I feel so blessed. Received so many birthday greetings and wishes on my special day.
Father smsed me.
Father-in-law smsed me.
Friends smsed me.
Colleagues smsed me.
My kids smsed me.
Hubby claimed he told me at 12 midnight on 17 Sept when I was sleeping so that made him the first to sms me. Duh...

Had a few celebrations.
Mummy, Daddy, Bro, Hubby and I had a pigging out session at Si Chuan Ma La Steamboat at Suntec City. That took place last week. On 17 Sept, my mother-in-law whipped up a fantastic dinner made up of all my favourite dishes. She's a talented cook!

My kids did something totally unexpected.

My dearest 6 Hope threw a party for me in school. Oh my god... Totally unbelievable right? But they actually planned the WHOLE thing themselves! Amazing! I wonder how the 39 of them managed do that. I tried my best to give non-committal answers every time they probed for the exact birth date. Err... I think Friendster birthday alert played me out but because I have not gone in for quite a long time, I really could not turn off that function. 38 of them actually paid $2 each and together with the money they pooled, they ordered a 2 kg cookies and cream cake from Prima Deli and Joel's mother brought the cake to school on 17 Sept during recess. On that day, at about 10.20am, when I was going through compositions, one by one, they said they had to meet their MT teachers. At the back of my mind, I was thinking, "Huh??? So many of them???" That was when I suspected something was amiss. Then when the bell rang, Maxcy and Cheryl N said they wanted to ask me questions which were so lame. (<--Sorry girls! Haha! But those questions gave you away also.)

Anyway, when the bell rang, I quickly dimissed my class and tried going to the school canteen for my recess duty. As you know, P6 recess is a dangerous time. Daniel was behind me, counting some candles. Haha... another clue there. When I reached the foyer, a few of my girls were already there and they tried to cover my eyes and asked me to look in another direction. But I was tall enough to see what they had in the canteen. Many others were crowding around something sparkling bright. The next thing I knew, I was led to the table and I saw a nicely-decorated birthday cake! With 29 candles! Sparkling candles I mean. Waaaaaaa!!! Touched!!! It was really a surprise as I had gotten some little presents from Eunice, Kendra, Chris, Jiaxin, Lydia. Cards from pple in the class. Hand-drawn wishes on the whiteboard. Speaking of that, I was pleasantly surprised by Maxcy's gift. I thought it was slightly expensive and so I just got Maxcy's mother something in return when I went to Orchard :) Back to the celebration, my class shouted, "Happy Birthday, Mdm Chia!" and they gave a rousing rendition of the birthday song. Ahhhhhhhhh! 6 HOPE!! Love you all. Hahaha! Gosh... whatever happened to my canteen duty? Luckily, I have "eyes" on my back and I glanced around periodically to ensure no fight, quarrel was happening.

They sang so loud until I think everyone in the canteen should have heard them. After that, I was sabotaged by the candles. Sparkling candles I mean. I made a wish before blowing the candles. What wish did I make? That's for you to guess and for you to let me know. See if we have telepathy. Hahaha! I tried blowing off that 29 candles and I was almost blue in the face. BUT they were still burning!!! Arghhhh..... Daniel said that they needed to be douse in water to extinguish the flames and lucky, he was quick enough to get a plastic bag of water to immerse the candles in. Clever boy! haha! My other kids were like so happy to see me blue in the face... haha... Kok Suan and Daniel helped me to remove all the candles and I proceeded to cut the cake. My lack of culinary skills showed when I could not cut the cake properly. I was a disgrace!!! The cake looked really ugly with my messy cutting. Sorry, 6 Hopers! I was quite worried that there would not be enough for everyone but luckily there were. Oh yes, I hope none of my kids had to starve to save up the $2. If anyone was inconvenienced or anything, I would feel very bad. My girls helped out with passing the cake around. Maxcy, Cheryl N, Qi Hui, Daniel kept telling me to eat and keep the largest portion of myself but I refused. Rem my guiding principle in life? :) Not to inconvenience anyone. But I must say, that was a very nice and touching gesture. Oh my god, my 6 Hope like touched me soooo many times!

Joel's mother had also prepared the disposable plates and cultery. She even prepared some jellies and Edna prepared her raspbery cheesecake. Edna's cheesecake is really comparable to the ones sold outside. I must get her to pass the recipe to me after PSLE. Touching gesture from a parent! I also got Joel's mother something when I went to Orchard. After eating the cake, we took photos at the canteen and even got Mr Ng as the photographer. But since, the next day was LC and after all, the PSLE will be here in 2 weeks' time, I promptly sent everybody back at about 11.10 am. I must say, it was a fantastic day and it could not been made possible without thorough planning. I wonder who coordinated everything. I don't think I could have done it when I was a P6 student myself. A little unfortunate incident happened though. Maxcy cried while I was cutting the cake. Hmm... she refused the tell me why. Don't be sad, Maxcy! I hope things are okay now. :)

When it was time for PSLE LC rehearsal, I was shocked by a few P6 pupils from other classes wishing me Happy Birthday. Haha! I was leading a group to their examination room when I heard "Happy Birthday." I turned around and asked a boy from Ash's class, "Were you talking to me?" Hahah... he said he wanted to wish me. Cute! I thanked him. :)

Actually, until now, I still cannot believe my kids celebrated my birthday in the canteen.
One word - Amazing! 6 Hope lives in my heart forever! Now to do your best for the PSLE!