Mister … I am Three now
Prisha turned Three and stepped into fourth year of her angelhood in June. On 21st of June we celebrated her birthday at the club house. The event was a success with good participation from friends and family members.
Thanks to all the pain staking effort made by Geeta in preparation for the event, everything happened flawlessly on that day. I must say it was one of the most successful events that we have arranged till date.
Meticulous preparation
To make it clear that it was not a mere chance, I would tell you here what all we did to achieve such good results …. So I am going to take you through a training class on “How to conduct parties” ……..
A month before the party, we prepared the guest list for invitation.
I used my tech skills to create an online document ………….. and I think it helped a lot.
To take further advantage of technology, I added information about number of kids and their age.
This proved very helpful to Geeta in concluding number of gifts for particular age groups and gender …. I’ll describe this later.
The best part of creating an online spreadsheet was that it is shareable and both I & Geeta could edit it on any computer in world and save it.
Another blessing in disguise with such a document is that we can use it for all future gatherings too. Just enter a little data and say “abra dabra” three times and you get a list of people whom you’ll see at party.
Whom does she like
Deciding on the cake shape (picture) was also not easy. We scanned through various shapes and sizes and finally agreed on a “Barbie” type doll or “Winnie-The pooh”.
Just as we were to finalize the order, another parent ordered a “Dora” cake. Eureka !, I and Geeta looked into each other and smiled as if we discovered something great.
So what next ………. we asked him to make similar “Dora” cake for us too.
The nightmare was about to begin, when the person at counter told us that he cannot take order for that day as he is already overbooked …………. He claimed that he already has orders for 50 cakes.
The next five minutes Geeta and I were discussing alternatives and repenting that we should have come few days earlier to place order.
A last attempt was made. We spoke to the manager about our need. He looked into our bambi eyes and agreed to take the order. Although we thanked him enough after that, but in all the excitement, we forgot to pay him for the two pastries we had there, while deciding the cake flavor.
Return Gifts
Believe me this is not an easy task, atleast when we are throwing a party. Geeta worked very hard to sort out things which can be given as return gifts. The problem was multidimensional as there were too many factors involved in arriving at “appropriate” return gift.
The first division was based on age group. We divided the kids in three age group categories; 0-2, 3-8 and 8+. To add to complexity, we further split up the lot into boys and girls. To top it all, there was no surety at the time of buying return gifts whether the family would turn up for party or not.
I think we spent maximum time on planning for this than any other item, however we don’t repent. I could see very happy faces when few kids decided to open their return gifts in the party hall itself.
Good Job Geeta … keep up the good work. Next time we’ll have one more classification “How many friends a kid has”
Offerings of the day
Since it was a children birthday party, Geeta and I wanted the event to be full of fun and masti.
We also wanted to have a stage/podium setup (read decoration) which Prisha could relate to. The decorator had something just like that one. See the pics.
In one of the Sahil’s previous Birthday party, I acted as anchor/party jockey in carrying out few kid’s game. Although it was a huge success that time too, this time however I wanted to spend significant clock ticks in greeting guests and making them feel comfortable.
So, the natural choice was hiring an event manger for evening. Must say he was good, he made sure that he involved kids of all age groups (3 yrs to 65 yrs), other than infants and to-be-born-babies, in the games
The dinner was North Indian style. We hired a lady who has done several parties for quite a few people in our friend circle. We went by word of mouth and she did not disappoint. In fact we were quite impressed and most of the people were also very much impressed by the food quality and genuineness of north Indian dishes she served. I am sure she will get many more contracts ……..
The tattoo artist was busy in creating vivid shapes, objects and creatures on children’s face, hands and cheeks. I recollect noticing dragon, football, snake, flowers and butterfly in bright red, golden, silver, bright blue colors.
Sahil sure was happy with a dragon on his arm. If I was there I would have got him a bright yellow-red sun ……… full of energy….
The best part of creating an online spreadsheet was that it is shareable and both I & Geeta could edit it on any computer in world and save it.
Another blessing in disguise with such a document is that we can use it for all future gatherings too. Just enter a little data and say “abra dabra” three times and you get a list of people whom you’ll see at party.
Whom does she like
Deciding on the cake shape (picture) was also not easy. We scanned through various shapes and sizes and finally agreed on a “Barbie” type doll or “Winnie-The pooh”.
Just as we were to finalize the order, another parent ordered a “Dora” cake. Eureka !, I and Geeta looked into each other and smiled as if we discovered something great.
So what next ………. we asked him to make similar “Dora” cake for us too.The nightmare was about to begin, when the person at counter told us that he cannot take order for that day as he is already overbooked …………. He claimed that he already has orders for 50 cakes.
The next five minutes Geeta and I were discussing alternatives and repenting that we should have come few days earlier to place order.
A last attempt was made. We spoke to the manager about our need. He looked into our bambi eyes and agreed to take the order. Although we thanked him enough after that, but in all the excitement, we forgot to pay him for the two pastries we had there, while deciding the cake flavor.
Return Gifts
Believe me this is not an easy task, atleast when we are throwing a party. Geeta worked very hard to sort out things which can be given as return gifts. The problem was multidimensional as there were too many factors involved in arriving at “appropriate” return gift.
The first division was based on age group. We divided the kids in three age group categories; 0-2, 3-8 and 8+. To add to complexity, we further split up the lot into boys and girls. To top it all, there was no surety at the time of buying return gifts whether the family would turn up for party or not.
I think we spent maximum time on planning for this than any other item, however we don’t repent. I could see very happy faces when few kids decided to open their return gifts in the party hall itself.
Good Job Geeta … keep up the good work. Next time we’ll have one more classification “How many friends a kid has”
Offerings of the day
Since it was a children birthday party, Geeta and I wanted the event to be full of fun and masti.
We also wanted to have a stage/podium setup (read decoration) which Prisha could relate to. The decorator had something just like that one. See the pics.
In one of the Sahil’s previous Birthday party, I acted as anchor/party jockey in carrying out few kid’s game. Although it was a huge success that time too, this time however I wanted to spend significant clock ticks in greeting guests and making them feel comfortable.
So, the natural choice was hiring an event manger for evening. Must say he was good, he made sure that he involved kids of all age groups (3 yrs to 65 yrs), other than infants and to-be-born-babies, in the games
The dinner was North Indian style. We hired a lady who has done several parties for quite a few people in our friend circle. We went by word of mouth and she did not disappoint. In fact we were quite impressed and most of the people were also very much impressed by the food quality and genuineness of north Indian dishes she served. I am sure she will get many more contracts ……..
The tattoo artist was busy in creating vivid shapes, objects and creatures on children’s face, hands and cheeks. I recollect noticing dragon, football, snake, flowers and butterfly in bright red, golden, silver, bright blue colors.Sahil sure was happy with a dragon on his arm. If I was there I would have got him a bright yellow-red sun ……… full of energy….
With all people around and her grandparents visiting from Delhi, it was a complete friends and family occasion. In fact, we could make out from Sahil’s comment that he would love to have a similar get-together for his birthday too.
The only not so good thing was ventilation in the room. Next time we will somehow plan for that too.
That’s all folks for the day. Enjoy the slide show.
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