The Party Preparation

30 May 2007, Wednesday


This post is for first time mummies and daddies who fretted like me about a month before our first born's first birthday aka parents with no experience hosting a kid's party:

The preparation for Aiden's party started way back in May. I already had in mind where to obtain the cake from and the choice of caterers were many (or so I thought). Upon checking with the caterers, I found that most already had bookings for the day and could not take on any other jobs unless I came to collect the food myself. Since it was only for a small group of 25, I opted for that, plus made some others myself.

I had also sourced for party wares from Toys R Us, and managed to obtain party packs, hats, balloons and streamers to brighten the house. This was a first for me, and had to steal/learn ideas from kids' parties that we have attended in the last year or so. Errr come to think of it, the only parties we've been to of late, has been kids' parties.. that's really sad…har har.

Oh yeah, I must add that we were "el cheapo" ~ so no balloons from Balloons Bouquet, and smart me decided to use the basketball pump which of course did not work!!. In the end, between me and my maid, we blew like 20 odd balloons (of which at least 6 burst in the middle of the night); Got strings to tie them up and asked my tall hubby to hang from the curtain rods, and doors.

I also made a collection of Aiden's pictures from birth till present, the idea obtained from here, and hung them across the wall where we had our buffet line. As for the party packs, I actually bought ready made party packs (the ones with face masks, balloons, rattles), took them apart and fitted them into my own party pack; and included other goodies such as cookies and sweets.

Tip: if you have children in different age group, then to customize your party pack. For instance, for babies I replaced cookies with baby biscuits.

Back to food, we only catered: Fried Mee, Portuguese Devil Chicken and Sambal Fish. On the home front, I made steamed rice, green vegetables, chicken mushroom cocktails with cheese and my ever famous chicken sandwich (self proclaim). My cousin sister was nice to make red eggs (according to my mum – this is a must) for us.
Tip: at kids' party we need to ensure that there are non spicy stuff for them.

We always worry that there wont be enough food, and believe you me, there will ALWAYS be leftovers, so it came to no surprise that we were left having the same for dinner that night and also for the following day.
Tip: only order for 75% of your total number of guests as the variety of food will keep them full. If you serve your mains (noodles/rice) in smaller portions or smaller trays at a time, your guests will not pile their plates. In this way, your food will also stay fresh.

Well, hope this helps and happy planning ~