Kyrian's 3rd birthday Party - School Celebration and An Intimate Affair

Nothing grand or fanciful for my younger prince, Kyrian 's 3rd birthday. It was the same month that we were shifting out to our new place and we were all so cooped up with the renovation, cleaning and the packing. Therefore I made a decision to just do up a simple celebration in his preschool with his classmates. That was already enough to excite him so much when we told him that his dada and I will be making a special appearance during his school assembly. So in the car we were all very amused when we heard our three years old chanting away "today my birthday,  today my birthday, today not your birthday because its my birthday...!"

Instead of a normal cake, I got cupcakes instead which I thought was easier for the little kids to get one each themselves. The theme was one of his all-time favorite movie, Finding Nemo/Dory. This is another beautiful job done by Sweet Perfection, the same place where I ordered my older boy's superhero cake last month. 

Since his older brother Reagan is attending the same school as him, we requested for him to join Kyrian during the singing of the birthday song, which he of course gladly enjoyed the limelight with his brother as well.

 (Somehow I feel my boys look so girly in their school uniform.)

Next is the group photos with his classmates and the kiddos were all so fascinated by the pretty cupcakes!

On the same week, I thought it'll be a good idea to do another mini celebration with him at his favorite place, the pool. but this time only with his family and friends .And because it was such an impromptu decision, I'm thankful to those who make themselves available for Kyrian. 

My darling boy who loves the water since he was a baby. He always tells me he wants to learn to swim like a dolphin. Well, I'm gonna consider swimming classes for them soon. 

Throw some water toys and water floats into the pool and the kiddos knew how to entertain themselves.

His 2nd cake was also one of his favorite Disney characters, Lightning Mcqueen from Swensen.  And this is when we asked him to close his eyes and make a wish. Isn't he adorable haha! I wonder what a 3 years old kid will wish for !

Opening up some of his birthday presents.

Lastly, hugs and kisses to all the uncles and aunties whom he always enjoy hanging out with because he gets all the attention he wants.

 

Reagan 5th Birthday - Superheros Baking Party at FIDGETS

Reagan is 5 ! So five times the cheekier , naughtier and LOVABLE now! This time, mummy made the decision to "outsource" his birthday party instead of organizing one at home like last year. And since Reagan enjoys baking, what is more fun than to have a baking session with all his friends?!

FIDGETS indoor playground was my choice because of its huge space, a cafe inside, and most importantly, it has a baking studio inside the playground. So I thought it'll be very suitable especially those who came with younger siblings. They can play at the playground while waiting for the older ones to complete their baking in the studio. I also like that the walls of the studio can be "seen through" which means parents can sit at the cafe table right outside and watch their kids bake while they have a good time catching up with the other parents over high tea snacks. Sounds so good right?

A month before the party, I made my way down to Fidgets to  check on the venue first. Then I approached the staff, filled up the form and paid a deposit. The rest of the details were finalized and communicated via email the week before the party.

Yes it was the fuss-free convenience that I'm actually paying for as well.

I also get to choose the theme that I want to have for the birthday party, and Reagan didn't hesitate to choose the Superhero theme of course.

That day all the kids arrived and were in high-spirits when putting on their chef hat and aprons. And of course all the excited parents start whipping out their cellphones. They definitely not going to give this photo opportunity a miss.

I was told that the suitable age for the baking activity was 4 years and above. However some of the kids were as young as 2+ and 3 , therefore I expected some chaos or probably half of the kids to leave the studio when they get bored. So we were all truly amazed that all of the children were able to complete the 2 hours baking session all by themselves! Marvelous! All mummies were beaming with so much pride that day.

I'm going to give credits to the instructors and staffs who took much effort to guide and motivate the kids , making the baking session as fun and entertaining as possible. 

During the cake-cutting segment, all the kids "transformed" into their superheros role! I made it "optional" for parents to decide if they want their kids to follow the theme. However it really touched me to know that some of the parents took time off their busy schedule just to buy, prepare or rent a superhero costume just for Reagan's birthday party . And look how awesomely cute their group photo is!!! All these photos are crucial parts of the kids' childhood memories! How many chances you get to dress as superheros with your friends?

Reagan was dressed as Superman and his younger brother Kyrian requested to be Batman. Therefore the birthday cake has to fit the theme! This round I ordered his cake from an online bakery called the SweetPerfection. It was also the same place that I ordered Reagan's 1st birthday cake back then. Both times the cakes arrived on time (in fact slightly earlier than expected timing), they didn't disappoint me with my customized design, and my guests feedbacked that the fondant was not too sweet and the chocolate tastes rich and good. 

As for our outfits, daddy wore a cartoon superman shirt and a black shirt with the Batman logo for me. 

The next highlight of the party, which is also what the kids are looking forward to...the MAGIC SHOW!

This is Fidget's in-house magician , Tricky Patrick!

Will I recommend Tricky Patrick?

 Absolutely yes!!! And you want to know why? 

Look at the photo below... that precious look on their faces.

Tricky Patrick's magic show is 30 minutes long....and he made all the kids (and even some of the adults) laughed hysterically throughout! Oh the kids ADORE him so much! And I like his professionalism and how he created photo opportunities for my photographer, by making my boy do these cute and funny poses.

So the next crucial question from my readers .......

HOW MUCH DOES THIS PARTY COST???

You'll get all the information you need below.

Venue: FIDGETS Playground

Fidgets Baking Party - $1099

Package for 15 kids (additional child $50)

Exclusive use of baking studio for 3 hours

Themed dessert table

1.5 hour of instructor-led baking activity

Light refreshments & drinks for kids

Birthday present for birthday child

One Fidgets play pass for every child

My ADD ONs from Fidgets:

Adults Catering - $135 (A fried food platter and 2 trays of egg mayo sandwiches) 

Additional Beverages - $60 ( 4 jugs of chilled tea)

Magician (30 mins) Tricky Patrick - $350

2 tiers Birthday Cake from SWEET PERFECTION - $240 + $25 (delivery charge)

The fond memories collected that day ....priceless.

Kyrian's 2 Years old Birthday Party - MINIONS theme

Minions is one of the cartoon characters that I thought I'll never expose my kids to. I don't find them educational, they speak gibberish and they look more weird than cute. Despite that, I swallowed back my words on the day I witnessed a Minion advertisement made my younger baby boy laughed so hysterically tat he almost choked on his banana. And that's the beginning of his love for Minions. It then brings us so much joy to watch him dance or listen to him blabber after the Minion's tune, especially that "bababa..banana~" song.

So when he turned two, we knew the theme to select for his birthday party.

MINIONS THEME!

All the kids were invited to the party dressed in yellow and blue to fit the theme too. Yes, all the little minions are going to assemble here !

These are the minions party props (hats and goggles) for the kids and my customised table-top name display.

 Pre-packed party bags for the guests (Assorted Minions theme stationary).

 Simple decoration as our photo backdrop

Balloons decorations + Customised name table display + Party bags + Party Props + Pinata are all ordered online from TAOBAO.

Minions is a common birthday theme, so I managed to grab quite a lot of interesting loots from there.

As for the words pasted on the wall "Kyrian is two", I made them myself using coloured and glittered paper.

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Bouncy castle that Hubs arranged to bring back from his previous trip from China,. He got it at a good deal at around $200.

On the side note, most of the little guests asked if there was going to be a magician once they arrived at our place. They love the magic show at Reagan's birthday party which they attended the month before and was hoping to see it again at Kyrian's birthday. The kids have pretty good memory.

But the new bouncy castle didn't disappoint them either!

The party was held on Vesak's day, so we catered vegetarian food from Lion Kitchen, which was pretty good in my opinion, especially the yam paste , also the first to be finished up.

The kids took turns to hit the Minion pinata but it was not as easy to do so for their age. The parents were like yelling at the kids to "hit harder hit harder!" It was quite amusing actually, until babyK dropped the stick and went over to hug and "sayang" the Minion pinata~ !
I was taken by surprise. My innocent babyK must be wondering why everyone is being so mean, forcing the kids to hit his beloved Minion ! Aww...

Anyway with some help from the adults, the minion finally got ripped apart and all the goodies rained down on all the excited little sugar-craving scavengers.

The next surprise was the special appearance of the Minion mascot! 

What is a minion party without a minion?!

And yes that's my husband inside haha! He actually rehearsed a special birthday dance for BabyK but at the last minute he was too shy to perform in front of all the guests . So instead, he promised the boys to dance with them after the party. 

Our Minion distributed the goody bags to the kids and have a photo taken with them one by one.

Next our babyK's birthday cake is  from Nana Bakes , the same bakery that I bought Reagan 's train cake from. They managed to quote me a reasonable price for a 3D minion character cream cake in fruity lychee flavour. 

 Thanks to one of our lovely guests who managed to help us get these special fire-sparks candles at the very last minute again!

And lastly thanks to all who came to share this memorable day and got charmed by him at the party. 

Is hard to believe my darling baby superstar has reached the number TWO ! Where has the time gone seriously?! 

Reagan's 4 Years old Birthday House Party

In a twinkle of an eye, our darling first-born son Rboy, the miraculous 29weeker premature baby, is going to turn 4 ! This is the first party we planned together as a team. Well, in another words he instructed me what he wants for his birthday and I just fulfil his requests (yup some sort of teamwork here...)

1. Birthday Cake
"Chocolate! Chocolate!" always the same answer if you ask what kind of cake Rboy wants. My boy is crazily obsessed with chocolates (which kid isn't) and to him, all cakes have to be in chocolate flavour, otherwise it don't deserve to even be a cake. We talked about the design of the cake, and his expected answer was "choo choo train! like this one!" He dangled his newly bought Mickey Mouse train carriage toy in my face. My initial idea was to get a nice classic old-school chocolate cake and then placed his toy train on top of the cake as the decoration. Good idea right?
 My first choice was Lana chocolate cake, but it seems that they have already disappeared to another dimension. It was so damn difficult to reach them. After calling them for days, they finally picked up my phone but was extremely inflexible and refused to take my order because it wasn't Tuesday (because Tuesday is their only orders-taking day. Not stated anywhere on their website either. WTH.). They wanted me to call back to try again the week after. When the following week came, I gave up after they refused to pick up my call for 5 continuous days.
In the end I checked out another bakery called NaNa Bake Jelly & Cake (good recommendation from a friend), which ended up as my choice. I sent them a photo of my son's toy train and they promised to create something similar to it...with chocolate fillings of course.

The transaction was smooth, price was reasonable, home delivery was punctual and the texture and fillings of the cake were good. The guests were impressed with the cake and my boys love it...and that's what matters the most.

NaNa Bake Jelly & Cake
Price: $160 (2kg) for the above train cake.

2. Kids play area
We were contemplating between sandplay or water play area for the kids to have fun first while waiting for all guests to arrive. So glad that Rboy chose the latter because it made cleaning up so much easier than sand. The day before the party, I visited Daiso and Toy R Us to grab some water toys and threw them into the ground pool we set up. Needless to say, it attracted all the kids to the pool immediately once they reach the venue.

 

 

Ocean Snapset Pool - Toy R Us - $34.90
Water toys - Daiso/Toy R Us - $2-$10

3.Entertainment
Reagan requested for a clown or a magician for his birthday party. I thought a clown is "scarier" for young children (I had a fear of clowns when I was a kid. All thanks to the movie Poltergeist.) Rboy associated magicians as people who do tricks and have the ability to pull rabbits out of their hat. Therefore I went in search online for magicians who can do shows catered to younger kids 3-5 years old. That's when I came across Sherman Tang from The Magic Empire.
Sherman doesn't pull out rabbits from his hat, but he has two kick-ass puppets that made Rboy and his friends laugh so hard. It was the highlights of the birthday party and probably most of the kids' first exposure to a magic show. I knew the show was a success because the day after the party, a few of the parents texted me that their kids were still talking to them excitedly about the magic show they watched at Reagan's birthday party.

 

 

Sherman Tang from TheMagicEmpire

Price: $199 nett for basic package -40minutes

 

4.Food

I don't like the idea of splurging on a catered buffet with full set up that can range from $600 onwards. Therefore I opted for the mini buffet set instead, which means the food are delivered in aluminium trays without any tables and chairs set up, but I get to save at least half the price. I've totally forgotten to take some photos of the food and before I realised, most of them were finished. I've really hungry guests that day. Anyway I ordered from the website Foodline, spent some time reading on the reviews and made CurryPot as my choice. Everything went smoothly, the food arrived 25 minutes earlier than the stated timing and I received good feedbacks for the veg and their famous curry dish.

 

CurryPot

9 dishes for 20 pax + home delivery - $308

 

Overall, the biggest benefit of organising this birthday party is the opportunity for Rboy to experience and learn to be a good host for his friends. Before the party begins, I told Rboy that it is compulsory for him to greet every guests who arrive, receive the presents himself and thank each of them personally. I'm not going to do it on his behalf because he is already 4, old enough to learn how to do so himself. And after his party ends, he has to go to every friend to thank them for coming to his birthday party. If he does a good job following the instructions well, he will be allowed another birthday party next year.

 

And yes, he is granted another party next year :)