birthday celebration Archives

Checklist for a simple birthday party

I have been so busy lately that even though I knew Master 3’s 3rd birthday was round the corner, I just simply had no time to plan for it! And guess what? This busy mummy only started to plan for the birthday party 3 days before the big day! It has kind of become a norm to me even though I do not like it last minute. Sometimes, I feel guilty that I have not been as conscientious as most other mummies who plan much in advance and take care of every aspect of the party many months before. Well, I am glad I did manage to put up a decent simple party in a short time anyway. No one would know that I had only planned 3 days before.

The following checklist is a mental checklist that I have mastered over the years with 3 kids. Ok, I am sure everyone has about the same list and I am going to share what I did for games, venue, ideas and resources.

Here it goes rolling:

3 days before madness

1. Guest List and invites

First the hub and I decided on a day, not that we have much choice anyway. Usually, we host birthday celebrations on Saturday nights. Then we decided on who to invite. This is easy as the list is usually our immediate families which totalled up to about 13 adults + 10 children. Lucky for us, all our guests were able to make it on the short notice, yet, again. I promise I would not do that again if I can help it, i.e. invitation at the last hour.

2. Party Venue

We hold parties mostly in our small house. However, after Master 8’s lovely and cosy birthday celebration with his classmates in our favourite yogurt cafe “Frozen – a thousand blessings“, I decided on the same venue since it is new to our guests. A second time lucky for us, the date we had chosen was still available to book. We love this place as the kids love the Frozen yogurt, not to mention that the venue is basically FREE with $120 for a 2 hour slot which included $120 worth of yogurt for our guests! The place is cosy for an Continue reading “Checklist for a simple birthday party”

A simple celebration for Little YT’s 2nd birthday

My baby is 2!
I am happy to celebrate this big day. But I have a dilemma. To throw a party or not to throw. Why so?

A traditional longevity noodle (mee sua) with 2 eggs. It is more special in our family because we cook it sweet! — A traditional longevity noodle (mee sua) with 2 eggs for the birthday boy. It is more special in our family because we cook it sweet!

I am not so much a party person. But I like how birthday celebrations are like close family and friends gatherings. It provides an excuse to Continue reading “A simple celebration for Little YT’s 2nd birthday”

Having fun party at Fun@Giggles (+Giveaway!)

Fun@Giggles playground – courtesy of Fun@Giggles

YH has been invited to many birthday parties at this age. We were honoured to be invited including his siblings and us, parents to most of the parties. But to be invited to indoor playground parties, due to the more expensive cost and limited invitees, siblings are usually not invited and we perfectly understand. So when we turned up as Continue reading “Having fun party at Fun@Giggles (+Giveaway!)”

A simple and relax birthday celebration for a 6 year old

Most mums will celebrate their kids’ birthday with much fanfare. In our family, only the 1st birthday is a bigger party to celebrate our kids’ first year’s milestone. For all birthdays after that, we prefer to have a simple celebration with our close families, which often may seem more of a family gathering for the adults and fun play time for the young ones.

I am not a party person, but I love to organize and plan parties for the little ones. I usually leave the food part to my husband, and activities part to myself.

Early this month, we held a simple birthday celebration for YH who turned 6 this year. Prior to the celebration day, I printed a crown from picklebums for YH to decorate and wear on his birthday. I printed a tiara for XX too, so that she can join in the fun. Almost everything I do for one kid, I have to think for the other 🙂

The party started with a steamboat dinner fully prepared by my dear hubby, kel. The kids sat on one small table and finished their food pretty fast, while the adults ate for a full 2 hours, eating and chatting away. After the dinner, it was art and craft time! All the kids (6 of them, including my XX and YH, the other 4 are their cousins) sat around 2 small tables and started making a turtle which they would be bringing back home. I gave them each an egg carton as the turtle’s shell. One pompom and 2 eyes for the turtle’s head. 4 pipe cleaners for the turtle’s legs. And each a paint brush and paint to decorate the turtle’s shell.

Voila! Here’s the end product of the cute little turtles the 6 kids did! Of course, I helped them along in gluing the pipe cleaner legs to the shell. As some of the “legs” did not glue on properly, I used a stapler to do the job which I believe could better tolerate the kids’ rough playing of the turtles especially for the boys.

While waiting for the turtles’ legs to dry, the kids played with Lego Duplo blocks. After that, each kid went home with a small gift and the turtle they make. But not before 2 birthday songs (one in English and one in Chinese) and a piece of KungFu Panda cake each.

Among the kids, the oldest is a 13 year-old teen and youngest is a 4 year-old kid. I was glad that the teen (my beloved niece) joined in the art and craft and enjoyed painting her own turtle. The youngest managed well with help from the older kids.

This was a simple birthday celebration cum family gathering. No fanfare, no wows, no rules, no stress. Yet, I feel is the perfect celebration I wanted for everyone. Relax and simple. And then, there’s a Part 2 to the celebration. On the actual day of YH’s birthday, he was treated to a SPECIAL day of fun with just kel and me and him. No other kids. So that all attention is to be showered on him and just him!

What’s your preferred style of family celebration?