Our Little Princesses: Hubby's 40th

Hubby turned 40 this year, so to celebrate it, we had not one, but several birthday celebrations for him, and some surprises too!

The first was what he thought was a colleague's house-warming party, but what he didn't know was that it was a disguise towards having a surprise party for him! He was pretty suspicious when he saw the balloons, but he played along like a sport :)

The ploy was to get him to go downstairs to bring up some guests, and when he came up again and opened the door, everyone would shout "surprise!". So I guess he was pretty surprised (or maybe embarassed lol).

Anyway, the next day was to be the surprise which I had been planning for weeks together with our friends and Hubby's family. Initially his sisters were asking what to do for his birthday (we had successfully planned a surprise 40th birthday for his twin sisters a couple of years earlier). I said that it would be very difficult to plan and execute as Hubby is quite sharp and not easy to "bluff". So since we were already planning to have dinner with his friends on that night to celebrate his birthday, I told them why not do a combined birthday with his family members? That way it would be easier to execute.

Hubby told me later that he honestly did not suspect anything until we stopped by at his parents' place just before going to dinner and he realised that there was nobody home. I already pre-empted my sister-in-law earlier that he would probably call his mum and to make sure that she knows what to say. So when he called his mum, she told him that she was having dinner with her friend. That in itself already rang suspicious bells in his head as she is almost always home on Saturday evenings. She cooks and the whole family comes to have dinner. So for her not to be there, and even my father-in-law was not in, was rather strange to him.

So he already started questioning me on the way to the restaurant, and I said I didn't know anything but my heart was beating so fast! The secret was so well-kept until now that it would be a pity for it to be ruined at this last moment! He even called his niece and tried to get her to tell him what was going on lol. So by the time we got to the restaurant (he chose Daorae at Tanjung Tokong), he more or less suspected. We didn't see any of his sisters' cars however. We went upstairs and he didn't see any of their shoes as well (we took the private room which was tatami style so shoes had to be removed).

And here's where it was a genius touch to the plan. Daorae's private rooms have dividers which could be opened up and closed according to the size of the party. So we actually used up 3 rooms, but when we arrived, they closed the partition. So when we entered the room, we could only see our friends, who he expected to see anyway! He told me later that at that point, he really thought he was over-reacting and there would be no surprise.

So we sat down and took pictures, looked at the menu etc. We only had Hannah and Heidi with us as Helene stayed with my parents. But that's the next part of the surprise :)

Here were his family members, patiently waiting behind the partition! So after about 10 minutes sitting down and chit-chatting, the partition suddenly opened and they all shouted "surprise!!". He admitted that he was really, really surprised! They even hid away their shoes so that he wouldn't see them.

After we had ordered and the food came, the second surprise arrived - Helene! I couldn't let her miss her Daddy's birthday (especially since she loves birthdays so much!). My parents brought her in holding a small cake and she gave a kiss to Daddy.

Hubby must have thought - why is my cake so small? And for so many people! Wait, the next part of the surprise was coming!

Everyone then proceeded with dinner, and of course taking lots of photos!

When dinner was almost over, here came the 3rd surprise of the evening - the actual birthday cake! I ordered his favourite Mango Charlotte from Mon Delice. My parents picked it up on their way to the restaurant.

He was happy before, but now he's very happy haha.

And that ended the surprises for the evening! More photos - Hubby with his siblings.

On his real birthday, we had a simple meal at Coffeesmith Karpal Singh Drive. We wanted to go to Macallum Connoisseurs but they were fully booked that afternoon for a private event. We ordered a waffle so I secretly told the waitress to put a candle on the waffle.

In the evening, we had another Mango Charlotte cake, a gift from his nieces! So we sang happy birthday and cut the cake at home, much to Helene's delight! Haha.

The two elder girls also made him "cards", quite spontaneous I must say :)

Family wefie!

More than a week later, the celebrations were not yet over! Our usual karaoke gang had another small birthday celebration for him and another friend, both 40 years old this year.