Nathan's Rockin' Party

I have to admit, I didn't put a whole lot of effort into planning this party until the last minute, and when I did, I resorted to borrowing ideas from Pinterest. For example, our party bags were based on what this mom did for her child.

The problem with using ideas from Pinterest is that when it links to an American site, it usually means I'll have a really tough time sourcing the items they used. In this case, I scoured all the stores I could think of for a black mesh bag. In the end, I bought kids' reflective kits just because of the bag it came in. I figured we could also include those as part of the party bag. 

We added some poppers, pop rocks, a carabiner and a figure-8 rope bracelet to complete the bag.

I got Nathan to make a little base camp sign. I thought it was a cute touch even though he didn't really love it. We kept the snacks simple this year (fruit, chips and brigadiero from our friends), started off the party with ice cream cake and turned the boys loose.

We are so happy Nathan had a good time because this was his first time rock climbing and he was great.

Nathan Turns 8

Much like the day Nathan was born, I stayed up way too late and woke way too early to prepare for Nathan's birthday. The night before, I baked his cheesecake, but remembering that Caleb was the one who wanted to make it in the first place, I left all the decorating for the morning so Caleb could help.

He usually gets up earlier than Nathan so I figured it would work out well. Unfortunately, Caleb had other plans. 

Eventually, I woke him up and asked if he'd like to help me decorate Nathan's cake and he very enthusiastically agreed. I put most of the raspberries on and he helped me sprinkle icing sugar on top. Then, he went to wake up his big brother.

A very sleepy eight-year-old eventually emerged from his room and was ready to begin celebrating his birthday.

It's become a bit of a tradition to eat his birthday cake for breakfast. Caleb sang happy birthday to Nathan all by himself this year. Then, Nathan cut up his cake and we all had breakfast while FaceTiming the grandparents. 

For dinner, a couple of our friends joined us at Sizzler - Nathan's restaurant of choice. Plus, a surprise guest made an appearance. Can you spot him? Nathan was super excited about his brand new dino pal.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all our friends and family a very Merry Christmas, wherever you are. May you all be blessed and feel the love of this season!

Caleb's 3rd Birthday Party

Caleb hasn't actually had a proper friends birthday party so we decided to finally do one this year. We went with a very loose water theme and had it at a pool because Caleb's such a water baby.

The only downside of having it on a Friday afternoon was that after Andrew dropped us off at the pool, he had to race back to school to help Nathan with his very first market stall (a separate post on that later).  Caleb splashed around while I set everything up and soon enough, our friends started to arrive.

It was a sweltering day and Caleb spent his time between the wading pool, the splash pad and the water slides. Eventually, Andrew came with the cake and it was time to sing for our little-big boy.

I attempted a blue ombré cake using this recipe. I also jazzed up the jello cups a little doing a green-blue ombré with those. The rest was easy peasy - fruits, chips and a sausage sizzle.

After three and a half hours in the water, it was time for us to head home. We had a wonderful afternoon with our friends and Caleb had used up every single ounce of energy. On the way home, he asked us to take his juice box so he could take a nap. He was out for the count so his presents had to wait until the next morning.

Here's our little Iron Man ready to rip into his gifts the next morning. He's a lucky little boy and we're so glad our friends could come and celebrate Caleb turning 3 with us. 

Happy Birthday, Andrew

Happiest birthday to my dear husband who selflessly gave up his birthday weekend to help prepare for and celebrate Caleb's birthday, support Nathan at his market stall, chauffeur three energetic boys to and from a birthday party, chaperone a sleepover and drive us and his cousin who was visiting for the his birthday to the Gold Coast yesterday afternoon.

You are amazing.

Nathan Turns Seven!

I can hardly believe that Nathan turns SEVEN today!

Yesterday on the way to school, I casually mentioned that today (yesterday) would be Nathan's last day of being six and his eyes lit up instantly. He's so excited to be seven.

Around here, once you turn seven, you've officially reached big-boy status and that's a big deal.

Seven years ago, this boy was born and I became a mom.

We named him Nathanael, which means gift of God; God has given and he really has been a gift to everyone around him.

Nathan, age 7...

He loves to read. On the rare days when he has a spare moment, you can always find him with his face stuck in a book. Right now, he's into The Magic School Bus and Imagination Station books.

He loves to play sports. Nathan's doing soccer, basketball and swimming at the moment. Next term, we'll have to pull him out of swimming so he can try some other activities. On his current "waiting" list: tennis, AFL and ice skating.

He loves to write. Everyday, he reports that he was writing stories at school. He writes his own birthday cards to his friends and he leaves little notes for me around the house.

He loves to make people laugh. He's usually the first one to do something silly to make his friends laugh at Chinese class. His laugh is infectious and you can always tell when he finds something hilarious by his unstoppable giggle.

He loves to play with Caleb. Most of their play recently involves make-believe camping trips, picnics, trips to the grocery store where Nathan teaches Caleb how to buy things, and building "houses" (i.e., each boy has their own house constructed out of pillows, blankets and whatever else they can pile up).

He loves to use electronics. This boy is drawn to electronics (Xbox, iPads, TVs, computers, etc.) like a fly to light. He's very good at navigating his way around new games, clicking through selections on DVDs and he'll sit and watch just about anything, absorbing every bit of information he can get into his head.

He has been obsessing over getting a longboard for the past few months. Ever since he stepped onto that little board at Toys R Us and realized he wasn't so bad on it, he's been asking for one. That was his one birthday wish.

Wish granted. 

Happy birthday my handsome, not-so-little boy. You're the most awesome 7-year-old I know.

Happy Valentine's Day

Our morning started off with the following conversation:

A - What do you want to do for Valentine's Day?
Me - Nothing. We don't celebrate Valentine's Day.
A - Good, because I didn't get you anything.

Then, he brought me a sword.

Just kidding, it was a gorgeous long stemmed rose but I couldn't get a picture because they boys were all over it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Goodbye, Dragon!

Tonight we went out for tuen leen fahn (New Year's Eve dinner).

A not-so traditional dinner for a not-so traditional Chinese family.

As we started our dinner, we heard the familiar drum beats that accompany the lion dance out on the street. Caleb loves dancing to beats, so he wanted to go outside to see what all the commotion was about.

Soon enough, three lions found their way into the restaurant and danced around our tables. Because there were three, it was hard for us to keep track of them all and often, one would pop up behind one of the boys scaring them.

One of them gave Caleb a fright but the girl inside was nice enough to smile and wave to him. I reassured him that it was just a lion costume and he seemed to be okay with the idea of lions. He cheered up and started roaring so I'm hoping that means I won't be up in the middle of the night with a little boy having nightmares.

The lions eventually left the restaurant and we continued chowing down on our (over) abundance of food in peace.

We bid farewell to the year of the dragon with full bellies and look forward to welcoming the year of the snake tomorrow morning!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Hello, 2013

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Eve!

My family and I said goodbye to 2012 in Sydney this year as we watched the fireworks from across the Opera House, just beside the Harbour Bridge. It was a beautiful way to spend the final moments of the year.

Last year, I greeted 2012 with enormous enthusiasm and though I don't feel quite as prepared to start anew this year, I will embrace 2013 and take things as they come.

As always, I'm excited to see what this year has in store.

Merry Christmas!

Reason 5982 you'll probably never receive a Christmas card from me: I can't even get an electronic version posted up on time... sorry, guys.

Reason 5983: even if you do receive one, it probably won't include a photograph of my family in front of a Christmas tree. We didn't take that picture until today (aka. the day after Christmas).

I'll try harder next year. One day, I will send out Christmas cards. With a family portrait.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

We had a really lovely day. 

After the boys decorated Christmas cookies and went to bed, Santa's elves Andrew and I (we deserve the credit) finished wrapping up the boys' gifts. It was a huge effort preparing for Christmas day and by the time we were ready for bed, it was 2am. 

Knowing that the boys would get up before us and that Nathan would unlock the gate for the both of them, we left them a little note so we wouldn't miss out on all the Christmas fun.

In the morning, Nathan was the first one up and luckily, he read the sign before bolting down.

 The boys ran to the tree together. I tried to capture the moment but it was all a blur. They were super excited.

Bet they had no idea what those tall, oddly shaped gifts were going to be ;)

After a quick pancake breakfast (as per tradition), we went to church for Christmas service, followed by a swim and lunch at our friends' place.

Boy, it was a hot Christmas. We sat around chatting for a while after lunch and soon it was time for us to head off to a Christmas dinner.

We've been so incredibly blessed this year to be spending our Christmas with so many different friends.

The Christmas Express

Tonight, after Andrew read the boys their bedtime stories and right before tucking them into bed, he opened a little envelope and presented each of the boys with a special round-trip ticket.

These babies took 5 minutes to make.

They were so excited even though they had no idea what it meant. We had planned a surprise outing to take them out to see the Christmas lights.

The boys ran around their room in excitement still a little clueless as to what was going on, so I told them to go downstairs and put their shoes on. Go downstairs and put on shoes? With PJs on? Go outside with PJs on? It was all so foreign to them. This made the night all the more enchanting.

When Nathan got downstairs and found out there was also hot chocolate and popcorn involved in the surprise. He was over the moon and declared it was the best day ever!

Caleb joined him in cheering and sipping hot chocolate which I had poured into a couple of Caleb's sippy cups because those were the only lidded cups we had.

With tickets in hand, the boys piled into the car.

Andrew punched their tickets and with that, The Christmas Express departed for our first destination.

The first house was not too far from us. They were the First Place Residential West and Best Lighting Display winners. As we turned the corner, Nathan recognized this as one of the houses we visited last year.

I distinctly remember taking a photo of Nathan last year, standing alone in front of the huge display of Christmas toys.

There were too many people around this year to recreate the scene and the boys were still so full of beans I didn't bother to try.

The second house we visited won Second Place Residential West and Best Synchronized Music and Lights Display. Even as we were driving past, looking for a parking spot (because it was packed!) we saw lots of people gathered to enjoy the show and I was itching to jump out of the car to join them.

I was absolutely speechless as I stood there watching. This was like something you'd see at Disney or some other amusement park. It was a huge production and I can't even imagine the amount of work that went into orchestrating such a beautiful display.

The boys were really pooped by the end of the night, but we all had a lot of fun and I'm so glad we got to do this. Maybe it'll become a Christmas tradition for us. At least next year, hopefully I'll have more than 10 minutes to prepare for it!

Our Tree Is Up!

It occurred to me this afternoon that there's 5 more days until Christmas and we still don't have our tree up! With having to wait until after Andrew and Caleb's birthdays, and then going to Bali, our Christmas festivities have been pushed way back this year and I panicked a little that we still hadn't gotten into the Christmas spirit yet.

Every year, I turn on the Christmas music and decorate the tree with a cup of hot chocolate in hand. Usually, the boys leave the house while I decorate alone. This year, Nathan wanted to help out so I left the tree bare and waited for him. However, it took him so long to eat dinner, he told me to go ahead and start decorating. I think he just wanted to see the final product.

So I turned on the Christmas tunes as he finished eating and started decorating.

This year, we managed to buy a larger tree so all the ornaments that dwarfed our tree last year were perfect this year.

Can you spot the tiny ninja ornaments from last year?

My plan is to add another set of handmade ornaments this year, and a new set every year after until our tree is full of handmade goodness.

We'll have to wait until morning to see how this tree holds up against Caleb and his shenanigans.

Nathan's Bowling Birthday Party

Nathan's birthday party was go-go-go right from the start.

After navigating our way through construction and blocked exits everywhere, we finally made it to the bowling alley.

As Nathan's guests started arriving, it was high energy as soon as they stepped inside.

A little dance party broke out as everyone was getting their bowling shoes.

We ended up having three lanes.

It was a bit of chaos keeping track of everyone but thankfully, there were some wonderful parents who stuck around to help out with the kids.

I'm glad the parents had comfortable seats to lounge on. No hard plastic bowling alley chairs here!

We were lucky enough to get some mocktails made just for us, along with our soft drinks and pink lemonade.

After a while, we were served some snacks - fresh fruit, pizza and hot chips (aka. fries). They all ended up tasting really good, which made up for the long wait.

As the last group finished their final frames, we gathered the children and we all sang happy birthday to Nathan over his ice cream cake that he designed himself!

Better view of the cake

At the end of the day, we got a big thumbs up from the (soon-to-be) birthday boy and that's all I needed to make all of this worth it.