Louisa turns 4!

I can't believe Louisa is 4! Memories of her birth remains fresh in my mind like it was yesterday. When she blew out her candles, I found it hard to believe my baby is already four years old.

We held a party to celebrate her birthday at a function room at Adrian's uni (all thanks to Lawrence). Our house is too small to have a proper kid's party. Certainly no room for games. As the room comes with plenty of chairs and tables, what with a big open space outside, it proved to be the perfect venue for the party.

Themes:

1st birthday - Winnie the Pooh

2nd birthday - Hello Kitty (well, kind of)

3rd birthday - Fairy

4th birthday - Prince and Princess

Louisa is crazy over Disney Princesses, particularly The Little Mermaid. So I thought a 'Royal Theme' is the most appropriate. I hadn't intended to buy her a Disney Princess costume as she already has a pretty gown. I thought I could convince her to wear that for her party but 6 days before the big day, she still insisted on being Ariel, The Little Mermaid. I couldn't find the costume anywhere so I ended up buying materials and sewing it myself. I also made the crown and a cape for Adrian. He gamely wore the crown but not the cape. Sigh, I spent so much time on it and he didn't wear it. Louisa, on the other hand, was thrilled with her costume. It turned out very well and I was very pleased with my creation. The only thing was I don't have a sewing machine and so every stitches was hand sewn. I was so afraid it'd tear but other than one fin which came off after Victoria had stepped on it and one strap which was very last minute sewn on came off, all else were fine. Everyone in the family had something to wear to the theme (Lavigne was Snow White) but I had nothing. I bought some materials but didn't have time to make. In the end, I wore an outfit brought by Katie.

I must say I was very brave to decide to bake the cake myself this year. I don't bake cakes other than when I was in school and a few times during my uni days. Cakes in UK are VERY sweet which comes with EVEN SWEETER icings that I hate. I really miss those light and spongy cakes we find everywhere in Singapore. After scouring the internet for recipes and ideas, I decided on a castle design with alternating vanilla and chocolate sponge filled with Maltesers and fresh cream. The cakes were baked on Friday and decorated on Saturday. I cheated by using off-the-shelf swissrolls for the towers. They are so cheap and convenient. I underestimated the time needed to put the fresh cream on. It must have taken me a good 7 hours to complete the whole cake. Yes! 7 HOURS! Can you believe it? I was supposed to bring the finished cake over to Po's house as he has a very big fridge. I didn't finish the cake till 2am. Luckily I called him way before and he had told me he wasn't going to bed early as he's working on his thesis. All the time while I was decorating the cake, I thought I'd not succeed and would have to buy one off the shelf the following day. When it came to doing the tower roof, my original idea failed. I had applied cream on ice-cream cones and placed chocolate buttons on it to replicate roof tiles. As I went on to the second roof, the first one toppled over! Luckily it didn't ruin the rest of the cake. The cone went soft due to moisture from the cream. I should have bought the normal cones rather than wafer ones. In the end, I just placed the cones on each towers. So disappointing! It would have looked so good.

Thanks to my good friend, Lydia, who came one day early to help with wrapping the prizes and prepare the stuff for the games. I would not have coped without her help. As I had spent so much time on the costumes and cake, I didn't prepare much decorations. Only balloons and ribbons this year which was a bit of a letdown really. But I can't be more thankful the weather was lovely during the party. As it had been raining everyday before, I was really worried bad weather would dampen the whole event. Thank God it was bright and sunny and we could play treasure hunt outdoor.

Games:

1. Guess the Prince and Princess

2. Pass the glass slipper

3. Treasure Hunt

4. Bobbing the Apple

5. If you're a princess or prince and you're happy put on your crown......(basically sing it to the tune of 'If you're happy and you know it')

I got the adult guests involved by asking them to be in charge of the different games. For example, Philippe manned the CD player for the game 'Pass the glass slipper' and Katie, Fenni, Lydia and Emily were the guides for 'Treasure Hunt'. Not only I had less responsibilities, the adults didn't have to sit or stand around and feel bored. Also, I gave up my usual role as the photographer and passed on this great responsibility to Hoon Wei and asked Jacob to be videographer. This way, I needn't be an octopus.

We had mostly finger food this time round as compared to last year. I had more helpers then since my mother-in-law was here. Adrian reckoned we wouldn't have enough time to prepare too much cooked food. Also, we had a traditional English style party, meaning parents will not stay with their children. I wouldn't need to prepare more food to cater to them then. The only item I cooked was fried rice. The rest were mini springrolls, samosas and sotong balls which were fried by Gerald in the kitchen next to the function room, cocktail sausages, crisps, tortilla, vegetable sticks, sandwiches, cut fruits and popcorn.

I was most happy when I didn't have to bring back any of the cake. Most of it were eaten and the little leftovers were given to friends to bring home. Though the cake looked good, I was worried about the taste. However it turned out pretty nice. I received many compliments for it. Will I bake another birthday cake? Highly unlikely. Will I have a party like that for Lavigne in October? Not likely. I'm not being unfair. It's just that with Lavigne being only 2, she'll not appreciate a party. Furthermore, she has no friends yet. I know we had a party for her last year but turning one is a milestone. So perhaps, we'll have a small celebration with some close friends. Having a birthday cake and blowing out the candles are of course a MUST! Who knows, when the time comes, I may bake the cake myself again. If I do, it'll certainly be a really simple one.

Photos here.