So our oldest turned five, and we celebrated his birthday with a party at home. I really wish we could have invited more guests (my apologies to all of Junior J's other little friends!), but with limited space at home, we decided to keep it small. So we ordered a couple of platters of sushi from Sakuraya for lunch (we didn't have time to cook since the party was after church):
... and a yummy chocolate cake from The Patisserie, which we dressed up with dinos that I printed out .
I don't know about you, but I have this internal battle every time one of our boys' birthdays rolls around. I love planning and preparing for parties. I love the crafting, all the DIY projects, the planning of games or activities to go with the theme. However, sometimes I wonder if we make too big a fuss when it comes to birthday parties. After all, it's just to celebrate a kid becoming one year older, and sometimes all that money and effort pumped into the party isn't really appreciated by the birthday child or his/her guests.
However, during Junior J's party, I was reminded about what parties are about. It's about relationships. It's about friends and family coming together to rejoice in a year of growth. It's about little friends playing together.
It's about laughing together and enjoying the simple things: tossing balloons and rolling around in crepe paper.
It's about helping hands, from porpor's special sushi (for Lil J who has food allergies), to kongkong helping to take photos (all the photos here were taken by him). And the godparents chipping in to help run the games (the godpa was so good at it, he's been booked as gamemaster for all future parties) and cleaning up after (thank you, godma!).
So it's about love. It's not about the cake or how pretty it is, or how great the party packs are, or whether there were helium balloon or beautiful dessert tables. Parties are about people, gathering to celebrate. To celebrate a year of God's love and faithfulness. To give thanks for a year of growth.
Couldn't agree more with you...
ReplyDeleteAnd it is to me too, a celebration of a milestone for the parents too. Way to go, mummy!
Love the the dino tees, the tenderness in the photos (grandpa did great!).
Here's wishing your elder boy a blessed 5!
Justina, I'm just like you that I love planning for preparing for parties but most of the time struggle internally as I simply don't have that much time on hands and hubby insist that it's the company that matters most. So these years, I only do an elaborate or themed party on alternate years so that give me more time to prepare :)
ReplyDeleteAnd for the kids, honestly, they don't really care if we went all out to decorate the place and had jaw droping goodie bags. Most important, is that they are surrounded by friends and family to celebrate them on their birthday.
I totally agree. Have done all the jaw dropping parties and honestly, the bigger the parties doesn't mean the better the party. In fact, I find the rule of 1 friend per age i.e. 6 friends for a 6 year old party makes quite a lot of sense!
ReplyDeleteim a kids entertainer,balloon sculptor here not a parent yet but reading your posts makes me feel all warm in my heart!
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