The Venue
First, the venue. This was the easiest part. The clubhouse in the community we live. We had had the kids' birthday party the previous year there and it was just like hosting in your own home - only it gave us the option to not have to both prep and stage in the same place. We prepped at home. This saves cleaning up before the party, though it doubles the cleaning up afterwards. But it gives you more energy to entertain the guests.
The Invitation
Kevin always makes decisions quickly and with clarity. While I was waiting for him to join me in designing his invitation card, I was browsing Ninjago pictures on the official website. He walks up, sees a picture, tells me this is what he wants as his invitation, waits for me to explain that with this picture all we can probably do is just include the information and nothing more, he understands, he is happy and that was it. Done. As simple as that.
I need not even have signed up for PicMonkey for this! But he was completely content, so no regret, no worries.
I had the invitations printed at Walmart and they included envelopes for free.
The Food
The food was homemade by yours truly. I love cooking and since the party was at 4PM, we planned a menu, that, in my opinion, was fitting for tea time. Also, tea party is another of our biggest favorites anyway!
The Menu
Lemonade
Asian Salad (from Costco)
Vegetable Puffs
Cucumber Sandwiches
Paneer Rolls
Mac and Cheese
Crepe Station - Crepe rolls with Hershey's Chocolate Syrup and Nutella on the side
Fruit Platter
The Spread
The Cake
The theme being Ninjago, the cake I knew was going to be easy, since I have done one once previously - Kevin's 4th Birthday.
Cupcakes are the easiest to make and prep. I do not even bother piping the icing, I just slather some and stick a fondant decoration or something to make it tie in with the theme. I somehow like the lack of finesse when it comes to the cakes I make.
A whole cake called for more decoration to cover the messiness I spoke about before. I found out that though fondant looks great nobody ever cares to eat it - even I myself wouldn't - I who would shamelessly eat everything with a (lot of) hint of sugar in it. The small decorations I make are alright because the kids love to have one on their serving - to play with, nibble on, or just for the fancy of it! So I decided to make a small cake so Kevin could cut it like he wanted and cup cakes in addition to serve everybody.
The cake is what we spend most time on usually - looking for ideas or just thinking about it - and that is the only unknown factor. I always put together the ideas only the last minute. I go with whatever creative mood I am in. It has always worked out well for me and the kids have always loved it that way as well.
Cake - Chocolate Cake by Foodess
Frosting - Cream Cheese Frosting by Paula Deen
The Favors
Having had to deal with innumerable party favors this year, I decided to keep it simple. I went with Kevin's favorites - paint and play dough. And, as usual, the party favors also doubled as decoration.
The Party
We ended the party with Pinata ofcourse - Kevin picked his favorite dynamite pinata! And what was special this time was, Kevin started the game with Krish finishing it!
Thank You
I had made Thank You cards back when Krish was born, 9 years ago. I still had enough left and we used the same this year. Kevin took the thank you cards to school with goody bags to share - Oreo and popcorn! Again, his favorites. :)))
It was an absolutely fun birthday party for us. As usual, thanks to my good friend, Surabhi, I have some beautiful pictures to cherish.
