Time flies

Four years ago, we became parents for the first time ever. What an exciting experience and joyful journey though sometimes frought with stress and worry.

Yesterday my girl turned 4. As usual we kept it simple. My kids have never known a big celebration, not even for the full moon (ie. the first month after birth). Its always just us and at the most with grandpa or one or two aunts as an additional guest. No big party at McDonalds, no caterers, no special home parties with clowns and lots of presents. Still, I think they enjoy themselves.

Three weeks ago, we started the countdown. Everyday, my girl would put a cross on the desk calander to count how many days to go to her birthday. We did birthday crafts. She did her own Happy Birthday banner with crayons, decorated with flowers and stars glitter stickers.

Yesterday, we did our normal Sunday routine, went to the park and packed some breakfast home. We stopped by the bakery for her to choose her own cake and party hats. She chose two Hello Kitty toys to be put on top of her cake instead. Mummy saw them decorating the freshly baked American Chocolate cake and said "I want that" so we got a cake fresh out of the oven. Yippee!

Back home, Mummy bathed and washed the kids hair. My girl asked daddy to dry her hair for her and she chose to wear her Chinese New Year cheongsam. We blew up balloons after that, hung them up and stuck her banners on the wall. Then it was time to sing the birthday song, blow the candles and cut the cake. The stupid videocam kaput so we had to rely on the digicam instead. We had cake and ribena for lunch!

We teased her by giving her a small book for her present but she did not complain even though she had hoped to have a tunnel to play with. Later on, we brought out the real present, a pop out canvas tunnel and camp. She loved it. So did baby. Mummy tried to crawl into the tunnel too but got stuck halfway and had to crawl out backwards!

At naptime, mummy read her new book for her "Storytime for 4 year olds". In the evening we continued with our Sunday ritual. Took the kids out to pack dinner at a nearby shopping complex. The kids enjoyed a kiddy ride on a small train which ran around and around a small track. The kiddy ride is more worthwhile when you have two kids as they can share the ride!

At night she played with her tunnel some more before mummy packed it up and call it a day. All in all a very small but lovely birthday celebration. Coming next week, my 5th wedding anniversary. I have no ideas how to celebrate it. Any ideas?