joel is three

24 Dec 2010 was Joel's third birthday but his FIRST real birthday celebration. Before this, we never "really celebrated" his birthday with this many friends. His friends. I'm glad he started school 4 months ago and has friends whom he can name. ;)


We headed to Joel's school in the morning with 3 cake boxes! Joel doesnt know what's inside the boxes (nor that we're going to celebrate his bday in class), so he was very happy when we took out the CAR cakes! That's Cakes #1. As expected, he LOVED the blue car the most. (I was told by the seller that the smallest cake is only good for 4 person. 1 size up is good for 6 person, so i ordered 3 of this cake size becoz Joel's class has 3 teachers & 15 students on a day with full attendance. But after cutting up the first cake, we realised that it was enough for all the kids and the teachers. So we gave the 2 other cakes to the other classes to enjoy)

We had another lunch appointment with friends at Paulaner but since Joel was enjoying himself so much in school, we decided to leave him there till before his nap time. Meanwhile, we went to collect the cake from Awfully Chocolate and home to decorate it with M&Ms! That's Cake #2.

Daddy Elvis had made reservations at Paulaner becoz of their outdoor playground (although we dont have any child guests). But the temperature dropped soooo much on this day that it was freezing and not suitable to be playing outdoors. Nevertheless, Joel had a good time and a great meal with some of our closer friends in Shanghai - the people he sees regularly. After the lunch celebration, we also allowed Joel to about 15mins at the playground. (Becoz of the bad weather, we also decided last minute to leave Emma at home. We're so sorry, Little Emma.)

In the evening, we headed to Taiwanese friends' house for dinner. (Last Christmas Day, we also had dinner at their house) We didnt expect them to buy a cake for Joel! Usually, everywhere is selling only Christmas-themed cakes and logcakes...so Joel had a Santa Claus cake! That's Cake #3!

I'm sure Joel had a truly memorable birthday celebration which made up for all the smaller birthday celebrations he has had in the past.

Joel, Mommy & Daddy love you very much.

- I havent been updating my blog for the longest time...and i decided back-date it during our trip in Singapore now for CNY 2011. Wanted to take the pictures from my Facebook... only to realise that the network is soooo slow and doesnt work too well. Hence, i will post more of the pictures after i'm back in Shanghai using the VPN which is also slow... FYI, both blogspot AND facebook are banned in China. :/

emma

Here's our lovely little girl, Emma.

Born on 15 October 2010, 1146 hours
3.035kg, 47cm

Day 5
Baby Emma we are home

lilacs, greens and white

So many people said that the flowers are very pretty indeed.
Here's a more realistic colour of the pretty flowers... ;)

13 years

This day, we've been together for 13 years. The man bought me flowers too! Thank you for being so wonderful.

Elvis said the meaning of those purple flowers is 'forever'...and i had thought they were just prettier carnations. CARNATIONS!!! HAHA! ;p

happy anniversary

It's been 4 wonderful years! ;)

Sir Elly's, The Peninsula Shanghai.

pretty flowers

Yesterday was our "pak tor" anniversary. It has been 12 years!

Last year, Elvis said that we'll do away with this and only celebrate our wedding anniversary in June. (Otherwise there would be so many celebrations all lined-up: Wedding Anniversary in June, Elvis' bday in July, Dating Anniversary in Aug) Elvis had to work the whole day (Sat & Sun), but he still surprised me with a bouquet of flowers when he got home. We wanted to go out for dinner on Sun, but we decided to order delivery due to the thunderstorm.

Thank you so much! It's very pretty! Soooo much better than the last bouquet for my birthday. Haha!
(When you do 10 things right and 1 thing wrong, more likely only the wrong thing will be remembered. Keke!)

And it seems Joel doesnt like the ticklish leaves... His expression is so funny! ;)

Happy 12th Anniversary.

3 years

It was our 3rd Wedding Anniversary yesterday. Elvis took 2 days leave since it falls on a Tuesday. We thought of a few places we could go (Hainan, HK, Tokyo)...but decided to stay in Shanghai. Since it was a weekday, Ahyi is in, so we went out on a date - without Joel.

We wanted to have lunch at Tairyo Teppanyaki, but when we arrived it was closed (open for dinner). It's a shame coz we cannot have teppanyaki with Joel. We decided to walk to Bali Lagoon restaurant inside JingAn Park. The Indonesian food was good but rather expensive. After lunch, it started to rain. We went to Raffles City wanting to buy the IMAX tickets for Transformers 2 but it was SOLD OUT! So we went shopping. It rained heavily till evening. So we "dabao" dinner home instead of bringing Joel out for dinner. That's how we spent our 3rd anniversary. Nothing special, but it was the first time we went out without Joel (in Shanghai).

If you were wondering... Yes, we did call home a few times to check on him. ;)


On Monday, it rained the whole day. We brought Joel to an indoor water theme park. Joel really enjoyed himself splashing the water around him. There were a lot of people, mostly children on school excursion. Becoz it was indoors, the noise level was deafening. But we had fun becoz Joel had fun.

The indoor water theme park which was really crowded...


Joel was felt so hungry after his swim. He kept eating biscuits on the taxi...and then he actually fell asleep while eating!!!

For dinner, we went to Crystal Jade and ate all these yummy food...


28 June 2009, Sunday...

a decade ago

Here's a picture i saw on my desktop... (which i poladroided)

We look young, right?! Coz it's taken about 10 years ago (in JWT Singapore office).

P.S. I've been wanting to post some old photos on my Facebook... maybe i should get it done soon...

we did

...and still best friends.

And a few 'I do's coming up in 2009 (Agatha's & Celine's) ...and also Jessica & Ryan's which we will miss this 3rd December (which is also my 35th birthday!!!). And a Thai friend's too in Bangkok this November. ;p

free wedding announcer

I'm kinda helping a friend look for some wedding info (for her beach-themed wedding) ...and i chanced upon a wedding announcer website of a couple whose wedding will fall on Jan 2009...and held at The Marriot, Singapore.

Actually, they're a super fat couple. (Just imagine Joel's proportions x 10 or maybe more. Sorry huh, so crude.) Nothing in common with the beach theme i was googling for, but what made me read about them/their wedding is coz they also "pak-tor" for 9 years before they finally wanna get married...and also at Marriot! That's quite similar to us! I also saw from her website that Marriot's wedding themes are different now. No more garden greens which i chose for our wedding.

They really look sooo happy and cute together...their happiness is contagious! Even the music on their website sounds romantic! Haha! O my...it reminds me of the happy wedding we had! Keke... ;p

Anyway, check out the FREE wedding announcer website here! Can recommend it to any of your friends who are getting married soon. So cool! ;)

Here's a nice picture from 30-06-2006


These huge lollipops are 喜糖 "xi tang" (happiness candy) which we gave away to Elvis' Bates colleagues in Shanghai. It's their tradition to give candies after a wedding.

...matches our colourful and happy invite card! ;)

Illustration by Drewscape

happy anniversary

Today is our 2nd Wedding Anniversary! Elvis was away on our 1st wedding anniversary. We celebrated it yesterday since today is a Monday and Elvis has to work late as usual. We've both aged in these 2 years! More wrinkles & freckles!!! The air is bad here... HAHA! (Serious! It's not an excuse...u see, the chinese generally look older than their real age, right?!)

love is in the air - as always!

It was our 1st wedding anniversary yesterday, and Elvis was sorry he's away in Beijing for work. But he got flowers delivered to our home! Wow! He's such a great husband! I'm soooo touched!

I only saw the card today (coz it was hidden amongst the greens). It was hand-written by Elvis!!! I'm really soooo touched! ;D

togetherness

thank you for standing firmly beside me - always.

Love Spell
Every time I look at you
my heart skips a beat
I wonder if you know, my love,
that my heart is at your feet
I leave it there for you to do
whatever that you wish
You could take my heart,
and love me,
Or just leave me in this bliss.

- Ana Martinez -

train of thought

I just saw this on a friend's blog...
Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one, so that when we finally meet the person, we will know how to be grateful.

I'm grateful i've met the one i was meant to meet.