Sophie's 3!!! (...finally)

The Preparation

Sophie has been a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fan for as long as we can remember. So when I asked her what kind of cake she wanted a couple of months back, she faithfully declared, "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!". Now, I truly only intended to get her a Mickey Mouse cake, but maybe a simple round one with his face on it. However, I made the gravest mistake by researching into designer cakes. From there, I found Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake toppers and other party "essentials". Before I knew it, we were having a birthday party with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme and ordering a huge cake from Pine Gardens.

Soon I was wrecking my brains for a suitable location and activities for the party. I toyed with the idea of doing it at McDonald's, KFC or some other exotic venues for a while before almost deciding on ExplorerKid at Downtown East. Then the gang fight happened and we cancelled our booking. So in the end, we decided to hold the birthday party at our own function room. For entertainment, we thought of clowning ourselves but it would never work out so we hired a professional magician cum balloonist from Fun Engineerz. We catered our food from Four Seasons as well since I cannot possible cook without causing some sort of food poisoning.

After all that was done, I went hunting for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse goodies. Too expensive! So I tried my best to make the loot bags as close to the theme as possible. It was then Sophie told me she prefers Dora now. My heart sank as I prayed hard that she would still like Mickey Mouse a wee bit longer because it was too late for me to change the cake now. Fortunately, she was still very excited and looking forward to her big day. We even created a calendar to do a countdown with her. And every day, she would diligently cross out the day and look longingly at "Saturday 11 December".

For decorations, I drew "bubble letters" and stuck them on the wall. Initially, I wanted to make a banner with Sophie but it was out of stock so we had to make do with my work instead. This morning, I inflated some balloons to decorate the function room but I gave up because they were quite difficult to manage. Especially since Papa was away with Sophie in the morning. She had to attend I Can Read at Bukit Timah Plaza so I had only my helper to rely on for the party.

Actual Day

It was a challenge to get Sophie ready for I Can Read in the morning because she was so thrilled about her birthday party. We put up the decorations before she headed off with Papa. After her lesson, Papa called me and said that she was too excited to take a nap in the car. Fortunately, she soon fell asleep anyway. While she was blissfully in dreamland, Ah Boh and Naenae came over to help with the logistics and Uncle Simon collected her birthday cake.

Our magician was supposed to come at 1 pm but there was some miscommunication so we had 30 minutes more of "nothing to do" for the kids. I was quite worried that they would get bored. And indeed, some of the kids started asking when the magician was coming. Luckily, we were able to buy some time with our bubble machine.

The birthday girl was so tired of playing, at one point, that she just rested on the floor. Usually I would scream at her but I decided not to... just for today. Not even when she jumped on the sofa with the boys in attempt to "capture" the bubbles.

I wanted Sophie to learn how to give and be a good host so I got her to give out party hats and loot bags to the guests as they arrived. Surprisingly, she did not mind being interrupted in the middle of her play for this.

Initially, I was not confident that the magician would be entertaining enough for the crowd of restless children. However, it seemed like they actually enjoyed it. It was quite a sight to see how they obediently sit in a nice row and watched the show. They were also willing participants in the show, not shy at all. Even the adults had a good time.

Meanwhile, Alfee was enjoying some attention as well. I had to take him home during the magic show to feed him so I missed most of it. Still, I was thankful Alfee was very well behaved today.

Initially, I had wanted the magician to play party games with the children. It would have cost $50 more. But I changed my mind last minute because I thought Sophie would appreciate balloon sculptures more and most of them were too young to play games. I was right. In fact, I think all children love balloons shows somehow. They watched in amazement as the magician whipped up different sculptures on demand.

As the birthday girl, Sophie got a special balloon sculpture - Mickey Mouse. It took a lot longer than I thought for the magician to make, but it was great. Sophie waited quite patiently as well. Too bad the cheek burst the moment we reached home.

And the highlight of the party - the birthday cake! I ordered the Mickey Mouse and friends figurines from amazon and got my friend to ship them in for me. I thought the cake looked really attractive, enough to make the children crowd around it and fight for the first slice. Sophie seemed very pleased with her cake, especially the toys she got to take back. I also received postive feedbacks from the adults as well.

The party officially came to an end after the cake cutting ceremony. We were all exhausted and quite ready to just call it a day. But Sophie was clearly not ready to rest. She protested when Ah Boh, Uncle Simon and Naenae wanted to leave. So we opened the presents with her, in hope to use that as a closure for her birthday celebrations. Sophie was super happy to have received so many gifts. Thank you everyone for making her birthday such a wonderful experience for her!

Last Note

My Sophie has turned 3, finally. It was as though “3” is some sort of magic number and she would miraculously become stable, coherent and capable of regulating her emotions and impulses after today. Everyone has assured us that kids become much better when they are 3. So we have been looking forward to this promised change in her. But has there been any real difference in her today, compared to yesterday? I am afraid not. In fact, she was very much her usual, overly excited self during the party. Now people are telling me ... they get better when they enter primary school... that is another 3 years!