much too long for her to sit through. Anyway, I was glad we went to Omnimax instead - we could drop by IMM Daiso while waiting for the show to start. We tried going there a couple of times previously on weekends but gave up because we couldn't find any parking lot. Shopping at Daiso (Japan) was mind-boggling experience - gosh, such a wide range and array of products though most of the items which were made-in-China products. Haha! Anyway, I was sooooooo reluctant to leave the shop! :-O

So..... Saturday chilly crab dinner + Sunday teppanyaki dinner + 3 birthday cakes + party goodie bags for Ying Ying's classmates + Thomas show tickets + Omnimax Wild Ocean tickets = A memorable and COSTLY birthday!!!!! :op