The Little One's Birthday

Maybe you noticed in the last post's first picture a set of letters for the Little One's name, (see here)
They were actually one of the few things that I made for her birthday
Birthdays might be a huge events for some kids, but given the parents' tendency to forgo huge celebration in favour of something more meaningful, well... we did not do much
In fact, I think the parents still owe her a 'proper' birthday gift.
I know I'm still working on mine,
But hey, we did try to make a special day for her.

Starting with these letters on the wall for the special one.
Mummy is really quite proud of her work over there, especially since they do not cost that much, if at all.
Cardboard from the boxes that came with the new fans that we bough, rough papers (plenty of those around here), some markers (for the outlines) and of course, water color. Voila!

Mmm... at first I wanted to make buntings. I think buntings are pretty traditional for birthdays but after putting the paper on the cardboard... why not just stick them on the wall? So much easier.

For more simple decoration that cost almost nothing?
Well.. the Little One loves balloon, so.. why not give her some? I did have a few left over balloons, result of some traipsing around town way back months ago. Just tie them up together with some scrap yarn (crochet yarn, of course, most accessible and always available while I'm still crocheting), and hang them!

Then of course there's the food!

I actually invited both Ami and Nata to come by sometime in the afternoon, and so I thought of preparing things which are easy to eat. I decided on home made pizza and popcorn. What can be easier but still tasty?

Pizza was a margherita, that's just plain pizza with tomato, basil, garlic and some cheese. I also added some onion for some extra flavour.

Basil from my shrub, of course.

I made my own dough. Apart from the time it takes to rise, I did not take too long or too much effort.  As for the popcorn? Instant microwaved butterlicious popcorn, popped in once the guests arrive to ensure freshness, done in 2 minutes, and was quite a hit too!

There was no cake as such. I did make some cream puffs to serve as 'birthday cake', but then I forgot to buy the candles, and it turned out that the birthday girl did not quite care for them. so.... well.. at least I made the effort.

Lastly, before the arrival of 'birthday guests', I thought of what to give as a thank you present. You know usually when you become guests at any bash you would come home with some party favours? Well... since I did not manage to settle on anything to buy (did buy some jelly, but they were eaten by the Little One), I just decorated 2 spare Ikea frames and wrap them in some paper with, of course, watercolor. Being able to draw some basic shape/design really has its use, haha! Just scroll down to see the pics. I am sorry about the organization, but not being familiar with HTML codes, I don't really have real control over where the pics would appear in relation to what I write. Really, maybe I should include that in the ever growing list of things that I should learn. Hmmm...

My Margherita... nyam nyam

In any case, as it turned out, Ami did not manage to make it that afternoon, so it was more of a playdate between Chitra, Nata and their Moms. But it was quite fun.
Maybe next year we'll do better, with candles and all, haha...

Plated cream puffs

Party favours aka thank you gifts

Birthday Gifts

Added 27 Sept 10:
Through visits to the Little One's 2 friends houses, we learned that the frames are already used to show photos of the Little One with respective friend. So cute. Glad that the frames are used. Mummy is big on 'useful' gifts, you know.