Once again, Emma likes to thank all doting grandparents, uncles, aunites, jie jies and gor gors for taking time to celebrate her birthday and all the gifts.
Emma’s turning 14 months old soon! And now, I really sound like I am living in denial about Emma turning 1 (and growing up so fast) when I blogged about her party 7 weeks later. ;P
But truth is nights are running shorter these days as Emma needs to be accompanied to sleep. It has been slightly over a month and she is getting better at sleeping without her precious thumb and is back to sleeping through the nights. However, we are still not able to leave her alone to sleep. There are many hits and misses but we are trying very hard to save her thumbs. Will share more about her quitting thumb sucking next time.
Ok, back to the party.
With great excitement, I jumped right into the planning after my exam in May. Her celebration was about 3 months away and time was running a little tight as nothing was planned and booked yet. Hence, I did up a list, like usual, to keep myself on track.
1. Date/Time
We set on Sunday afternoon as it was more convenient for church friends to pop by after service and the condo function room happened to be available too.
(home, condo function room, indoor playground, cafe or hotel ballroom)
It was national day weekend and we are extremely thankful to secure a condo function room through our church reverend. The condo is by the sea and it complements our theme! The L-shaped function room is spacious and oversees a nice olympics pool. We saved a lot on the venue as our other option was to hold it at children indoor playground.
3. Scale of party/Guest list
(Immediate family/family/friends)
We are honoured to have many family members and friends to join us in her birthday celebration. I am sure all of them are happy to witness her growth over the past 1 year.
4. Theme
Hubby rejected many of my "brilliant" ideas as he either find that too girly or boring. We were considering zoo or safari theme and finally agreed on Noah's Ark. it's great because we get to have lots of animals, rainbow and a story to share.
5. Birthday e-invite
I got Brother to do up a “noah's ark logo” for the party. It took him just an hour to complete it and I would have asked him for more help if he wasn’t that busy! So, I just used the logo with rainbow for almost everything - from the birthday e-invite and decorations. haha.
6. Cake
After much sourcing and through a friend’s recommendation, we engaged home baker, Oven Creation, to customise the cake. I initially wanted to get a simple cake with some cake toppers but it was very tempting to have a pretty one. Moreover, the cake really helped to set the theme right!
I thought of having rainbow cake but Oven Creation only have a few flavours and the more reasonably priced rainbow cake baker doesn't have nice art work. Hence, we selected the all time favourite - chocolate ganache! We are very happy with the choice, it tasted as good as it looks!
I didn't count but there should be more than 20 animals on the cake. Can you spot rooster, rabbit and snake? haha.
7. Cake Table
As for the cake table, I set up some photo frames with photos from our family photoshoot and Emma's weekly photos. It was accompanied by a cute princess balloon.
8. Catering
It has never been so easy. Boss recommended to order from Manna’s Pot as the office has ordered from them many times. We didn't get to eat much but I hope the guests have enjoyed them :)
9. Entertainment
Everyone loves balloons, don’t we? We were happy to have Joycelyn Balloons and Mr Rabbit to keep the little ones entertained. They are accommodating and did really fabulous balloons. They also helped with some games and birthday cake cutting hosting.
10. Snack Bar aka Snake Bar
This was last on my list until I have a generous mummy who offered to lend me her plates and photo frames when I asked her where she got her stuff from. So I prepared my first snack bar :) It's fun planning for one and I hope to do it some other time again! :D
I wanted to get some fresh bakes but we had time constraint as we are heading right after church service. To make it a little less of a hassle, I bought those packed goodies that matched our theme - animal biscuits and colourful skittles, swiss rolls. In addition, I bought macaroons made by a friend and collected them the day before. I also customised mineral bottles, banners, food label and toppers.
11. Party favours
I got animals pencil and noah's ark story books and set it as part of the snack bar. The kids also get to bring home a sculptured balloons of their choice.
Those who knows me well know how much I love to DIY stuffs. I took this opportunity to bring out my coloured papers, glues, tapes and scissors. I had so much fun doing the party decorations like flag banners, table centre pieces, dangles and food toppers! I also got to print the noah's ark banner for the cake table at $10. Another great work of my artistic brother! Just let me know if you need the template or banner printing contact ;) We also like to thank my brother and CHAOS sisters for helping out with the decorations and setting up of the snack bar. Special thanks to Dawn, Xu Wen & Baby L for joining this special day right after her confinement!
13. Surprise
Emma decided to make her party a blast by having a surprise walk-in before the birthday songs and cake cutting. We were so happy to witness her first steps. It was 2 days before the party and managed to nail a walk-in after much practice. It was such emotional moment to walk her into the "stage". Daddy will have his chance during her future wedding march-in. :p
It would be nice to print some family t-shirts but there wasn't enough time to design (or rather my brother was busy to help us, haha). So, I kept it simple by matching Emma's princessy pink dress - White for Daddy and Coral for Mummy. Tips from my colleague - Remember to bring extra change in case it got messed up. I made a birthday hat but Emma didn't get to wear it at the party as I totally forgot about it.
15. Photographer
We got Hubby's friend to help us with the phototaking as we learnt from Emma's first month celebration that there wouldn't be much time for us to take much photos. .
We are thankful that the party went well and it is certainly our honor to have so many people joining us for her celebration. Thank God for good weather and smooth preparation on the actual day. Most importantly, we like to thank God for his protection and blessings over the Emma. Thank God for this precious gift.
And to Emmalyn, you have been a good girl for the past 1 year. So, Daddy and Mummy decided to throw you a good party. Even though you might not know what was happening, I am sure you were carefully observing on that day. We like you to know that the world is filled with God's awesome people, creations and promises like what you have observed and read from Noah's Ark and your party. One day when you look back at this post, we wish that you have already started to understand and experience the wonders of God's love. We pray that you will have strong faith like Noah and please God in every way.
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Link for DIY decorative template: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2mfwj6arvz7bqex/DIY-Birthday-party-template.ppt?dl=0. Hope it's helpful for you! Happy partying!
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