Of Birthday Chillis and Balls

Aishah with her "Oh, are you taking a picture of me?" pose

What an exhausting day! Yesterday, we all went to Chilli's at One Utama to celebrate my niece's 8th birthday. At the moment, Nurul is the ONLY cousin that my kids have (another one is on the way - via Sarawak insyaAllah). So they kinda hero worship her a bit. In fact, at home, the easiest way to get my little bunch of picky eaters to wolf down something is to blackmail them by saying "Who wants to be as tall as Kak Nurul?" (This actually works folks, but in between every mouthful you have to line them up against a wall and measure their height to prove that they are getting taller. Now you know why mealtimes at my house is a long and complicated event.)

Yes! We want to be as tall as Kak Nurul

We were late arriving there since I had to come straight from UKM. It seemed that everyone and their great-aunt decided to spend the day at One Utama yesterday because there were throngs of people there. We parked on the the rooftop and rather 'smartly' decided to walk down 3 flights of stairs with 3 kids. (Thankfully, they invented escalators by the time we decided to leave because I don't think I would have survived walking UP all those steps).

The party was already in full swing when we arrived (well, everyone was munching happily). Our group consisted mostly of my sister-in-law's in-laws so safe to say, I knew no-one there. Since I was the only one who had been to Chilis before, I got to decide my little group's menu. Of course, I ordered my Chilis staple: Mushroom jack fajitas (pronounced fa-hi-tas) and chicken quesadillas (pronounced ka-sa-de-yas) plus 2 kiddies meals: drummets and fries and cheese and tomato pizza.

In the end it was me who ate everything.. including the kids' meals

The fajitas and quesadillas did not disappoint. I will forever be grateful to my friends Kimin for recomending the mushroom jack (last time I posted that I didn't know what on earth to order there) and to Nadd for unknowingly ordering the quesadillas by accident the first time we went to Chilis. The kids' meals were nothing spectacular and as usual my kids barely touched the food.
(Food rating: 4/5)

The bottomless drinker

Hamzah had a great time nontherless. I think he drank most of my orange juice (hooray for bottomless refills). He had the most fun throwing food on the floor though. I can't wait for him to start talking because right now throwing things is his only way of saying "No! I don't want this one."

Ooo.. cake

Finally, it was time for the birthday cake, which was a really cute jelly Pooh cake. Everybody sang Happy Birthday to Nurul except Aishah who waited until last night at bedtime to give a long solo performance in the dark. It seems she just sang very quietly at Chillis so she needed to get it out of her system before she could sleep (and before I could sleep..zZzZzZ).

Hmm.. wonder what these are for?

After all the grown-ups had gone home, my 3 kids and their cousin had an extended party at the Fun Zone thingy (forgot the name- it's this huge place full of obstacles and alot of sponge balls). Since I was the only adult complying to the strict "SOCKS at all times rule" I was the designated bodyguard. (Not really a good idea since I was also the only one wearing a skirt) Other adults sitting around looking lost in there were mostly Bibi's and grandparents.

Nurul and Yousof had a blast shooting everyone with the cannons. Aishah looked lost most of the time since everyone else seemed so much bigger and played rougher than her (poor baby got pushed aside a few times by the bigger kids but trooper that she is, she didn't cry and stayed put). I don't think Hamzah had seen as many balls as that in his entire life. He spent the first 10 minutes just staring at them in shock..hehe. In the end he managed to enjoy himself. As for me, I had a ball!