General

The husband’s birthday.

Planning for the husband’s birthday made me realize something. I don’t have the excess energy to do something like that anymore these days. It takes a lot of effort! I feel a lot older and less energetic like i was in the past. Any little pockets of time I have, I rather crawl into bed, and close my eyes for a short nap, or simply, spacing out. Is this how is it like with kids?

So, I invited the husband’s close friends to brunch at spruce to surprise the husband and nonchalantly told the husband that I haven’t planned anything but lets just go have brunch at a “new” place (new being a place that the husband has never been to). So, the gang of friends were informed 2 weeks before, i think he would like to have his friends around him, hence the surprise. I also made reservations for a romantic dinner at au petit salut and I was quite excited counting down to the actual day.

Those on my twitter would have known that I also ordered a cake, so there was some logistics involved in getting help to pick up the cake and bringing it to the restaurant for the surprise. Thankfully everything sorta went smoothly.. Until.. The husband came out in berms!

Before the husband headed home to prep, we had the conversation of what to wear and knowing that the husband loves his berms, I specifically told him to wear jeans because it’s his birthday and he should wear ‘nice nice’. Somehow, he heard wrongly and thought I said the opposite (ok, I really don’t know how that happened except that maybe he wasnt really paying attention to me talking.) i had to send him home to change so there is a slight delay.

We arrived an hour later than we were supposed to, no thanks to the hiccups and traffic jams along the way. I felt really bad that his friends were all waiting!

The surprise brunch sorta failed because while waiting for der to get changed, Jerry was fussing so i sat in the backseat and fed him. The husband got done in a jiffy and hopped into the driver seat, and drove off.. But wait, I was supposed to be the driver!!

I wanted to swap but the husband told me to stay put cos jerry is still drinking his milk so I had to give instructions and when we got to the venue, although I already knew where all his friends’ cars are parked, I couldn’t be the backseat driver and tell him exactly where to go. So, he spied his friends’ car and wryly told me.. eh, that car quite familiar hor?

Surprise failed. =(

But lunch was a happy affair, the husband was so engrossed in chatting with his friends and enjoying himself. It guess he had a really fantastic time except for a small puking incident from Jerry. Both boys are fine, not to worry.

The birthday cake. This garnered more surprise from the boy.. He thought it was Thomas the train cake because he had gotten a Thomas helium balloon (present from K) but it turns out to be a Rolex cake. This is supposed to be a Rolex Daytona but I was quite disappointed at how it looked. The lines were are wonky, the details on the bezel was wrong, the Rolex logo didn’t come out well and the writings of ‘Daytona’ was in the wrong position.. For the amount I paid, I was solely disappointed.. Then again hubby was happy and surprised and beaming over his ‘Rolex’ so I guess it works.

All of us, missing one guy who mistakenly thought we were having dinner.

Birthday boy posing with the cake.

Our little family.

Jerry is mesmerized with the cake too! Heh.

Watch talk. The 3kg cake was really heavy and massive and it’s still slowly being consumed at this pt in time.

I didn’t plan anything in the afternoon. Was hoping to go clothes shopping as a family but the plans were whacked because the husband wanted to stay close to his friends, whom he had v little time to spend time with ever since the arrival of jerry so I was glad to indulge him. In the end, we all ended up in orchard going aimlessly about and the most exciting bit was k getting a lovely tiffany and co charm bracelet from her hubby with 3 cute charms. For a moment, der asked if I wanted one too.. woah, I think i touched the husband much and he wanted to do something for me in return but I don’t wear bracelets, only necklaces which was double the price so I think it deterred him from actually buying.. Plus I think I really had expensive taste. I just had to pick out the most expensive bracelet chain that cost more than 1k on its own. *cough* I almost choked on my own saliva and it’s not even the white gold/gold range. Paying that much for silver is just NOT ME. Even the simple ribbon charm that I picked out cost $800. I’m just appalled at the prices, or you could say., at my own taste.

He didn’t know there were evening plans and I was going with the flow and had to change my dinner reservation on the sly when he decided he wanted to play snooker with his friends. It’s tough when not everything is under your control but his friends were rather cooperative and were secretly trying to end the game fast so that we could leave and move onto our dinner. Heh.

Lovely French dinner at au petit salut.

Except that for the first half, we were both trying to deal with our cranky baby who was on the verge of screaming while being put into the baby chair, very tired but too excited to sleep. Der & me took turns through our starters to bring him out of the restaurant so that we don’t disturb the rest of the diners. Jerry promptly knocked out just before our mains so we enjoyed a quiet moment or two to ourselves.

The service was exemplary, and we had a great time except that our order of hungary snails being missed out but didn’t cause much agony cos we were so full by then.

Home cured smoked ocean trout with quinoa salad

Pan seared duck foie gras with glazed quince and quince pearls

The husband had rigatoni pasta, baby scallops, tiger prawns with crab meat and tomato fondue..

I had the pan seared beef tenderloin served with sauteed wild mushrooms, ‘pommes mousseline’ in red wine sauce.

Sticky date and fig pudding with caramel and vanilla ice cream. We both had the same choice of desserts.

Us, thoroughly happy with our food.. And yup, x.silly is part of the celebrations too.

I pulled one last surprise on him and had his dessert served with a candle. But he discovered cos the fans were so strong, the wait staff relit the candles like FIVE times behind his back that he turned to check the commotion. Haha. This picture was taken when they switched off the fans momentarily for us. Told you their service was exemplary!

Ended the day tired but happy. I was glad I made the husband a very happy man on his birthday.

Are you the kind that would spring surprises like that on your spouse/partner? It’s really hard work and hard getting things executed with a baby in tow!


Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

Hi there! Thanks for popping by. I'm Cherie, a ftwm (full-time working mum) to 3 lovely kids (2 boys & a princess) and my motto in life is to BE HAPPY. Sure, life isn't all that smooth but it's the mentality that counts, no? This blog documents my life. Or rather, snippets of my life that has passed me by. I love capturing life memories in the blog and being able to read back and laugh at myself (or anyone). I love to eat (A LOT), travel and paint my own nails so the blog is mostly about that. Is that considered lifestyle? Of cos, the family is also very much an integral part of me so there would be loads of memories about the husband and my kids - Jerry (9yo), Jerome (7yo) and Leia (2.5yo) and everyone else that's close to me. I like documenting the kids' milestones, their growing up years, their achievements (and sometimes, mine), and my struggles and battles with motherhood. It sure ain't easy. I love seeking out good food and travelling, is trigger-happy, love new gadgets, love exploring new places and strives to live life to the fullest. I aspire to travel the world as much as I can, to soak in the different sights across the various continents and visit all the Disneylands in the world (almost there!). Have fun reading and do drop me a comment to say hi! Love, Cherie Lim Find me on Instagram.

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