Kevin Turns Eleven

"Otanjobi omedeou, Kevin!"

How fast time flies.

I know that sounds cliché; anyway a year has passed by since I went over to my senior's place to celebrate his son's birthday. Last weekend, I joined several other friends for Kevin's birthday party at my senior's apartment in Tokyo, a place we can now safely call it our headquarters haha! The reason is because every few months, we will have a makan-makan session there. It could be for a birthday celebration, a festival, or purely just for fun 'coz we are Malaysians and we all know Malaysians loves to eat haha!

The main meal was sekihan (赤飯) with grilled chicken and herbal egg.

Forgotten what is this called, but it's a rice dish with many types of topping such as shrimps, clams, squid, olive, beans.

Salad with colourful capsicums and dried bacon.

Hakata torimon (博多通りもん), a type of manju (饅頭) I got during my trip to Kyushu recently.

 
Sekihan, literally "red rice", is a Japanese traditional dish served on special occasions, such as birthdays, weddings, and holidays throughout the year in Japan. This sticky rice is steamed with azuki beans, which give a reddish or purplish brown colour to the rice, as beans are considered a symbol of good luck and fertility, while red is a symbol of happiness in the Japanese culture. 

It is the Japanese version of pulut kuning which is synonym to Malaysians whenever we celebrate a special occasion.

Kevin receives his birthday present from his Mum.

Priceless expression when he opened his present.

It was a custom-made Butterfly table tennis bat.

Papa and Mama joined him in unpacking the present.

The table tennis bat was a perfect gift for a boy who loves table tennis so much like Kevin. Under the guidance of his Mum a.k.a my senior, who used to represent her college to the national tournament in Japan many years back, I believe one day, Kevin will be a force to be reckoned with. From the stories I have heard from his Mum so far, he is quick in picking up the skills and is improving very fast.

Last year it was a bike, this year a table tennis bat; I wonder what will he get next year.

Posing with his birthday cake. This cheese cake was soooo good that we.just.could.not.stop.from.one.piece.after.another lol!

Making a wish, before blowing the candles away.

Time to cut the cake, using a kitchen knife lol!

As usual, a family photo. I think we gotta be more creative next time because it has always been the same pose every time.

Posing with our cake *hehe*

Kevin must be happy to have so many abang around.

Kevin with his super thick quiz book pressie from Yow Keong.

A sweater from Gap by Amy.

Football boots and socks from Andrew and me.

The theme of his birthday presents this year is none other than sports. He got two soccer balls, a basketball, a table tennis bat, football boots, among others. Andrew almost bought him his third soccer ball, and luckily I got to tell Andrew on time not to get another ball for Kevin.

I exchanged text messages with Andrew when he went to shop for the birthday gift, while at the same time, I got those important information from his Mum, like shoe size and favourite colour.

Sekihan mixed with plain rice and grilled chicken for dinner.

Chicken soup. It was simple, yet it tasted good!

Macaroni and cheese, topped with shrimps and spices. This was really good!

Everyone enjoying their dinner.

Kevin reading the card made by Andrew, while playing to his rubric cube from James.

Happy 11th Birthday, Kevin!

P/S: ママ、パパ，ケヴィン、そしてみんな、ずっと応援してくれてありがとう。