Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Happy 80th Birthday to my Grandma~!!!

**Note: LONG LONG entry with many many photos~!!!**

On Sunday, the Lim's Family which is my family had an extremely SUCCESSFUL family gathering! is my 1st mega gathering with the family ever since i came back from Aussie. i really really love every moment spent with my family and i felt kinda sad for missing out quite a number of family gathering over the years when i was studying in Aussie. now that i am back for good, i noe i wun miss out on any of these family gatherings and in fact i will look forward to more to come in the future! yeahz~!!!

Sunday's gathering was specially arranged to celebrate my Grandma's 80th birthday! for those who saw my Grandma, never imagine that she is so old liao, rite? haha... as Grandma's health was not getting too well over the last few years, we thot of having some form of simple yet meaningful celebration for her bday to let her enjoy herself and have some fun. so few weeks before, my youngest aunt, Aunt Cindy and youngest uncle, Uncle Eric started to plan for the gathering. though it was a small scale family gathering, the planning was actually alot, esp when there were quite a number of pple involved. coordination of time and preferences will take a while to be arranged. at the same time, we would like take this great opportunity to take a proper family photo with everyone included and therefore Cousin Seow Wai suggested that we shld go to the photo studio for the photo taking. since the lunch will be at Jumbo Seafood Restaurant @ Serangoon Gardens, our choices of photo studio were limited to areas around or nearby to the restaurant. over the weeks, Uncle Eric drove around the areas to source for the perfect photo studio. as there are 22 of us in the family, there is a need to find a studio that can accommodate all of us. it was not an easy job at all as most of the studio around these areas r rather small. in the end, Uncle Eric managed to find a studio in Bishan area which is big enough to accommodate all of us. furthermore, the package offered for us was reasonable and the location of the studio is very accessible for all of us.

at abt 9.30am on Sunday, we gathered @ the studio to get ready for the photo taking. as my 2nd cousin, Cousin Seow Yin and her family was late (she lives the furthest away as compared to the rest of us & she has 2 young kids), we started off with taking photos for the individual families 1st. of cos my Grandma took some individual shots since she is the Birthday Girl. :D in fact most of us took several individual shots. hahaha... when my cousin and her family finally arrived, we quickly gathered in place for our GRAND family photo! woohoo~!!! by abt 11.30am, we were finally done with the photo taking & proceeded on for lunch @ Jumbo! & tat's the end of Part 1 event of the day which we took abt 270 photos in abt 2 hrs... woooo...
here r some of the photos taken @ the studio to be shared:
my beloved Grandma... (1st Generation)
80 years old already! she dun really look like it, rite? haha... well, other than photo taking, tis studio package offers complimentary make-up for 1 person. of cos it has to be my Grandma as it is her BIG DAY!

GRAND FAMILY PHOTO of 22 people...
tat's how big my paternal family is..

Lim's Family 2nd Generation

1st Row (L to R): Aunt Annie (2nd daughter), Aunt Cindy (5th daughter), Grandma, Aunt Yee Yong (3rd daughter)

2nd Row (L to R): Uncle Shyh Kong (4th son), Uncle Eric (youngest son), Aunt Pat (youngest daughter-in-law), Mummy (eldest daughter-in-law) and Dad (Eldest son)

Lim's Family 3rd Generation

1st Row (L to R): Wei Zhi, Wei Hui, Weiqi

2nd Row: Brother Wee Loon, Cousin Seow Wai, Wee San, Cousin Seow Yin

Lim's Family 4th Generation

L to R: Lynnette (2 yrs old), Anthony (1 yr old), Joyce (3 yrs old)

The Ladies of the family... quite a number of us leh... heehee..

The Gentlemen of the family... hmm.. obviously small number of them ah...

My family portrait with Grandma

Uncle Eric's family portrait with Grandma

Cousin Seow Wai's family portrait with Grandma

Cousin Seow Yin's family portrait with Grandma

Grandma & her 3 young great-grandchildren...

one of my fav photo... featuring 4 generations with 4 different surnames!

L to R: Cousin Seow Wai (Mdm CHAN), Lynnette (Miss YAP), Grandma (Mdm CHOK), Aunt Annie (Mdm LIM)

another of my fav photo... my loving parents..
tis is the 1st time i see my parents having such a loving pose.. i think the last time they took such lovey-dovey photos was during their wedding which is abt 29yrs ago!!! wooo...

my brother & sister-in-law...

young couple.. wedding dinner in abt 2 mths' time.. more pics to come then!

my brother & I... we r forever acting cute ah... whahaha...

my individual photo...

photographer commented that i am too stiff which i oso tot so ah.. heehee...

Me & Miss Cutie...

Muackzzzz~~~

Cousins-united!
the last pic we took together was abt 3 yrs ago before i went to Aussie. now 3 yrs later, 2 of them r Mothers already and my bro is getting married! woohoo~!!! how time flies...

my 3 angels... no longer little as they grow up liao... but they r still my angels forever as they r the only younger brother and sisters i have...

Weiqi surprised all of us when she suddenly spread out her hands and kneel down... i tink is a very natural pose...

Wei Hui, the young dancing queen with her newly bought Ipod

Wei Zhi is trying to rap a song??? haha..

my nephew, chubby Anthony and my eldest niece, pretty Joyce...

my 2nd niece, cutie Lynnette..

Up next, a series of photos taken for the 3 young kids. i tot it was pretty interesting as if it was staging a drama for little kids... whahaha... enjoy!

in the beginning:

Lynnette was happily holding on to a pink balloon and little chicken...

then when Lynnette walked up to sit next to Anthony, he saw her little chicken and got interested...

so Anthony started to snatch the little chicken from Lynnette...

refusing to give the little chicken to Anthony, Lynnette turned her back towards him.. haha..

when Anthony was trying to seek help from the adults, Lynnette tried to tempt him by playing with the little chicken on the floor...

in the end, the adults decided to take away the distracting little chicken so that the kids can concentrate on the taking photo... BUT tat was NOT the end of the whole drama...

Lynnette trying to use the balloon to hit Anthony..

Lynnette: Anthony! is all ur fault.. there goes my little chicken!

Lynnette: u better dun come near me or i will poke u with my balloon!

Anthony: dun like tis la, Cousin Lynnette... let's be friends la..

Lynnette: dun wan! who ask u to fight with me for the little chicken...

Anthony: HELP! i need help! Cousin Lynnette is angry liao!!! how?!?!?

Joyce: is okay, brother.. just put ur hand on Lynnette's shoulders and give her a pat and she will be fine! let's take photo 1st.. see! she is okay with taking photo with u... :)

Anthony: HURRAY! Cousin Lynnette is not angry with me liao!!! yeahz~!!!
~End of the KIDs' photo taking drama~
some other fav pics of the day to show u guys...

Anthony was rather grouchy when he 1st arrived @ the studio. refusing to smile and coorperate. however, after much urging, he was enjoying himself in front of the camera... heehee...

last photo of the day... Anthony's cheery and happy smile...

Candid Photos:

i like tis pic very much cos is such a great scene to see all of us being so spontaneous to show the victory sign... even my mum did it! hahaha... yeah~!!!

another spontaneous photo.. not only did the kids did some action, the adults did some too!


Part 2 of the gathering was lunch @ Jumbo. we booked 2 VIP rooms with KTV. food @ the restuarant was not too bad but i did not have the time to take photos of any of them ah. with the KTV function available, my task for the day was to operate the KTV and be the deejay for the day. my Dad, uncles and aunties had different song requests & i was the only one who knew how to operate the system smoothly. so bo bian ah, i had to be in charge of the remote control thru' out. hahaha... tiring job but very fun cos it had been a long while since i last heard my Dad, aunties and uncles sang. heehee...

Photos @ the restaurant:

these 8 words and the longevity bun decoration were designed and drawn by ME! it was quite a last min work as i only started to work on it at abt 9pm the day before and finished at abt 2am. Cousin Seow Wai and I were discussing abt having some decorations on Sat and so we came up with tis idea. after we bought the materials, i started to look for pics of the longevity bun on the internet. when i was at my cousin's house to do up the decoration, my cousin actually felt asleep! hahaha... so in the end, i did everything by myself ah... whahaha.... nvm lah... is for Grandma mah... all effort will be worthwhile!
Birthday cake from Sweet Secret... yummy chocolate cake!!!

the actual longevity buns with lotus paste... yummilicious~

Grandma & one of her presents... a pair of Jade Earrings bought by....

...her lovely grandchildren & tat's my brother, myself, Cousin Seow Wai and Cousin Seow Yin! :)

Grandma blowing the candles... hoooo~

entertaining the kids with bubbles, balls and balloons is always a MUST among our family with so many BIG and small kids... hahaha...

during the KTV session, my 2nd uncle & Dad sang alot. in fact, my Dad's voice is really good. he sounded like 余天 @ times ah... Bravo, Dad!

my youngest uncle had a fair share of singing on tat day too!

& not forgetting the youngest singer of the day, Miss Cuite, Lynnette Yap! she held the mic and sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars which she specially requested. hahaha...

last but not least, GROUP photo taken @ the restuarant!

a fruitful and happy day for all of us. we all enjoyed ourselves very much. Grandma had a great day too and she was very happy that everyone was present for her 80th birthday. thanks to Uncle Eric and Aunt Cindy for all the arrangement. i myself really had great fun and enjoyed myself very much during the photo taking and @ the restaurant. i am now looking forward to more of such family gathering! yeah!