I was kind of worried that other than letting the kids indulge in ice cream, I might not be able to think of anything related that is fun and enjoyable for them to do. She then told me "Mama, it's okay, We can just come up with one or two very simple activities to do and that will be enough for me." Awwww. Yes, even though I plan and organize parties for each of my kids every year, the thing is they don't demand for a big-scale one and on the contrary, they are happy to just celebrate with a small group of friends while doing very simple stuff. Her words gave me motivation and even though our party indeed turned out to be a simple one, I could tell that she appreciated all the effort that went in and best of all, she had a BLAST.
Here's sharing more about Ariel's Ice Cream Party which was held on the very day that this baby girl of mine turned SEVEN.
THE INVITATIONWe designed and printed these hard copy birthday invites for Ariel to give out to her primary school friends before the year end school holidays. It wasn't easy trying to get hold of the parents because not all of them were in the class chats and there was no way I could get hold of their contact numbers. In fact, it turned out that nearly half of them did not reply to inform if they could come or not although we wrote the RSVP date and my number. Sob. Well, I reckoned most of them were busy and it could have just slipped their minds. Thankfully, the birthday girl was understanding about it and she was cool to just make do with whoever could turn up.
THE SETUP
Considering that this party was held in less than four days after we got back from holidaying in Club Med Bintan and a day right after Asher's 4th birthday party, I think we did pretty well in terms of the party decorations.
The wall bunting and personalised name printout were done and put up a couple of weeks beforehand because they help to give a sense of anticipation and make everyone look forward to the party. Plus, these DIY decor are always done on my home printer so I gotta make the most of them after using so much ink, right? Haha. That is why I usually leave them on for a month or so and I feel that looking at them makes me happy too - though I might also lament that time passes by too quickly at times.
I bought these giant ice cream balloons online and they came in a pack of 10 although I initially thought there would only be one or two. What was so fun was that the kids and I came together to blow them up - yes, blow, not pump - and they did a most amazing job by persevering and not giving up. Haha. Ariel did the most of all and she was so excited that she would be giving out a balloon to each of her friends who came to the party.
As for the dessert table, it is as usually kept simple but nice, just the way I like it. Since I bought this foldable table a year ago, I think it has and will be used for our dessert corner in the years to come. I love that we get to set it up right in front of our pretty 'brick' wall too - though it always takes lots of shifting of stuff before we can create enough space. Haha.
Besides the cupcake stand with ice cream toppers, Ribena and mineral bottled water with personalised labels and the light box, we also used their ice cream kitchen toys and ice cream erasers as decorations too. The erasers look so cute, right?
For the party favours, we gave out colourful pencils, a pen with an fluffy ice cream chain, a stick on tattoo, a flashing bracelet and a ice cream making mold. Ariel was the one who helped to pack and tie all of them nicely together because that should be the responsibility of the birthday boy/girl, right?
THE FOOD
Since we held the party in the late afternoon, it was more of a tea party so we prepared finger food for the kids. Yup, call me ngiao but we have stopped ordering buffet lunches for such parties and in fact, request for parents to drop their kids off. The thing is, I find it much better when it comes to letting the birthday child bond with his/her friends and it is not surprising that most of them are actually not interested in the food. What excited them were the activities and the chance to gather with their friends to do something fun together.
Right, that does not mean I wanted to get them go hungry too so we did prepare cupcakes, an ice cream cake from Swensens, lots more ice cream, puddings, fresh fruits, chocolates, nuggets and fries. I loved it when the kids gathered together and started telling me lots of stories about themselves and things that happened in school. It's nice to be 'in the loop' and get to know my kid's good friends. I had a parent telling me how he thought I was super brave to ask for the kids to be dropped off because it meant that I only had two hands to deal with ten kids. Haha. Well, it wasn't that hard after all once you got the hang of it and the most important thing was that I hope everyone of them had fun!
THE ACTIVITIES
#1 - Colour your favorite ice cream
Our first activity is always.... colouring! Like I said before, it is a good way to keep the kids occupied while waiting for the rest to arrive. Ariel chose her favorite ice cream colouring page and was happy to start adding some colours to it.
It is also a good way to let the kids settle down and get acquainted with each other. We did a round of self introduction too so that everyone could know each other. After all, some of them came from the same primary school, a couple were our childhood friends and another was Ariel's bestie from kindy.
#2 - Make an ice cream clay model
When everyone arrived, it was time to move on to the second activity! Yes, art is something that both my girls enjoy so they both wanted a clay making session. Using modelling clay and some sample images that I printed out, the kids were tasked to make their favorite ice cream within 15 minutes. I loved seeing that look of concentration on their faces and how each of them would put in their best effort to make something creative and imaginative.
Check out their creations! I must say these were really quite amazing considering that the time limit was so short. We had a voting contest to see whose clay model would emerge as the winner with the most votes! This was done without revealing which ice cream was done by who so that it would be a fair contest but I think the birthday girl was lucky because she emerged as one of the top two winners - we had a tie! Can you guess which was made by her?
#3 - Catch the 'scoops'
The next activity required the kids to work in pairs and was a test of their teamwork as well as reflexes. The idea was simple - one person would toss as many colourful pompoms within a minute and the other would try to catch them in a cup. Was it easy? Not at all, especially for kids. Some of them could do it better than the rest but it was good to see that no one gave up or refused to try. The hubby gave a live demonstration on how to catch as many pompoms as possible and the kids were motivated to try again and again to better their scores. Fun!
#4 - Shoot the cones
I asked Ariel if she wanted to shoot with a gun or bow and arrow, she chose the latter and so we decided to come up with this activity. I printed out pictures of ice cream clipart, made them in different sizes, allocated each of them a score (the bigger the ice cream, the lower the score), cut out and laminated them before sticking them onto my kitchen glass.
All the kids needed to do was to aim and shoot - if your arrow hit an ice cream cone, you get the points! Each of them was allowed to have three tries before passing to the next person. The kids loved this game so much that we ended up leaving the cutouts on for weeks and even let our parents try it too when they came over to celebrate Christmas. Haha.
#5 - What's for dessert?
The last game was one of Ariel's favorite because she loves to draw and guess. I printed out a stack of cards, each with a dessert / snack / fruit / food item on it. These included sandwich, burger, sunny side up, jelly, strawberries and even ice kachang. All they had to do was take turns to draw to let their friends guess the item and the person with the most correct guesses would be the winner. Some of their drawings were really cute, including how their interpretations of a durian and marshmallow.
THE CEREMONY
A birthday party is never complete without a cake-cutting ceremony, right? One of the things my kids still look forward to is blowing their candles on their special days, and I'm happy to let them do that every year for as long as I can. In fact, they also blow out my candles and the hubby's candles during our birthdays too, haha. I guess that is the norm and that is a blessing because it means we have our kids to celebrate with us, right?
We had a duo flavours Swensens ice cream cake and the birthday girl chose her favorite chocolate and cookies and cream flavor. Yum! I love that ice cream cone on top and that it came with some strawberries too. You should have seen how the kids' faces lit up when I announced to them "It's ICE CREAM time!" That said, I also bought wayyyyyy too much ice cream that day and more than half of them are still sitting in my fridge three months later. Psssstt, we just had Haagen Dazs ice cream tonight after dinner. Hee.
Here's a big THANK YOU to all the friends who came to celebrate Ariel's special day with her and I hope you had as much fun as she did and brought home some very precious memories in that huge ice cream balloon too.
Dear Ariel, happy turning 7 and it's so nice to see your sunshine smile every day, my little cutie pie. I hope you will stay bubbly, kind, sweet and loving towards your friends and family. Remember that we love you to the moon and back and that you will always be our precious, darling baby girl!
Till the next birthday party! Now, who wants some ice cream too?
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Read more on Ariel's birthday parties here:
Ariel is 6 - The Ocean is Calling
Ariel is 5 - It's a Shopkins Tea Party
Ariel is 4 - A Royal Princess Party
Ariel is 3 - Sofia the First Birthday Bash
Ariel is 2 - Let's Get Frozen
Ariel is 1 - Turning One Under the Sea
