The Birthday Party

The day has arrived and the kids were excitedly waking us up this morning getting us to get up as it's the day of their birthday party. We started the day with our breakfast at Wagas and came home to do some more last minute preparations. The party was to start at 3:30pm but we were all finished by 2:00pm.

When a new movie on DVD failed to keep them occupied longer, we got them on the computer playing online games, and then more "herding" of the balloons scattered everywhere on the floor to float back to the lounge area.

And when the guests started arriving, it all just went in a blur. I didn't even get a chance to take pictures of all the kids wearing their costumes, didn't manage to take more party pictures and nor did I manage to take pictures of our homemade piñata!

Here are some pictures I managed to snap...

Kids with their party clothes, all sewn up at the last minute...

Happy Birthday banner which was easy to do.

Balloons everywhere. We started with about 100 of these but some blew up before guests arrived...


One of the 6 no-sew tutus I made complete with the name tag...

And the girls wearing their tutus...

The boys wearing their superhero capes and masks...

Banana cupcake recipe from Bakerella... except I added too much food colour than I should.

My first attempt at birthday cakes...

The little goody bags for the guests...

All in all, it was a success, the kids enjoyed themselves. I'm glad it was over and I've another year to plan another; one of the advantages of having twins... 1 party once a year.

Usually we don't give kids any presents also on their birthdays as they get to have the party and plus they get gifts from guests. And yes, they get to extend their birthday as we only get them to open 1 gift a day (maybe next year I'll hide the gifts so as to extend the opening of presents longer). Sounds harsh but actually this turns out well as the kids get a chance to play and enjoy 1 toy at a time rather than get overwhelmed by so many toys.

Today You Both Are 4

Today is a big day. My twins are celebrating their 4th birthday. Where has time gone? It seemed only yesterday when the doctor told me I'm going to have twins. The memory is still so vivid in my mind and remember every minute of it, how Simon and I sat there in the lounge trying to absorb the news, speechless yet excited while at the same time also not sure what to do.

Happy Birthday...

xoxo
mummy

Pretend Party Again

The kids are very very very excited about their upcoming birthdays and they requested we have a pretend party last Saturday. And we did. It was also for me to test out which cupcake to make and how I will decorate it. The kids even had an opinion on how I should do the frosting while they decorated the top with sprinkles.


The cupcakes actually turned out great and was just the right taste, not too sweet. The recipe was from Bakerella's Banana Cupcakes. And with the frosting it didn't feel too sinful. The frosting was from here which I found via Cake Journal.

One of the kids' classmate whom they've invited for the actual party got the date wrong and ended up at our doorsteps bearing this big bowl of goldfishes for the kids. This was the kids' first pets. The gold one for Audrey is named 'zhen zhu' meaning 'pearl' while the black one for Samuel is named 'mo long' meaning 'dark dragon' or literally 'ink dragon'; 'ink' because of the black colour. Unfortunately, 'zhen zhu' died a couple days later...


Then we followed up the little party with a quick play time at the Okura Garden Hotel's lawn (our new hangout) where Samuel picked up lots of leaves and put them in his bucket and poured all out onto the mat.


He picked more leaves to share with Audrey who had a bit of a fever.

Birthday Invites Out... Whew!

Last night finally managed to finish putting together the party invites after having to re-print the cards (my DH thinks I should have added some more info). I'm not really working with any theme as things seem to be changing often so I'm just going with the flow.


This is what I ended up with the invite as Samuel wanted super hero capes plus mask. Audrey wanted some fairy/princess thingy so I ended up with a tutu. And yes, this means I need to make 6 super hero capes and 6 tutus. I bought the wands for less than a dollar so that at least took something off my plate. More on the costumes later...

So printed some stickers to use as seals on the invites. The paper was from packs I bought in Sydney way way way back then during the BK days; BK meaning 'before kids'.



All done.

When the party is over, I'll post here a free downloadable kit including: invites, sticker labels and tags. Possibly sewing pattern for the cape...