Our BIRTHDAYS as ONE.....2013 !!

March and April are the months that our family is looking forward to, especially the little ones. There will be a line of events and birthday celebrations, with son's birthday in March and the rest of us in April.

This year, son celebrated his 7th birthday overseas. We drove in to Nusajaya, Johor Bahru, just across the Singapore border through Tuas checkpoint. Yup, it's none other than the newly opened attraction, Legoland, the brick city. Though our cheeks reddened from basking in the hot afternoon sun, it was nevertheless fun and my son had enjoyed himself. He begged us to return in the following year for his next birthday celebration again.

 Son with the 4D specs ready for the show. And our BIG winnings from playing basketball shooting game. (Hubby was once the uni basketball team player :) So it was not a big deal for him to aim!)

Both kids experienced a driving lesson in Legoland. They were taught on traffic rules and real life road circuit. At the end of the course, each of them earned a driving licence with printed photograph for RM20 per licence.

 Not forgetting to get himself a huge birthday pressie as promised, a box of Ninjago brick game, which costed RM700 over. He knew how to pick the best pressie, didn't he? You could see his entire face was lit up brighter than the sun rays.

 Early April, we celebrated hubby's birthday in Black Angus Steakhouse, located at Orchard Parade Hotel. The ambience was good, not so crowded compared to Morton's The Steakhouse. Both originated from America, but we prefer the later. Since we are red meat lover, I think I should blog about the best place for a divine steak meal in Singapore...hahaa

 Hubby ordered rib-eyed and lobster combo, which came with soup or salad and mashed potato or steamed veges. 

 Kids shared the chicken teriyaki platter, served with fries and steamed veges.

 For myself, I had Tenderfoot Filet Mignon...served with red wine sauce.

 We had a simple celebration for hubby on that night.... 

Towards the end of April, hubby gave us a surprise and had reserved a room in Marina Bay Sands Hotel. MBS Hotel is one of the Singapore's iconic 5-star hotels which offers expansive view of city skyline. When I traveled to Tokyo, last November, I had a short conversation with a local, a woman in her fifties, and she told me she wished to stay in MBS Hotel one day if she happened to visit Singapore. It shows that MBS is quite renowned to the outside world, where you can actually find a lot of tourists spending a night just to experience the excitement of swimming in the infinity pool of MBS, overlooking the best city view of Lion City.

Having be informed about the stay, we were all in high spirits the day before. I quickly got daughter a bunch of balloons for the celebration. We were gonna paint the town red!



Unluckily, daughter 'lost' her balloons when she accidentally let go her grip, and we watched the balloons rose to the top of MBS high ceiling in dismay. But doting hubby came to the rescue, he wandered around The Shoppes, and found the ArtBox where daughter selected a new bunch of balloons, this time with a bigger blown up Snow White...:D

 We checked in at 3p.m. only to find that our room was not yet ready! To our horror, we were quite disappointed with the service provided by the so-called 5-star hotel. The staff at the registration counter explained that MBS is always fully booked, and it is always busy and packed with tourists. We were allowed to check-out one hour later the next day. But I still think that they ought to improve their service, other than the slow registration procedures!

Finally we checked into our room with unobstructed view of Gardens by the Bay and Keppel Bay, on the 42nd floor, at 5 p.m.

Wasted no time, we changed into our swimming costumes, and scurried to the 57th floor where we jumped into the long awaited infinity pool. There was already a crowd in the pool....mostly with cameras and shooting devices in tow. Many were there not for a swim, but more on the view and photography.

The brilliant azure sky with postcard view of Singapore skyline was definitely a lure for everyone just to be there once, soaking and basking in the iconic infinity pool of MBS!

Had some light snacks of crispy fries and juicy satays which were grilled to perfection before dinner, beside the pool. Hubby reserved a table in CUT at 8 p.m. CUT is one of the celebrity chef restaurants in MBS. It is Chef Wolfgang Puck’s modern take on the American steakhouse. Boasts as one of the top steakhouse in the United States, its signature menu features a selection of the finest cuts of beef.

The fine dining steak dinner ended with birthday desserts for both daughter and myself.....with birthday wishes dribbled on with chocolate sauce as per instructed by hubby :) How sweet!

After which, we had another round of candle-blowing and cake-cutting session in the comfort of our hotel room. Though we were stuffed from the extravagant steak dinner, we still managed to savour a slice or two of the rich chocolate cake since it was a happy occassion for more stuffing!

 A family portrait with the help of camera timer...

At last, daughter fit into her princess dress which she never had a chance to wear since my purchase from Tokyo Disneyland end last year...of course she was more than happy to have her birthday celebration pictures being snapped, dressed in a gorgeous Cinderella's dress, completed with a tiara!

And on the actual day of my birthday, I have never expected hubby would give me another sweet delight or should I say, a SURPRISE.. I received a bouquet of sweet smelling white roses, 99 stalks in all. And the messages written on the birthday card deeply touched my heart too! Thank you hubby for your thoughtful and loving gifts, not only on special occassions but you have showered us with so much precious be it your loves or gestures. YOU are not only the best daddy to our two angels but also a doting hubby who always stands and provides for the family....

I adored white, as it is always my favourite colour....99 stalks of white roses simply denotes ones unconditional yet pure, innocent, worthy loves till the end of his days...awwww, how romantic..*feel so blissed and loved!*

There goes our birthday celebrations for year 2013....ironically, we neither can turn back nor slow down the ticking biological clock, but I am sure that with every birthdays, each year, will only make us a wiser person and age is not just a number anymore, it's all about the wisdom that counts!

Birthday celebration....

There are a bundle of birthday joys happening in March and April. Early March, my dad celebrated his 64th birthday. He had a cheesecake from Bengawan Solo with humongous juicy strawbies, decorated on top. The size of the cake was just perfect for us and the cheese was not too heavy. It was quite light, and fluffy as compared to normal cheesecake.

The picture below looks tempting, right? Do you feel the urge to get a slice of cheesecake now?

It feels a bit poignant, when I see how the candles fighting for that little space on the cake, as one's age catching up. @__@""

Dad blew his candles, together with my kids..of course after a birthday song and wishing was made.

My son follows, after my dad's birthday...his own 6th birthday celebration in his school.

A birthday wouldn't be complete with a bowl of long life noodle (mee sua), served with drumstick and egg, to symbolize good fortune and luck ahead the year.

We had a simple dinner to commemorate son's birthday at Hai Tien Lo, in Pan Pacific Hotel.

Here, we dined in an exquisite award-winning Cantonese cuisine while immerse ourselves with breathtaking views of Singapore city and harbour.

The extensive menu..

The table setting surrounds the full glass panel, allows better view of city skyline. I swear you can see the Singapore flyer from a corner too.

Yes, it's certainly true...

Braised sharkfin with special broth and chunky crab meat.

Love my sharkfin soup...

The award-winning Hai Tien Lo....recommended. For those who have not been here, can try both their dim sum selection or Cantonese cuisine. Both are worth the try.

Around Pan Pacific ground floor area...walking towards the lift, which will lift you up to 37th floor, where Hai Tien Lo is located at.

Yesterday, my kids and I had a secret plan, which was to present a DIY birthday cake to hubby for his coming birthday. We celebrated hubby's 36th birthday, a week in advance, as I will be off to Bangkok for some shopping spree with my friends. :)

We had a simple yet satisfying teppanyaki lunch at YakiYakiBo, at Jurong Point, before the important task.

Some of the dishes that we had, salmon, beef which comes with scallops and prawns, sauteed mushroom and bean sprouts.

After the meal, we headed to Icing Room, to have our DIY cake ready for tonight's dinner with hubby. All this was planned without hubby's knowledge. :)

There are 3 sizes with 2 types of sponge cake to choose from. We chosed a medium size with chocolate blueberry sponge cake, instead of vanilla. Their cake range is splendid, especially the chocolate blueberry, as you can really bite on lots of chunky berries stuffed within the chocolate sponge cake, and most importantly, it's not overly sweet. We bought some of their sugar decor thingy for our DIY cake. FYI, our DIY cake package came with 5 different colours of icing and a packet of some decoration item. If you want to have a more impressive DIY cake, be prepared to fork out more. But it's really worth every cents spent.

The first step was to decorate the cake with some colourful icing....

And this was our end product, with 3 little bearies which represented my kids and me, wishing hubby a very Happy Birthday...as you can see the word Birthday was deliberately left out due to space constrain. :(

I was so thrilled over our very first DIY cake...

Placed a cutie bearie as a final touch to the cake...

We brought along the cake to The Prive, located at 2 Keppel Bay Vista Marina, at Keppel Bay. We had a wonderful al fresco waterfront dining experience. Our dinner was completed with some starters of oysters trio (cucumber& dill, lemongrass & chilli, and 1 more which I have forgotten), roasted jumbo squid served with rosemary, tomato cancassee and pesto, Blue Swimmer crab cake with sauteed sweet onion and rouille; main servings of Ribeye Cap (hubby's), Eye of the Ribeye (mine), seafood tagliatelle in tomato base (for both kids).
 
Pardon for no foodie snaps attached, as I was kind of bewitched, that I accidentally pressed on a button, which deleted all the data in my DSLR. S**T!!!!! F**K!!! What a luck! I did this when I was on my home, while checking on all the lovely photos. Man!!! Do you know that I almost soaked in tears!! AARGHHHHH!!! Damn IT! Anyway I still have some photos kept in my I-phone and digital camera, just some not many...but it still better than nothing, right? Right? That's what my hubby said, in order to make myself feel BETTER. Lesson learnt....always bring along whatever shooting device that you have with you, catch all the memorable moments every bit here and there....who know this thing might happen to you too.....That's why my friends once teased me that I was one of a very busy photographer....LOL....can't help laughing at myself!
 
At The Prive, al fresco dining before the dusk set in...
 

Mine: Eye of the Ribeye, snapped using I-phone...:(

The below photos were taken using my digital camera......

All the below photos were shot by son.....I felt most grateful that he was holding my camera at that point of time, because during the critical moment when the cake was served, I was busy capturing the pictures with DSLR. Looking back, I have these memory remained all because of my son...:). Thanks Darling....so sweet of you...

After the meal, our DIY cake was served by a friendly waiter with 3 and 6 candles on top to denote hubby's 36th birthday celebration. Hubby was amused with the cake, when the cake was brought out from the kitchen.

Because of my stupidity, I lost all the photos captured using my DSLR...It's gone within seconds, before I could even blink my eyes...sob sob!

Cake cutting session...

Our family portrait.....at The Prive, Keppel Bay. Luckily, this was taken using digital camera, a BIG relief!

Next Friday....which is also Good Friday..I am off to Bangkok. Before my flight, I contemplate to return to The Prive cafe for its brunch menu. That's a promise from hubby...heheheeee.......as he knows that I feel so remorseful and regretful of loosing pictures taken at The Prive and also the whole process of DIY-ing the birthday cake!

BTW, my daughter and my birthday are around the corner too...after my Tokyo trip. Wondering if hubby will throw a surprise birthday celebration or a mysterious gift after my return....:)

Stay tuned.....