Nostalgia in making - A gathering to remember!

At some point in your childhood, you and your friends went outside to play together for the last time and nobody knew it.
_anonymous

That's how I felt when I saw my daughter's friends in our home, all bundled up for her birthday bash.

_{My heart filled with so much joy that it could burst}

Background story:

A little background as always...

Initially, we agreed on no birthday party—just a cake and a present from both parents. She cut the cake on her actual birthday, received a present from her father while mine was on its way. Somehow, the events over the next two to three days are a bit hazy to me. The father-daughter duo conspired against me, and out of nowhere, I found myself arranging a party for the next Sunday at 2 pm, with a group of her friends and two moms who kind of self-invited themselves. Not that I mind; the more, the merrier. However, now I have to plan a bigger party. I discussed the situation with @event-horizon, and thankfully, she agreed to help with the decorations.

Pre-Birthday preparations:

The cake saga:

My daughter, being my daughter, wanted a cake like this 👉.

So, I called the one and only Soo Chef, also known as Cake Master, or as I like to call him, the busiest person on the planet in our area. I discussed the flavor and attempted to convey the details of the cake. Just to remind you, the party was the next day, invitations had already been given out. I was making these calls and providing details while being driven to the market by Hira for the party decorations. We had a little barbecue party earlier that day - so were kind of little tired.

I had several failed attempts at calling this guy earlier. Anyways, he promised to deliver the cake the next day within the stipulated time.

I got his call around 10 pm the same day, informing me that the cake was ready. I excitedly asked him to WhatsApp the picture.

The man is no artist unfortunately. My daughter was almost in tears after seeing the final result. I tried to convince her that lets go with the goofy-themed thing. I knew she didn't expect that. We left the matter for the time being as we were busy in the decorations at that time.

But when I showed the picture to the father, he immediately disapproved. He didn't want his daughter to be embarrassed infront of her friends. He asked me to call the cake maestro again and discuss if something could be done about it.

So, I called him, praying he hadn't left for his home already. He picked up the phone but said he could not improve the art on the cake. I suggested removing the icing from the top layer and keeping it plain. He agreed to that with some extra charges for the additional icing.

Props:

My daughter made all the props by hand. She made props for all the invitees using their Instagram user names. And she also made some goofy props like sun-glasses and moustache, 💋 and so on and so forth...

The instagram ones were given out to the invitees as send-off gifts. She made sure that no one was left out. She even made spiderman masks for the boys who were accompanying their mothers and also one for his own brother.

Backdrop:

Thanks to Hira, who volunteered for the help with backdrop. I had not signed up for that.

We went on a little hunting spree in our local market which consists of a shop or two when it comes to items like this. After digging through countless items and two shops we could collect these items for backdrop:

• birthday banner (foil balloon)
• balloons
• silver tinsel
• crepe paper for background

And some candles, cake prop in a happy birthday shape.

We came back and instantly geared up for work. Ok, I just sat down and these two started to work:

We bit off more than we could chew. It turned out to be a pain in the ass to stick this super delicate crepe paper to these super thick curtains.

I helped a little in between. But mostly these two completed the task.

Inflating the foil balloon birthday banner came with its own challenges. Me being cheap, hadn't bought the hand pump, despite my daughter's insistence. I suggested we use a bicycle pump. Anyways, the bicycle pump worked, and after several attempts, we were successful.

_{we could complete this much before calling it a night}

The next day, while I was busy with the food and everything, my husband chipped in for blowing balloons before heading out for golf. We girls and ladies needed the house all to ourselves.

So the final look of the backdrop in noon was like this:

_{backdrop, cake-cutting stand, props stand}

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I just noticed that it became one big lengthy post and calls for a part two. So please stay tuned for part two of this birthday celebration and nostalgia in making. I will reveal the final concoction of the cake and everything else, which was all home-baked and home-cooked. Yes, I turned into super mommy mode.

Until then, no more celebratory preparations, or maybe one or two in line—who knows. Either way, signing off for now.
Yours hopefully.