Aiman’s 11th birthday Party

Yup! This posting is indeed very late, but I have been way above my head with work lately. So, what else is new, huh? *grin*

I still want to blog about it for Aiman’s sake so that he may read it in years to come, so here goes....

Aiman celebrated his 11th birthday on the 22nd of April 2011. Yup! 2 months ago, and only now am I  blogging on it! *blush!*

The last time we did a birthday party for him was when he was in Primary 2. After that, we have been so busy with work that it was not possible for us to make arrangements to have a party for him. In fact, for the last two years, I had to travel for work on his birthday, and so could not be there for him on his birthday, what more to make plans to have a party.

So, this year, we decided to have one, and boy, were there so many things to do!

There was the invitations to make and send out, the place to look for (we decided against having it at our house at I had overtaken the dining room for my crafts *grin* and we did not want to have at the usual McD, KFC nor A&W), the food to order, the games to plan for, the gifts to buy and wrap for the games, the party packs to buy and pack, the decorations, and many more other details.

And, of course, I needed to make the cake. Initially I thought I would just bake a cake of a certain shape, frost it, put on the words “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AIMAN” and I would be done, but nooooo, Aiman had to ask, (well I asked him what cake does he want), and he said, “Angry Bird Cake”, and I went, “Huh! What? What Angry Chicken?” LOL!

Honest! I did not mean to annoy him, but annoyed him I did when I kept referring to it as the Angry Chicken when I went online to look up what this Angry Bird is all about. *grin*

There started my adventure of looking for the right cake – right as in the price! LOL!

I scouted around and even had one shop quoting me close to RM600.00 for the cake! Finally when I posted at NNC, my craft board, asking for where can I order an Angry Bird cake (it started a whole new topic and excitement at NNC when I posted the message! LOL!) did Sabariah recommended to me this online shop Mama Min.

There were many communications between me and her before I finally settled to order the cake from her. I was running out of time, and I still had lots of other things to do. I needed to get this cake thing out of the way before I could concentrate on the other things.

The cake being the center piece of the party, I wanted it to look great. It was an expensive cake, but it was money worth spent. I will tell you why later in this posting.

With the cake finally confirmed, next was the menu. We had already decided on the place at Empire Shopping Gallery called LEX, an entertainment out let that boast of having the tallest and highest giant slide in the region, or was that the world?

We settled on a western menu of Roast Chicken, Fish & Chips, Spaghetti, Mash Potatoes, sandwiches, and added a tray of Mee Siam.

We were expecting about 50 guests – 30 children and 20 adults.

The children would mostly be Aiman’s class mates whose parents would just be dropping off their kids (there were some gate crashers but we didn’t mind. There were plenty of food. However, sometimes I wondered how some people could be so bold though *grin*) and his cousins.

The adults were Aiman’s aunties and uncles, close friends of ours whose kids are Aiman’s classmates but the parents became our friends, and there were also Aiman’s former classmates (they transferred to another school but we the parents still kept in touch with each other).

We were worried that the food wasn’t enough and actually ordered an extra tray of Mee Siam as the party progressed along. We needn’t have worried. There was so much left over that even the 2nd tray of Mee Siam was untouched.

Never mind; we would rather have extra food rather then end up being embarrassed should we run out of food.

Anyway, I spent two weeks before Aiman’s birthday making the invitation cards, shopping for prizes for the games and things for the party packs and coming home to wrap everything up and packing the party packs. There were many late nights trying to get everything ready.

Aiman wanted the party theme to be red, it being his favourite colour. So, I spent many nights printing the invitation cards, the labels for the party packs and the prizes, stickers to identify the children and making program cards to place on the tables, all to meet the red theme.

Even the venue was decorated with red and white balloons.

It really created an exciting birthday atmosphere, although I do wished that I had ordered more balloons, as 50 numbers of balloons were too little for a place as big as LEX.

Aiman was very specific of the things that he wants as the prizes for the games. He wasn’t too happy when I bought something that to him looked kiddish, like pencils, erasers and note pads with cartoon characters on them. I think he is at that age when he is afraid of being laughed at by his friends.

Aiman was also very specific on what he wants in the party pack.

He was even more specific on the games that he wants played during the party. He especially told me that under no circumstances should I have musical chair and passing the parcel. He doesn’t want anything kiddish.

I also think that he is traumatized by the game because you can sometimes end up being embarrassed and rejected when you have to rush to grab the chair when the music stops or when the parcel ends up on your lap when the music stops.

Who invented this game? Kids learn early on about being rejected and it could sometimes leave a phychological scar on some kids.  

I remember him ending up crying on his 7th birthday when he was pushed off the chair by one of his friends in his (the friend’s) race to sit on the chair so as not to be eliminated. He also hates it when he has to do all those embarrassing stuff when you open up the parcel to reveal your `punishment’ for getting the parcel.

I am glad that LEX has some very good games just perfect for his age group. We had the Bean Bag Race which I think the kids really enjoyed.

There was also the Tower Can game where you try to build the tallest tower with empty can drinks.

I added 3 more games which my sister, Lin, superbly hosted. Thanks, Lin!

We had the Puzzle Race where the first team to complete the puzzle wins.

There was much excitement when the teams were to be formed as the boys refused to team up with the girls. I had to ask my brother, Azan, to sit in with one of the girl teams as they struggle to complete the puzzle with only two people in the team, whereas the boys had either 3 or 4 people in their teams.

The next game, the quiz, was fun too as it was a quiz to see how well you know the birthday boy. Aiman knew nothing about this game as I wanted to surprise him and as he sat at a corner, he was grinning and blushing as the questions were asked to his friends about him.

My sister Lin added more humour to it when most of the questions were answered correctly by the girls rather than the boys when she asked the girls if they were Aiman’s girlfriends. Aiman’s cheeks turned red at the question. LOL!

The last game was the Treasure Hunt. I had discreetly pasted a red envelope under one of the chairs, and as the kids rushed to go looking for the red envelope, it created more excitement to the already excitable evening.

The highlight of the party was of course the blowing of the birthday cake, the blowing of the birthday cake! Not just any birthday cake, but an Angry Bird Cake! And an expensive one at that too! LOL!

But, before Aiman was to blow the cake, Joshua of LEX suggested that we have all the children take the giant slide down to the ground floor where the cake would be waiting. He was offering the ride at a discount.

Safety instructions being given to make sure
that no untoward incidents happen

I think it was a great idea that got not only all the children excited , but also the adults (My brothers, Ayis and Azan, wanted to take the slide too, but I said No. *grin* My brother Ayis took it anyway! LOL!), but it got me all in a panic mode when I realised that I had to make sure all 14 kids that went down the slide don’t get hurt .

It also occurred to me when we were already at the ground floor as we were going back up to the party place after the cake blowing ceremony that I had to make sure that all 14 children are safely back at the party. I think my heart must have beat a 1000 times as I kept calling out to my sister and brother to make sure that all the kids are accounted for, as we had to go through the sea of weekend shoppers.

I am glad that Aiman chose red as the party theme as it really made all the children stand out in the crowd. I am glad that everyone came dressed in the theme; even the adults. It really helped us to identify Aiman’s friends from all the other children.

Aiman was the last to take the slide down accompanied by the loud cheering of his name by his friends.

When the Angry Cake was revealed at the bottom of the giant slide, it created another round of excitement when the children started booking all parts of the cake. LOL!

I think it was a proud moment for Aiman as not only did he get the cake he wanted, but he was also the envy of all his friends.

In the morning, when we went to pick up the cake, Aiman couldn’t hold back his excitement upon seeing the cake for the first time. He was rubbing his hands in excitement and kept saying. “Cool!” and kept thanking me over and over again.

With so much excitement created by all of Aimans friends, and even the adults, on seeing the cake, it was well worth every single cent spent on it. Some of the kids even came for seconds!

To see Aiman’s face light up at the sight of the cake alone was enough to make every cent I spent worth it, what more when everyone who came was in awe of the cake. Truly, it was money well and worth spent.

Errr......Did I just repeated myself on the worth spent? LOL!

After all the excitement of the evening, soon it was time to pack up and go home. We made sure all the kids were safely claimed by their parents, before we picked our things and left the party venue.

To give us a break from weeks of planning and organising the party, my sister offered to take Aiman home with her as Aiman and Miki still hadn’t had enough of each other.

Thanks, Lin! Thanks, too, for hosting the games. Thanks, Kuya, for helping out with the registration of the kids – we had stickers to identify the kids, it being a shopping complex. We wanted to make sure that we can differentiate between Aiman’s friends and other kids who walks in as the party was going on (we had a few of those who boldly walked in and just sat down with the boys!).

Thanks to Ayis for being the official photographer.

Thanks, Azan, for helping out the girl team when they were short of a mate.

Thanks to all our friends, Aiman’s friends, cousins, siblings, my in-laws, and all those who had made the birthday a success. Thanks for being sporting enough to come in the red party theme. It added that extra ambience to the party and made it look like one great party.

My mum said that she heard that it was one great big grand birthday party! Alas, she was not able to come join the party. It would have been even greater had she been around.

Thanks for all the great presents, everyone!

Aiman opened it the next day after coming home from his cousins’(Fatin’s and Fawzan’s) birthday party in Shah Alam.

He is allowed to only open one present a month to play. We have agreed on this since he was 5 years old so that he will appreciate each and every present given. It will take him untill the end of the year when he will finally open up all of them. That, in a way, also means that we don’t need to buy any toys for him untill the end of the year! *grin*

BTW, there is one very special present from Uncle Paul for Aiman.....

Paul had baked and decorated an Angry Bird cupcakes for Aiman when he heard how much Aiman wanted an Angry Bird cake. After all, I did created a lot of excitement at NNC when I was asking about it! LOL!

When Aiman saw it, as was with his birthday cake that Mama Min made, again he rubbed his hands in excited and kept giving the thumbs up. He did it again when I took this photo.

It just goes to show how much he likes Angry Bird, and how much he appreciates the effort taken to specially do it for him. Thanks, Paul!

As tired as I was after weeks of planning for the birthday party, I think it was worth the time, effort and money spent upon seeing how much everyone enjoyed themselves. Seeing the excitement on Aiman’s face was priceless!

Happy Birthady, Sayang! Mummy and Abah loves you very much!