DiY Birthday Party!

It all started when we all got talked into throwing her a birthday party. Perhaps she remembered when we said we will alternately  have one party for them being born only eleven months apart and they have the same set of friends and this year, it was her turn. Maybe it did not help that we got invited to parties and she saw how fun it was. From the time we said YES, we were asked nearly every day if it was her birthday yet.

Gunnamatta Park
 photo pinched from here

She chose  Gunnamatta in Cronulla after we went for a  day to relax, she decided that she will have her party there.

view opposite the park 

We even made up a song to the tune of five cheeky monkeys and it goes like this:

z wants a party
she gets it on her birthday
she loves it is gunnamatta bay
so she can play, swim and have a barbie

We did not end up having a barbie because we thought it was better to have everything ready by the time we got there, but that is going ahead of myself. Choosing the venue was easy because the birthday girl knew what she wanted and we can't help but agree. With a park and a beach in one place, we didn't have to do anything to entertain the kids. We did have a few other decisions to make -

1. Pick the Date. Autumn this year is a little bit tricky because some days feel like summer, while other days feel like winter. We had to consider people's schedules too but after what we thought was carefully thought and planned date, we still found ourselves in a bit of a bind, what with our chosen date being in conflict with another activity, or some friends going away. However, we had to make a choice. When we decided on the date, the forecast was a high of 20 degrees with expected showers. Our toddlers prayed every night from the time we decided on the date for a change of weather and every few weeks we checked the forecast. And what do you know, on the day itself, it was a high of 27 degrees, not windy and certainly no showers, just perfect for a park-beach sort of weather, thank you, Jesus!

2. Invitation. When the date was sorted, it was too close that we did not have time to make the invitations. We resorted to emails and facebook, and it all worked out fine. I have to say I did try to get all the materials but in the end it was rather late.

3. The Birthday Cake.  The m & m and kitkat cake looked very attractive so I thought I'd give it a go. I have seen a few tutorials on youtube that looked really doable. I made my tried and tested cake recipe base 

my test kitkat cake

from 4 ingredients called the 1,1,1,1 cake and found a delicious and easy to make chocolate frosting recipe  from google to decorate. When we tasted out test cake, it was okay. However I thought it might be too much sugar so I decided to use marshmallows to keep up with the pink motif. Also, I decided to stretch 

>myself and make it a two-tier cake - it impressed my darling husband so much he wanted to marry me again if he could. My timeline -

6 days before the party - made a triple mix to make the two tier cake. let it rest.

5 days before the party - wrapped the cake with cling wrap and freeze

2 days before the party - decorated frozen cake with a double chocolate frosting mix  and marshmallows. let it sit at room temperature til the party

4. Party Menu. We decided on a very simple menu, but it might look  massive only because our friends had different dietary requirements. Maybe I got carried away too but I was very sure that it could be done without drama. In the end I had to drop the vegetarian spring rolls that I had already began cutting and only because I thought it might be too much work having to soften the wrapper with hot water, etc. I also made big plans to make drinks for the kids but in the end had to let it slide. 

Friends brought some yummy fried spring rolls as well as chips and drinks. This nut platter, inspired by a friend who posted a picture on instagram, is a mixture of ding dong from the Philippines made of cracker 

nuts, beans, peanuts, corn and green peas mixed with tropical nuts and m & m was an instant hit with the kids.

5. Party Favour. Being the anti-lollies that I am, (and only because I know that my toddlers will not stop eating til they turn blue) I thought I'd make some cookies. I have seen a friend do it and it looked really beautiful. However I have to admit that my icing skills is very limited that as early as Easter week, I tried and failed at it miserably.  I thought maybe cutting the cookies into beautiful moulds would make it look better but that did not work too. In the end, and at the encouragement of a friend, I opted for the tried and tested crisp coconut cookies in a nice looking cd envelope inspired by this post. I made two double mix of the cookies 

three days before the party and wrapped everything on the cd envelope with the thank you label at two days before.

6. Party Supplies. I cut out some templates for the party hats from here and here for the kids to decorate. I had stickers, foam letters and shapes as well as ribbons for them to use, but alas, it was not very popular as 

the park and the water was beckoning them. For buntings, I had some fibre cleaning materials that looks like felt from a few months back. I picked pink, cut it into bunting flags and pasted it into a string. With pink balloons on the sides, it makes up all  the birthday decorations we had. Our birthday girl choose the pink and purple plates for the little ones with bigger white plates for the adults. The same color goes for the plastic cups and cutlery. We also picked the pink and white plastic table cloth.

On the party day itself, we spent the morning cooking, packing  and taking everything  to the venue. We are blessed to have friends who helped us with a back up table in case we couldn't get one by the time we got there. They also came to pick up some of the things that wouldn't fit in the car. I have to admit we were running late, arriving there at 12:30 PM but thank God for one of our friends who arrived early, because of them we had one big table perfect for the occasion.

At the end of the day, we had one happy three year old. I overheard one mum say it was a highlight to the kids' school holidays. We thanked God for everyone who celebrated our little girl's birthday with us.

We left the place at 6 PM. Needless to say, she slept in the car and slept thru til 6AM the next day. She also had to wait the next morning to open the rest of her presents.

PS. for a very detailed checklist, I found this and this really helpful.