Minion birthday party

My big boy is 8. He invited 8 friends including his brother for his birthday party last sunday. There was only one girl this time. Jeanne has tennis and football lessons with the boys and as I am a close friend with her mum, these three kids hang out togather very often. 

I made a chocolate marble cake and decorated it simply. I also made banana cupcakes topped with Minion sweets. 

As tradition calls for it, I made a pinata. It was the same design as the home made invitation cards. As one can see, I did not make a big effort on the pinata. One needs a big imagination to see that it is minion and not pac-man. Still, it did not bother the kids. They were eager to break it and get the sweets and goodies.

We did a few games and one of them was to tie a balloon on one's leg. Then, trying to burst the balloons of the others. It was very funny watching the kids running around trying to protect their balloons.

 We also did a stick the eye on the minion game. It was too easy for these kids.

The children ate cakes, sweets, played, ran, screamed etc. It was hard to get a group photo. Still, I managed to get them to wear their minion hats and had this funny photo taken. They looked so Minion, don't they?

A1 is one lucky boy. The weather was sunny and he had lots of fun with his friends.

A2 is 6

I can't believe my baby has turned 6. A2 celebrated his birthday with his friends last Saturday. He invited 6 boys and they had fun.

The theme was basketball. I printed out basketball invitation cards, made a simple butter cake and 2 basketball pinatas stuffed with sweets to be thrown into the basketball loop.

The boys spent their time in the garden playing with balls. They also spent time upstairs playing dressed up and fighting as super heros. It was free and easy as they were not interested in the games Seb and I proposed.

Still at the end of the party, Seb and I were exhausted. The boys were very rowdy. We think this might be the last birthday party at home. We are considering indoor playground for next time.

As for the birthday boy, he was happy to spend time with his classmates. He received toys and games and a book. He told me frankly that he did not like to receive book as a birthday present. That is just so A2.

My birthday surprise

Last Saturday, we invited the family to come celebrate my 40th birthday with me. It was also the school's year end celebration. We asked Seb's parents to attend the boys' performance at 10.30am.

At 10am, Seb told me his parents were arriving with a surprise for me and asked me to stay in my room. A few minutes later, his father came to get me and asked me to sit on the dining chair with my eyes closed. He passed me an arm and I could tell that it was A1's. Then he passed me another arm and I knew it was Seb's. He passed me the third arm and I was taken aback. I thought of my mother yet at the same time, I knew it was not possible. I muttered that I did not know. I then opened my eyes and there she was, my mother. My head was going like 'This is a dream.' We hugged and it was so good. This was the best surprise Seb had given me.

My in-laws had fetched my mother at the airport on friday morning and she had stayed with them until sat. Seb had this planned since a few months and my family in Singapore was telling me after how they were afraid to let the cat out of the bag during our communication via Whatsapp. My mother was sure that I had suspected a thing or two. I told her I had no clue at all. We had chatted on the phone on wed and she told me she might be going on a long weekend trip to Malaysia with her friends, in case I called her after.

We hurried to watch the boys performed with songs and dance followed by a funfair. We stayed until noon before heading for lunch at a nearby restaurant with Seb's family. My dear husband knows how to surprise me beyond my imagination. My father-in-law had a good sense of humor presenting me the surprise. It was so kind of my in-laws to host my mother for a day despite the language barrier.  I am so thrilled to have my mother in France for my birthday. This is the best birthday present. I am blessed to have such a loving, thoughtful family.

The Captain America birthday party

We celebrated A1's birthday on Saturday with his friends. There was a total of eight children. 

A1 chose the theme Captain America and we made a pinata togather out of cupboard.

We home made the invitation cards too. I cut and he pasted as he could not cut the circles well. I also made Captain America masks for the kids from felt. It was not difficult and as usual, I found template from internet.

Here was A1 posing for me while waiting for his friends to arrive.

As the weather was cloudy and windy, we had the party in the house. Seb organised the games. He took a big floor puzzle and hid the 24 pieces upstairs. The kids went in pairs to look for the puzzles and pieced them togather. They had a good time working togather as a team.

We then put the kids all in the guest room except one. He/She had to hide A1's favourite soft toy and the others had to look for it. Each kid took turn hiding it. When the kids came out of the room to look for the toy, they were running and shouting in excitement. 

We played other games like passing a ball in a circle with a kid outside the circle randomly shouting 'Patate'. The kid with the ball would be out of the game. This continued until all but one kid was left.
There was also a game on bursting the balloons by sitting on it. This created lots of laughter too.

When the grey clouds passed by, we quickly went to the garden to break the pinata. Everyone took turns and shared the goodies in the pinata.

At the table, the kids put on their masks and sang birthday songs in different languages. French, English, Chinese and Portuguese. I baked a chocolate tart and decorated it to make it look like the Captain America shield. There were strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and mashmallows. In the middle was a star shaped goat cheese. None of the kids wanted the cheese so I took it off and put it back in the fridge.

For once, A1 did not receive Lego or Playmobil. He had a 350 pieces puzzles and we completed it in 2 evenings. He also had a Frisbee ball, a few books, 2 board games, a transformer toy and an art and craft activity.

My boy was happy with his party. So were his friends as feedbacked by the mothers. This sunday, we would celebrate his birthday with the grandparents.

A2's Paw Patrol Party

While preparing for A1's 7th birthday party, I realised that I had not posted about A2's last birthday party. So here is a post for memory's sake.

Last year, A2 asked for Paw Patrol's theme for his birthday party. From internet, I got free templates to print out paper containers for the sweets. I made dog balloons and put them in a box for adoption. At the gate, I put up a sign board saying "beware of nice dogs" in French.

For activities and games, they were the usual stuff like "Pin a badge" on Marshall, throwing water balloons to help Marshall put out the fire and making balloon dog heads. The boys played with cars and balloon swords while a few kids made necklaces out of beads. 

 The boys run around in the garden playing rugby.

 Food wise, I made dog bone biscuits with the names of the kids and a cake decorated with M&Ms. 

 

A2 was pampered by his friends. He had presents ranging from Paw Patrol figurines to Playmobil and Lego toys. The only disappointment was not having a pinata. I promised him I would make one the next time. I was not motivated to make it.

When the party was over, A2 gave his friends each a doggie bag with goodies and sweets. That wrapped up the party for my 5 year old.

In two weeks time, I shall write about A1's birthday party. It has to do with Captain Amercia. Yes, there will be a pinata. It is under construction.

A1 turns 6

Few months ago when I asked A1 what he would like as his birthday party theme, he told me without hesitation that it would be Mickey Mouse. So, on saturday he had a Mickey Mouse birthday party with his friends.

I made Mickey Mouse birthday invitation cards and slipped the invitation paper into the pockets for ten children. I would like to keep the party small with 6 guests and A1 obliged by giving me just six names though he had many friends whom he played with in school. Seeing him carefully choosing the names of the six children, I relented and told him to just name who he wanted to have at his party. In the end 9 children turned up. 

 As I had left over black felt fabric from last year's party where I made pirate hats, I bought red felt and sewed 11 Mickey Mouse goodie bags. In the goodie bags, there was Mickey Mouse pencils (my brother gave me a few dozen last year), Mickey foldable fans or Mickey purses which I bought from Daiso in Singapore and sweets and bouncy ball and Mickey chocolates that I bought from our recent trip at Disneyland Paris.

This time round, I made a Mickey pinata from cardboard. Compared with the Green Globlin pinata, this pinata took less time to make. The kids were surprised to see plastic plates serving as Mickey's ears.

The night before, I made Mickey and Minnie sugar cookies. They turned out better and tasted better than the Mickey birthday cake I made.  

 On the day itself, my friend lent me her girl's Mickey and Minnie. I put the pair on the garden chairs to watch over the bowls of sweets and cherry tomates and cookies.

 For games, it was Seb who organised. We had team games and the children enjoyed themselves. With the good weather, they had fun just running around the garden.

  And again, my pinata was unbreakable though it was made of thin cardboard. We had a hard time breaking it. The children were happy with the sweets and goodies in it.

A1 received many presents as usual. When mothers asked me what A1 would like as presents, I checked with him. He replied 'I let you decide.' That is so A1. He is contented with any present. So I told the mothers to give him a surprise.

He got a small car, a Planes toy, a Captain America toy, a set of Sports UNO (waterproof), a LEGO camping car set which took him an hour to build by himself, a mini NERF gun, a cross bow etc. As we do not buy toy guns for our boys, A2 was excited with the NERF gun. A1 being a kind big brother offered the NERF gun to A2 while he played with the cross bow. We gave strict instructions to never point the weapons at people and animals. Handsome had already swallowed two out of the three NERF foam darts.  We had to buy a few more.

At the last thirty minutes, I took out balloons and twisted swords for the children to play. We also blew bubbles. One boy was chasing the bubbles that he run into the hedge and suffered a cut just below his eye. He was crying and covering his eye. It took a few minutes for the bleeding to stop. That was the stress of having so many children in the house.

After all the children left, while having dinner, A1 thanked me for the party. A2 added that I was the best of all mothers. I was delighted that the boys had a good day and appreciated our efforts. I shall gladly do this while it lasts. My colleague's daughter who was turning 18 asked her parents to leave her the house alone for her birthday party. My colleague had to plan an evening and night out with her husband to leave the house. That would be in a dozen year's time for me.

Spiderman theme birthday party

A2 turned four in September.

He had no problem choosing a theme for his birthday party. As you can see, it is all about Spiderman. 

When I asked who he would like to invite before school started, he cited all the friends from A1's class. I was not surprised as the boys were in the same class last school year and he played a lot with A1's friends. I suggested his own classmates and he decided to invite the three boys from his class and another four friends from A1's class. 

A week before the party, I made a pinata by blowing a big balloon and pasting it with strips of newspaper. For the glue, I mixed one portion of flour with five portions of water and cooked it for 8 mins. Once the mixture cooled down, it was sticky. At first, I would like the pinata to be Spiderman but I thought the kids might not want to hit their hero. So in the end, I pasted green paper napkins and drew it to be the Green Goblin. I put in sweets before pasting the green paper napkins to conceal the opening.

My pinata was so solid that it was unbreakable. I made too many layers of paper marche. We ended up putting it on the ground and hitting it instead. The children rushed to get the sweets and a few played with the broken pinata by putting it over their heads as a mask.

The night before the party, I made Spiderman balloons and also a web. I made spider lollipops with little black pipe cleaners. I had a tough time looking for them in france as I did not know the name in french, nor did I know any craft shop. That was the decoration.

 For games, other than the pinata, the kids threw water balloons at the bad guys pasted on the wall. They played a game of "Spiderman is here?". It was like "Duck, duck, goose". In France, it was called "Is the postman here?" One kid was holding a spiderman toy. When we finished the song of the postman by replacing it with "Spiderman", the kid would put the toy behind one of the children sitting in a circle. That kid would then have to chase the first kid until the first kid took the place of the latter.
In another game, they had to throw little cotton balls through the web and went through a mini obstacle course to get to a spiderman pinata which had goodies in it. This spiderman pinata had a slit at the back so the kids could put their hands in to grab a goodie.

 In the party group, there was only one girl. The other girl invited could not make it. This girl was the only one who tried to walk through the obstacle course. The boys all just crawled through. That was an interesting observation.

For the party food, I made a birthday cake of Spiderman face. It was the first time I made this cake and the children were really excited about it. A2 was very happy. However, he did not want to cut his hero. Oops. I should have thought of that. We managed to convince him that it was okay to cut the cake as his friends wanted to eat it. There were also sweets, pop corns and cherry tomatoes with cheese on a stick.

After food was presents time. A2 was a lucky boy. His friends brought him his favourite toys. From Spiderman to Planes to Playmobil. The children were all excited to see what A2 got. 

After 2hours and a half, the party was over.  Seb and I were happy that things went well. It was a hot and sunny September day. Just the kind we were hoping for. Thank God. And the two of us had an early evening that day.

Having put the photos up in Facebook, I got comments from friends calling me a great hands on mother. Before becoming a mother, I would not have dream of making such efforts. Now, it is natural for me to try out new things (I was really lousy at art and craft) to make my children happy. My boys appreciated the DIY stuff I made. This in return makes me a contented mother.