there are loads of sample on the net. i got some i really liked as samples and quickly emailed my regular designer/printer to inform her what i liked. she came up with the invitation card first and the rest followed suit - the banner, cupcake toppers, favour bag stickers and food labels.
and then it was the cake. i'm blessed that i know a lovely baker who i can count on. she baked a sea animal-theme cake before and it looked lovely to me. i showed her the picture of the cupcake topper and left it to her imagination on how amira's cake and cupcake would look it. the final product was amazing, i was absolutely in love with amira's cake...asyraf too, as he ate all the figurines.
getting food wasnt too easy. actually the menu went form one spectrum to another. i initially planned to have amira's aqiqah during her birthday and the main menu would follow the kambing bakar that would be served. we decided at the last minute to do her aqiqah during raya haji instead, so the menu for her birthday changed drastically. from kambing bakar, nasi tomato and its friends (really heavy) became nasi lemak bungkus, mihun goreng and fried chicken (light and simple).
i know most of the guests would be the boys' friends therefore i needed food that children would eat, and would eat while they played, and would run to eat and leave and run back to eat. so something packed and simple was top of my list. i wanted the school canteen to prepare the main dishes. but after two weeks of waiting for the canteen operator to sit down and discuss, i decided to look elsewhere. just so happen, as i was browsing for karipap that is sold in a large quantity for fuctions, i came across a lady nearby who is able to do karipap and other kuihs and nasi lemak and mihun. so i asked her to prepare food for the day and she accepted.
i then added a lot of kuihs for dessert seeing that the party would be around tea time - cream puffs, cheesetarts and seri muka. i also added sandwiches to the table and took out my idea of preparing baked pasta. i dont think i'd have the time even if baked pasta doesn't take much time to prepare.
i'm feeling a bit guilty as amira's party favours isn't as wholesome as her brothers' were. i used to give stationeries and good toys and good quality cups and nice cookies. but this time its just simple crackers and cookies and wafers. i wanted to add maybe a notebook or an activity book to the bag but i kept putting it off that it didn't materialise in the end.
theme sorted, food sorted, invites and other printing sorted, favours sorted. the only thing left was activity during the party. i wanted a bouncy castle but i listened in on the boys' conversation and found out they wanted to play football so i guess maybe no bouncy castle. i decided then to get beach balls and water pistols and maybe inflatable pools for the boys' friends to play with during the party. i also put some puzzles and pictures on the table so that the guests, young or old, can test their skills when they're eating or chit chating at the table.
we spent the day before and the morning of the event for preparation - blowing up the balloons, setting up tables, blowing up the inflatable pools, sorting out the puzzles and stationeries and water guns.
alhamdulillah, the party was a beautiful success. amira wore a shark onesie, no mermaids for my baby as people would sooo expect the birthday girl to be a girly sea creature. the boys too wore shark tshirts. the balloons were lovely around the canopy and on the tables. food table decoration was simple but i loved it. we were in a sea of blue and i'm so happy how everything turned out.
amira's big day ended with unwrapping of the presents. not by the birthday girl, but by the brothers and aunts. she received so many wonderful toys and clothes, alhamdulillah.
