Baby Hang’s 1st Whale themed Birthday Party

Baby Hang is ONE!

Warning: This post is overloaded with photos.

We celebrated his first birthday on 04 May 2014, 4 days earlier than his actual birthday. I would say it was "my" birthday because isn't the first birthday really all about mom anyway?

I’m a kind of DIY mom that loves to put in my personal touches on my boy’s 1^st birthday party. I did so for my Little Ze and this time I did for Baby Hang as well. With 2 kids now, I have lesser crafty time and I  kept dozing off while trying to get  them to sleep. But still, I want to prepare the party from scratch. I planned and executed it by myself.  I had so much fun and I enjoyed the whole process.

I tried to use whatever resources that I have. Some of the used items were more than 30 years. I tried to go green as far as I can. Oh and I did not use printer for any of my art work. All were stamped by hand.

If you ask me how long I had planned for this birthday party? Actually the decision to have whale themed started last December but nothing was being done after that. The actual planning include searching for ideas and everything was done in just 3 weeks before the party with me burning the midnight oil for nights and luckily I survived. Let’s see what I did in 3 weeks’ time.

Birthday theme – Whale of Fun!

We did not actually give Baby Hang any christian name or relate any cute animal to him. Since I used whale stickers from Favor-it-shop for his personalised fullmoon favor box, to make it easy, I decided to have a whale themed party. I wanted it to be a friendly, cute and nice whale so I asked uncle Wee and my cousin Liang who were in the States to purchase some whale party supply and bring them back during their trip last December. It’s hard to get nice and cute party supply locally and the price is quite pricey too. From here, the idea Whale of Fun! came into place. For our theme color, I used the same colors as Ze’s 1^st birthday party : Blue, Apple Green and Bright Orange. But this time I added in a light Yellow.

Invitation Card

Initially I planned to handmade the invitation cards but I really didn’t have the time.  I stamped the party details in  ready-made card purchase from US, alphabet by alphabet (not printed), using the theme colors.  Snap photo and send!

Party Decoration

A welcome handmade signage was made and hanged at the front door to welcome the guests.

Backdrop

I kept my backdrop simple. Actually this was the most worrying part because backdrop was very important as lots of photos will be taken there throughout the party and that was the place my dessert table was and where the birthday cake would be placed. This was my first attempt. I could visualize  my ideas for the backdrop but then you never know the end results till you see the real thing which wasn’t until 2 o’clock in the morning (midnight) on the day of the party. I climb up the ladder and started to put in place the deco all by myself in the middle of the night when everyone was in dreamland. This was how my backdrop looked like.

Behind the backdrop was not a wall, it was an arch instead. I hung a see-through curtain that my mom had kept for 30 over years as the base. I used the left-over streamers, orange ‘1’ balloon and blue balloon from Ze’s 1^st birthday. They all were still good in condition. I rolled the streamers and hang it slightly slanting and let the other end drop down naturally then I  inflated the Whale of Fun foil balloon and tied it together with the balloons at the left top corner.

Dessert Table

For the dessert table, I worked out with my dear friend Jess from Chantilly Cakes. She baked all the desserts and I handmade all the paper decos. Its not easy to coordinate and I am glad we worked well together.

This is how my Dessert Table looks like without the main cake.

White table cloths were used and at the right corner, I covered a blue/turquoise paper table cloth (reused from Ze’s birthday as well) diagonally to get a dimensional effect. Hang’s  birthday cake and all the desserts were  according to the theme and theme colors as well. There were 3 types of glass desserts: Apricot Crumble which is very light and refreshing, Mango Passion with fruit compote very Tropical and Fresh Coconut Jelly  a more Asian taste. 3 glass desserts with 3 very different flavors to cater for the mix crowd. Then there was this mini apple tart with macaron topping which looked like half opened sea shells. They’re so cute. I  specially ordered a greentea cake for my MIL as her birthday falls on the same day with Baby Hang.

Now, the exciting part, of course its the Birthday cake!  Which was placed at the top tier of a cupcake stand and surrounded by chocolate cupcakes at each tier beneath. Look clearly at the b’day cake. The 3 whales surrounding the cakes were actually baked and not piped after the cake was ready. That’s the special part of the cake. Of course the cake tastes great! Strawberry flavored.  The second tier of the stand is covered with real sea shells and tiny whales, I called them baby whales. The cupcakes were covered with swirls of icing representing the waves on the ocean , some sprinkles and a handmade fondant mini whale. Aren’t  they  adorable?

I made a framed monogram H  (Zheng Hang’s 1^st birthday) and paired with a whale plush and a squitter from US as part of the table deco.

Whale of Fun corner

Due to the limited space on my dessert table, some of the deco such as centerpiece had to be moved to be placed on top of the piano. Frankly speaking, I was so reluctant to part with the party supply from US especially the plate, cup and the serviette. Well I came out with a brilliant idea.   So, see how I used them.

Let's Party! 

Serviette Banner

Timeline Photo Board

One of my favorite decorations from the party was the time line photo board. I presented the photo using my handmade pennants and photo protectors. Of course I never forget to use some washi tape. The time line showcased pictures of Hang from birth till 1 year. 

When I was stamping  and drawing the whale, suddenly Baby Hang made some cute and cheeky expressions, I quickly grab my camera and shoot away.  I was stunned when I found out there were some photos of Hang’s cheeky expressions which matched the comic whale that I drew.

Now,  let’s move our focus to FOOD table!

We have homemade sausages, cold cut, honey glazed gammon ham, fried spaghetti, potato salad, special mixed fruit punch for drink.  All these were specially prepared by my beloved daddy and mummy! Muaks! Thank you for making all these delicious foods!

Of course, there must be red eggs for birthday! My mom made them. Looked nice right?

Then, my aunt Belinda made some delicious pancake roll. My aunt Marry made us yummy egg sandwiches. Thank you both of them!

Apart from that, we ordered Nasi tomato and curry chicken from a Malay aunty who stays nearby.  Yummy!

Haha…we just wanna make sure everyone had great food and enjoyed the party!

Here's our birthday boy

 

The best part of the event was when the birthday song was sung. Look at the pictures, Baby Hang is smiling and excited at the sight of his birthday cake. In fact that was the first smile of the day.

After that, came the group photo.

2 Ubah Boy! Kopi and Susu
Baby Hang: Happy Birthday, koko!
Baby Siang: Happy Birthday to you too!

Baby Hang: Happy Birthday, Nai Nai!

Baby Hang had his first taste of his own birthday cake.

Whaley Fun Bag (Favor Bag)

To thanked the kids who attended my Baby Hang’s birthday, I prepared 22 favor bags and  labeled each with the little one’s name. Every bag contained an Under the Sea activity book or book about whale (for bigger kids), sticker (transportation for boys and Bunny for girls) and a Whale of Fun blowout. For 6 baby guests, they received smaller bags containing a handmade pin’whale’ and whale plush or squitter. 

For the paper bag, I modified it from envelop to get the size that can fit my favors and painted the paper bag using scrapbook paint. A handmade  thank you tag was tied with a string to secure the opening.

Whaley Fun Bag

Mini Whaley Fun Bag

At the back of the thank you tag

At the door, I hang a thank you signage to thank the guest for being part of the party.

Here’s the gift grom the guests!

Thank you all for taking your time to attend and make Baby Hang's 1st birthday such a success!

***

Baby Hang was awake for the whole party but he was actually quite tired after missing his noon nap. He wouldn’t sleep with all the activities around him , he was so noisy until he found his cushion uncle Saw and….

After few hours of deep sleep, he woke up with a smile. Here’s the photo taken after the party. Have you noticed the deco at the piano being move to the dessert table? 

That’s my Baby Hang’s 1^st Whale themed Birthday Party!

Photo credits: TY from Mocco
Dessert credits: Jess from Chantilly Cakes

Thanks to both of you!

Note: Some photos were taken by amateur photographer Hubby Jay, Tee and Lee Joo...Haha...