Baby M's first year birthday bash - the preparation...

Baby M's birthday celebration planning started simple- we had wanted it to be elsewhere and for N and other kids to have lots of fun. With the help of a friend, we manage to secure the Aloha chalet 3 months in advance. The good thing about the chalet is it came with 2 square tables and 20 plastic (those kopitiam type) chairs! Perfect for big gatherings/party.

PS: we had a good laugh at "Jacana" - "jiak ka na"-hokkien for eating preserved olives

PARTY THEME

Somehow rainbow just popped in my mind - happy and full of hope. Hubby thought that it would be fun to tie the theme to the 2014 horoscope - Horse. I was quite crazy about "My little pony" and with rainbows it was natural that Rainbow Dash became the chosen party mascot. With the theme settled, I did an amateurish looking invitation which was sent to guests...

This time round hubby also did a DIY photo shoot for mei mei - and I found a photo with her "signature" smile to put in the invite...

A separate "reminder" invite was also given to guests who were coming one day before the party. ;) 

ACTIVITY PREPARATIONS

Preparations started two months prior to the party. The idea was to have activities that will keep N and other kids entertained. The choice for me was clear- art related activities such as window art... (Sand art was too messy to my liking- IMHO) So the hunt for a vendor started. There were event companies which provided the service at exorbitant prices and the cheapest vendor I could find was not available.... (Sigh)

Beads Station
Disappointed, I explored an activity which was featured by an event company- using beads to make key chains or bracelets. Lucky for me I managed to find a cheap supply of raimbow coloured beads and accessories (including rainbow coloured string) from Taobao. Just a week before the party, I got N to sit with me to sort the alphabet beads... ;p as you can see from the picture, we were only half way thru' the big bag of beads!!!

Foam Art (Photo Frame)
The other activity which was planned was for the kids to make a foam art photo frame. The original intention was to use my phone to take pictures for the guest and print them out using the Canon Selphy. Hubby warned me that I was trying to do too much! *bleah* But it was too late- I had ordered the foam art from Taobao and it was on its way to Singapore! So the kids would do the foam art on the spot or bring them home to do. :)

Tattoo/ Face painting 
I met this lady during a Christmas road show at AMK hub. She was doing face painting for kids with an event company. I was impressed because she drew very well. I took the opportunity to ask if she could do free lance. She agreed and gave me her telephone number. Closer to the date, she told me to choose 8 characters. You can see the 8 characters below (yes! It included minions because I thought most of the boys won't want a pony tattoo...)
 

As you can see here, she actually practised at home prior to the event (see below). I asked if she had photos of the tattoos she drew during my party. I guess she was too busy with the never-ending supply of kids wanting to get tattoos so she gave me her practise photos. Such dedication! What more could I ask for! Her name is Sufang and you can contact her at 9652 9630 if you are interested in getting her for your party. ;)

Piñata!


I first broached the idea to hubby who was a hesitant about the feasibility. I convinced him that doing a "1" would be super simple using cardboards which we had plenty at home. Hubby was naturally horrified when he learnt that piñata was meant to be beaten till broken.  He was later convinced by a non-violent version - the pull string piñata. During my research, I saw a dad who did an impressive Beagle piñata tutorial (which I also showed hubby for fun). 



Almost 2 weeks left to the party, there was still no piñata!!! With the stress of "delivering" what the invite promised, we finally got down to it. To which, hubby enthusiastically announced: "Let's do a pony piñata! The video looks simple enough...". And so, the nightmare of ME slogging to complete the piñata began... 



Step 1- Create a paper mache ball (a blown up balloon was used) as the tummy to hold sweets in the piñata... 

Step 2 - After the balloon paper mache is dry, hubby used strips of cardboard to build a skeleton around the balloon for the body and head... Empty cans were used for the legs... 

Step 3: I was supposed to fill the gaps with newspaper to puff the pony into shape (i forgot!) before paper mache-ing the whole thing.

I DIY-ed about 3 batches of starch (see photo) to complete the mache for the whole pony.

Step 4: Hang up the whole thing for it to dry! As you can see the pony looks odd because I did not feel the gaps with paper to puff it up... :( 

Step 5: COLOUR the pony. The video tutorial showed the guy spray painting it. That's the fastest method since the paint would cover up the newspaper mache "prints"... I didn't want to spend more money buying spray paint so I used masking tape to tape up the whole pony and painted it blue (colour of Rainbow Dash) using N's Crayola paint... 





Step 6: Add the finishing touches... Hubby used cardboard to cut out the wings and ears... I dyed the cotton twine using N's Crayola paint. The eyes and logo was printed from the computer and cut into shape for pasting. Finally, the Rainbow Dash piñata was "born" in the nick of time - on Thursday - 2 days before the party! (PHEW!) All that was left was to cut the bottom and fill it up with SWEETS!

THE MAMA-SHOP CORNER 


This was mainly an inspiration from a Dec 08 mummy Jinny's  birthday bash for her #2. She had a really pretty candy table which she DIY-ed. Hubby supported the idea so I got down to planning "rainbow" items for the table. I went crazy wanting to buy fruit loops, Paddle pop ice cream, yakult, jelly beans and everything rainbow. Hubby brought me back to Earth with "Hey don't go overboard hor!". 


And so, with hubby's warning in mind, I searched around for a "cheap" candy source. Finally chanced upon a shop which not only sold candies but also some old school snacks. I secretly decided to make half the table offer "retro snacks". Hubby was working on Friday so I went to the candy shop alone - if hubby's warning wasn't ringing at the back of my mind I would have bought everything on the shelves! 

Inspired by Jinny, hubby said we could do bottle labels like her too. So 3 designs were put out and hubby chose the rainbow (though I got most votes for the polka dot one). 

They were initially printed on normal paper but tore off easily when wet. The labels were eventually printed on photo paper instead... 

I also printed little cake toppers for the Twelve cupcakes (mini) which my younger sister sponsored for the party... These were also printed on photo paper and cut out using a circle cutter... Toothpicks were pasted behind the paper. ;) 

The final DIY item on the table was rainbow agar agar/jelly. With the help of my niece, nephew and N, we made the jelly on the night before the party... 

DECORATIONS 


Hubby took charge of the fancy decorations and I manage to "coerce" my poor brother in law to blow balloons for me and hang them up on the day of the party. It was during this  "fancy decoration" exercise, that I learnt of my nephew and hubby's talent in balloon sculpting... My nephew was so addicted he could not stop making dogs, swords, flowers and many other designs from the balloons. 



Hubby made three of these and my nephew made one. Not too bad I must say for amateurs like my nephew and hubby. ;) 

Look out for my next post - on the day of the celebrations...

Santa Handprint DIY Salt Dough

There was some time between lunch and N's ballet at 4pm. Baby M was sleeping and we could do a short activity together. 

I first saw this on facebook and decided to save a picture of it on my handphone's photo album. It is an activity I plan to do during the upcoming xmas party gathering with colleagues. There would be about 5 kids and it should be fun! Furthermore I had bags of expired baking flour, rather than dump them. Make art! ;)

The dough mixture was really sticky and i had to put more flour! :/ I added a little oil to the mixture to smooth it out too... 

Read online that baking the dough takes ages and microwaving is faster. As my dough was quite thick, the dough was microwaved for 2 minutes sandwiched between 2 plates and for about 1.5 minutes without the top plate. 

 

 

I retrieved the plate aft every min to check if the dough was hard. The middle took the longest to harden. The final product before colour. Somehow the dough bloated which is why the palm area was not flat... Cute isn't it? 

When the dough cooled down, N started her hands on painting it. 

To guide her along, I drew the outline of santa's cap for her to paint. Tip: For a vibrant colour, we did not make the paint too watery... 

N decided another colour was needed for the clay to make it more colourful... So there is green! 

After adding the eyes nose and N insisted a smiley mouth. Here is her dough handprint santa... ;) 

Aloha Loyang Chalet (art & craft on Day 1 & 2)

This is the second year 4 families come together for an R&R weekend at the Aloha Loyang chalet during the December school holidays. This time round we stayed at Bungalow 14. The condition of this chalet was worse than the previous and was quite a distance from the swimming pool. The only perk is that the unit was facing the sea (so it was windy) and there is a mango tree outside which was bearing lots of fruits! :)

This time round, two mummies prepared some craft material for the kids to entertain themselves during the chalet. There were 2 toddlers (including little gal) and 2 older children. Doing crafts entertains the kids and doing it at the chalet takes away lots of stress (translate to: no worries about the sand all over the floor or paint on your precious furniture/wall). The best part is seeing all 4 kids enjoying themselves!

There were other things which the kids did like painting the sea creature coaster and "free hand" doodling/drawing which were not captured on photos.

But here are some pictures captured of the children in action!

Day 1: Little gal doing foam art with another little gal (who turns out to be her best friend throughout this entire chalet!)



Day 2: Batik Painting all around! All serious at work... :)

Everyone "flashing" their work of art... and laying them out to dry outside the chalet

 

All posing with their art pieces! All very pretty isn't it? *Well done!*



Two mummies helping their gals with the "Glow-in-the-dark" sand art pieces! (PS: The messy messy SUPER messy but super fun craft! Most fun to do at Chalet cos even if the sand spills, the parents can still chill!)

The little gal with her finished piece!

 

Hubby helped the kids "sun" the glow in the dark sand & all the kids went into the room to see the "glowing" art work. Quite impressed that the glow in the dark sand really "glows". LOL!

Batik Painting

Finally caught the trend of letting my little girl try "batik painting". It's meant to help children gain control and coordination. ;)

Today papa guided lil gal by helping her pour out the colors and telling her which to mix to get other colors... Midway through, she was so happy she held up the painting and exclaimed "wow so beautiful!". And she did not want papa to do any of the painting for her... Lolz...

Sand Art

Thought this would be a fun activity, so when my parents walked pass a push cart and wanted to buy something for little gal, I suggested buying sand art for her. My parents agreed and bought 3 pcs for $5 (abt A4 size each).

Well little gal and I did one some weeks back at my granny's place. He admired my patience since that pc came "uncut". Yup, I used a pen- knife to cut out the bigger areas so the sand could go in.

Weeks later, little gal pulled out "Mickey" sand art and insisted on doing it up. Brave mummy took up the challenge- she choose the colours & poured them while I help pour the sand into different disposable bowls. This time it looks more "complete" as all the small parts could be removed for the sand... ;)

The conclusion: doing this sand art is a test of the parent's patience. But check out the smile on her face (priceless?). :)