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16 Jul '12 - 693 W, 21 I The one with the be-earlied pre-Ramadhan party

So since July 22nd fell on the 3rd day of Ramadan, we decided to move up her party to the week before, on Sunday July 15th. We invited our friends and neighbors to what has become our annual cookout / birthday party. We did not have any overnight guests this year as Mandy was busy studying for the Bar exams (go Mandy!). We decided to keep  everything indoors, other than Vin grilling burgers and hot dogs outside. Also, this is the first year that Vin did not have baseball in the morning - it's a little hard to play baseball with two kids right now!

And so, the party was on! Happy birthday, Yaya!

* Mouse over the pictures for captions

We cleaned the house and I made the pasta salads the day before leaving only minimal cooking to be done on my part that day. We also roped in Natalie, an early attendee to blow up helium balloons while Vin and I did other tasks. This year's party menu: burgers, hot dogs, cold sesame noodles, orzo caprese pasta salad, roast green curry salmon and sauteed lemongrass shrimp. Yaya mingles with all the guests:

And what a welcome surprise, these noisemakers were pretty silent but kept Yaya happy! Finally, it is time for cake!

So this is the first year that Yaya was able to blow out her candle all by herself! And she declared that she liked the chocolate frosting on the cake. But she still didn't eat any of the cake as she was too busy opening presents (we managed to stop her from opening most of the presents until now although she did talk her way into opening a couple before this):

Yaya immediately put on her new dress (stripped unselfconsciously in front of all her guests) and then continued with the presents.

The party slowly winds down. Yaya was very pleased with her cache this year and also decided to put on the fairy wings (last gift unwrapped).

A couple of group shots:

After everyone leaves, we wind down and Yaya conks out for a nice nap as does Adik. The balloons are set free.

In the evening, Yaya happily puts her wings back on and plays with her birthday gifts:

Thank you everyone, for coming to help us celebrate Yaya's 4th birthday, and for bringing gifts and cards, and for those far away who called / emailed / sent gifts and cards, thank you for remembering the girl on her big day! It was a fun day and we had us a grand old time. Yaya and Adik both had lots of fun! Thanks again. Here is Superhero Fairy Yaya with a closing remark:

Happy Birthday Yaya..Love You..

Cik Emma - 28 July '12 - 23:09