My 23rd Birthday Surprise

Hello! So I haven't blogged about my personal life for awhile and I'm not really sure if any of my readers would like to read about this; but I'm just going to do it because it was my best birthday celebration to date! Yes, even better than my 21st birthday party two years ago.

So, Ken planned the whole day for me (my birthday falls on 19 October) and gave me a surprise at the end. And also, Ken paid for all of these and nothing is sponsored (just saying).



First stop of the day, lunch at IKEA Tampines.
Nothing special, but IKEA was one of the first places we visited together during our dating period. Ken told me we're going to be on the East side of Singapore for the whole of my birthday!



Second stop: Gallop Stable at Punggol Ranch for some horse-riding!!! Beautiful bohemian maxi dress from Perfetti, more details HERE.



Ken initially wanted to bring me to Pasir Ris, but my birthday falls on a Monday and only Punggol ranch is open for joy rides on Mondays. Coincidentally, I also realized that Ken is exactly 28 days older than me so our birthdays will always fall on the same day of the week every year.



The horse I rode on was called Sir and he's from Germany! When you're near horses, it is very important not to walk/stand behind them because they have extremely strong legs and may kick.



Swooshhhh my hair as I put on my helmet. I love how my hair looks here after the curling session over at Headlines! More on the first time getting my hair curled HERE.



Aboard~ It was cool that they allowed me to ride in my maxi dress! Ken did ask me to bring a change of clothes though, just in case I have to be in pants to ride.



I learnt quite a lot about the horse-racing industry because the instructor who led Sir was a horse racer himself and he just retired! He spoke about the chemistry he has with horses which is so cool. He told me about this very fierce arrogant black horse who threw everyone who tried to ride him down. But somehow when he spoke to the horse and rode him, the horse didn't throw him down! What a mastery of skills set and chemistry with the horse.



It was a pretty expensive ride. At $2/min, there were only 2 choices available: 5 minutes or 30 minutes. I told Ken to just take the 5 minutes one so we take photos then can already haha. But he said no, it's my birthday so he's willing to spend, since it's only one day of the year. So we both rode the horses for half an hour. That amounted to $128.40 after GST.



We really enjoyed ourselves!



Third stop, Lorong Halus for some photo-taking! I blogged about the "places to go for photoshoot" awhile back and this place was included! More details HERE.



Ken snapped polaroid films of me~



We found large clumps of soft cotton (not sure what is it?) on some of the lalang and we attempted to take an artistic shot with floating cotton.



Here's my failed attempt.



Dusting my hands. Well let's just say it's very hard to make sure the cotton flies nicely when you blow it.



Went to another corner and took more photos! Propped my camera on the floor for this shot.



Our signature pose!



Our good friends Hock Ngee and Ivy came to surprise me!!! Ivy even baked me super delicious macarons. How sweet! Even though I've thanked her countless times already, I still wanna say I really appreciate this kind gesture! Thankful that both her and Hn have been such good friends to us, and have helped Ken along in his line of work!



Fourth and last stop of the day: Treehouse Villa @ Changi, where Ken arranged a surprise for me!

So what happened after we left Lorong Halus was, Ken made me put on a blindfold in the car and I was blindfolded all the way into the villa. Unbeknownst to me, my family had already checked in and were trying to keep quiet as Ken led me up the spiral stairs. He shut me in the toilet and asked me to shower. Luckily, I brought a casual change of clothes.



This was the exact view of the villa, very big and spacious.

After I finished showering, Ken led me down to my family and his family singing happy birthday to me! What a heartwarming moment! However, I wasn't very surprised because I already heard voices before I came down! Hahaha. But still, I'm really very appreciative of Ken's efforts to surprise me! I later found out that he invited my close friends too, and was so happy anticipating their arrival! All of them did a very good job of keeping this surprise from me!



Ken ordered food from Mum's Kitchen and we really loved the food! All the dishes were delicious, and the tofu was our favourite. He ordered too much though, and we had so much leftover. If you're planning a gathering/party, I think it would be better to order a little lesser, and if need be, order pizza delivery if there are still hungry guests.



My family + future in-laws. My grandmother requested for this shot!



My beloved family! I was pretty surprised my parents managed to pull this off! Because they always give things away by a slip of the tongue or something. But my mum even threw me off by asking me to ask Ken to bring them along for dinner on my birthday! My dad however, is the ultimate blur king. Because they checked in early before we arrived, he took photos of the place and almost sent it to our extended family groupchat. Luckily my sister stopped him else the surprise will be ruined! Hahaha.



Yay my future family! Missing Ken's daddy because he was in Macau. But he texted me to wish me happy birthday, and we FaceTimed! Ken's mummy also very funny!!! A few days before my birthday she asked me, "So what are you doing for your birthday?" then I said "I don't know, Ken is bringing me out! Do you know anything?" And she replied, laughing, "You don't know how I know!" VERY CONVINCING!!!



Oh, and did I mention, my birthday cake is my birthday gift from Ken's mummy!!!!! It was a very sweet surprise when I opened the box, because the cake was so pretty!!!! I just "wow!!" and stared at the cake for a long while. Hahaha. The cake is from The Cake Shop!



Photos of my beloved friends who came down all the way (so far!) just for me!!! First group to reach was Chienwen, Zuoyi and Shaun!



My besties Mel and Veron! Being the youngest, I am always well taken care of by both of them!!



My cchy vball girls! Friends for 10 years and counting! Missing Meixi because she was still in SAFTI, but still I can feel her love!



Of course, last but not least, my Quelic Packs gorgeous girls!!!!!



Glad we went through thick and thin with each other, always being each other's sources of support.



Missing a few plus-ones but soon we will all find our soulmates.



Our mahjong khakis!! Special thanks for Chinrong and Xinyee for staying throughout the days (and nights) we were in the villa, to mahjong, and prata for supper!!!



Tried for a super group photo! Really very very touched that all of you came down!!! Very thankful to have such awesome families and friends! I love all of you so much!!! Thank you for all your love I am a very fortunate girl indeed.



Lastly, the biggest thank you to Ken for making this my most memorable birthday ever! And for celebrating my 11th and 23rd birthday!! Here's to celebrating birthdays till we're really really old. I love you!


xoxo, kaitinghearts

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