The 1st birthday party

I am beat. We spent the long Chinese New Year break pretty much preparing for and recovering from Alya’s birthday bash at our place in Seremban.

Friday, Feb 16th : Got back to mum’s place late due to traffic chaos and rain. K went out to do the food shopping for the party as I still had to pack our stuff and take a shower before leaving for Seremban. We had already ordered the cake the previous weekend. Initially I was dreaming of a cake in the shape of the number ‘1’, kinda like the cake at my 1st birthday. However, considering Alya’s mummy is a chocolate fiend and Secret Recipe cannot fashion their Moist Chocolate Cake thusly, we decided to go for a double recipe (4 kgs!!) square cake.

Saturday, Feb 17th : Alya spent most of the day at Atuk’s house nearby, leaving us free to fix up the house. As you can expect, we don’t exactly have the resources to host a party for about 40 people (and that’s just close family & 2 friends) so we ended up borrowing quite a few things – tables, dining ware. The evening was spent cooking, assembling the beef and chicken lasagnas and making chicken stock for the chicken rice.

D-Day, Feb 18th : Woke up early to finish off the main courses and get started on the salad & chicken rice garnishings. My family arrived early (thankfully) so my mum got to work setting up the buffet table while my siblings went to get the cake and ice. She was so worried our food ‘tak menepati citarasa orang tua2’ (specifically my dad and grandma) that she brought along some nasi putih and lauk kampung.

Our lil girl didn’t look so little decked out in her party dress, hairclips and a necklace courtesy of Busu. Glam habis, mummy dia selekeh je pakai tshirt Abah and pregnant jeans. As my dad put it “Pelakon tambahan aje..” I just sorta blended into the background and didn’t want any pictures taken due to the fact I am almost 7 months pregnant and as big as a house.. I do not need a visual reminder of this period, the physical one is more than enough..

Alya tarik muka sikit while everyone was singing Happy Birthday to her – kinda like ‘Why are there so many ppl and what are they doing at my house?!”. But when we started clapping, she got all excited and clapped along. We got a kick out of that..

Alya with her 2 atuks

The loot? 2 of those plastic toddler cars courtesy of Atuk & Ummi and Tok Uda’s family, a stuffed giraffe that looks oddly pregnant (with bloated belly and all), a yellow bunny from Helic & Chase that was housed in the most adorable box (which is really meant for me, yes?), an educational toy, 2 new outfits, a photo album which Auntie Sara will hopefully fill with pictures (hint hint!) and some angpows. Thank you to all those who came and celebrated the first of our daughter’s many milestones in life.

Mine, all mine..!

Mmmm, yummy giraffe..