You are my Sunshine themed Birthday | Mihika turns 1 and Manav turns 6!

P.S: This post was long due. Its 2018 now, but I'm sharing one of our biggest birthday parties of July 2017 for our little ones...hope you enjoy the details just as much as we did putting it together!

Our little bundle of joy, our baby girl Mihika turned 1 year old last July 16^th, 2017.  Her name, Mihika means ‘the Mist’ or ‘Dew drops’ and we call her Mihi baby or Mihi at home. Her older brother Manav (Appu), simply adores her and she’s the first person he asks for when he doesn’t see her around. 
Mihi baby's first words were 'Appu chetta', so i know they both are meant for each other :-) She gets super excited when Appu chetta is around and at times gets annoyed when he runs around and she cannot catch up.


Both Manav and Mihika share July birthdays and although Manav had his own little Pokémon themed 6^th birthday party, we decided to combine both of their birthdays and throw a grand birthday bash last year.  

I remember thinking of a Sunshine themed party when Appu was 1 year old, but later went for a Rainbow themed party instead, which was just as colorful and fun.

‘You are my Sunshine’ is a wonderful theme for little girls and boys and can be customized as per our wish. As I wanted to highlight our baby girl’s 1^st birthday, I used some pink color in the décor apart from lots of Yellow and White. Appu did not care for the colors used in the décor, his interest was in the cake cutting, magic show and piñata that was planned as part of the celebrations. He kept telling everyone he has a sunshine birthday coming up and was really looking forward to it.

This party took several months of brainstorming and planning and I want to discuss each detail of the party one by one :-) Long post ahead, so I've tried dividing each category and added lots of pictures to enjoy the details.

Sunshine Decorations 

Big colorful backdrop, sunshine cutouts, giant Sunflowers and lots of balloons and other decorations in the shades of yellow, white, pink and grey formed the main base. 

A lot of the decorations were bought from Walmart, Party City or Dollar store or ordered online from Amazon. Plenty were handmade. It was a whole lot of effort to get the exact items we needed whether store-bought or home-made. 

The entire ceiling was decorated with hanging ball and honeycomb lanterns and it looked beautiful :-)

Pinwheels and fancy Balloon Arch Backdrop

I have always wanted to try a backdrop with Pinwheels and I absolutely love Balloon arches, especially fancy balloon arches, not the usual U shaped ones.  
After going over millions of party backdrop pictures on Pinterest, I decided to do one that included the best of both, so Pinwheels on one side and a giant Balloon arch on the other side with a white backdrop which would allow the colors to pop out. 

After making a rough sketch on my laptop with the colors I had in mind, we decided this is exactly how it should look and it was the template for our backdrop. 

sketch done for an idea of our backdrop on MS paint!

As the color for the décor was mostly Yellow, White and Pink, we bought Pinwheels in those shade and some metallic ones for a burst of color. 

For the balloons, the colors ranged from sunshine yellow to golden, light pink to sparkly pink, clear transparent ones and some blue. The backdrop was a sequined white curtain and the pinwheels were places to the left and balloon arch to the right. 

We bought the frame and put up this entire backdrop ourselves and it took Manish, my dad and several other friends help with blowing balloons, cutting tape, using a fishing line to set up the balloon arch and all kinds of other small details to put this up.  We were mighty proud of the end result…what do you think?


Cake table Decor

Several details went on the cake table. There was the cake ofcourse....but lots of other cute details. We used tulle table skirt to match with Mihi baby's tulle frock.
Daddy was a huge help for all the preparations. Almost all the different sunshine cutouts, number cutouts and several other mini decorations some of which never made it to the party were done by him over several days.

We bought the 'You are my Sunshine' lettered block frame (which was perfect for the table) from Walmart.

The sunflower ball on top the the pink vase was fully handmade by pressing sunflower heads onto a round thermocol ball. It wasn't easy to get so many similar plastic sunflower plants.

Another thing I've always wanted to do : Chalkboard's :-)
We got black foam boards for this and each one had a special chalkboard to themselves. Apart from the writing, we stuck some 3d stickers for some fun effect. I don't remember the last time i drew with chalk and it was so much fun to do this.

A separate table was arranged with both Manav and Mihika's photographs and some fun details like wooden blocks that spell their names, sunshine cutouts and standing number 1 and 6 frames that were actually cardboard frames over which my dad cut and stuck shimmery yellow cardstock sheet. 

For the kids photo-table, I wanted to create a large sunshine backdrop and got cardboard and yellow paper shreds for the same. Again, my awesome daddy cut and stuck the whole thing and brought it to life. It formed a beautiful backdrop for the table along with some giant Sunflowers.

A large frame with Mihi baby's picture was kept at the photo-table for guests to write a wish or note for her on her 1st birthday. We had done the same for Appu's 1st birthday and it's a nice little souvenir for them to look at later. 

Sunshine themed snacks and treats

A separate table for snacks and small eats were set up, mainly for the kids.
I decorated some Lemon Oreo thins to look like sunshines, made Mango mousse cups, Pink and Yellow Cake pops and Yellow cardamom flavored Macarons which I used as part of the Strawberry-macron tower. 
There was also potato chips, mini chocolate treats , fruit salad, veggie salad and CapriSUN juice as part of the snack table.

And yes! I made macarons for the very first time. It was my second try ideally and although it wasn't a perfect batter (had small lumps), they formed feet and looked quite good. Some of them were hollow but tasted good nevertheless. 
They were cardamom flavored macarons tinted yellow (to go with our Sunshine theme) filled with sweet vanilla buttercream. 

I also prepared some  chocolate coated Strawberries and used them to form a Strawberry-Macaron tower with pink and yellow roses. They formed a pretty centerpiece on either side of the cake on the cake table. 

The Cake 

For the Cake, I was toggling between whether to keep 2 cakes as it was for two birthdays or one large tiered cake. After lots of confusion and brain storming, we decided to keep just 1 large cake as Appu had already had his own special birthday cake.

Top Tier: Yellow cake with Mango Mousse filling decorated with whipped cream rosettes
Middle Tier: Strawberry  cake with Mango Mousse filling, decorated with pink whipped cream dots
Bottom Tier: Yellow cake with Mango Mousse filling, decorated to look like sunflowers with an Oreo cookie center.

 A glittery Happy Birthday topper and a cute smiling sunshine cutout added the final touches.
We used 2 golden candles numbered 1 and 6 to represent each birthday kid before they cut their cake.

Cake Cutting

Cake cutting was really fun. All the guests had arrived on time and Mihi baby was in a good mood. We first placed a number 1 candle and Mihi baby cut her 1^st Birthday cake…woohoo!! She had just eaten a bowlful of khichdi , so she wasn’t very hungry to take a bite.

Next, the number 6 candle was placed and Appu insisted on cutting the cake himself. He did a great job and took a big bite as always.

My beautiful sunshine princess was all dressed up in a gorgeous sunshine yellow tulle frock. The dress was custom made, very comfortable and she wore it throughout the length of the party.  To try and match my little princess I decided to wear a yellow tulle floor length gown.

Appu wore a suit for the first time and although a bit hesitant at first he agreed to wear his suit and shoes as long as his dada also wore one. So they wore matching gray suits with mild yellow shirts and looked a handsome pair. And the color combo went very well with the song, ‘You are my Sunshine, my only Sunshine. You make me happy, when the skies are Gray!’

Grandma and Grandpa also wore shades of Yellow, so in all we were all in sync with the theme. They both made sure the birthday girl was eating and drinking as per her schedule, which really helped as she was very calm and composed during the party although very curious and kept watching everyone as she was seeing a large crowd of people for the first time. We even requested the guests to come dressed up in their most fancy outfits in shades of Yellow, White or Pink.


Magic show & Face painting

Cake cutting was followed by a fun Magic and Clown show for the kids and they also did balloon twisting and face painting. 
Appu as usual got his face painted like spider-man and I have to say he looked like Spider-man in a suit :-D 
My mom and myself got some sunshine tattoos. I did not get one for Mihi as she has very sensitive skin...my little darling.


Sunshine Piñata

Our next fun activity was the Sunshine Piñata. This wasn’t a pull-string piñata, so Appu made sure he did not forget to take a baseball bat and a plastic rod from home to hit open the piñata. All the kids took turns and finally ripped open the Pinata filled with lots of goodies. Mihi baby watched the whole thing and was so excited. I bet she wanted to just swoop down and take a strike at the piñata herself.

Food & Drinks

The food for the guests were all catered from a good Indian restaurant. 
Appetizers:
Chicken Majestic
Chilli Chicken 
Chilli Paneer

Main dishes:
Chicken Biriyani
Veg Biriyani

Chicken Curry
Paneer Tikka masala
Papad and Raita

Dessert:
Rasmalai
Mango mousse (homemade)

In all the birthday party was a lot of fun. The party hall was amazing with a beautiful outdoor view of the lake. There was also a playarea where the kids could run out and play. We had music and laughter and I want to assume everyone had a great time. The entire planning, purchasing and setup of the backdrop and other details did take us a long time and I sincerely thank my parents, Manish and all our friends who came forward to help. 

These two babies of ours are our Sunshines. I always want them to smile and be happy and wish all good things in life for them. 

I could go on and on describing the details from the party but I guess I've covered most of it. So let me end this post by saying once again hope you enjoyed all the details of the party as much as we did :-) 
Reading your comments are the best part about blogging, so feel free to share your comments and thoughts on this party. 

-Manju

A Bubble themed Birthday Party - Manav turns 2 !!

 

Our little guy just turned 2 years old. Time literally flew by and before I could get enough of his soft baby cheeks, baby smells and baby giggles, he’s grown up into a naughty yet cheerful and loving toddler who’s smile can melt anyone’s heart, who is ready to give you a high five anytime,  who is willing to atleast give a ‘lick’ to everything mommy cooks, who loves to jump into his dadda’s caring arms when dadda comes home from work and has recently learnt that if he falls flat on the ground and makes crying sounds his grandparents will do anything for him…yes he’s grown up a lot in these 2 years and has a lot of tricks up his sleeve.  

Manav celebrated his 2nd birthday on July 11^th We just had a simple cake cutting at a friend’s house. Their son Avyay and my lil’Appu has been friends from almost 6 months of age and they love each other’s company. As it was a working day we kept it simple and ordered a simple chocolate cake from a local bakery and Appu and Avyay had super fun blowing the candle over and over again and eating the cream right off of the cake.  

Avyay’s mom got all creative and made a beautiful sandwich in the shape of a fish with Strawberries for the fish scales (as Appu loves Strawberries) and Cheerios for bubbles, isn’t it terribly cute!!! She also prepared awesome Pav Bajji , and we had a simple yet scrumptious dinner party and the kids played their hearts out.

We  decided to have a small party with very close friends and our new neighbors the coming weekend (July 13th) at our home and having pondered over a lot of fun toddler birthday party ideas I was confused between organizing a Farm themed party or a Bubble part. The bubble theme sounded much more fun and do-able (b’coz I dint want farm animals in my backyard ;-) though Appu absolutely enjoyed being with them at our Farmvisit) and even my friends were all thrilled with the idea as their kids loved blowing and popping bubbles as well. 

A Bubble party is a very easy, simple and totally enjoyable b'day party theme. There are so many ideas available online to make this theme a success, but I just decided to keep things simple and both kids and adults enjoyed a lot!

Obviously I was making the cake, but this time I took it a step further and decided to cook the food also myself, along with a lot of help from my parents, Manish and my dear friends. My mom was completely assigned the task of keeping lil’Appu away from the kitchen and Manish was in-charge of putting up the decorations and all bubble play stuff up and ready and me and my dad and few of my friends were the cooks :-)

For the decoration, ofcourse I wanted lots of balloons everywhere (balloons look like bubbles right?) but I also wanted a certain "bubbles-floating-in-the-air" kinda look and bought water balloons just for the small round bubble like shape. 
We used the same Happy Birthday banner which I made for his b’day last year (made using colored card-stock and alphabet stencils) and decorated below it with blue and yellow water balloons for a floating bubbles effect…we kinda nailed it…what do u think? Manish did this whole stuff, so full credit goes to dadda! :-)

For the Cake table I wanted to go for a Blue-White theme. I made the Birthday Cake with a Blue Ombre effect topped with blue Gelatin balls and also made Cake Pops and Cake Balls in blue and white shades respectively (again a nice idea for a bubble theme). 
I immersed the cake pop sticks into mason jars and glass containers filled with sugar.  Manish got helium filled blue, white and blue-white polka dot balloons to border the table. In all we loved the way the cake table was arranged…what about you? (I’ll be sharing in detail about the cake and cake pops in subsequent posts)

The Cake cutting went really well…Appu was the perfect B’day boy, ever willing to cut the cake , while singing ‘Happy U uuuu’ to himself  (that’s his way of singing the happy birthday song) and graciously opened his mouth to take big bites of the b’day cake when his dadda, grandparents and myself offered it to him! If you notice even our dress colors are shades of blue n white (except for my moms :-) )

A bubble themed party is incomplete without the bubble makers right? – so we bought lots of different shaped wands and bubble solution and a bunch of bubble maker guns (specially good for smaller kids incase they put the soapy wands in their mouths). We did not plan for any bubble themed games, but this was good enough to keep the kids engaged and they loved every bit of it.

Non-stop bubble fun, Bubbles bubbles everywhere...Little kids should be supervised ofcourse, but its double fun for both the kids and adults :-)

Even the adults had lots of bubbly fun :-)

I also wanted to do something really fun which included making a huge bubble the size of the child with the kid standing within the soap solution :-) Got the idea from internet. We made a homemade soap solution, bought the splash pool and hoopla hoop to get it done but in all the excitement and running around at the party we couldn't get it done,  so the next day Appu got to stand inside a bubble his size, all by himself.

He had super fun with the bubble forming around him and he kept popping it out when it came to the level of his head, so photographing this was quite a difficult task….It’s a super fun idea for a bubble party and I bet it would be much easier with older children, as lil’Appu just wouldn't stand still *sigh* :-)

Now coming to the food – no party is complete without yummy food is it?

I wanted to incorporate some bubble theme into atleast the Appetizers, so  we had Pani puri (perfect for a bubble theme) , then there was Bhel puri made of puffed rice, round mini pizza’s and round veg cutlets.  Well atleast something round , something puffy, something that pops in your mouth – all has something bubbly about it right :-)

The main course really had nothing ‘bubble’ about it, but it was all yummy stuff and we made everything from scratch… Yes!! (except the icecream and naan…lol)

Veg dishes : Mushroom Manchurian, Vegetable Biriyani, Mattar-Paneer masala, Veg Hakka noodles, Raita and Naan

Non-Veg dishes :  Chicken satay kebabs with roasted veggies, Chicken hara bhara kebabs with roasted veggies, Chicken Tikka masala.

Dessert: Scoops of  Neapolitan  Icecream and Boondi Laddoo 

I also placed a tray of watermelon and honey dew melon balls – scooped out using a melon baller – This was again a stunner and my friends loved the idea and went very well with the bubble theme! ( I did these in a hurry, so some were perfect balls n some shapeless ones ;-) )

Finally the goodie bags. We found these cute bubble themed goodie bags for the little guests to take home and filled them up with bubble party favors and chocolates and some fun stickers.

And not to forget the gifts…Oh! The gifts….Appu was literally buried between his gifts the next morning and he loved them all :-)

I must mention my heartfelt thanks to my friends and family who helped a lot with the dishes, this party wouldn’t have been a success without your food:

Rupali - for the lovely chaat (pani puri and bhel puri) and mini pizza,

Kalpana - for the veg Biriyani masala and ofcourse of Appu’s favorite Boondi Ladoos,

Nandini - for the awesome Veg cutlets,

Swathi - for her superb Hakka noodles,

Daddy and Mummy for helping me with the rest of the food :-)

Special thanks to hubby dear Manish for bearing with me and helping me make this party a success! Muah! 

Neha, our photographer also gets a special thanks for capturing some lovely pics of Appu (second pic and above pic) and of the cake cutting. All other photographs were taken by me.

We had super fun for this bubble party and I hope you enjoyed it too just as much as we did :-)

If you want to see Manav's First B'day party : A Rainbow theme - click here !




-Manju