Friends that know me, will know that I crack my head every year trying to think of what to do for Jaden's birthday every year and this year was no exception, except I already had a location in mind that I know that Jaden could get to eat the food cooked by the location, and need not me to prepare his food from home in advance.
This year, 2013, we held his birthday party at the private dining area of Curry Leaf Restaurant at Damansara Uptown.
I would greatly recommend that restaurant as their service is top notch and they are really what some other restaurateur should learn from, this is 100% service with a smile and very accommodating to Jaden's food needs and also helping me with setup and table arrangements.
Usually, when we had our party elsewhere previous years, I was the one that needed to decorate the place up by myself. This year at Curry Leaf, they had two waiters to help me set up while I just sit and supervise.
Clearing of dirty plates and glasses were fast, and replenishing of plates/glasses and food were also fast as some popular dishes were quickly wiped out by Jaden's guests. The restaurant was not selfish with their drinks replenishment too.
So that is why I would greatly recommend Curry Leaf Restaurant.
After locking in the location, I proceeded on to send out birthday invites to close family and friends to the party.
Of course, after securing location, I started searching high and low for cake bakers and found this lady, highly recommended by all my mummy friends and after looking through her gallery of cake designs, I was very sure she was talented enough to give me what I wanted. Best thing was that she could do all three commissioned work as required by me and she stays near me. 50 cupcakes for school party, 40 cookies and a 3D cake for Jaden's private birthday party.
After some exchange of emails and agreement, I started looking online for some ideas on how to dress my theme up more for Jaden but in the end, being the pregnant me and with that little time, I used what I do best, getting colourful balloons instead. Firstly, they do suit the theme and secondly, all children loves playing with balloons. BINGO!
I used to prepare party packs for all Jaden's birthday guests previously, but since I already had the cookies to be given away to all the guests, I thought that preparing party packs for the children are more appropriate. So, once again, following Jaden's birthday theme, I got the children colouring books and colouring pencils, a ball paddle for them to play with and since there were going to be two babies under a year old, I prepared two baby books for them each.
Since I am already 29 weeks pregnant and my bodyline ain't exactly fitting for most dresses or clothes that I owned, I panic a bit as I really did not have anything suitable to wear for Jaden's birthday party. Thankfully, his godma SChee was in town the weekend before the birthday and we went together into KL, with the boy in tow of course, and snagged a few maternity wear off the racks from H&M. Thankfully, I found the size I could fit in too.. and Jaden, being Jaden, managed to trick his godma into getting him a few shirts here and there too. :p
This year is albeit a bit special as Jaden has his classmate, Harry, to attend his birthday party. His very own friend instead of mummy and daddy's friends. Of course, there were other children too, such as his own cousin, Howard, Jaden's little godbrother, Haidn and then there was Marcus, Aiden and Rheanna, Herman and Hanson. Baby Sofia was the latest addition to the children's collection as she is just 4 months plus and such a cutie pie. Hubby sure had a fun time carrying and entertaining her.
Jaden's birthday guests sang high praises of the food that we had ordered. In fact, there were a variety of food such as Briyani and White rice, Honey Chicken, Tandoori Chicken, Chicken Lakshimi Kebab, Masala Prawns, Fish Head Curry, Fried Squid, Mix Vegetables, Pineapple Kootu, Snake Gourd Kootu, Fried Tenggiri Fish, Chicken Varuval, Potato and Brinjal Vegetables, Fruit platter of papaya, watermelon, rambutan and mini mandarin oranges. Iced Barley and Orange cordial was on the house, free flow.
I prepared some snacks for the kids, just in case they did not want to eat but at least they have something to munch on. I know its definitely not healthy but I think I did a great job by not overpreparing them. Just nice enough, the number. I bought M&M minis, some mango puddings and jelly gummies. Just nice enough for the children that came and some adults too.
Jaden was really happy to be able to eat his briyani rice, which the restaurant used only ghee and not butter, tandoori chicken and fried tenggiri.
So what is this birthday theme that I have been going on and on about?
We did not do a cartoon theme for Jaden this year round as we realized that he was more into art stuff and everything colour. Colour pencils, Watercolour, art blocks.. anything to do with art and he is a happy little boy.
So I had Angeline (cake baker) to bake me 50 cupcakes that comes in assortment of colours -blue, green, purple, yellow, orange, red and pink.
Then for the 3D cake, I had her to bake me this cake and the inside was a rainbow cake to suit the occasion of being colourful.
As for the 40 cookies that I gave out to Jaden's birthday guests, they are in the shape/design of a paint pallette. :)
She really met up to my expectation and I could not stop eating the birthday cake. Lets just say the birthday cake was quite a hit too and it was wiped clean too, not a bit left to be taken home. That was how good it was.
As for Jaden's GFCFEF cake, I have to give it to that another cake lady too. Her name is Mas Ayu. She, too was talented enough to come up with the designs that I wanted for Jaden, pretty enough to suit his birthday theme and at least.. at least he got to eat a few bites of cake.
Jaden, this year, seems really aware of the cake and he was so impatient, wanting to have a taste of the cake before we could get to finish singing his birthday song for him, and having him to blow out his candles. :p I am just glad he got to eat together when others are eating around him too.
Jaden was really into eating papadom and he went from table to table to eat papadom. *sigh* Thankfully that was on the house too and they replenish it when we ran out of them.
The children, in the end had a blast with the balloons and boy, by the time the party was over, lets just say the whole of SimonYap clan was pooped.
Luckily, Hubby's friends helped us carry Jaden's presents and stuff back into the car from the restaurant. The car boot was filled to the brim with all the leftovers that we took back too. Not to say that there were lots of leftovers, but enough to feed us for two meals. Some birthday guests that stayed behind did tapao-ed some back too.
The tiny Teo family (Jaden's kai-yeh, wife & son) helped us to carry stuff back from the car up to the house and lepaked a bit with us at home. It was really lovely.. just intimate.
Little Haidn even practiced and sang Happy Birthday to Jaden. It was really cute.
I bathed Jaden after he cooled down, and then I attempted to take some photographs of him posing all his birthday presents. The word is attempt as he was just on a move all around, but well, I did manage to capture a few and then had him to open all his birthday presents.
This year, the presents turned out just the things that Jaden would be able to use right away and also educational. So thank you once again and to those that also contributed in the style of education fund investments. :) :)
At the end of the day, albeit being a little overworked and tired out, it was worth it, just to see my son happy and he enjoyed his day tremendously.
With this, Hubby and I would like to say a really BIG THANK YOU to all who came and made Jaden's birthday party a success and for planting that extra mile on his smile for us !! You guys know who you are.
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