Warning: Ms Modesty was reading this post with a raised eyebrow and a smirk on her face. Very annoyed, I packed her off to Mars with a one-way ticket.
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Party was a soooper doooper hit! Kids and the moms and the few dads had a whale of a time! We had a good turnout too - around 67 turned up out of the 80 invited. Party started at 5.30 and went on till 9 PM. We had organised 4 art and craft activities and 3 traditional Indian games. Our wonderful neighbors volunteered as organisers for the events - party wouldn't have been a success without them. We managed to have a Healthy and Green party that was also interesting (thoroughly enjoyable; the best b'day party ever- said the kids). Yay!
The art and craft activities were:
1. Bead key chains and bracelets: Initially the boys shied away from the beads. One little boy made a key chain and that triggered the rest of them to follow suit. They even made their own little variations. I saw these key chains on many cycles later. Girls made some very pretty bracelets too.
2. Block Printing: We had plain white hankies and two types of blocks. No two printed hankies were alike. After the beads, boys didn't shy away from anything else.
3. Decorative Terracotta Diya: We had the large size diyas. Some metallic colours, glitter and stones and the kids made magic! Again each diya was different ranging from simple to complex designs. Some kids were so interested that they made two diyas...
4. CD Painting: Borrowed the idea from utbt. We prepared the CDs beforehand - spread glue and smeared our own humble kola maavu instead of coloured sand. I made couple of samples so that the kids got an idea. Since this is a bit time consuming and effort intensive, we packed it for them to try at home.
And we had made newspaper bags for the kids to carry these back home.
G akka, Pattu's caretaker deserves all the credit for preparing the CDs and the paper bags. MIL pitched in too.
Kids and moms had total fun with art and craft. A mom of a sleepy 2 yr old dropped her son at home and came back to do crafts. Lot of moms further borrowed the CD idea and newspaper bag idea for the kids' reuse-recycle school projects.
All party decor conceived and executed by my mom. She also put up with resultant party mess in her house.
Pattu's hairdo (which was very pretty and attracted many compliments) and dressing by G akka. Pattu also liked the b'day frock that G akka bought for her so that's what she wore at the party.
.........doing a virtual dhrishti.........I'm blessed to have such lovely people around......
Coming to Games:
1. Cycle tyre race - we had big and small cycle tyres for different age groups. Made some people nostalgic. Kids were oh so excited.
2. Gilli danda - Everyone (including some adults) had a go at this...
3. Bambaram (top) - Surprisingly, not many were adept at this. By the time we started bambaram, it started to rain and we had to cut it short and shift indoors.
All procurement for games by our driver and and event management by hubby, some wonderful neighbors
Now to the Food:
Utbt - you were right about the food. Kids didn't even miss the chips and the samosas. And the parents really appreciated the thought and the effort (and our guts ;) )
1. Whole wheat pasta + corn and veggies in mint and basil sauce - a huge hit across age groups. It just vanished in minutes! Kids came back for second and third helpingsMany moms called me later for the recipe ;)
2. Bhel Puri - a hit with older kids and adults and a few 3 yr olds as well
3. Chutney sandwich - older kids and adults
4. B'day cake and chocolates - the cake was the 'melt in your mouth' variety... from Hot Breads
5. Real and Tropicana fruit juices
I was planning to bake some muffins but most moms felt it would be an overkill and kids would not be able to eat more than these many items. We served very little initially and kids came back for a second helping of their fav snack. Very little food wasted.
Utbt - 'No Gifts' on the invite worked... only 2 or 3 gave gifts. The whole community is planning to adopt this policy of no gift - no return gift b'day parties. We were quite worried about the kids' attitude towards return gifts lately.
Pictures - next post....
____________________________________________________
Party was a soooper doooper hit! Kids and the moms and the few dads had a whale of a time! We had a good turnout too - around 67 turned up out of the 80 invited. Party started at 5.30 and went on till 9 PM. We had organised 4 art and craft activities and 3 traditional Indian games. Our wonderful neighbors volunteered as organisers for the events - party wouldn't have been a success without them. We managed to have a Healthy and Green party that was also interesting (thoroughly enjoyable; the best b'day party ever- said the kids). Yay!
The art and craft activities were:
1. Bead key chains and bracelets: Initially the boys shied away from the beads. One little boy made a key chain and that triggered the rest of them to follow suit. They even made their own little variations. I saw these key chains on many cycles later. Girls made some very pretty bracelets too.
2. Block Printing: We had plain white hankies and two types of blocks. No two printed hankies were alike. After the beads, boys didn't shy away from anything else.
3. Decorative Terracotta Diya: We had the large size diyas. Some metallic colours, glitter and stones and the kids made magic! Again each diya was different ranging from simple to complex designs. Some kids were so interested that they made two diyas...
4. CD Painting: Borrowed the idea from utbt. We prepared the CDs beforehand - spread glue and smeared our own humble kola maavu instead of coloured sand. I made couple of samples so that the kids got an idea. Since this is a bit time consuming and effort intensive, we packed it for them to try at home.
And we had made newspaper bags for the kids to carry these back home.
G akka, Pattu's caretaker deserves all the credit for preparing the CDs and the paper bags. MIL pitched in too.
Kids and moms had total fun with art and craft. A mom of a sleepy 2 yr old dropped her son at home and came back to do crafts. Lot of moms further borrowed the CD idea and newspaper bag idea for the kids' reuse-recycle school projects.
All party decor conceived and executed by my mom. She also put up with resultant party mess in her house.
Pattu's hairdo (which was very pretty and attracted many compliments) and dressing by G akka. Pattu also liked the b'day frock that G akka bought for her so that's what she wore at the party.
.........doing a virtual dhrishti.........I'm blessed to have such lovely people around......
Coming to Games:
1. Cycle tyre race - we had big and small cycle tyres for different age groups. Made some people nostalgic. Kids were oh so excited.
2. Gilli danda - Everyone (including some adults) had a go at this...
3. Bambaram (top) - Surprisingly, not many were adept at this. By the time we started bambaram, it started to rain and we had to cut it short and shift indoors.
All procurement for games by our driver and and event management by hubby, some wonderful neighbors
Now to the Food:
Utbt - you were right about the food. Kids didn't even miss the chips and the samosas. And the parents really appreciated the thought and the effort (and our guts ;) )
1. Whole wheat pasta + corn and veggies in mint and basil sauce - a huge hit across age groups. It just vanished in minutes! Kids came back for second and third helpingsMany moms called me later for the recipe ;)
2. Bhel Puri - a hit with older kids and adults and a few 3 yr olds as well
3. Chutney sandwich - older kids and adults
4. B'day cake and chocolates - the cake was the 'melt in your mouth' variety... from Hot Breads
5. Real and Tropicana fruit juices
I was planning to bake some muffins but most moms felt it would be an overkill and kids would not be able to eat more than these many items. We served very little initially and kids came back for a second helping of their fav snack. Very little food wasted.
Utbt - 'No Gifts' on the invite worked... only 2 or 3 gave gifts. The whole community is planning to adopt this policy of no gift - no return gift b'day parties. We were quite worried about the kids' attitude towards return gifts lately.
Pictures - next post....
