Dade’s 5th birthday party

Last August, our first born turned 5 years old.  Can you believe it?  Time flies!  Since he is already at that stage where he enjoys kiddie birthday parties, we thought of throwing him an intimate birthday celebration and invited his closest friends.  Besides, my Dad and my youngest sister were also in town so a fun celebration held to make it real memorable, especially since Dade’s birthday fell on a Friday which is a weekend. 

happy birthday, little prince!

To be honest, I have now come to realize how expensive birthday parties can be.  When I was my son’s age, I never had birthday parties.  And when my cousins, classmates or neighbors would have parties, it was always at their backyard or garden.  Nothing fancy really.  And we survived.  And had fun.  And enjoyed the afternoon.  Anyway, so this year, I decided to hold it at a fast food chain because we wanted things to be fuss-free and relaxed.  Rather than invite folks to our home and worry about cleaning up especially since our helper was on holiday in the Philippines and was due to be back on the evening of Dade’s birthday, I thought doing it offsite without having to coordinate the food and entertainment will be less of a headache for me.  And I am so glad I did!

cheese!!

Theme

My son is into Lego lately.  He loved the “Lego Movie” which for him is “AWESOME” so it was only but fitting to choose this theme for his birthday party.  Apart from being super colorful and youthful, Lego is something close to me and my husband’s hearts, too.  We grew up playing with Lego, and it is just wonderful that after 30 odd years, we find ourselves with a boy that appreciates our old toys, too.  You can guess that our boy was stoked when he walked in the party hall.  

We played with the primary colors for the party and made sure that the element of old school Lego was put into place.  We deviated from the modern Lego stuff and kept the Lego man as our focal point.  Our pompoms were of colors royal blue, green, yellow and red.  Even the hanging balloons were also of these colors. 

Venue and Food

We chose Burger King in Al Rigga because of their fast food joint colors – red and yellow.  It was a fuss free booking as I only called a few weeks before the event and paid AED 100 only for down payment.  The schedule was locked immediately, and we were allowed to put up decors 3 hours before the party. 

have it your way!

We ordered for Steakhouse Burger meal for all adults and upsized the fries and drinks.  We also ordered for apple pie as dessert.  The kids, meanwhile, got chicken tenders with apple juice drinks and a free toy from their kiddie meal.

Even though we only served burgers, it seemed like all the guests were satisfied with the burger because they were pretty big for fast food standard. 

Sweets Table

Our sweets table was very simple and was only laden with a round cake as the main attraction accented with jelly beans, M&Ms, home-made sugar cookies in the shape of Lego man’s head and home-made banana muffins that were baked by dear husband.  We also printed some personalized water bottle labels.  The buntings were downloaded from somewhere, and I’ve also placed a couple of photo frames from Ikea to hold the photos of Lego Man with the words “Happy Birthday” and “5” on their t-shirts.

sweets table in vibrant colors

hubby's home made sugar cookies.  i did the eyes & mouth, thanks to Americolor edible marker!

yummy banana muffins, home made of course!

personalized water bottles

Mr. Lego Man, some M&M's & the personalized sweets bag

I only ordered the cake like 3 days before the event, and was so glad that Gateaux was able to accommodate my order.  They also have a branch near the party place so there was no issue on the delivery.  I only provided them a photo of the Lego man’s head with background that my husband had laid out and sent it to them by email.  When the cake was delivered on the day, I was gushing with delight because it was cuter than I had imagined!  And for it's price, it was really worth it!

Lego man cake with Dade's name

The blue table skirt was borrowed from Gayle and Hazel while the aqua blue backdrop was originally ours which I eventually gave to them since we had no use for it anymore.   Thankfully, Gayle and Hazel were both there to help us out with the decors.  They were so quick at putting things together and are such pros when it comes to party decorating! 

Program

Burger King also provided entertainment for the guests by hosting a few games and presenting a magic show for the kids.  It was actually lame but still fun nonetheless. 

a little bit of dancing for the kiddos

pick up sticks, party style

The games for the adults were fun, too.  Up until Dade’s birthday party, I didn’t realize that I can never pop a balloon by sitting on it.  That garnered some good laughs from our friends, lol!

Dade enjoyed the candle blowing bit of the party and felt really special that all his friends were there to cheer him on and sing happy birthday for him :)

happy 5th, Kuya Dade!

We also had a balloon burst where our own birthday boy refused to pop because he was too scared of the sound of balloons popping.  He only pacified when it was time to hand out the prizes and loot bags, which was towards the end of the party.  I've put together a simple loot bag that contained some candies, biscuits, pen/pencil, ruler and jack stone set for the kids. 

balloon burst time

giving out prizes and give aways

personalized loot bag 

Sincerest thanks to our friend, Armil who took lovely photos during the party.  We are so grateful that all his godson’s birthday parties are properly documented because of him.