Girly's birthday

Over the weekend, I brought niece and nephew out for a movie as well as for niece's birthday treat.

We were in a hurry, so we only had time for brunch. We were at TCC. I know the kids like to have desserts there. However, it was too rushed and not enough time for desserts. Niece just ordered her Hazelnutella Milkshake.

These two sweet kids with vastly contrasting characters.

This Minty Pumpkin Soup was specially requested by nephew. It was pretty well done.

In fact, the kids love the pumpkin soup and garlic bread so much that I had to show more pixs here.

This is the Tropical Tamarind Chicken. Basically we shared everything. It was very nicely grilled with the faint taste of tamarind and the chicken was juicy. The 2 puff thingy underneath the chicken was quite nice, it was soft cheesy buttery pastry. Niece loved that.

We also shared a Japaleno Salmon that was done medium well. The accompanying sauce was a little spicy though (japaleno mah...). I loved it. And I was the default designated person to take care of all the veggies - broccoli, asparagus, lotus root and potatoes. >__<

We rushed for our movie. Yes, I finally had the chance to catch Avatar in 3D. It was a very well-made movie. Expect Academy awards, predictably the Movie of the Year. A nice 160-minute movie that was totally worth it. I was fascinated as the hidden messages were thinly laced with concepts of interdependence, protecting the earth, interconnectedness, karma, healing etc.. This is a movie about humanism and a movie that relates to Buddhism because Buddhism deals with human nature and the challenges that we face as human beings. Perhaps I will blog about this in a separate entry. For now, I feel that director James Cameron is a modern-day Bodhisattva with his efforts on this film.

I love this photo of the kids with the Chipmunks. I thought I had better take all these photos of the kids while they are still young and don't mind posing for me, because I know one day soon they will find this embarrassing and think it is so "lame".... hehe. They have already watched this movie before. In fact they didn't mind watching it the second time if Avatar tickets had sold out. Duh... o__O

 

Today on her actual birthday, the family went Waraku for her birthday celebration. These were the Japanese food we had for dinner. Shall not elaborate each dish. Just that I was still full from today's late lunch, so was feeling quite bloated. I think I need to go on a diet SOON.

We had our cake cutting after the dinner. We were lucky we were given a corner of the restaurant where it looked like we had the whole room to ourselves. I always treasure and enjoy each outing we have as a family, thus putting together all the photos here, as they will be part of our sweet memories in the future.

The birthday girl's gifts from me. Had bought her a pair of pink Malindi Crocs a few days earlier. She chose this gift herself. And today the actual day, I gave a little white phone pouch to match her new handphone which her mommy gave. Also gave this cute tin box of Famous Amos cookies as well as ang pow! She loves Famous Amos cookies. Well, I need not have given her an ang pow since I have bought her the other gifts, but it was just a small note in another currency which she had wanted. So I thought I might as well give it to her in an ang pow. Haha!

I still remember 11 years ago on this day, I was in the hospital with sis and bro-in-law as sis went into labour. And it was a good 20 hours ordeal as she tried everything  from injections to epidural in order to have a natural birth but still nothing happened until the gynae said sis had no choice but to go for caesarian instead. And within half an hour, niece was born, all red and screaming to welcome life. I was thinking then, sis should have gone for caesarian instead of suffering 20 hours of pain! :D 

Happy 11th Birthday, Girly! Yeeyee loves you.