that’s it missy, NO MORE CAKE for you until you say you LOVE your mummy. >:(

a big thank you to our wonderful family for celebrating with us. :)

“princess theme? fairy theme? ballerina theme? princess-fairy-ballerina combo/hybrid/mutant?” we mulled and nibbled, nibbled and mulled.

“how about mermaid? Ariel IS technically a princess…”

“hmm, mermaid… fishes… seafood… mmm…” a quick call to Fish & Co. to make a reservation for the guests, who were concurrently texted, and we were good to go.

can you tell by now that the highlight of a party for me is filling up goody bags for the kids? it was, erm, unfortunate that i could not fill glitter-glued goody bags with, oh-i-don’t-know, shell necklaces, sparkly combs, diamante stickers, The Little Mermaid dvds… because 80% of our little guests were boys, who would surely declare the contents as “lame!” and proceed to stomp the bags into a glittery pulp.

on the other hand, no one can say no to a cute, friendly crab.

my favorite item – these came in a box of 3 different titles which i unpacked to give out individually, so a family with 3 kids would get a complete set. plus, they glittered. without being… girly.

i ended up hanging around the aisle of toys ‘r’ us for half an hour playing with this. i knew the kids would like it because: a) it is a toy, b) it is not a book, c) it will keep them occupied for a while, d) it will never run out of battery, e) it will never get spoilt, f) their parents will want to play with it too. (well, i did.)

and WHICH KID DOES NOT LIKE STICKERS? please tell me.

the obligatory mix of foodstuff. because you have to feed kids at parties or they’ll cry foul and complain to the Association of Universal Goody Bags.

and now this has nothing to do with the goody bags, but it was the only thing that had an ACTUAL mermaid on it. and it definitely made the girl (and all the boys) happy, because it was sooo cold and yummy. :D

I LOVE BIRTHDAYS.

#brrr

everybody, now!

(oh, what a poor little girl will do for another slice of bread.)

“DADDY, can i do my homewooooork??”

what the…..

(i am ashamed to say, she has turned into an activity-slash-assessment-book fiend, despite my worst efforts. yes, i have turned to The Dark Side. in moments of weakness. at Popular bookstore, the axis of evil…)

i was initially apprehensive when i saw his spelling list (twice a week, starting from the third week). they went straight into long vowels, double letter words, and past tense. how delightful.

i turned ‘a-n-i/m.a.l.s’ into a catchy rhyme. i bribed him with a kiss for every correct word. i barked “LONG VOWEL E, ‘E-A’!” probably a hundred times. i promised a scream at his sister every time he got the word ‘screamed’ right. (hey don’t judge, it worked.) his daddy and oma too took turns to – shall i say it? – *drill* him. yes, the dreaded drilling has (sadly) begun….

gladly, his ejaan (once a week, phew) was slightly less stressful. i was more amused by the stickers than the fact that he got them all correct. the stickers say “Teruskan” and “Menakjubkan”. indeed. :D

atrocious handwriting aside, i think he did ok. we asked if he copied. he assured us he didn’t. because everyone did this: *demonstrates hunching over with arm covering book*.

**********

meanwhile:

and yes, she still enjoys prancing around in a tutu. am happy to oblige, miss auni…

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the little girl has something to say about brushing teeth….

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spotlight for the past few days had been about her brother. today it’s her.
she’s really happy to go to school.

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hoping it won’t be rainy where we’re flying off to tonight….

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a father and his children and their dog go on an impromptu adventure to hunt for a bear, overcoming obstacles of nature in the form of swishy grass, sploshy river, squelchy mud, stumbly forest, and swirly snowstorm (gotta love alliterations!). they find that they can’t go over or under these obstacles – rather, they have to go through them, battling their discomforts and fear, all in the name of thrill and adventure. they end up in a cave by the sea, where they do eventually come face to face with… well, a bear. which makes them all helter-skelter trace their route home (and here’s where the kids put their memory skills to use), the bear close on their heels. and they resolve, all huddled together under the bed covers, never to go on a bear hunt again, however exhilarating the experience was.

i like how naturally playful the children are portrayed, and the subtle ways they look out for one another; the older siblings taking turns to carry the baby, the older sister helping her younger sister put on her muddy shoes, the baby reaching out his hand to his older brother and dog as they cross the river.

and i know the bear’s made the villain in the story, having chased the family all the way home and seemingly trying to paw his way through their front door. but i prefer to interpret the bear, shoulders slumped, trudging back to his gloomy cave all alone, as somewhat… despondent. sad, because all he wanted was to be part of the family.

BUT THAT’S JUST ME BEING EMO.

as for auni, well, the repetition of these catchy, sing-song lines won her over, obviously.

and hey whaddaya know, a stage adaptation of this book is coming to town in jan/feb next year, and if you have funds to spare, sistic is selling the tickets. (though, as what i mentioned on twitter, it’ll probably cost me less to go on an actual bear hunt than buying tickets for the family to go to the thea-tuh, sigh.)