birthday celebrations part I
it all began on friday.
when i reached my workplace, i belatedly realized that i could actually celebrate my birthday tonight with my melville girls by getting that Awfully Chocolate banana cake that i promised them. oh dear... but it's a bit late to order the cake now, isn't it? the 8 inch one normally takes an order 3 days in advance!
i mentally kicked myself... then i decided to call the vivocity branch anyway.
'hello? yes, hi. do you have the 8 inch chocolate banana cake in store today?' *crosses fingers*
'oh normally we don't, BUT SINCE IT'S FATHER'S DAY THIS WEEKEND, YES WE DO!!'
'OH HEY THAT'S GREAT! CAN I COME COLLECT AT 6PM???'
'sure!!'
yay yay yay. i hung up, and happily planned out my cell lesson for the day, intending to surprise them with cake before the lesson, and surprise them with the dance camp cd that i'd compiled when the lesson was over. i was so happy, because i knew my girls LOVED surprises. i even msged them twice to make sure they came on time, and reminded them to bring their bibles and journals (hey, cannot forget about God yeah?).
i rushed down to vivo, reaching there at about 630pm (oops), then rushed back with alvin and cake in tow for dinner at home before cell started at 8pm.
after dinner i checked my phone... there's always either a missed call or a message every week - either one of my girls checking what time i was going to reach melville park, or aileen asking me what songs i was singing, what am i doing tonight, or whether there were enough rooms to hold the 3 groups (my girls, jacqueline's children, and nel's bunch)... etc.
woah. one missed call and one message, both from aileen. better call her back.
'viv!! are u still at home??'
'yes yes, wassup?'
'I NEED HELP. I HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO BRING DOWN FOR CHILDREN'S CLUB!!'
'wah! okok, i bring alvin along to help yeah?'
'thanks!!'
so, off alvin and i went. he was complaining of some back pain so i wanted him to take the chocolate cake and hide/rest at the swimming pool while i went to aileen's place to bring down her stuff... but he refused to! argh why so stubborn!! i was giving him the -_- look all the way to aileen's place coz he refused to listen to me.
we arrived at aileen's, and i knocked. aileen shouted something intelligible, but i thought it sounded like 'WAIT!!!' (could've been ARGH!! maybe her cat attacked her?) so i didn't open her front door.
then the front door exploded.
i was stunned, then i realized what was hitting me were party poppers and spray streamers, and 5 of my girls were in aileen's house jumping away excitedly and shouting (not in unison) 'happy birthday jiejie vivien!!!!'
i started to cry, while my mouth was still shaped in a shocked 'O' because i realized... there's no cell group today all this time, aileen was planning this all along!
and her dining table was laden with food that i KNEW they made themselves because ashley and melissa's signature cupcakes were there - 3 TIERS of them, natalie's signature chocolate cereal snacks were there as well - 2 boxes full, and there were brownies and cookies that the parents made. omg the parents chipped in too??!?! i was bawling by then, just by looking at all the effort.
natalie made me cry even more when she said, 'WE MADE A CAKE FOR YOU TOO!!'. it was a cheesecake. THEY ACTUALLY KNOW I LOVE CHEESECAKE!!! T_T
oh yes, jolie and sara ran away and grabbed a huge poster painted (using their fingers and poster paint, hahaha) 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY VIVIEN!!' and started jumping around with it...
(they were telling me how they enjoyed using their fingers to paint the words out, while i regaled them with my infamous -____- face)
while ashley, melissa and natalie grabbed a thick book and pressed it into my hands. i was so overwhelmed because they made me a SCRAPBOOK.
A SCRAPBOOK!!!!!!!!!!
i had so many questions. how did you do this? when did you start planning? aileen's idea right?
apparently, aileen kick-started the whole thing while i was away in Japan and she took over my cell for that one week. but all she did was give them an idea, THEN THE GIRLS JUST TOOK IT AND RAN ALL THE WAY ON THEIR OWN.
the poster, food, cake, scrapbook, slides (yes, there was a slide presentation later), presents, and the whole surprise party... they handled it, with help from aileen. my goodness, was it a success or what! i'm so proud of my 12 and 13 year olds!!!! *bawl*
then melissa laughed and said, 'everytime you sent us a message to be on time and bring our stuff, i kept laughing!!'
then aileen quipped, 'YAR YAR! they were all so excited, you know! this melissa messaged me while i was at work saying how excited she was, then i also got super excited!!!'
at this point there was so much laughing and crying and talking and 'vivien jie jie, see this/that!!' hahahahaha. *HUGS*
natalie kept insisting - LOOK! OPEN THE SCRAPBOOK!!! SEE THE LAST PAGE TOO!! i was a blubbering mess while flipping through the pages... could hardly see anything... i kept wondering how the heck did they manage to get all these photos of me??? (later in the night, when i looked through the scrapbook and in the midst of crying AGAIN, i realized... facebook.)
then i reached the 2nd last page, and all the girls wrote messages for me!! awww!! they even called me mummy loon. -_-
then on the last page... THEY GOT THEIR MOMS TO WRITE MESSAGES AS WELL.
sigh. i cannot take it. their planning... *shakes head*
BRAVO!!!!!
oh they also got some sparkling juice to commemorate the celebration, so i popped one and hit aileen's air-conditioning unit. oops. :P
and very belatedly did i realize that everyone knew - ALVIN (no wonder he refused to leave!!), NEL (who obviously told aileen that the chocolate cake was too small to be shared, when i messaged her that afternoon), JACQUELINE. even COLIN came down to aileen's to be the photographer of the hour. hahaha!!
jolene came a little later, with her brother jerome in tow, and complained that because she was late she missed seeing me cry. i hugged her (a little too exuberantly) and thanked her for the combined scrapbook effort.
then she asked, 'have u seen the slides yet?'
'nope.'
'GOOD!! YOU WILL CRY DURING THE SLIDE SHOW, IT'S VERY NICE. hehe.' -_______-"'
and the slide presentation was very good!! but i didn't cry, much to jolene's disappointment, hahaha.
here's the link:
SMILEBOX CREATIONS
later in the night, nel came up with her 2 boys, and then jacqueline came up with all her entire brood of children (and a few parents, hahaha) who marched into the house, sang happy birthday, shook my hand (AIYOH SO CUTE ALL OF THEM!!) and promptly inverted their plates (they had craft lessons where they used plates to make the head of the lion in Daniel's? David's? story) to collect the goodies that we couldn't finish. SO DARN CUTE LA, I CANNOT TAKE IT.
the party soon winded down and we all left at about 11pm, which was pretty late for my girls.
i am so happy. :D:D:D this is the best birthday party ever.
EVER!!!!!!!!!!
---
behind the scenes:
when i reached my workplace, i belatedly realized that i could actually celebrate my birthday tonight with my melville girls by getting that Awfully Chocolate banana cake that i promised them. oh dear... but it's a bit late to order the cake now, isn't it? the 8 inch one normally takes an order 3 days in advance!
i mentally kicked myself... then i decided to call the vivocity branch anyway.
'hello? yes, hi. do you have the 8 inch chocolate banana cake in store today?' *crosses fingers*
'oh normally we don't, BUT SINCE IT'S FATHER'S DAY THIS WEEKEND, YES WE DO!!'
'OH HEY THAT'S GREAT! CAN I COME COLLECT AT 6PM???'
'sure!!'
yay yay yay. i hung up, and happily planned out my cell lesson for the day, intending to surprise them with cake before the lesson, and surprise them with the dance camp cd that i'd compiled when the lesson was over. i was so happy, because i knew my girls LOVED surprises. i even msged them twice to make sure they came on time, and reminded them to bring their bibles and journals (hey, cannot forget about God yeah?).
i rushed down to vivo, reaching there at about 630pm (oops), then rushed back with alvin and cake in tow for dinner at home before cell started at 8pm.
after dinner i checked my phone... there's always either a missed call or a message every week - either one of my girls checking what time i was going to reach melville park, or aileen asking me what songs i was singing, what am i doing tonight, or whether there were enough rooms to hold the 3 groups (my girls, jacqueline's children, and nel's bunch)... etc.
woah. one missed call and one message, both from aileen. better call her back.
'viv!! are u still at home??'
'yes yes, wassup?'
'I NEED HELP. I HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO BRING DOWN FOR CHILDREN'S CLUB!!'
'wah! okok, i bring alvin along to help yeah?'
'thanks!!'
so, off alvin and i went. he was complaining of some back pain so i wanted him to take the chocolate cake and hide/rest at the swimming pool while i went to aileen's place to bring down her stuff... but he refused to! argh why so stubborn!! i was giving him the -_- look all the way to aileen's place coz he refused to listen to me.
we arrived at aileen's, and i knocked. aileen shouted something intelligible, but i thought it sounded like 'WAIT!!!' (could've been ARGH!! maybe her cat attacked her?) so i didn't open her front door.
then the front door exploded.
i was stunned, then i realized what was hitting me were party poppers and spray streamers, and 5 of my girls were in aileen's house jumping away excitedly and shouting (not in unison) 'happy birthday jiejie vivien!!!!'
i started to cry, while my mouth was still shaped in a shocked 'O' because i realized... there's no cell group today all this time, aileen was planning this all along!
and her dining table was laden with food that i KNEW they made themselves because ashley and melissa's signature cupcakes were there - 3 TIERS of them, natalie's signature chocolate cereal snacks were there as well - 2 boxes full, and there were brownies and cookies that the parents made. omg the parents chipped in too??!?! i was bawling by then, just by looking at all the effort.
natalie made me cry even more when she said, 'WE MADE A CAKE FOR YOU TOO!!'. it was a cheesecake. THEY ACTUALLY KNOW I LOVE CHEESECAKE!!! T_T
oh yes, jolie and sara ran away and grabbed a huge poster painted (using their fingers and poster paint, hahaha) 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY VIVIEN!!' and started jumping around with it...
(they were telling me how they enjoyed using their fingers to paint the words out, while i regaled them with my infamous -____- face)
while ashley, melissa and natalie grabbed a thick book and pressed it into my hands. i was so overwhelmed because they made me a SCRAPBOOK.
A SCRAPBOOK!!!!!!!!!!
i had so many questions. how did you do this? when did you start planning? aileen's idea right?
apparently, aileen kick-started the whole thing while i was away in Japan and she took over my cell for that one week. but all she did was give them an idea, THEN THE GIRLS JUST TOOK IT AND RAN ALL THE WAY ON THEIR OWN.
the poster, food, cake, scrapbook, slides (yes, there was a slide presentation later), presents, and the whole surprise party... they handled it, with help from aileen. my goodness, was it a success or what! i'm so proud of my 12 and 13 year olds!!!! *bawl*
then melissa laughed and said, 'everytime you sent us a message to be on time and bring our stuff, i kept laughing!!'
then aileen quipped, 'YAR YAR! they were all so excited, you know! this melissa messaged me while i was at work saying how excited she was, then i also got super excited!!!'
at this point there was so much laughing and crying and talking and 'vivien jie jie, see this/that!!' hahahahaha. *HUGS*
natalie kept insisting - LOOK! OPEN THE SCRAPBOOK!!! SEE THE LAST PAGE TOO!! i was a blubbering mess while flipping through the pages... could hardly see anything... i kept wondering how the heck did they manage to get all these photos of me??? (later in the night, when i looked through the scrapbook and in the midst of crying AGAIN, i realized... facebook.)
then i reached the 2nd last page, and all the girls wrote messages for me!! awww!! they even called me mummy loon. -_-
then on the last page... THEY GOT THEIR MOMS TO WRITE MESSAGES AS WELL.
sigh. i cannot take it. their planning... *shakes head*
BRAVO!!!!!
oh they also got some sparkling juice to commemorate the celebration, so i popped one and hit aileen's air-conditioning unit. oops. :P
and very belatedly did i realize that everyone knew - ALVIN (no wonder he refused to leave!!), NEL (who obviously told aileen that the chocolate cake was too small to be shared, when i messaged her that afternoon), JACQUELINE. even COLIN came down to aileen's to be the photographer of the hour. hahaha!!
jolene came a little later, with her brother jerome in tow, and complained that because she was late she missed seeing me cry. i hugged her (a little too exuberantly) and thanked her for the combined scrapbook effort.
then she asked, 'have u seen the slides yet?'
'nope.'
'GOOD!! YOU WILL CRY DURING THE SLIDE SHOW, IT'S VERY NICE. hehe.' -_______-"'
and the slide presentation was very good!! but i didn't cry, much to jolene's disappointment, hahaha.
here's the link:
SMILEBOX CREATIONS
later in the night, nel came up with her 2 boys, and then jacqueline came up with all her entire brood of children (and a few parents, hahaha) who marched into the house, sang happy birthday, shook my hand (AIYOH SO CUTE ALL OF THEM!!) and promptly inverted their plates (they had craft lessons where they used plates to make the head of the lion in Daniel's? David's? story) to collect the goodies that we couldn't finish. SO DARN CUTE LA, I CANNOT TAKE IT.
the party soon winded down and we all left at about 11pm, which was pretty late for my girls.
i am so happy. :D:D:D this is the best birthday party ever.
EVER!!!!!!!!!!
---
behind the scenes:
posted by feline @ 9:51 AM
