Hi-Tech Girl

Considering how geeky and hi-tech her parents are, is it any wonder that Beth has already mastered the use of the mouse/trackball at the ripe old age of 3? Today we went to the library to return some books and at our library there is a great little kid's computer... it has a jumbo sized keyboard and mouse/trackball... Beth spent a good 15 minutes sitting there playing this jumbled up animal game. After that, she sat and did some puzzles... I know most people go to the library for the books, but apparently we go there for the computer and the puzzles...

Butterfly Girl

Today we had our breakup Christmas party for the playgroup we go to on Tuesdays... What an event it was, with a couple of hundred people attending! Elizabeth and I had such a great time, even though it was incredibly hot and humid! (Unfortunately, Phan had to go to a work thing so couldn't come along.) The theme for the Christmas party was "Teddy Bears Picnic", so everybody brought along a teddy bear or much loved soft toy... Elizabeth insisted on bringing along our Cancer Council teddy bear "Dr Dougal" and also her soft toy dragon (a recent present from her birthday... Thanks again Gina, Sebi & Gaby!)

Events kicked off with everyone congregating in the auditorium for a concert and everybody singing "Rock-a-bye Your Bear" (a famous Wiggles song for those of you who have been living under a rock) and progressed with a rendition of "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around". The main event was an illusionist (Christopher something... apparently he's on Toasted TV, so he is quite famous) who was fantastic... captivated the kids, amusing sense of humour and his illusions were amazing... I was scratching my head at how he achieved his tricks!... I thoroughly enjoyed watching him... After the illusionist, we sang some more songs... Beth was happy that we sang her favourite song at the moment which is called "Great Big God" (she loves dancing and singing to it!) and then Jingle Bells... and then we had a visitor from the North Pole... Santa himself... (except Beth was absolutely terrified of him... her reaction this year was exactly the same as last year... she huddled in my lap and closed her eyes really tight and held onto me tight as she waited for him to go away... Lucky our friend Claire went up and got Elizabeth's present from Santa on her behalf!

After the concert part, there were tonnes of different things to do... a jumping castle (which Beth avoided due to the large number of children in there... wise I think!), an inflatable slide, an animal farm, playdough tables, photobooth and Christmas craft where we made a little paper manger with a baby Jesus in it... and morning tea was provided with lots of yummy things to eat like teddybear cupcakes, and teddybear shaped nutella sandwiches (Beth was in heaven!). The highlight of Beth's day was getting her face painted for the first time... she asked for a pink butterfly and sat very still while she had it painted and didn't touch or smudge it at all afterwards... Beth actually fell asleep in the car on the 10 minute car ride home and I managed to put her into bed and she had her nap without smudging the butterfly at all! So when she woke up I took the photos above of her on my good camera... I have a few snaps on my point and shoot from the morning itself which I'll post up if they are any good...

All in all a fabulous was to round off what was a wonderful year for us at playtime... the church, the coordinator and the many volunteers did an amazing job of putting on such a great party for everybody... We felt very lucky to be part of it all!

The Cupcake Party In Pictures...

Finally got around to putting together an album from the party... They aren't the most artistic photos I have ever taken, but I was so busy doing party stuff and in between was actually enjoying myself at the party, that I really wasn't in the right frame of mind. On the whole though, I'm quite pleased with how these "happy snaps" turned out... it essentially captures the fun that we had at the party, which really is what photos should be about! Enjoy the slideshow!

Cheers (Vietnamese Style)

Sorry for the delayed post... it was Beth's birthday yesterday, but I never actually got around to doing a post because all the planning for the party on the weekend caught up with me and I ended up going to bed early. And then tonight we had a 1.5 hour blackout due to some storm activity... only just got power back... but we spent a funny hour and half lying in the semi dark playing funny word games and laughing with Beth...

Photos are coming (Phan has built me a new super duper fast computer optimized for Photoshop CS4.. :)), but just to tide you over, here's a little video snippet of us at dinner last night for Beth's birthday... we are saying "Vo", which is Vietnamese for "Cheers"... :)

Elizabeth's Cupcake Decorating Party

Today we celebrated Elizabeth's 3rd Birthday (one day early, her birthday is tomorrow) by having a few little friends around and having a cupcake decorating party. Lots of cake, lots of sugar and lots of fun had by all... kids and parents alike...

I've been planning this party since September and I've had so many ideas running around my head the last 2 months... Some of which I began to slightly regret as the party approached (such as my insane idea to sew a dozen little aprons for the little attendees to wear while decorating the cake (which they also got to take home as a party favour)... it was quite time consuming... but in the end I'm glad I went to the effort, because everybody looked so cute wearing their little aprons and I think it really made the party look special)... We also made everybody a little paper chef's hat as they arrived, which really completed the outfit... the children all looked perfect dressed up as bakers!

2 dozen cupcakes, 2 dozen mini muffins and several dishes of lollies, sprinkles and other decorations and everybody really got into the spirit of things and created marvellous colourful creations! The parents even got in on it as well...

I have to make a special mention and thank Elizabeth's Bac Bao Anh who decided to come up and visit us and join us for the party... Her assistance was invaluable... Thanks so much Bao - couldn't have done it without you!

More photos are a-coming, but I just wanted to share this little photo of our birthday girl looking the part of the baker and showing off her cupcake!