The big day arrived. Yesterday, we celebrated A1's 5th birthday with his friends. My brother the balloon master arrived from Singapore the day before. He made wonderful balloons for the children.
A1 had a parrot perched on his shoulder. He also had a sword and a belt to keep his sword.
Thank God for the fine weather. We had the party in the garden. For the decorations, we had red and black balloons with pirate flags banner.
Food wise, I made a chocolate cake with the number 5 mould. My sister in law decorated it beautifully. I also made pirate cookies. We decorated bananas to look like pirates. There was tomatoes and comté with pirate sails. Pop corns on pirate cupcake stand and lots of sweets. I found pirate theme candles and put five on the cake.
I made pirate hats out of black felt. Here is the site where I got the idea. It was simple and the children loved their hats.
The dozen of children arrived at 3pm and we had many games to keep them entertained. There were "walk the plank"; sticking the eye patch on the parrot; 123 Soleil; mini treasure hunt; throwing a bean bag from a distance into a circle drawn on the ground; drawing on the floor with chalks among other games. Still each game did not take long and we were running out of ideas at times.
For prizes, we had pirate coins, mini puzzles, sharks, eye patches, erasers, telescopes, pirate rings. Most of the prizes were brought from Singapore.
My brother made more balloons swords and the kids had fun running and fighting in the garden. The only peaceful moment was when they were all seated and eating the cake.
A1 was a lucky boy. His friends brought him nice presents. Mostly Playmobil.
At 6pm, the parents came to bring their tired children home. The 3 hours was long for us. Though we were 7 adults, it was still tiring for us. Seb was the MC of that day. My brother made balloons and played with the kids. My sister in law and I did the logistics. My friend Denise helped to take photos. My friend Anca helped out and mostly showed the kids where the toilet was and even helped three children with their big business.
It was great to see everyone enjoying themselves. Made my efforts worthwhile.
For A2's birthday, we had decided to keep it shorter. 2.5hours is max. We would welcome all help we could gather. Just hoping the weather would be as fine come September.