Nathan's 7th Birthday

Have I not blogged for 6mths? That's a really long time. We celebrated Christmas and Chinese new year, and even Daddy's 40th birthday, and I have not documented any of these events. But I am going to write about my big boy's birthday celebrations first. This year's plans were alittle trickier as he's in primary school and you can't just skip school like the kindi days. We have to write an official letter to the teacher. I thought, just cut off the hassle and celebrate during the weekends then. The wk end before his birthday, nathan and dad had a boys' outing to River Safari. They visited the pandas but most of all, to see the reptiles. He's very into the crocs and snakes the past one yr, completely amazed at their behaviours and fiercesome ways. I don't like them one bit. Then we went bowling, on the same friday. It was the kids' first attempt. No strikes, just some rolling and trying not to fall off letting go of the ball. Hannah didn't even have a shoe size that would fit her! She was happy just rolling a bright pink bowling ball to and fro on the floor with me. Nathan was glad he had many trials. Then we had a party with 5 other families at our function room. I planned some games, decorated the walls with balloons and had a craft session of t-shirt drawing with fabric crayons and markers. Think that was a highlight for most kids. We played pictionary, obstacle course, and a water balloon hide and seek at the playground. After cake cutting, we dipped in the water. Nathan had fun shooting water with his friends. He said swimming was the best part of the party. Next day sunday evening, we blew off more candles at grandma's house. Then came his actual birthday. The morning at breakfast time, mummy took out his last two presents - a ukele and floor mat, tried strumming on the little instrument ansd sang him a birthday song. He looked really shy, but he was touched, I could see. We gave him our self made card too. I tried looking for many activities including horse riding, playgrounds, waterplay etc, and finally, settled on longkang fishing at bottle tree park at Yishun. We were so glad it was opened. The one nearer our home at kids kampong was closed for school outing. Nathan loved it alot. He had so much fun catching fishes with his net! He did really well. We caught as many as 20 fishes and brought them home happily in 2 small tanks. But disaster strike when we put in more tap water and transfered the whole lot into a bigger tank. Within an hour, many of the fishes dropped dead. We suspect its th clean water we poured in that gave them their shortened life. Our fault. We could explain to our saddened kids that we learn from our mistake. Pond water fish needs pond water, not tap water. Nevertheless, it was the thrilling experience of chasing after fishes and catching them that was really wonderful. I bet Nathan could not agree more. Hannah had to skip school. Nathan left for his afternoon school in a rush. Finally, because Bakerzin failed to deliever the cake we ordered last sat, they gave us a complimentary cake, we decided on a surprise party for him after school at home. We invited Jonah Goh and his family to join us for a pasta meal. It was chicken aglio aglio for the adults, and pumpkin soup, and chicken tomato pasta for the kids. I can't wait to open a bottle of wine to celebrate our son's triump 7th yr old birthday!