Hendrik’s 4th Birthday

We celebrated Hendrik’s 4^th birthday on Wednesday, 20 June 2012. In the morning, I surprised him by waking him up to the tune of the Happy Birthday song from one of his music CDs. I also prepared pancakes, and using strawberry syrup I formed the words “happy birthday”, a heart, and provided a candle for him to blow.

Well, at that time he was in his ‘not-in-the-mood-to-eat’ again (by the way, have I mentioned that he is a very picky eater?), so he never bothered to taste the pancakes. But he was happy to see what I’ve done with it - the letters and the heart. The display made him think of the idea of forming a heart using his hands, and asked me to take a photo of it. 

Because he was very much willing to give away his pancakes, we adults devoured it in no time =) .

My birthday present for Hendrik was the Thundercat’s Sword of Omens. I picked the Thundercats out of the many toys to give him because it was the first thing that caught my eye while surveying Kiddy Palace the night before his birthday. It was also a personal favorite when I was young. If my memory serves me right, it was the only cartoon show that would make me sit down in front of the TV (besides X-Men when I was a teenager). I remember I would always excuse myself from playing with my friends and get myself back into the house, switch on the TV around 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon to watch it. As mentioned, it was a personal favorite so I thought Hendrik might like it too.

After lunch, we headed to the mall to have Hendrik’s birthday haircut. Well, this was also in preparation for school after a month-long semester break. Besides, his birthday party was held on Saturday, 23 June, so it was also good that he had a nice hair cut  ^_^ .

Timezone at Compasspoint Mall was the next destination. We waited until he finished off the entire value of the Timezone card, and we even had to convince him several times that we needed to go out and eat snacks as we can already hear our growling stomachs.

 ~ putting out fire as a fireman ~

 ~ playing the percussion ~

 ~ inside the jeep ~

We had a sweet treat at Swensen’s. Hendrik got his favorite French fries and chocolate brownies.

We headed to Vivo City for more play time. He had his first moving truck ride. We decided to let him try it as he always love to ride the ones you see at the malls where you slip a dollar coin to make it move sideways and make sounds. He was at first very thrilled maneuvering the wheels, but got out of the truck close to 5 minutes. He was afraid that he might bump into other cars and trucks moving around also. Then he opted for the more physically exhausting play - climbing, running and jumping around the playground.

 

Toys R Us was the final stop for the day. Daddy let Hendrik chose toys as his birthday present. Hendrik was delighted to see the many toys and tried playing with several of them. Then, he settled for the more familiar sight – miniature replicas of Singapore’s SBS double decker bus, Comfort Taxi, and the garbage truck. Who would have thought that he would have chosen those?  =)  Oh well, Singapore is surely getting into him… and he was already playing with them in the train on the way home… =)

 ~ @ Toys R Us ~ 

~ playing with Daddy's presents in the train ~

We held Hendrik’s birthday party on Saturday, 23 June (3 days after his actual birthday) at an indoor play scape, Bouncing Kids, at Kovan. The place is quite new from among the indoor playgrounds in Singapore.  

His birthday theme for this year was “Hot Wheels”. Since the room was already adorned with party decorations (as part of Bouncing Kids’ basic birthday party package), we just added little extras to go with his theme – Hot Wheels dangling decors, birthday jointed banner, table cover, crepe streamer, and inflated mylar balloon. We also had the kids put on Hot Wheels temp tattoo on their hands and shoulders  ^_^ .

~ Hendrik wrote his own name tag and showing off his temp tattoo ~

~ birthday gift from Tito Allen ~

~ Hot Wheels themed cake and cupcakes ~

Of course, the birthday cake and cupcakes had to be Hot Wheels also. Although Bouncing Kids provides cake as part of the package, I still asked and especially ordered a cake and cupcakes from our usual baker, Mitzi (Tita Gracey’s good friend). She has been doing Hendrik’s cakes and cupcakes since his 2^nd birthday. I am happy that I did because Hendrik loved it. The kids and adults loved it. Not only that the cake and cupcakes were "eye-candy", the taste was also good… =)

 ~ the happy birthday boy ~

 

~ with Daddy and Mommy ~

We had some games in the activity room before we let the kids run wild inside the play scape. Daddy made a slideshow of Hendrik’s photos and had it running on the TV screen. Tita Claire was there helping me with everything – preparing the necessities for the games, adding our themed decorations in the room, welcoming and providing name tags to the kids as they arrive, putting temp tattoos on them, playing as my co-emcee, helping out with the games and cleaning up after the party. What would I do without you Tita Claire?!  =)

  ~ with Tita Claire and Mommy ~

~ doing the action song, "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man" ~

~ introducing one's self through "Meetball" ~

~ "Cake-Walk Without the Cake" game ~

~ acting like rabbits in "Hop, Rabbit, Hop!" ~

~ the "Limbo" ~

~ Hendrik was the last one to "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" ~

Since kids and adults’ food were taken care of by Bouncing Kids’ in-house caterer, we I mean Daddy never had to worry about cooking and preparing meals for the guests. We just went to the party venue and had fun ourselves. The kids had fun. And they had more fun when they went into the indoor play scape after the party. They were able to release all their energies climbing, jumping, sliding, crawling, running, laughing, and excreting huge amount of sweat.  ^_^

 

~ singing the "Happy Birthday" song ~

~ blowing the candles ~

~ enjoying his food ~

~ Mommy helping Hendrik cut the cake ~

~ distributing loot bags to his guests ~

 ~ race you to the slides!... ~

 ~ with Daddy in a pit of colorful balls ~

We left Bouncing Kids at around 10:00pm feeling happy and satisfied with the party that we just had. It was the first time Hendrik had a party like that. We were glad that he enjoyed it. In fact, he was already in a good mood when he arrived at the venue. He was playing and having fun with Kuya Liam even before we started the games.

~ Tito Aldrin, Tita Leomie, Ate Bek, Tita Shawie and Tita Tess ~

 ~ Tita Shawie, Tito Pat+baby Wish+Wifey, Tito Mike and Tito Ken ~

~ even the adults got loot bags too! =) ~

We wrapped up the evening by letting Hendrik open his birthday presents.

 

We thank everyone who came and joined us that evening. Thank you for making time for Hendrik and for us. Thank you also for your gifts. You made it a memorable one for Hendrik.  =)

~~~ end ~~~

Video Gaming

Towards the end of last month until middle of this month, Hendrik and I were able to establish a bonding routine every afternoon when I come home from work – playing “Temple Run” video game. Temple Run is about various explorers attempting to steal an idol from a temple. They have to run endlessly and as fast as they can to avoid being eaten by the chasing monkeys (although they look like bats to us). As they run, they also have to avoid pitfalls along the way and keep themselves alive to gain more points. I downloaded it on my phone as the app is free for Android phones. It is also a very popular game and is included in the list of most-downloaded app for both Android and iOS users.

 source: free-games.net

Hendrik and I would really have fun each time we take turns in playing the video game. We would also switch explorers every now and then if we get tired of one. Our favorite explorers are Guy Dangerous, Scarlet Fox (which Hendrik says is ‘sexy’) and Karma Lee. He said he likes Karma Lee because she wears ‘pajamas’  =) . So far, the highest score he got from the game is 80,000++! It’s already quite an accomplishment considering his age, huh?!

~~~ end ~~~

Afternoon Delight!

Look what I found inside our room when I came home from work yesterday?

Sweet surprise from my Hendrik...  ;-)

~~~ end ~~~