Woohoo! Ansel turned two earlier this year and to celebrate his special day, we kept our tradition of having a simple DIY celebration at home. He is the 小宝贝 of our family and we wanted to make him feel extra happy and loved on this day.
It was easy to brainstorm for his birthday theme this time round because he has a clear favorite these days and that is...... Cocomelon! Yup, he loves singing their songs, watching the videos and especially adores JJ who is also the cute baby in their family. Once the theme was decided, we proceeded to plan for the decorations, games and activities. I always love being a party planner and it's really awesome that we get to bond, play, have fun and make priceless memories from such experiences.
Here's sharing all about our fun-filled Cocomelon party!
DIY Decorations
You can tell from the photos that there is one BIG, main higlight decor from our party, right? Yup, that would be our vibrant, colourful Cocomelon house that is made entirely from scratch. Not bad, right? It took me weeks to do it and the idea came about because we just bought a new washing machine. Therefore, we had this ginormous cardboard box lying around and I thought it would be a pity if we didn't repurpose it. Since Ansel's birthday was approaching in a couple of months' time, I decided it would be perfect if I could make it into a house for him to play with his siblings.
I wrapped the walls with colourful paper, made a roof, cut out doors and windows, used recycled materials for the knobs (can you spot the pouch caps?), printed out pictures of the Cocomelon family and friends, laminated them, and also made personalised banner just for Ansel.
It turned out to be really awesome and the kids had fun playing inside the house for weeks. The boys would pretend to play shooting out of the windows, the girls played hide and seek with Ansel, and it was just a really nice, cosy play corner for them.
We didn't get anything fanciful for his birthday outfit but I did print a personalised Cocomelon T-shirt for the birthday boy. This looked quite cute, didn't it? He loved it the moment he saw it and wanted to keep wearing even though it was a little oversized.
Another main highlight was this DIY yellow school bus that was made specially for Ansel! We used a cardboard box, wrapped it up with yellow paper, cut out the doors and windows, added extra boxes for the front and back, and completed it with details to make it resemble Cocomelon's school as much as possible.
This was a message drawn by the siblings just for him to see. Sweet!
When everyone was all gathered, it was time to begin! Oh, the hubby couldn't join us as he was out of town so it was basically a mum-and-kids party like our Baby Shark one last year. The good thing is we have a handful of kids so it still felt like a merry party! Let's take a look at the things we did that day.
-> Warm-up dance
For our first dance, we chose one of the songs that he loved most and it was time to Looby Loo with JJ and family! Ansel loves this song and I must say it is quite catchy and nice! For the second one, we did Freeze Dance which is really very fun as the kids boogied and froze. Check out our video below for the snippets.
-> Wheels on the Bus
This was his ultimate favorite song of all time and we've sang it countless times since he was a baby till now. He loves doing all the actions and the siblings are always very sweet to sing and dance along with him too. What made this one so special that day was that Ansel became our bus driver for the day! Yup, he was so proud to put on his car and drive away while the siblings tagged along behind him. He made his way all around the house till the song came to an end and I must say that was a pretty long drive!
-> Musical Chairs
This was a new game to Ansel and while he was initially unsure of what he was supposed to do, he soon got the hang of it and knew that he was supposed to sit on a chair. Judging from how slow and gentle he was, there was no doubt he would have been the first to be eliminated. Haha. Well, thanks to the siblings, all of them gave him the priority to sit down first and even helped to carry him onto the chair. That was really sweet and heartwarming to see. So yes, Ansel, you are the champion for this game!
-> Guess Where is JJ?
For this game, we took turns to hide inside the house and another person would be outside holding a cut-out of JJ. We had three tries to choose which door/window JJ is hiding behind and find out if we got it correct. Such a simple game, I know, but it had the ability to make everyone squeal in delight and Ansel was happy every time he spotted JJ. Yes, the power of simplicity!
-> Cocomelon Family Hunt
This was the activity that the kids enjoyed the most. I had secretly bought a set of Cocomelon figurines from online and hid them around the house for the kids to find by giving them clues. For example, I said "Mama is always doing the laundry", "Papa loves to cook", "Yoyo loves painting", "JJ is a baby and babies sleep a lot", "Grandpa does gardening" and so on. The kids would go around the house to search for each of them and they would let Ansel be the one to take the figurine out. Each time he did, he beamed with such joy and excitement and it was awesome seeing his happy face.
-> Fossil digging
Ansel enjoyed digging for fossils tremendously when we went to Dinoland and Jurong Bird Park so I thought it would be nice for him to do this at home on his birthday. He has also been asking to play with kinetic sand and while I kept procrastinating over that, I knew today was the day for him to have his wishes granted and to have lots of messy fun. The kids worked together to dig out all the dinosaur fossils and I must say it was pretty fun for them to take turns to dig, knock, scrape, scoop and brush.
-> Catch the Flying Fish
Our last activity was this game where you had to use a net to catch the colourful paper "fish" that would fly out from the fish machine. I bought extra nets from Daiso so that they could each have one and catch together! The fan wasn't as strong as expected so it took some time for the fishes to rise up and fly out of the tube but nonetheless, it was a very fun game.
The Cake-Cutting Ceremony
On the morning of his big day, I brought Ansel out to choose his birthday cake and also spend some one-on-one time with this precious darling of mine. We decided on an ice cream cake from Swensen's and he only took a brief moment to look through the options before choosing this small cake filled with rainbow sprinkles on the side. We used our Cocomelon figurines as toppers and I loved how simple yet pretty the cake looked in the end. The boy was definitely delighted with it!
What made him even happier was to receive handmade cards from each of the siblings. Watch the video to see the pop-ups and drawings. I hope we will always keep this tradition of making cards for one another because these cards really make a difference - they brighten the day, they bring about surprises, they are a token of love and they serve as priceless keepsakes.
By the way, Ansel knows how to blow out candles this year and it's really cute seeing him do so! Of course, we couldn't help but shower him with lots of warm hugs and wet kisses too when he blew the candles.
As for his gift, I got him something that I knew he would definitely like. That is a.... Cocomelon school bus! It could even play "Wheels on the Bus" at the touch of a button and it was perfect for the birthday boy to fit his Cocomelon family figurines.
That marks the end of our Cocomelon party and we had so much fun! The birthday boy was truly happy that day and we were happy to see him happy!
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Of course, we had to find another day to celebrate with the hubby and the two of us brought Ansel out to breakfast one day followed by getting him a small cake. Following our tradition, we also celebrated with the extended family and invited them over for a barbecue. The kids had fun swimming, playing and chatting with their cousins and we ended the night with a rainbow cake for our darling Ansel.
Dear Ansel,
Happy turning TWO! You are our darling little one and we are truly blessed to have you to complete our family of six. Mama is so happy to see you growing up so strong and healthy despite being a preemie like me. You bring us so much fun, joy and laughter every day and life is just better with you in it. Thank you for being such an adorable baby, we love you to the moon and back, dearest Ansel! 💗
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Here's a video that captures the highlights of our Cocomelon party. Enjoy watching!
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Read on more Ansel's parties here:
Ansel is 1 - Baby Shark Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo
