Julia Explores...: 2015

I discovered Kamalan Bakery by accident. I picking up a to-go order from FuFu Restaurant and the only parking spot available was at the end of the strip, right in front of their store front. Six Ping was actually my next stop after FuFu. Upon seeing Kamalan, I thought why not check it out.

I'm so glad I did! I've been pretty disappointed with Six Ping's buns lately and the other bakery I frequent is closed for a month. When I walked in, I was happy to see peanut bun and coconut bun on the shelve - two of my favorites. I bought a couple of each to try. I will say, they make the best peanut bun in town and their coconut bun is a near tie to my other favorite bakery.

Opened for a couple of months now, they're located next to
Jungle Patisserie

Buns! This one is curry onion w/ pork sung.

More goodies!

Cakes, coconut jelly, milk pudding to name a few...

More cakes. They have a durian pandan cake that I tried. It was ok - can
definitely taste the durain, but I'm not a fan on the cream they use.

PEANUT BUN!

Guess their coconut bun was popular that day - only 1 left.
The one next to it is custard bun.

Close-up of the coconut bun.

What buns are on special

Kamalan Bakery

9889 Bellaire Blvd., Suite E219

Houston, TX

http://kamalanbakery.com/

Last weekend, we celebrated my oldest son's 2nd birthday at Happy Playland. I've actually never heard of them before until recently. Since we've never been there, I scouted the place out first before reserving it. One look at the place and I knew I picked the right spot for his party.

You can reserve the whole place or just one of the two rooms. The smaller room has this awesome wooden ship in it while the larger one has a jungle gym, small house and soft play area. While I wasn't expecting many kids, I reserved the large room anyway since it had the jungle gym my oldest can play on, and the soft play area my youngest can enjoy. The little house, complete with kitchen and accessories, was a hit with all the kids!

Happy Playland really worked for us this year because at 2 years old, my son doesn't really have friends, yet. His friends are our friends' kids, and they range from babies to the case of my nephew, a tween. And at Happy Playland, they were all able to enjoy the equipment. We also liked the fact it was a free of any activities or games. It allowed us to catch up with our friends, most we haven't seen in a while.

Just like most birthday rental places, we were allowed to arrive 15 minutes early to set up. The rental fee includes set up assistance, table clothes, plastic utensils (which came in handy because I totally forgot to buy some), napkins, clean up assistance. They called a couple days before to confirm how many kids were coming (to configurate tables and room) and what the party colors were (to match table cloth).

I guess it would be nice for me to say we knew all a long he was going to have Thomas the Train birthday party but the truth is, my husband and I didn't decide on that until the week before his party. Luckily, the bakery that made his 1st birthday cake was able to whip up something for me. I emailed them a picture of a cake I liked on Pinterest and they matched it really good! I was very pleased with it.

For supplies, I went to Party City and got a bunch of Thomas the Train plates, napkins, cups, balloons, a banner and a table cover... kept it simple. What's important was the birthday boy had a huge smile throughout his party!