Anya turns 2

The preparation

Anya's birthday fell on Easter this year. We decided to make the celebration small. Now that she is older and has expectations; the last thing we want to do is to go and throw her a big bash and thus upping the bar ridiculously high. Instead, what we hope to achieve from this smallish party is letting her know that spending quality time with loved ones matters more than anything else. Well, there are a few indulgences for her (particularly things that she especially likes) but we aren't gonna break our bank accounts just to make her happy for a day. 

So we invited both sides of our folks over for a simple lunch which consisted of partially catered and partially home-prepared grub.

At first, I thought of having a Pororo-themed 3D cake after seeing what some online home-based bakers offered but after discussing with the Husband, we eventually decided to do a Eeyore theme instead. After all, I'd imagine hypothetically if Pororo and Eeyore fell into the water; our little girl will go to Eeyore's rescue any day. If she knows how to swim, that is.

After meeting with a few dead ends trying to find someone to bake a 3D Eeyore cake, I eventually abandoned the whole idea. Due to patent issues, the bakeries that I approached all required me to provide my own cake-toppers while they work the 'setting' of the cake based on my cake-toppers. And I simply could not find any eeyore cake-topper without having to purchase the rest of the entire Pooh bear gang. Too much wastage, i thought. So, eventually, we settled for Bengawan Solo where we choose a 2kg 2D Eeyore cake from their Disney catalogue. Well, we do get the best of both worlds here - our little girl gets her donkey cakd and our folks will like the taste of it.

On top of Eeyore cake, I also scoured the island for a balloon supplier who has a baby Eeyore balloon. You see, other than donkeys, the girl digs balloons too. So I thought, a Eeyore balloon will be like dream come true right? Eventually found one who is located in Parkway Parade (coincidentally, we gotten party supplies for her 1st birthday from the same shop) and we drove all the way there the day before just to collect it. Well, it is all worth it seeing how thrilled she was when she saw the huge floating donkey. 

For the record, she was so happy with the balloon that she slept with the it in the room that very night. In the early morning, she trotted over to our bedroom for another short snooze (something she does every other day) with her stuffed eeyore and hanky in one hand, the huge-ass balloon in the other. Then when she finally woke up and was ready to join us for breakfast, (yes, you might have guessed by now) the balloon was made to join us at the table too. And so, the $18-balloon was worth every cent!

Breakfast with the donkey

Other than the balloon, we did not get her any other presents. Reason being: we really think she has many toys already - we have not even exhaust her Christmas stock yet! Instead, we further upped the hype for the day by buying her a new dress which is in sweet pastel colors (very baby-eeyore-ish!) and told her it is her birthday dress and she can wear it for the special day. 

The day

 After breakfast, she put on her birthday dress and went "Wah! Wah ! WAh!". Then when the Husband came home with the cake, she went onto hyper mode and kept wanting to cut the birthday cake there and then. Thankfully, the In-laws arrived at that juncture and thus, her attention was diverted. 

Boy was she pleased to see all her cousins, grandparents and favourite uncles / aunties! We specially prepared some of her favourite food of the moment. Dessert was chocolate fondue with fruits which she enjoyed very much. And then, there was the cake-cutting that she has been looking forward (she must have rehearsed it with her wooden toy cake set 20 times!) and then, lastly finding Easter eggs and hens with the cousins. I was not around to see the kiddos looking for the hens as I was feeding Arielle in the bedroom but according to The Husband, Anya was a lil' dazed and was the last to get her hands on them. Well, I suppose it has very much to do with the fact that she is the youngest among the four of them. 

All in all, we thought we achieved our desired impact - making the day memorable for her, surrounding her with her favourite things and people, and letting her know how loved she is. :)

With that, I shall let the pictures do the talking.