For S birthday we called only our close friends and their children whom S keeps seeing regularly and knows; S close friend from school and the children from downstairs who come with us to the park regularly. Basically people and children S knows well. I wanted to do something special and entertaining for the kids at the party, and I thought we could have some games on the terrace but the age group was too diverse (two children aged 6, one aged 11, two aged 3 and the rest under 2) and most of them would not appreciate party games. A couple would have probably understoon and played the games, but hardly a quorom. I toyed with the usual suspects- a bouncy castle (then i had visions of children bouncing off the terrace, so no!), magician (again most kids too young to appreciate) and finally i gave up and said we'll just kick some balls on the terrace, do some bubbles, and maybe take the scooter and bike up and play for a while. Then as luck would happen, I happened to sit next to N (S's best friend in school)'s mother during their sports day and it turned out that she was a puppeteer and did puppet shows for events. She said the age group for the puppets was 2+ and she could customise for all favourite characters of children. I immediately signed her on and also asked her to bring N along for the party (when i asked S later what she liked best about the party she said that N had come!!)
The week went in preparations- I took S along to chose the cake- this time we went for taste over aethetics- last time for S first birthday I had got an elaborate 3 D aeroplace cake made by a specialty shop, but didnt find the taste too good. This time I went for the tried and tested Dutch Truffle by Birdys despite their limited cake shape choices. S went through all the designs and chose a pink (no surprise) face. Viewed upside down it looked like an angry face, but it was just an egg shaped face design. Some of my friends thought it was some famous cartoon character and broke their heads trying to figure it out, but it was just a shape! Then we had the return presents, and I wanted to chose appropriate gifts for each age group. Then the prizes- i thought we'd have a couple of games, but in the end between the puppet show and the cake cutting we managed to have only one game. The decorations came from the Party Hunters shop very close to our house - we had Barney triangle streamers, A happy Birthday centerpiece hanging from the lamp, balloons and a Barney pinata. We also had Barney paper plates and paper cups. I had bought a story book and Dairy milk chocolate for S to give at school to her classmates, and Barney covers for them! I chose Barney as Dora (S favourite was not available) and I personally don't think too much of the Princess theme (and of course it would completely put off the boys who came for the birthday party!)
My in laws were there for S birthday and that was a nice surprise for her. On the birthday day, the hubby went with S to buy her birthday gift and got her a skateboard with a pull out handle. You can initially hold the pullout handle and kick off from the ground and put both feet on the board and move, and later put back the handle and use it as a skateboard. At the beginning S was quite reluctant to use this, but now she loves it and keeps skateboarding (with the handle) all over the house- its difficult to get A not to also ask for her turn on the skateboard!
The birthday afternoon went in putting up the decorations, balloons, getting the cake and the puppeteers spent half an hour getting their stuff organised. At 5:40 we started the puppet show, which went on for about 45 mins. The hits were Nemo (song in which we had to recognise Marlin and they showed different sea animals to music), Barney (where they blew bubbles from inside the box and the kids had fun trying to catch the bubbles) , Dora (where the kids had to find Boots) the Three Little Pigs (with the Big Good Wolf instead of the Big Bad Wolf- S still keeps mentioning this!) and the Aesop's fable with the lion and the mouse. The kids were mostly riveted to the puppet show and some of the adults too (I enjoyed it!)
Then we had the cake cutting and snacks. We had made aloo tikki, cutlet and sandwiches at home and got puffs from Candies. There was of course the usual chips and the in laws had got sweets as well. Apart from the bright pink, the cake was quite nice - S happily blew the candle and ate the piece i cut for her, and then continued to eat more pieces of cake (caught on camera!). Then she asked me to give some to N (!) and they both sat on the sofa happily together eating the cake and chips and refusing any of the other stuff (why did I bother!). I couldn't eat anything because of the wires, and drank lots of juice instead. The kids were running between the hall and the toy room and after we burst the pinata, stuffing themselves with sweets (forgive me parents!). We then had one game- where the elder kids had to put as many crazy bands in one minute on themselves and parents had to put on the younger kids in the same time. We had three winners (since there were so many prizes) but the main attraction were the crazy bands which S and A still continue to play with. They are really cool, of various shapes and colours.
S and A had a great time at the party- even A was quite enthralled with the puppet show for some time and S was taken away completely by it. After the party they happily spent the rest of the evening unpacking gifts, rolling around on the mattress on the hall floor (for the children to sit on for the puppet show) and playing with the balloons.
Happy birthday dearest S. You've become such a big girl suddenly. You come and tell me what you did at school, whom you played with, show me that you've eaten your tiffin (now you enjoy some variety in that), show me what activity you have done, but still insist on me carrying you to the car from school! Your friends also greet me at school saying what they played with you that day at school. You love going to the park. You can climb the tallest structure now, and love to keep climbing new things. On the bars which go in a semi circle you can go more than halfway and then want me to catch you while you swing from the middle one and hold you while you climb down the rest and finally jump down. You want to be swung fast but don;t mind giving up your swing if other people are waiting in turn. You like to go on all the slides, but face inwards! You love the seesaw and are waiting for company to go on the other side (just a little while more till A gives you company my dear). You love to run up the mountain and down the mountain and generally all around the park. In Joggers park the rabbits are your favourite and at Patwardhan park you like the wet sand as you can easily make shapes on it.
You love the musical bonding class and keep asking when it is. You dont mind A coming along for it, and bring her instruments each time during the class for her to play. You like the teacher and have started singing and dancing along with most of the rhymes. You love to read books and have books read to you. You like to listen to stories- Aesop's fables, Panchatantra, Barney, Noddy etc, but have started carrying baby books with you (maybe you dont want to share with A?) You love your bubble bath and will happily play in the water and ask me to go and do my work. When you are done with playing with the bubbles you'll call me to come and give you bath. You are a fussy eater and only eat some very specific things, but at least dont give trouble for those things. Rasam rice is your favourite and then Maggi. You like pasta and pizza sometimes and love snacks like popcorn, banana chips, chips etc. You and your daddy can eat snacks all day. You love your Ajja and Ajji and the fact that they adore you completely. I love you my sweetheart, and hope you settle down into the new life in Zurich and enjoy each thing as you do here.
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