Saturday, July 22 - Cheryl's 5th Birthday Party

This is the backlog blog I was talking about... This one is about Cheryl's party held last Saturday, July 22. Cheryl actually turned 5 on Thursday, July 27, but we held her party earlier. I have been making preparations for the party weeks beforehand. You know, only mothers do this, and me being an organising freak on top of the compulsive packer ... Went to the Concourse the previous Saturday to get party stuff. There're lots of shops on the top level selling everything you'd need for a party, esp. all kinds of party favours. If you are giving out goody bags to all your kid's classmates in school, this the place to go. If there's one thing I'd like to recommend for a party, it's a 3-way partitioned plastic plate. I couldn't find this anywhere else. It's a plate with three partitions costing $9 for a set of 24, I think. They're not that cheap but you'll find it's made of sturdier plastic. Good if you have satay gravy, sauce or salad that you want to keep separated from other food. Snacks and sweets are not really cheaper there, so better get edible stuff from the supermarts.


I spent a few minutes late each night doing this cool overhead rainbow decoration. I used normal A4 coloured paper, trimmed each A4 piece into 4 strips, and joined the strips lengthwise. The linked rings decorations were made by Cheryl herself (can't really see them clearly in the photo). I bought a pack of coloured paper strips from Daiso at IMM. Somehow I can't find this anymore. The night before the party while everyone was asleep, I single-handedly put up the decorations, except for the balloons, which I put up the next morning. Where are the men when you need them? (ans: they only appear duringWorld Cup.)


We ordered a Swensen's ice cream cake a week ago and Cheryl chose a cake with a rainbow picture. That's where I got the inspiration to do an overhead rainbow, so at least there was some kind of a theme. I chose chocolate freckles (choc ice cream with choc chips) and cookies & cream, which was a pretty neat combination. If you are an NTUC Income Policy holder, you can also make use of the 20% discount coupon they send you near your birthday.

For the food, I got my sister to cook her mee siam. She's doing small-time catering, so if you're interested, you can check out this site (I designed the site for her, but it's not complete). We bought fishballs, otah and satay. We also made a fruit salad and a non-spicy fried bee hoon for the kids. For drinks, we made a fruit punch from a galon of wildberry juice mixed with F&N ice cream soda.

This is a blow-by-blow account of the day itself, just so that one day Cheryl realise how much trouble Mummy & Daddy went through for her party:
While Cheryl had her usual Chinese class at school in the morning, I did the final preparations for the party. TT was having a game of badminton with the junior team at the Sports School (by the way TT's team were trashed!). Then in the late morning, we had an unplanned little "excursion" on the MRT train. Isaac is currently crazy about trains and can stand by our window just watching trains go by the whole day. So myself, Cheryl, Isaac, our neighbour Sean and his dad Ryan took the train all the way to Changi Airport, took the skytrain from Terminal 2 to 1 and back again. We had lunch at Burger King before heading back home. Isaac slept on the train on the way back. By then TT was back home with the Tiong Bahru fishballs. He drove us to Clementi where I accompanied Cheryl for her music class at 3pm, then he went to Ghim Moh to buy the otah. When class ended he picked us up and we went to my sis place to collect the mee siam and her kids, Lauren and Olivia. My sister would be coming later on as she was still making some durian puffs. On the way back we popped by at Alexandra Village to collect the satay. Then we headed back home. TT brought the kids swimming while I continued to make preparations and do the fruit punch. My mum and maid had already fried the bee hoon. After swimming TT went to Holland Village tocollect the ice cream cake. After that, party went quite smoothly. And fortunately we could borrow our neighbour's fridge to store the drinks and ice cream cake!














Now thinking what to do for Isaac's 2nd birthday in September... :o(

Personal Favourites
FOOD
Peranakan Mee Siam (catered from my sister, who also does kueh pie tee)
Lee Wee & Brothers Otah (Ghim Moh Food Centre, Whampoa or other outlets)
Punggol Satay (Alexandra Village Food Centre, chinese stall - can order pork satay, gravy comes with pineapple paste)
Tiong Bahru Fishballs

PLACES TO GO
MRT Train ride to Changi Airport. Really cool station at the Airport Terminal 2. Isaac is at the age where boys get obsessed with transport vehicles, and now he's transfixed on trains and cable cars. I have taken more cable car rides this year than all the other years put together in my entire life.