DN's 3rd Birthday Party (part 1)

The day of DN's party, I was officially in my 38th week of pregnancy and was I glad I hadn't given birth or what?! If I had, I would have missed the party of the year. (Well, that's what it was to me!) Because I'm due on 4 Sept, 2 days after DN's actual birthday, we decided to have DN's party 2 weeks earlier. Just in case. Having it just 1 week before I'm due would REALLY have been pushing it. My initial suggestion was 15 August, when I'm in my 37th week of pregnancy, but PF (he of much confidence) said, "Aiyah, 22nd August is ok! Just don't give birth lah!"

Er yah, okayyy...

MEN! Not only are our bodies subjected to 10 months of expanding (which is not necessarily followed by a proportionate amount of contracting *wail!*wail!*) and 1 month of unbearable imprisonment confinement, we also have to deal with wise cracks like that. The distribution of 'baby' responsibilities seems unbalanced I think, especially since labour is already on our plate. Hands up those of you who think men should lactate!

So my mantra the week leading up to the party was, "don'tgivebirthdon'tgivebirthdon'tgivebirth...". It worked! And I had a blast at the party!

The morning was a bit crazy because there are just some things you can't do the day before, like pick up the cake, collect the food and send your sister-in-law to the airport when her flight's on Saturday morning. So thanksthanksthanks to my granny, Li Yen and Joanne for helping with the fried rice, dry mee siam, balloons, driver duty, hard labour and ice! :D

Bellies were filled with, from top to bottom, sushi, child-friendly fried rice, dry mee siam (both lovingly cooked by my granny, yum yum) and subs. Thumbs up for the sushi but thumbs down for the subs, I thought. We collected the subs at 10am so by the time people ate, they were kinda soft and squished (from being piled on top of each other). The subs, not the guests, hur hur.


A close up of the sushi which was very well-received!


We didn't do much for decorations. Just some Mickey balloons, which some of the kids went at like a punching bag. Poor Mickey! He's looking a bit 'deflated' now, LOL.


When planning for the party, PF and I considered lots of options - a pony party, a baking party, a mega gym party... er, okay, we considered only 3 options! By a stroke of good luck, I bumped into an ex-student of mine who's now working with a mobile kids gym company, and they were looking into tapping into the birthday party market. Perfect! The kids get entertained and the parents can just sit back, eat, drink and relax!

The only problem was, when all the food arrived, everybody, I repeat, EVERYBODY (adults and children alike!) abandoned the obstacle gym course set up in front of them and flocked to the food instead. But there was dry mee siam and prawn sambal, so I don't blame them! Even birthday boy had eyes only for the sushi. When the 'class' started, he REFUSED to budge from the sofa and just wanted to eat sushi. I was like, "What the...?!"

Anyway, he finally did join the class and he had a blast! The obstacle course had a slide...

... some climbing apparatus, some rolling cushions, a walking bridge and a station for forward rolls. (I know, I just made a big mess describing all the stations.)

After the obstacle course, there was some rope play and then the kiddos all received stickers. No idea what they were doing here though. (???)

And after that, it was pinata time, woo-hoo! Did you know that there are pinatas for toddlers? There's no whacking the pinata (and probably other unlucky people at the same time) with a stick. Instead, there's a whole bunch of ribbons hanging from the pinata and the kiddos are supposed to pullpullpull until one lucky child pulls the ribbon that releases all the candy from heaven! Like a lucky draw!

Now of course, PF and I were not going to leave it to luck. So we kelong-ed the pinata game! *blush* We found THE RIBBON. We taped up THE RIBBON. And we only released THE RIBBON (after all the rest had been pulled) just for DN. So shameless! But you know what? It didn't matter in the end who pulled THE RIBBON because when the candy-from-heaven started showering on them (literally), none of the kiddos gave two squats about it! They all just went for the candy on the floor! PF and I stuffed the pinata with raisins (in boxes of course!), konnyaku jellies, gummies, sweets and cookies. All dairy-free! :D

The way the candy fell out of the pinata was a bit of a let-down though. I don't know, I guess I expected a "graceful shower of treats from heaven", so when it looked more like a "sporadic dump of treats from a round cardboard box with a hole", I was quite disappointed. I think it's because we put bigger treats in the pinata and those got stuck at the opening. So PF had to shake the pinata to induce my "candy shower". Humph. But who cares?! I gave everyone a little goodie bag to fill and they had a blast stuffing their bags. So so so cute! Some walked away with bags that hung like bowling bags, and some walked away contented with two gummies. Hee hee! Er... DN's bag looked like a bowling bag... with TWO bowling balls!