nisha's diaries

Vineesh's 9th birthday was round the corner and we decided we were going to keep it a small affair. We'd call over some close friends, have a few games, some food and that would be that.

We started off looking for a gaming area to host the party. We zeroed in on Hangout. It seemed perfect. We could pay for the games and the food and have a fun time. But they didn't allow a cake! A birthday without cake is pretty much not a birthday at all, right? We could however have a party there but they needed a minimum of 30 people which was just not the plan.

A ‘house party’

We decided a house party it had to be. That wasn’t too bad. I love having kids at home and we could have some fun activities too. Since it was a house party we decided to include some more people. The best birthdays are the ones with friends and family around, right? And so the guest list swelled.

A dino theme

We decided to roughly stick to a dinosaur theme. I won't even begin to tell how much Vineesh likes dinosaurs. He reads, talks and even dreams dinosaurs. I’ve heard him talking of them in his sleep.

Invites and décor

First, the invitations. We stumbled upon some wonderful ones on the Net and customised them with the help of a techy friend. Thanks techy pal Ajay Mendes. While we were at it, we also downloaded some banners and cut outs. We found an old beloved dinosaur book and colour copied some awesome pictures for more decorations.

With Diwali preparations and the craziness of holidays I was finding it tough to organise everything and so decided to outsource the balloon decoration which turned out to be fantastic idea.

I went searching for dino plates and when I couldn’t find any I picked simple green ones and paired them off with a jungle theme tablecloth and glasses. Perfect! He wore a green-blue-brown T-shirt that said ‘Ready to explore the world’. How apt!

Game time

A friend Jasleen, put me in touch with Nitika from Wonder Lab who organises science theme parties. We chose some fun science experiments for the kids.

Activities: Experiments with dry ice - Smoking pumpkins, Smoky bubble fountain, Crystal ball, Ghost bubbles

Experiment with liquid nitrogen - Liquid Nitrogen and Crushed flowers, Balloon Burst, Disappearing Balloons, the Big Bang!

Slime Monsters

Screaming Balloons

Photo Booth

A dino cake

The cake had to have dinosaurs of course. Gauri Bafna gave me an awesome, 3D chocolate cake with a miniature sugar dino. Vineesh totally loved it.

Return gifts

Return gifts posed a bit of a problem as we could find no dino figures. We settled for dino erasers. I saw the image and finalized them. When I went over to pick them up they turned out to be too tiny. Note to self: Check out/ask for sizes before finalising products. Thank goodness they had some dino stamp pens with bubbles. We combined the two and were done. I also picked up some dino puzzles for the kids to play with. As I was leaving the man at the shop showed me his phone. He had saved my number as ‘Dino’! Quite right, I thought - I can be quite a T-Rex when I’m angry!

A treat for ma

After all of that it struck me I totally deserved a treat. With 15 minutes to spare I decided to shop for moi! Ummm UCB or Adorable? Adorable it was. There! I was set too.

Finally here's what we had - 16 children, friends and family, a gorgeous dino cake, blue-green-yellow balloons plus a helium dino balloon, Xeroxed dino colour pictures, colourful banners.

All set for the party.

D-Day

…was as perfect as it could get. We started off with a visit to the temple and hot halwa for breakfast. The kids trooped in oohing and aahing at the décor. We had a few games and then went off to the playground when the party threatened to get too boisterous and came back after letting off some steam. They loved the science experiments and the cake was a hit.

What began as a small event turned into a big birthday bash.

I guess the 10th one will have to be a small affair now.