This blog has the intention of documenting Hendrik’s milestones as he grows up. Since he is still very young to blog, I will be making most of the entries in this blog highlighting Hendrik’s moments during his tender years. It is hoped that in the near future, he will be able to see how far he has achieved and that he would be glad to know what a pleasant boy he is and how much he is loved by his proud parents, especially his mom. -- Feona
Hendrik celebrated his 6th
birthday party on 21 June 2014. He had chosen the Disney movie “Frozen” as his
birthday party theme. We didn’t have Elsa and Anna in the decorations so as to
keep it away from being girly. Hendrik pointed out that it is not a girly movie
as there are a lot of boys in it – there were Kristoff and his male reindeer Sven,
Prince Hans, Olaf who happened to be a male snowman, Wandering Oaken shop
owner, the Duke of Weselton, and even the giant Marshmallow created by Elsa was
also a male.
~ dessert table ~
~ Happy birthday, Hendrik! ~
~ Sven ~
~ with Fyodor & Mommy ~
~ with the whole family ~
~ the birthday boy and his cake ~
~ the North Mountain cake ~
Frozen was actually the 3rd
theme he had chosen for his party this year. Earlier in May he said he wanted
“Super Why” from the TV series he used to watch at home. Then came SpongeBob
Squarepants when he started watching YouTube videos of SpongeBob. Then, 3 weeks
before his birthday came I brought home the Frozen DVD I borrowed from the library. He liked it so much that he would watch the movie 4 times a day. He liked the music and the songs and also Kristoff and Sven. That’s when
he decided to change his birthday party theme to Frozen. We finally decided on
it and told him to not change any more. He discovered Toy Story a week before his birthday but he didn’t
mention about changing his party theme. He stood firm with our decision and
agreement.
~ cake pops ~
~ jellos ~
~ leche flan ~
~ assorted sandwiches ~
~ baby carrots and mayo-ketchup dip ~
~ fried chicken ~
~ meatballs spaghetti ~
~ pork barbeque ~
~ assorted chocolates ~
~ macaroni salad ~
~ salted pretzels ~
~ marshmallows ~
Hendrik was very hands-on
in the preparations. He wanted the real Kristoff costume as seen in the movies,
but it was impossible for us to find one in the shops. So we convinced him that we just buy him long-sleeve shirt and a
jacket to go with it, which he accepted. He also had a say when Daddy was doing
his e-invite. And of course he helped out in putting up the banner and snowflake
decorations at home.
~ Fyodor and the snow flakes on the wall ~
~ with Liam ~
~ Tita Delay's family ~
~ with Tito Niño and Tita Cookie ~
~ Tito Deo and Tita Arnie's family ~
~ serving plates to the guests~
~ pretending the toy horse to be Sven ~
~ children singing Happy Birthday to Hendrik ~
~ children singing Happy Birthday to Hendrik ~
~ the birthday boy blowing his candles ~
~ ready to cut his cake ~
~ Mommy helping the birthday boy cut his cake ~
~ brothers ~
~ with Tita Claire as Anna ~
~ watching Frozen with the kids ~
Towards the end of the
party, Hendrik showed off his talent in playing the keyboard to the remaining
select friends. He played a number of songs before agreeing to hit the sack at
11:30 in the evening to think that he woke up as early
as 7:30am to help us in the preparations on the day of his party. Despite being tired we saw that
he was excited and happy with his birthday party.=)
~ opening his gift ~
~ opening another one ~
~ the guests who stayed till late at night ~
~ entertaining the audience with his piano skills~
We celebrated Hendrik’s 4th 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 2nd 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. =)