Sophie's 1st Birthday Bash

We hosted Sophie's 1st Birthday Party today, 3 days earlier than the actual date, on Hari Raya Haji. We were not ambitious (as advised by many mummies) so our guest list was limited to around 10 families. This was the first time I had to organize a baby/toddler-friendly party (not like I have ever organised a birthday party of any sort before). In order not to embarrass or stress out myself during the party, I did a fair bit of homework, researching on how others actually do it. Unfortunately, I was not really able to do a lot due to budget and labour constraint. Still, we tried our best to do a decent one for Sophie's 1st Birthday Bash.

Instead of hiring a clown (Stephen King’s IT) or balloon sculptor (actually I can learn to do it myself…) or magician (to ‘con’ our children?!), I decided to cut cost by renting a swing/slide, an activity table and a rocking horse. On top of that, I threw in Sophie’s favourite toys such as her stacking bowls and cups, and her musical drum. The designated play area for babies and toddlers was marked out with our puzzle floor mat on the platform. The sofa there was the “changing table” with waterproof changing mat, tissue paper, wet wipes and diapers provided.

Sophie showed everyone that she could walk a little bit...

The children, who arrived earlier, started exploring and fiddling with the toys in the play area, seemingly uninterested in the swing/slide at all. Opps! Did I make a bad choice? Fortunately, the older children ventured out of the play area and very soon, they were having great fun around the swing/slide. In fact, they were running around so ‘fast-and-furiously’ that I got worried for their safety. Yes, I am a paranoid...

I was even happier when I saw my friends blowing bubbles with their daughters. We had tried to include an assorted range of toys and snacks in the goodie bags so that everyone would find something they like in there. I guess children (sometimes adults) are always fascinated by bubbles… Too bad I forgot to provide entertainment for the adults though. Next time I would think of something. Papa actually wanted to create a video but it took too long to download so we sort of gave up.

We actually targeted to cut the cake at 3.30pm and slowly wind down after that. However, Sophie had other plans. She fell asleep around 3pm and did not wake up until around 4pm. Meanwhile, I gave some of the blogger-families a quick tour around our humble abode (quite messy actually). By the time we came back to the function room, Sophie was wide awake.

Finally, we could cut the cake, which was a huge lovely chocolate cake (we would have cake for breakfast for the next few days) from Polar and a gift from Naenae, Ah Boh, Uncle Simon and Auntie Adeline. I put Sophie on her highchair and everyone crowded around to sing her birthday songs. She probably had no clue to what we were doing but she seemed to enjoy the limelight, singing and clapping. I must confess that cake-cutting is never my forte, I have this unexplained dislike for messing up the cream and stuff. Maybe that was why I actually forgot about paper plates! Sorry!

After the party, everyone helped us clear the function room and move the stuff back home. We were very grateful because it would have taken us forever to do it and Papa had a wedding dinner to attend at 7pm. All in all, I think the party was quite alright. Hope that everyone had enjoyed themselves as well.