However, it did include giving away goody bags to her close friends and classmates at school. It would have been an easy task (just buy treats and put them in bags, right?), but since she was so used to having a theme every year for her birthday, she insisted that there be a theme as well this year...yes, even though it would just be for the lootbags. This time it was Trolls.
A quick visit to my favorite go-to shops for sweets and supplies one morning allowed me to get all the items we would be using for the giveaways. Instead of buying actual Trolls party favors (it just wasn't practical!), we bought colorful things instead. And a few hours of downloading images from the web and editing on Paint and PowerPoint were all I needed for tags and chocolate bar wrappers to make sure the kids knew what they were getting was Trolls-related.
Twenty-three kids received pouches which had their names, and each pouch contained a bar of KitKat, eraser, pencils, notepad, bag of Skittles and oat bar.
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| The end result: Personalized Trolls Lootbags |
Not bad, huh? I give myself an A for effort ☺
I started the actual day of Caila's birthday by making the traditional pancake and she happily blew the candle out after we sang the birthday song.
Another tradition I made sure to do was send her details to E-Junior for the birthday greeting. The good thing was we didn't have to wait too long to see it. The bad thing was the photo they used of her was the same one from last year even though I had attached a recent one when I sent the information in January. Actually, this also happened last September for Sophie's 4th birthday; the image E-Junior had used was the same one for her 2nd birthday greeting. It was quite disappointing.
Anyway, weeks before, our eldest had asked me to take the day off work simply because she wanted to do what we did on the day she turned 3 years old. So aside from giving away the goody bags, a trip to the mall to buy gifts and dinner with the family was enough for her to celebrate her birthday. That's it.
She even said she didn't need a cake!
Well, as much as I was happy we didn't have to order a customized cake for her birthday, I couldn't not let her have a cake. After all, you can't celebrate a birthday without one, right? Especially when you're a kid. So as soon as Caila had left for school that morning, I set to work to follow my favorite recipe to bake a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting to surprise her. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to buy a cake board so I just used the bottom of a cake pan instead. I then decorated it with a bunting topper and pictures of Trolls characters that I stuck on toothpicks so that at least the cake would fit the theme.
And finally, apart from the Happy Birthday picture I had printed and stuck on the wall behind where she usually sits at the table, I hung a colorful bunting of letters to make her name.
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| Ready for the birthday girl |
Another A for effort! Hahaha!
Unfortunately when she arrived from school and we brought out the cake while singing, she didn't want her picture taken. It took more than half an hour and prodding before she finally agreed to sit with the cake...and that was already after some of it had been eaten. Oh well. Not everything can go as you plan nor want it, especially with moody birthday kids ☺
After Caila had finished doing her assignment, we all headed to Dubai Mall and met up with Hubby who went there directly after work. It was already evening by then so we looked for a place to eat. The birthday girl wanted to eat pizza, so off we went to California Pizza Kitchen and sat outside so that we could enjoy a view of the Dubai Fountain.
The food was good and when we had finished, the restaurant staff happily sang the birthday song while bringing dessert which the celebrant relished.
The bonus was when the time came to settle the bill. It was a Monday and CPK has a promo called Lucky Monday where, before paying for what they had eaten, diners get to choose an envelope to see what their prize is. Well for us, it was a complimentary meal...so everything we ate was completely free! Woohoo!
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| Thank you, California Pizza Kitchen! |
As promised, we then headed to Candylicious where we let the birthday girl freely choose which sweets she and her little sister wanted, had the bag sealed, and paid for it with the money I gave her.
And finally, for her favorite part of the day, we took her to Hamley's so that she could take her pick of what she wanted us to buy as her birthday gift. Seeing a life-sized Storm Trooper, she suddenly told me to take her picture and...
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| Hahaha! Our silly girl ☺ |
Needless to say, our birthday girl was very happy on how she spent her special day. It's just not too obvious here because she didn't want me to take another picture; she wanted to open her gifts ☺
As for me, I'm still trying to accept that our little girl is growing quickly before my eyes, and I already have an 8 year old.
Please don't grow too fast, anak. I want you to be my baby for as long as I can keep you in my arms and in my heart. I love you, Caila. Happy birthday!
For Caila's 6th birthday, you can read about it here and here.
For Caila's 5th birthday, you can read about it here.
For Caila's 4th birthday, you can read about it here.
For Caila's 2nd birthday, you can read about it here.
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