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.

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 Party Ideas

I just realized that kids' birthday is a little over a month to go and haven't really started planning anything. And since I've always got a lot of things happening all at the same time, I've started panicking - not sure if I'll ever have enough time to prepare.

My criteria this year are:

1. as much as possible low key
2. no balloons
3. as much as possible handmade
4. has to be a unisex theme as my twins is a boy and a girl
   

I'm not even sure if this is all realistic... So I've put together some 'mood boards' to see what my options are. My twins of course wants something either too boyish or too girly and even at 4 cannot seem to agree on a theme until this morning when I asked them. When I hinted at a underwater sort of theme, it seems like they both agreed. Now putting my mood boards together does not really seem like it's coherent to the chosen theme... Who knows what I'll end up having in the end but maybe I can adapt some to theme... we'll see.


1-2: Martha Stewart Pop-up Party Decorations - I remember making these way back in grade school and I'm going to try to remember how these are made this coming weekend. This would be a nice change from the streamers which everyone has been making like what the kids and I did one weekend (see picture 3).

4: Martha Stewart Festive Garland - another possibility combining 1, 2 and 3

5: Creature Comfort's Paper Rosette's based on Martha Stewart's Fabric Star Medallions - this may be my go-to version if I am not successful with doing 1 and 2.


1 and 4: Cookie Magazine's recommendation for party games - Bean Bag Toss and Pin the Tail on the Donkey. I was actually planning on making Bean Bag Toss this weekend so it'll be a trial or one which I'll keep until the party.

2: Coloured Pasta - could be something I'll get the kids to put together into jewelry. I clipped an article from Parents magazine last year which had some excellent ideas on what things you can make with coloured pastas. Simply Radiant has a great tutorial for making the pastas bright and colourful.

3: Pinata - definitely! I have already an idea on how I'll make one using a string or ribbons to pull open the pinata. I don't like those that requires a bat to break the pinata open. We had a small fire truck last year which I bought and then filled with small amount of candies and lots of tiny toys. It was a big hit.

5: Martha Stewart's Fabric-Scrap Favor Pick - good way to use up my fabric stash but not sure yet what I'll put inside...

6: Legos - will be something boys can do

7: Martha Stewart's Notebook Labels - my idea is more of personalized bookplates for the guests

8: Freezer Paper Printing - This was something we did one weekend and the kids had fun so I'm thinking could be an activity and at the same time a party favor afterwards.


1: Fish Bowl Cupcake - this idea was on a book I bought last year called Hello Cupcake. But also found this from here. The kids have asked me a few times when I'll make these but haven't gotten round to it. This will be my chance, I guess.

2: Annabel Karmel's Jelly Boat - made this last year for the kids 3rd birthday and was a hit, so in line with the 'theme' this may make a comeback.

3, 5 and 9: Cookie Magazine's Healthy Snacks - these snacks were featured in one of the issues I received and have tested so far the frozen banana treat. I've been wanting to try the other 2 and this may be a chance. These doubles also as party food.

4 and 8: Bakerella's Cake Pops - oooohhhh... I've been eyeing these for some time now and thought these would be perfect party food. Just haven't had much time during the past weekends. These sound a little less 'evil' than a candy pop; not big on candies.

6: Inchmark's Star Cupcakes - this is an interesting idea for a topper too which is neither too girly or too boyish...

7: Martha Stewart's Carrot-Cake Mini Cupcakes - this is more for the idea on the topper and possibly the cupcake recipe or a banana one.

'Pretend' Tea Party

Today was way too hot to do much so after coming home after lunch, we thought we'd have a 'pretend' tea party. Got the kids to put together some buntings which I'd cut out of an old wedding gift wrapper. They folded the top of the triangle paper and attached it to the string plus added a tape to keep the paper from falling off.

Then they helped make some cupcakes. Actually, it was also for a me trial to see what sort of cupcakes I can make for the kids birthdays in September (I know it's still a long way away but for a very busy person like me, I need a long long long leadtime to plan stuff).

The cupcakes turned out great. The recipes were from Cupcake Bakeshop by Choclit using her Plain and Simple Chocolate Cupcake with the Vanilla frosting and Yellow Cupcake from Martha Stewart's Food Magazine. I especially loved the vanilla frosting because it used a lot less sugar than other recipes. I'm still in search of the 'perfect' frosting that uses even less sugar, if that even exists. So if anyone has any idea it would be greatly appreciated.

And finally, love these cute cupcake liners which I got from Cupcake Social and Bake It Pretty. They somehow just add a nice touch to the cupakes.