For the first time in a very long time, I threw a birthday party for my 2nd son yesterday. The last time I threw him a birthday party was exactly 5 years ago. I’m not exactly a model mother any kids would dream of having when it comes to birthday parties. I am way too lazy and lack the motivation to organize parties at home especially birthdays - it calls for lots of planning from sending out the birthday invitations, ordering the cake (which I forgot to do so and we ended up getting one from Secret Recipe instead), organizing games, preparing party packs to food and lots more. In short, it’s not easy to plan a party for a kid, you need to devise a plan to keep them entertained throughout the party and ensure they have food that THEY like. I actually prefer short cuts like having it at their school or at my mom’s (coz then I don’t have to go through all the troubles and cook!).
Being a very resourceful mom, just before the school holiday started I gave 2 options to Kyle Harris, a fancy birthday present or a birthday party. He picked the latter. Just a week before his birthday, I asked him the same question again (hoping that he’d change his mind), but his answer remained unchanged – he wants his party. Hence, my journey to planning a perfect party for him starts.
The first thing that came to my mind was the food. I wanted to prepare the food myself rather than use catering services or order some fast food instead (yup, you are absolutely right - I like to trouble myself and make my life difficult than it already is). The truth is, I like the challenge. I wanted to challenge myself to throw a perfect party for my son. So I decided (and determined) to serve ONLY healthy and wholesome homecook meal at the party.
Kyle is a huge fan of Italian food – he loves pasta, particularly macaroni & cheese and lasagna. Thus, I thought the theme should be Italian (the food that is, not the party – how on earth do I organize an Italian themed party? By the way, I love everything Italian too, especially the soccer team….those who watched the last World Cup would surely agree with me on this one...hohoho). Oh in my attempt to masuk bakul angkat sendiri, I am quite good in preparing Italian food. My hubby said I could marry an Italian coz I could whip up decent Italian food - according to him, I passed the test...don’t play play arrr muahaha *perasan sendiri gitu*
Back to the food, on the menu yesterday was baked mac&cheese, spaghetti with meat sauce, seafood pasta olio and laksa Kedah (the last item is obviously not an Italian food, in case you didn’t know!). Lasagna was not in the menu coz it requires a lot more time to prepare than the rest. For side dish there were chicken sausages and wedges (these two were not homemade, in case you are wondering and thinking that I am a supermom already). I wanted to prepare kuih as well but during my trip to the wet market in the morning, I saw some yummy looking kuih talam. I couldn’t resist and bought 3 types of kuih talam instead. For drinks, I settled for packet drinks and teh tarik. I didn’t have time to prepare the teh tarik myself so my maid was responsible for it – and the result wasn’t so nice, it definitely lacked umpph.
Activity-wise, a few days before the big day, I had a brainstorming session with my eldest son on the games. We came up with 5 games: musical chair, the last man standing, burst the balloon, scavenger hunt and trivia questions. I prepared some exciting prizes for the winners. Daniel was put in charge of the games and music. My very resourceful son downloaded some music from the internet and SOS his two friends to back him up during the party (which fyi is NOT free. I paid them RM35, to be split into 3. My son being a good friend, only took RM5 and gave RM15 each to his friend). But I made them worked for the money and asked them to do some cleaning as well…smart eh?
Being a school holiday, it wasn’t actually easy for us to invite his friends. Only a handful managed to get the invitation. But I took the opportunity to invite a few (since my kitchen is not equipped to prepare food in large quantity) of my neighbors and friends to the party as I haven’t actually had any proper makan-makan at my home with the neighbors since the day we moved in. It was very delightful indeed having neighbors and friend at our home. I think I should definitely do this more often (but not sure whether mr. hubby would agree with me).
Post mortem:
1. It was highly successful. I am proud of myself. Since no one bothered to congratulate me on job well done, I have to do it myself - splendid job Azura! (Boleh ka camtu? Don’t care lah...hehehe)
2. Party should start at 3pm instead to give me more time to prepare for food presentation. I invited the guests to come at 2pm.
3. Guests should be invited at different time slots to give hubby and I ample time to entertain guests better and more efficiently. We had to split up to entertain different group of friends at the same time.
4. Daniel should be put in charge of photography as well. We didn’t snap that many pictures as both my hubby and I were too busy entertaining.
5. I need to get myself more huge cooking pots.
6. I need to invest in some serving dish for better presentation – you know the huge catering style.
My girl Nana is already excited when I told her that I will throw one for her birthday next year too. She said she wants a party like Abang Ayis’s. That will be another challenge; I am already thinking of clowns, face painting and lots more. Are you game for it hubby?
By the way, a certain someone who was assigned to take pictures of the food didn't do such a good job, so no pictures of my glorious food here...grrrrr.
Happy 9th Birthday Muhammad Kyle Harris. Momma loves you very much...XOXOXO!
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