Ali's first birthday party - Day 2

The fun does't stop. We have round 2 of birthday party the next day. This time we have our family over. Learn from yesterday's mistakes, we decided to have the lunch indoor this time. Much, much cooler inside the house. No crazy farmer tan, no boiling cola, no sweating like a pig. Live and learn. The second party is a lot easier too in the sense that there are only 2 kids and one baby.

Andrew is 8 and Caleb is 4. Since they are much older, they can play independently and it is much easier to handle compare to Ali. Suffice to say that hubby and I got a lot of time to talk and eat! It is nice to have so many babysitters!

Grandpa playing with Ali:

Por por and kung kung having a good time.

Ali and her great-grand:

Ali and her other grandmother:

Of course we can't have a party without Ali's goo ma and goo cheung!

Anders' three cousins took turns playing with the birthday girl. Here is bew goh geh Kari.

Ali: Why are you crawling?? You know only babies crawl and I am a baby!

Uncle Edmund and Aunt Andria playing ball with the little one:

Ali's second birthday cake. Daddy and mommy once again used Ali's birthday as an excuse to buy another yummy mango cake!

Time to open up presents:

Uncle Warren and Aunt Karyn gave Ali story books! They sure know Ali too well!

Aunt Marie, Uncle Ming, Andrew and Caleb got Ali a nice toy set.

Caleb: Hey Ali, can I play with the toy now? Mommy said we should share our toys, you know.

Ali: Ummmm...okay!

A BIG thank you to all my wonderful aunts, uncles (yes, Caleb and Andrew, you are my uncles!), grandparents and great-grand for celebrating my first birthday with me! You guys are SO AWESOME!! I have had a terrific time hanging out with you guys!! Thank you again for all the cool gifts too!! Now I just have to find out where mommy kept them...she always hides my toys when I am not looking!

Ali's first birthday party - Day 1

I can't believe Ali is almost one. In our pre-Ali days, we loved to host. We have people over all the time. But since our baby girl has arrived, we were not able to do that much hosting anymore. Since Ali's birthday is coming up, we want to take this opportunity and have a big party to celebrate her birthday and treat our wonderful friends and family who are always there for us. The first day we have our friends and Ali's friends over at our house.

Babies took turn using Ali's high chair:

Ali: Look at these two. They are all dressed up. Yes, I am a very important baby! Uncle Ron and Aunt Maria, you guys are the best.

Actually, they were all dressed up because they had to go to a wedding. No, it's not because of you, Ali!

Aunt Mish and Baby Avery:
Cutie Sammy:

Ali's bff, Kaley:

and of course, karate baby Allison:

It was really, really hot and sunny on Saturday and all of us were melting under the sun. After lunch, we brought the pool out for the little ones to splash around. Allison had a great time playing in the cold water.

Kaley and Sammy had an awesome time too. Avery is too young to get in the water. Every baby had a terrific time....well, except for our Ali. She was so, so scared and was crying the whole time we were there.
Didn't get any better after she got back in the house either. Ali was crying bloody murder for a while.

Calm down a bit after some gentle hugging from Aunt Brenda and Uncle Carlo:

Back to playing with toys:

Let's see who can crawl the fastest! (Yes, Ali finally figured out how to crawl forward. Yay!)

The Birthday Girl!

Outdoor pool

Summer is finally here and our little hot water bottle does not take the heat that well. We stripped her down and let her roam around the house in diapers, but she still has heat rash. To help to keep her cool, we bought an inflatable pool so that she can splash around when it gets too hot. We learned from our last swimming session that Ali is a scary cat. She loves splashing water around in her little tub, but anything bigger than that she seems to have trouble, so we let her play in the pool inside the house to ease her into it.

Although the box says medium pool, it is much bigger than we anticipated. To give you a sense of how big it is, I ask hubby to take a picture with Ali.

Still can't tell? Let me hop in and show you! Even with my gigantic butt in it, there is still a lot of room to move around. Yup, definitely big enough for 5 babies to splash around. Alright, let Ali and her friends play in the pool on her birthday. Stay tuned to find out how the babies like it!

On a different note, Ali's favourite uncle (Uncle Peter) sent her a few Snoopy items from Tokyo Snoopytown! Woot hoot!!! I think it's more for me than for her, really. Uncle Peter went to Japan for a business trip, so I asked him to pick up 2 medium sized Snoopy dolls for Ali. It's my evil plan to get Ali really really like Snoopy, so that I have an excuse to buy more Snoopy stuff for her (and for me to look at!!! Muhahahhahaha...) The Snoopys are so cute and adorable that I don't have to heart to open them yet! Gosh, gotta give them to her soon. Thanks a million, Peter!

Another fun playdate!

In the last little while, reality starts to sink in. I am going back to work in a month and a half! What?? My 14 month maternity leave is coming to an end?? I have to go back to my old job of being terrorized by teenagers? On that note, I started to book as many play dates as I could, hopefully get to enjoy a few more moments of my own baby monster terrorizing me.

Meet my high school buddy Connie's sweet daughters, Mavis (15 months old) and Sylvia (3 years old):

As soon as Ali sat down, she made a bee line to the sisters' stash. No need to warm up to strangers, just give Ali toys and she is all good.

Sylvia: So this is the letter T. Just like the word toys, see. T for toys.

Mavis: Oooooh! My sister is so smart.

Ali: Aaa, are you done with that? Can I play with it now?

A: Hey, don't get too close. Mommy said you shouldn't tailgate. It's dangerous, you know.

M: Okay, I will move my ride. Man, that baby is scary. She has blood all over her mouth, she must be a biter! I must warn my sister!

A: Mavis is so gullible! That's cherry juice on my face, wahahaha!

The girls get along much better after we gave their "vehicles" a bit more space.

Connie, thank you so much for hosting!! Both Ali and I have had a great time! We gotta get together at least one more time before I head back to work! Hope to see you soon!

Happy swing-swing time!

Ali first time on a swing:

Playing on the swing with mommy:

And then it's daddy's turn:

Ali wasn't too scared, which we were very surprised. She can be such a chicken sometimes. She seemed to be a little indifferent about the whole experience. I think we were much more excited than Ali! Ha!

Water park

We went to Granville Island to check out their water park for kids. It's very cute and there are many water sprinklers, water slides and kids fire hydrants for the little ones to play with. Ali is still too young to really play in the water so we just let her play with the mini water fountain and touch the water a bit. Man, the water is ICY cold!! Her little hands were freezing cold after playing with water for a few minutes on and off. She was intrigued and curious at first, but I think the cold water really got to her and she started to fuss a bit after. A really great place to hang out on a really hot day!

Pictures with Aunt Mish & Kaley and Aunt Lyse & Tasha. What a fun day! Thanks Aunt Jackie for taking these beautiful pictures! =)

Sharon & Ray's wedding

Our good friends, Sharon and Raymond, invited us to their wedding banquet last week. The dinner was fantastic. As usual, lots of good food and you never leave hungry when you go to a Chinese dinner!

The three Spam lovers (potentially four...although I do hope Ali does not have this bad addiction like her mama):
This is the first wedding that Ali has attended. She was very well behaved. We were a little worried at first that she would get bored and started crying and all that jazz. But it turned out she had a terrific time. Her bed time is 8:30 and we did not leave the restaurant until 9:30, oops! They were just starting to serve lobster when we left. We only had time to taste one and man, it's so darn good!!!!

While Dada was feeding her mangoes, Ali grabbed on to Uncle Ron's hands and posed for Aunt Maria at the same time. Talking about multi-tasks!

The gang all dressed up!
Picture with the Coldhams:
Aunt Maria trying to sneak in a kiss:
Uncle Ron tried to recruit Ali (he plays in a band) by introducing percussion instruments such as chopsticks and beer can.
Playing up and downs with Uncle Ron. Boy, his arms must hurt the next day!

Picture with Aunt Rupinder, the Stainmaster. (She can remove almost any stains!)

Ali playing with her favourite toy, paper! She is obsessed with paper! Just give her pieces of paper and she could keep herself busy for a good half an hour! What a funny baby!

Showing off her rainbow trout to Uncle Ron:

We have had such a great time at your wedding, Sharon and Raymond. Thank you again and a big congratulations to you two!!