An unintended birthday celebration

Personally, I am not a fan of hosting grand scale birthday parties. I love attending birthday parties but thats just it. I simply hate planning with a capital H! My husband can certainly vouch for that. He had seen me at my worst – crying and stressing up over minute details when I was planning for our wedding and short family vacations. Planning is certainly not my cup of tea.

As my husband was due back at work on our son’s birthday itself :(, we decided to celebrate it a day earlier. So we bought my favourite cake (since I am the one eating it anyway, not Umar :D) and celebrate it in the company of the two most important individuals in my life who takes care of Umar Khalif while I am on the grinding field every other day. These two individuals are so special not only to myself but I bet, to Umar Khalif as well because not only they took care of him but showered him with tremendous love and spent endless energy. The two individuals are none other than my parents.

It was a truly simple affair and when I came back home, I suddenly recalled the promise my husband and I made together. No matter how tired or financially strapped we are we will make at least a little effort on our family members’ birthday. So that very midnight, after Umar Khalif had fallen asleep, I started to make a mental list of the things he might love. I also decided to start a new theme (BUGS! theme has expired faaaaaaarrrrrtooooooolonggggg :D) for him and do up activities corner for him. But waddya know! In the process of planning a little surprise for him, never mind the fact that it will be just the two of us as my hubby will only be back after 3pm, Aida messaged me offering a playdate idea at my place! That’s like double WOW! If you need to know, “Asha” is one of the MOST frequent words uttered by Umar Khalif even during his holiday in Turkey recently. Plus, since he has not met any of his best friends for the past two weeks, Asha’s visit will certainly make his day like no other!

So anyway, I went to sleep after noting down all the necessary stuff to do up and buy. Truthfully, at this point I could not sleep well because I was worried things will not go as planned. Not helping that the next morning I had to work before I fetch him at 12 pm to present him with the sweet surprise. 😛 (I know I am pretty much hopeless!!!)

But anyway here it is! We are now on “Wild Animals” theme! This was the best I can come up with overnight. Of course, it is expanding (hopefully! :P). All I needed to buy were helium-balloons and cake (specially for Asha because she loves blowing candles on birthday cakes).

We reached home at around 2:30pm and Asha was still on the way. I had a hard time telling him not to play until his special guest arrives(haha!). So I relented and succumbed to him playing with the colorful counters meant for the light panel and reading them books.

What I did not manage to capture was his startled face when he entered the house as he saw the helium-filled balloons and the rest of the set-ups. I knew I had made his day cos there was a smile at the corner of his lips as I repeatedly told him, “It’s your birthday today! It’s your Day of all Days! It’s the best of the Best!” That was a phrase from Dr Seuss’s book – Happy Birthday, Baby!. This is one of my favorite books I enjoy reading to him. I hope I will read it to him even on his 30th birthday, insyaAllah.

When Asha finally arrived, Umar Khalif beamed. Told you Asha’s presence made his day! 🙂

So we served our special little guest with a bowl of dragonfruits with colorful flower pickers. (courtesy from my sister who has too many underused cute stuff!!)

It was pretty much freeplay after that. They decided to explore the stamp pad I had laid out on the table. Not only did they do finger-stamping, they also did footprints stamping with the wild animals figurines on the tables.

Both of them went ballistic with the balloons. It was a good party investment, I must say. 😛

While they were having some corn, they sing and clap along to the songs running on loop.

Mirror, mirror, on the wall. This party beats a trip to the mall! (HAHA!!)

Best friends who sticks together, jump together (on a trampoline).

What is a birthday without a birthday cake? Candles just makes it more enticing (and entertaining to the adults watching them blow off the candles).

Of course, I could not resist holding a water-play. This is definitely the biggest highlight of the day for my little birthday boy. Nothing can goes wrong when playing with water, hey! I tried to make rainbow foam I saw on Pinterest but of course, with Umar wailing because there was a struggle over the colored counters, it did not work out. 😛

After the waterplay we proceeded to continue playing indoors.

Do you see the number 9? Umar did that craft by sprinkling dhal seeds over. Umar kindly showed Asha that the dhal seeds can be scraped off with due diligence and determination. In no time, Asha was scraping more dhal seeds off the artwork and proceed to pick them up from the floor. Cute little Asha!!

Despite me warning Aida beforehand not to bring any birthday present because it was not a birthday party, Aida still brought not one but many items along. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! You have no idea how much your time and effort means to Umar and I. I can only pray that Allah will return your kindness in multiple health and wealth. 🙂

Aida not only bought birthday presents to fit my current theme – WIld Animals but she had also loaned some books to my little boy for the theme!!!