Surprisingly, we had never thrown a birthday party for the eldest girl before. Her birthdays were usually celebrated at home or at school. She really wanted a birthday party this year and I thought McDonald's will be a good idea since it didn't cost a lot and comes with a party room and host (you can read more on their website).
Let's party at McDonald's!
Party room that accommodates at most 25 kids. Any more and it'll be really tight!
McDonald's also reserved some tables outside the party room for adults
The host will go around to get the names of the children and their Happy Meal order while another crew member takes the orders of the adult guests (if any).
The host is also in charge of entertaining the kids with simple games and a lot of prizes!
The host split the kids into two groups to compete against each other
After the games, the kids enjoyed their Happy Meals!
So difficult to get so many kids to look at the camera for this photo!
Kids enjoying their food and chatting
Girl had fun talking with her friends
Next, it was time to cut the cake that we had ordered from McDonalds. You can bring your own but you must ensure that it is Halal certified.
Blowing out the mega size candle that we bought from Spotlight
A group photo with all the kids! ❤️
I also insisted on a group photo with all the adults just for fun 😄
For a no-name McDonald's cake, this one was surprisingly good! Very delicious 😋
When everyone has had enough cake, it was time to distribute the goodie bags to all the kids!
Left: Goodie bag table!; Right: The birthday girl has a special gift!
Birthday girl giving out gifts to all her friends
With her good friends from church (left) and school (right)
In case you're wondering, they each got a McDonald's pencil box, pencil and notebook in the goody bag
The outlet at Ang Mo Kio Park had a small playground on premise so the kids had fun playing in the playground while waiting for the parents to pick some of them up.
So nostalgic! Such playgrounds are so rare in Singapore!
Wearing our party masks 😄
Our McDonald's birthday party was really free and easy and not that expensive. However, if you've got a party with more than 15 kids, the party room might not be big enough. We only had 14 kids and still I felt it was a tight squeeze!
A few days later, we had a small celebration for the birthday girl on her actual birthday!
I know I keep saying this but, I CAN'T BELIEVE MY BABY BOY IS 3!!!
How fast time flies. My boy is not only adapting well to his pre-school but he will be celebrating his birthday for the first time with his classmates.
Since my boy is a BIG fan of Team Umizoomi, the cartoon on Super Math Powers (and I can tell that my boy is really good at Math), we did an Umizoomi theme for his birthday.
I wanted something practical that the parents can use after the party so I went with recyclable bags with a special "customised" birthday label that I did myself affixed on them.
Thanks for coming Umifriend!
To be honest, I was kind of sick of receiving snacks and stationery in the birthday goody bags so for these bags, we bought art colouring sets and balloons instead. I find them more useful and fun for the children. Sorry kids, no fatty snacks for you this time!
On the actual day, I brought the goody bags and other DIY Umizoomi decorations to the school.
Me, busying decorating the cake while my boy looks on excitedly
Left: Printed a picture of Team Umizoomi and stuck chopsticks at the back; Right: The final rainbow cake from Prima Deli with all the decorations.
Simple mini Umizoomi characters pasted on toothpicks and stuck on the fishballs and sausages.
Boy was so mesmerised by the cake in this family photo!
It's a very simple birthday celebration but I think the boy really enjoyed himself. He looked very serious when the kids were singing to him though (maybe stage fright? Haha!).
Cutting the cake
It's layers of rainbow inside as well!
My boy loves cake (like me hehe) so he got the biggest slice!
I helped the boy give out the goody bags after and he really loved it.
What colour do you want? Here you go!
After the birthday party, we brought the kids to Cool de Sac, where Harvest Kids (our church's children church ministry) members have free entry on weekdays (no need ticket entry any more)! #mychurchissocool *grin*
This is not the kid's first time to Cool de Sac (read about their first experience here) and will definitely not be the last. It's one of our favourite indoor playgrounds!
Running about going crazy on the play structures and Lego area
It's the first time he's getting his arm painted!
He chose an elephant from the list of pictures himself! My boy is so grown up haha!
It is finished! =)
They love getting their bodies painted here. I think the boy went around showing off his elephant for a few days.
Happy birthday my darling boy! May you always gain wisdom and stature as you grow up and find favour with God and with men in all that you do! Mummy loves you! =)
The best thing about having a girl is being able to dress her in our favourite Disney Princess outfit for her birthday every year. This year was supposed to be Ariel in The Little Mermaid but I couldn't find an outfit that both of us could agree on (on hindsight, I probably should have bought an outfit when we visited Tokyo DisneySea last year). Eventually we decided to go with Lego Friends since she has more than 10 boxes of them and counting (I know right?! *laughs*).
Of course I Googled for ideas and decided to use a few that I think is doable for a time-strapped FTWM like me.
The first idea was to create DIY Lego necklaces for the kids to make themselves.
Bought a box of Lego Classics for the materials
(kept the rest for my kids to play with hehe)
Pick out the pieces that have holes in them so that you can thread the string through
Mix and match different shapes and sizes for the necklaces!
Here's a TIP from personal experience after observing the kids:
1) More Lego pieces does NOT mean it's better - the kids dropped a lot of the bigger pieces.
2) Small and flat pieces worked the best. If they had interesting details even better!
Packed them up into plastic bags and viola! =)
(the string I used was a simple elastic string that you can get anywhere)
Next was the Lego Goodie Bags, which were in the Lego Friends colours of pink and purple.
Got thick paper and colourful paper bags
(ideally the paper should not match the paper bag so that there will be enough contrast)
Drew circles with a water bottle I've got at home
Clockwise from left: Girl helped me to cut out the circles;
Stuck 6 of them on the bag and viola!;
All the bags ready for the party!
I thought it would also be fun to make Lego Jelly but since this mama is terrible in the kitchen, it was up to Chef Grandma to work her magic on this one.
The Lego Bricks mould I bought from Bricksworld
Chef Grandma pouring in the melted agar agar mixture
As I had only one mould, the whole process was super tedious!! Patient Chef Grandma took a few days before she was finally done. And the kids loved it!
The finished products all ready for the kids to savour
(could have been better presented but well who cares?
Nice to eat good enough right? *laughs*)
Finally, the cake! I decided the easiest will be to buy a simple rainbow cake and put my girl's Lego Friends on top! Cheap and good! =)
Washing the Lego parts with baby dishwashing liquid
I used the smallest structure I could find that could fit on the cake, added my girl's favourite character (Stephanie) and made a J out of pink Lego bricks. I think my girl was satisfied with the overall effect! =)
The end product! Love it =)
All ready for a party!
We started the kids with a short activity where they got to make their own Lego Necklaces. Most of them had fun =)
Putting the necklace together with instructions from the teachers
All done! Looks great right? =)
Singing happy birthday to my girl, after which she was more than eager to cut her own cake
We decided to let her wear a simple Lego Friends t-shirt to keep with the theme. There's always time for Disney next year.
The kids loving their rainbow cake and Lego agar agar jelly
I will greatly miss celebrating the girl's birthday in a small setting like this. Next year onwards, I'll have to find a venue to hold it (if the hubby allows me to hold a party for her that is).
She got new boxes of Lego Friends for her birthday present!
And her daddy got her a brand new pink bike! My kids are extremely blessed!!
When I asked my girl what she would like the theme of her birthday party to be, she answered without hesitation, "Cinderella!" (She got hooked to Cinderella on the plane to Melbourne. We even brought her to see the newest movie.)
So Cinderella it was.
Her paternal grandmother got her son, who is living in the USA, to buy the Cinderella dress and assessories for her. Sadly the former was sold out so he could only buy the latter. I eventually got her a dress from Qoo10 at S$22, which was cheap but the material wasn't fantastic and the look didn't resemble Lily James' dress in the movie (I figured that there was no point spending a lot of money on a dress that she's only going to wear once). It was good enough for my girl though, who loved her outfit!
Left: Cinderella's glass slippers and her crown! Right: Wearing her full outfit at home
As with the year before, my girl helped me with packing the goodie bags for her classmates. We ordered a Cinderella cake and her daddy also got her a big Cinderella balloon!
Girl all dressed in "Cinderella", with her Cinderella balloon
(The balloon was quite expensive but can last for 5 days before it starts to deflate)
We decided to have the party at her school (easier for us).
With her Cinderella cake and looking like a princess
Happy 5th birthday my baby girl!
(If you look carefully the blue candle is broken. Don't ever buy this, the quality is really bad)
A group photo with her royal subjects!
Blowing out her candle!
Serving the cake with princess plates
Delicious!! :D
Girl enjoyed herself tremendously! Special thanks to all her teachers for teaching and taking care of her at school! :)
I can't believe that I have been a mother for 5 years! My girl has grown to become a pretty little sister. How fast time flies!
Happy 5th Birthday Darling!
Mummy loves you very, very much! *kisses*
P.S: See also my girl's past birthday party themes:Elsa and Dora :)
