Getting the pixie dust ready

I love parties, I wish girls remain the age they are now. And it'll also means my age is halted too right? *winkz*

Theme : A Tinkerbell and a Pirate makes a Magical 5 party
This theme was on my mind last year, but because majority of her classmates are boys, it would be too feminine. So it was put on hold and had to use this pretty theme this year. But since we still had a majority of boys, had to incorporate something. Peter Pan birthday supplies were discontinued for a long time, thus next best solution would be Pirates.

Thinking about planning and executing parties make me so excited. I want to make it bigger than the previous year/s. This year, I wished I had the Sleeping Beauty Castle and fireworks (like in Disneyland) for this Tinkerbell party. I said wish - where's my Tinkerbell? Oops! I should be looking for the genie instead.

Venue : The Polliwogs
No second choice when I knew her party would be a go-ahead. This was the venue I had wanted last year. And I must admit, no regrets.

Taking up packages reduces our hassles, but it also means there are certain restrictions. Having a party outside means no mess in our small home; no need to look under the bed for small lego pieces; Barbie shoes etc... but it also means we have to lug every heavy items to the place.

At first I took a package and asked for (additional) photographer and a face-painter. But after that I cancelled those 2 as I realised that to have a face-painter means cramping face-painting and games at the same time. And the kids would be more eager to queue up for face-painting instead. Try not to overwhelm the kids. I don't mind the photographer but KZ offered her help. Though she's no professional but might as well right, coz' she would be very free.

I did not use Polliwogs birthday invitation cards but personalized my own. I love this simple card! And it so happens that she has a photograph taken with Tinkerbell in Disneyland recently. All designed and printed within the same day I booked the venue. Talk about efficiency!

The Invited Guests

The birthday girl chose her invited guests. We're never short of guests coz' she has many friends from MMI, St Hilda's, music, Shichida, abacus. But it can be difficult to narrow down considering that we had to include some siblings. 17 was the magic number I told her, to work around this number. Can't have too many too coz' I'd have problem doing PR with the mummies and daddies.

Final list :
Current School
1. Her boyfriend and his brother
2. The other inseparable trio, girl from K2 and her brothers
3. Her classmate and her brother from St. Hilda's
Previous School
4. Her good friend
5. Another good friend and his brother
Shichida
6. Long time friend and his sister

7. Another friend from Shichida
When I asked if she wanted to include anyone from her current school, some girls she play with and how about her friends in music class. She didn't want any. Total number of kids including her - 16.

Okay, with list finalised. I was then able to do my purchases as there would be some stuffs more suitable for the older children. What older children you ask. They're the girls from che-che's school.

Click, Pay and Wait
Online purchases were within 2 days. And I was disappointed that some place ran out of the items I was eyeing and then I had to go through the search engine (again). The last time I went to recce about was a month plus back.


Parcels came in. Mr Postman more busy than ever, he notices the trend too. And guess what?! His first time meeting me after so many years. Haha!

Here comes Parcel #1. Mei-mei's happy that finally her party is taking off. Though they have no idea where the party will be held.

The parcel consists mainly the boys stuffs

Parcel #2 : cupcake rings, pirate bendables toys, tattoos

Forbidden food favors

Was so tempted to order the Tinkerbell and Pirate PEZ candies which we don't get to see in SIN. They were so cute but didn't coz' I thought of the cost and practicality in giving something which eventually might be junked by the parents. *teeth grinding*

While waiting for the parcels to come in, I embarked on the preparation of food favors. I kept food favors to the minimum.

Tags done and scored

I love this tag!

Wrappers designed, printed and wrapped on every chocolate bar. Can see where I took this picture right? In the car. Spent few fugitive days outside lugging penknife, cutting board (like I was going to kill someone like that), double-sided tape (to tape down my victim), plastic bag to throw dismembered body rubbish. While doing all these, I was so worried chocolate might melt in our heat, so have to make sure I don't let them sit under our hot sun and chose on days when I don't have to wait for che-che outside her school.

So pretty. And I love the papers too! I managed to get these papers, though bought only a stack to try out first. Dunno if can find the papers in Singapore, will try to recee when I have the time.

Pixie dust -This may seem easy to find, I thought it was. I remembered seeing it in Umeya and went to 3 outlets, they didn't have it anymore. One last attempt, I went down to the party shop in Raffles to check out and found it. Happy! But the only problem was they didn't sell the smaller ones so I had to re-pack them. Double work for me, I had to spend time to print the labels

Hershey's Nuggets wrapper printed out and wrapped

The final products.
Tinkerbell pack consists of one bar of chocolate and the fairy 'dust' candy
Pirate pack consists of one 'gold bar' of chocolate and three Hershey's 'gold nugget'

This parcel #4 came extremely late. The first to be ordered but last to arrive. My main parcel is here!!

Such a big box but ..... haiz!

The rest of the stuffs. I can start my assembling work

Tags that were prepared and ready (a long time ago) to be tagged to their bags and boxes

Packing the favor bags

For boys : Their goody bag consists the same items for both older and younger boys
1) Bandana
2) eyepatch
3) telescope
4) sticker
5) craft kit
6) pirate figurine

Parcel #3

Mei-mei offering to help me with the packing.
Top pic (R) : For older girls
1) Coin pouch
2) Terry ponies
3) Lanyard
4) Sticker
5) Bubble wand
6) Pencil
Bottom pic (L) : For younger girls
1) Colouring book
2) 2x Terry ponies
3) Bubble wand
4) Pencil
5) Sticker
One of the item went OFS, and had no time to make anymore purchases, so put 2 terry ponies inside

Right down to the details. Cutlery packs also prepared. Oh! Had to match the green and purple colour.

This one also. Personalized bottles. For these bottles and cutlery packs, I printed on normal papers. To use my chocolate wrapping papers would be too wasteful.

Snacks for display
Pretzels with the same co-ordinated colours. Just that I prefer that kind of soft colours, should have been bolder huh? Oh! For these pretzels, I cannot take credit. I tasked my helper to help me as I was juggling with the girls' schoolwork etc.. She did a great job, didn't she?
Then Polliwogs emailed me when I gave them a breakdown what I'd be putting on the table for guests. They said no food items unless it's part of the goody pack. Sigh... okay, double job (again) Had the bags at home so luckily didn't have to buy but then had to make the labels, packed up the pretzels. Sigh..

Cookies that I've ordered for the older girls from my baker. I wasn't sure if I could have a party for them so ordered this in replacement as a cake. Although we went ahead with the celebration at Scoops of Art, they were given one each. Most disappointing thing was that my stand did not arrive in time, couldn't make use of it. Had to make a stand out of styrofoam box. But I was so pleased with it - can't bear to junk it away.

Lil' girl been waiting for this time. She helped to fill up my pinata. Very disappointed with the size. I didn't have many sweets for the kids, instead selected carefully over the candies. Loaded with more treats which consisted of tattoos, erasers, confettis and bendable pirates

I had been pampering the kids at our parties. Too much pinata fillers. Remember the year where che-che's carriage was way too heavy coz' I put in so much sweets?

All's done and packed in less than 2 days for the big day. Both girls are fluttering about, they're excited over the party. And mei-mei never stopped telling me "mummy, I want a bouncy castle just like Johannah" since her party. I kept it as a secret, I was sure she would have a great time in that 'oh yes, it's definitely a much bigger castle than Johannah' castle. She's the star tomorrow and she'll love her party for sure.