Liam’s 3rd Birthday: A Peppa Pig Theme Party

 

Last month we celebrated Liam’s 3rd birthday with a Peppa Pig theme party. We were close to not having one but seeing how well Liam had adjusted to being a big brother in the last 6 months and how he’s been eagerly asking if he can have a Peppa Pig birthday cake after mulling fickle-mindedly between a ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse’ or ‘Chuggington’ birthday cake for 2 weeks, we decided to proceed with one.

Apart from wanting to keep the party intimate, we also wanted a venue where the kids could have enough fun to give their parents a breather while we caught up with them. Liam has always loved playgrounds and since we had quite a few new additions to the guestlist, with kids outnumbering adults, we decided to host everyone at an indoor playground so that we needn’t worry about having a wet weather contingency.

To keep overall expenses within the budget, I decided to shortlist the venue to only smaller playgrounds thinking that the size of playground would be relative to price per pax. I did decide on a smaller playground eventually but was ousted by a bigger paying party due to a miscommunication when I was about to make payment. Was I frustrated? Yes. But that aside, this meant I only had 2 weeks to find another venue.

Who would have known so much could happen during those 2 weeks. I rang up a few other playgrounds and started doing a price comparison chart of party packages. Took the birthday boy on an indoor playground marathon to suss out a preferred playground (but of course, he loved every one of them!). Kind friends started notifying me party promotions that they came across on Facebook. My party wares got delayed during transit and were further delayed at Singpost for no reason. And suddenly, the nation went into a week of national mourning.

Yet the same man who brought the nation together to grief also ended up refining Liam’s party guest list to a very meaningful one. Most guests were thankful for a party of ‘normal programming’ as a sign of life in Singapore resuming back to usual after a week long of sadness and queueing; and I was in awe of the generous outpour of love towards our boys.

I previously blogged about the party invite and the inspiration behind it. While it was tempting to hire one of ’em expensive, extravagant dessert table companies to re-create this funfair scene, we had a realistic party budget (it helped that the dessert table company I had in mind was fully booked). So we chose to spend it on a great venue instead where every kid could run the slides and tunnels to their heart’s content, and the adults had ample space to stretch without needing to have kids on their lap.

After going through our spreadsheet comparing various playground party packages, shortlisting  locations with potentially the least walk-in crowd, and listening to few of our friends’ feedback of indoor playgrounds; we decided to hold our party at The Polliwogs – a premier children’s indoor playground known for their safety and ample space without compromising on playscape features.

Time-starved, I wrote to Polliwogs and another playground to enquire but was impressed that the team from Polliwogs was prompt in responding to my query within the day. I also expressed interest in holding Liam’s party at their newest branch at Suntec since both Liam & myself have not been there yet, but the team was attentive to address my primary concern with regards to crowd control so that my guests needn’t follow their kids around too closely, and suggested the Robertson Quay outlet instead.

Still not fully sold on Robertson Quay since I was itching to check out their newest playground, I decided to take Liam with me on an indoor playground marathon by visiting both Suntec and Robertson Quay Outlets on the same day. At both outlets, I explained to the staff that I wanted to suss if my son had a preference, if he even liked the playground, as well as to check out the party rooms at the same time. Both times my request was received with some complimentary playtime without any party booking obligations. Not sure if this is a norm, but I appreciated this thoughtful gesture since entry fees can add up to quite a fair bit.

It was my first time hosting a birthday party at an indoor playground and one thing I really fancied apart from wow-ing every little guest that came with free access to the playground was that it came with a party host who was with us from start to finish, not just for a short period during the party.

Liam had 30 little guests (not counting the little bubs), so we had 2 party hosts assigned to his party. I loved how fuss-free the event was. From the arrangement of tables, to placing tableware, decorating the venue with balloons of colour choice, offering to help me carry stuff from the carpark to their premise, gathering all of Liam’s guests from the playground to the party room, and customising games as if the playground was not enough fun!

Before the party started, the hosts asked me what sort of games/songs/rhymes Liam liked. From there they customized the games according to birthday boy’s and most of his guests’ age. They managed to excite all the kids successfully, even getting the older kids to participate in the fun and games willingly!

At any point of time during the party, I didn’t have to worry about anything. I didn’t have to worry about food for both adults and kids. I didn’t have to worry about when to start and stop the games. I didn’t have to worry about gathering everyone when it was time to sing Happy Birthday. I didn’t have to worry about cutting perfect proportions to ensure everyone had a slice of the delicious chiffon birthday cake. I didn’t have to worry about cleaning up post party. Everything was taken care of by the team at Polliwogs. Including creating some fluffy clouds to compliment my backdrop the moment I informed them about Liam’s birthday theme.

With dessert/candy tables fast becoming a norm at parties these days, coupled with my personal track record of always having one regardless how simple, and now having a 6 month-old in tow which meant I couldn’t be at the venue 2 hours ahead of time to set-up, and keeping in mind the all-important budget – I decided to compliment the birthday cake with some personalised theme goodies.

The 3D Peppa Pig Family & Friends lychee chiffon cupcakes and cookie pops were such a hit that every one of them disappeared from the table right after birthday singing and cake cutting was done. Everyone just couldn’t help talking about it. And I have these 2 superbly talented mummy bakers who were more than enthusiastic to explore baking these for Liam’s party to thank. I was glad that I gave them free reign on designing the cake pops and birthday cake as they were excited to embark on this task their first time and they definitely didn’t disappoint.

When Jacq from Jolly Jamboree got in touch and offered to help with Liam’s party after seeing my Facebook post on party preps, wanting to lighten my load, I was so relieved and grateful for the timely offer! She had been busy preparing for her kids’ Mickey Mouse theme birthday party of late and after realising how time consuming and insanely expensive candy bars, party set-ups and decorations can get, she decided to set up Jolly Jamboree with her husband to help other parents by offering affordable prices for their party set-up services. It was really hassle free working with Jacq. Having 2 kids herself and knowing how time stretched I was to respond to details, all I did was to let her know Liam’s party theme and the food I was intending to place on the dessert table, and she did her magic.

For Liam’s Peppa Pig Birthday party, she designed Liam’s table signage, created the adorably cute food tent cards that you see in the photos, stuck customized bottled water labels “Muddy Water”, personalised a Peppa Pig birthday bunting, decorated drink cups with cute Peppa Pig stickers and provided the table cloth. My lack of time and effort to the dessert table this round showed through at first round of set-up but with Jacq’s personalised touches, it made the entire table looked more put-together. Phew!

And as with all my parties, my trusty girlfriend Geri from BG Specials designed and printed the gorgeous birthday backdrop, the stickers on marshmallow push pops (she even passed me her stash of push pops!), personalised goodie bag stickers, a super cute Peppa Pig cut-out (she’s amazingly talented this lady) and Liam’s chalkboard-looking milestone chart!

Thank you Jacq for your help!

The mummy bakers who baked those delicious and gorgeous looking 3D chiffon cupcakes and cookies also baked Liam’s Peppa Pig Birthday cake. It not only received lots of attention from everyone for looking so good, IT TASTED SO GOOD. Guests asked for seconds and thirds, and for the first time, I was only left with 2 slices to bring home for my grandma to try some.

I loved how light and flavourful it tasted on the palate. Plus it’s not as insanely priced as fondant cakes. Many of our guests got in touch with my baker the next day even if their order was months away. I am so happy to have found an alternative and be done with fondant cakes and limited chocolate or vanilla flavours for now.

{Party day goodie bags}

{personalized gabled boxes from Our Happy Story}

To thank our guests for coming to celebrate Liam’s birthday, I packed sticker activity books, jigsaw puzzles, organic lollipops, Peppa Pig hair clips for the kids that were around Liam’s age. Babies got bubbles and organic gummies while bigger kids received Peppa pig pens and even more snacks.

For Liam’s classmates, I gave them a personalised gable box from Our Happy Story each containing playdoh, a peppa pig digital watch, crayons, gummy bears, bubbles and stamp set since they attended the celebration at school and not at the playground. It was amusing to see the kids get all excited going through the goodies in the very adorably personalised box. And it definitely made my day to know that I made theirs.

We were pleasantly surprised when one of the Polliwogs character, Larry, dropped in to say “Hi!” at Liam’s party mid-way, sending everyone into much excitement. Thank you for the nice touch Polliwogs! We had such a great time, and so did our guests. I’m so throwing a party in a playground again and I can already hear my guests go “YES!”.

When we were making payment for the party, I realised that premium playgrounds are not necessarily more expensive than smaller playgrounds. In fact, they work out to be more affordable. Our total bill (we took the standard party package) ended up being lower than what we would have paid if we had gone ahead with the smaller playground, even before taking into account the ongoing party promotion that Polliwogs were having for the month of March and April. Considering that we also had a larger party room/space to fit everyone comfortably and a good variety of playscapes to cater to various age range, I think we scored ourselves a pretty good deal.

Most importantly, the birthday boy enjoyed himself thoroughly.He kept dishing out hugs, kisses and thank-yous non-stop which followed through to the next day. And if he’s happy, we’re happy! Despite the initial hiccups and the short timeline for party preps, I’m so glad we went ahead with this party.

{A big thanks to Polliwogs for sponsoring Liam’s birthday by extending a further discount of our party package and to Jolly Jamboree for sponsoring the above-mentioned party ware #sponsored}