DIY Birthday parties

So far, all the birthday parties we have had for Puttachi have been small affairs.  So that gives me a lot of opportunity to involve Puttachi in the organization and preparation. 

Last  year, she wanted decorations, and so we got together and made some things together.  Arvind Gupta  Toys is a wonderful resource for many things, and it proved invaluable for our decorations.

We made:


Chandelier

Another Chandelier

Skeletal butterfly

We also slipped the return gifts into this easy-peasy newspaper bag

While making all these decorations, we got waylaid and made these two lovely toys
Jumping Frog
Flapping bird

This can engage even adults for hours.  So much fun!

This year, we made these, but forgot to hang them up, heh heh :)

For the return gifts, Puttachi spray-painted A4 sheets of paper and wrapped the gifts in them like this:

They could have been brighter, but I did not want to direct her to do this and do that, since she did it all by herself and is immensely proud of it.

This time, she also helped in making sandwiches for the party, and she was there when I shopped for the party.  She hasn't yet tired of telling her father how much fun she had and how much effort she and I put into all the shopping :)

To top it all, both this year and the last, my mother baked the birthday cake.  Last year, it was a lovely three-tier chocolate cake and this time, it was a Mickey-mouse cake.  She brought the cake to my place, and all of us frosted and decorated the cake.  Puttachi had a few cup-cakes that she could frost and decorate herself, and she loved that both times.

This year, she picked out alphabet sprinkles, and decorated the cupcakes with the names of all the friends she had invited, and gave each friend "their" cupcake.

In a five-year-old's life, that is super-exciting.  :)

Okay, I don't know how to end this post, so I'll just end it like this. :)