This week was all about putting together Zoe's first of three birthday parties to be had this year.
1. Zoe's 1 of 3 birthday parties (each one to be held in a different continent/ city/ country) is scheduled for the weekend that's coming up. This one will be in her current home - Singapore.
Party-planning/ event hosting has always been my thing and especially when it comes to any of our (MD House) parties or events, I am always more than glad to take charge. Be it location-scouting, menu-planning, catering all the food, designing and putting together party-related favors - the works - I do everything myself, rarely seeking help from other professional party-planners/ caterers at times - depending on the availability of time to plan the event.
Hubster, on the other hand - is the exact opposite. He hails from the club of 'Outsource task-masters' - the kinds who'd rather hire a event-planner/ order the food/ hire cleaning and wait staff and then show up as a guest at his own party. Nothing wrong with that; after all to each his own, but it's noteworthy to observe how absolutely POLAR our personalities are, when it comes to this aspect!
So naturally, that makes me, the mutually-designated In-house social events manager, who conceptualizes, plans and executes entire events, all by herself. Going solo - in this department works superbly for me, since I get complete creative freedom, with occasional participation from him (upon invitation); to bounce off ideas or pick one of two food options per se. (Actually, it'd be a lie if I said he's never been part of the planning crew. The few times that he has been, especially in the 'cooking/ baking' department - it's been his recipes that have kept people coming back for more! Due to the absolute lack of free-time in his current profile at work, off late, i.e since we've moved to Singapore, he has been more of a guest and less of a host, at our own events!)
For me too, with a full-time gig, this planning effort would usually have required a lot of extra hours/ nights to be put into it. But with my current freelance professional status - where I get to pick the projects I want to work on, I happily get to be the master of my own schedule, thus having enough time to pursue this party-planning penchant of mine.
Naturally, the daughter's birthdays serve as prime occasions to unleash into full-fledged party-planning. Last year we had a wonderful first birthday celebration for her in Bryant Park in Manhattan at Le Carousel; where we rented out a carousel for a few hours and handed out specially catered/ assembled picnic baskets that doubled up as favours for each guest, which seemed to have been a big hit, going by the guest response/ feedback.
This year, the plan is to take the party across three continents/cities/countries, much in keeping with the little one's nomadic status of life this far - of 'Tri-city living'!. Given our current "trav-a-holic" status quo in life, this is totally do-able. Obviously one of the three cities had to be NYC - our home of choice! Thus the search for an interim city (someplace in Europe - a stop-over city preferably to break her jet-lag) had to be picked. Spain & Turkey battled neck-to-neck on the list, purely since Hubster and I haven't been to either. But then these involved a lot of 'de-touring' considering we will be flying out of Singapore. Thus London, got settled upon since it offers a natural stop-over destination on account of frequent flight connectivity both to Singapore and NYC - our points of origin and destination. And so got picked, the three cities in which Zoe celebrates her birthday this year - Singapore, London and NYC, in that order!
These three parties are to be held over the course of the first three consecutive weekends in July, which would mean Zoe would turn two in London, as that is where we would be, on July 13th - her actual birthday.
Trust my Mom to come up with yet another idea, saying we should wrap up the celebrations by doing one last party in Mumbai, on the last weekend of July - thus making the entire month a big global celebration for the little one! Hubster likes that idea too and so there's no saying Zoe's whimsical parents won't just jump on the plane to Mumbai, to do just that! Considering our current lives are packed with a lot of 'last-minute' itineraries these days, you never know....
2. She may be turning Two this weekend, but what is more important is that we were turning Two ourselves - as her parents. And that being no mean milestone by any standard whatsoever, we went ahead and treated ourselves to a relaxed spa evening, mid-week. Given that we live in Asia, going to the spa, is not really an indulgence anymore, as much as it is a way of life. Yet, this was different, since Hubster and I were going together for a Spa date after what seemed like ages, given our rarely-converging time schedules. Somehow the planets aligned to get us together for this one, that too in the middle of the week!
3. Left upto Zoe, she would go jump in the pool every single day of her life - that is how much she loves being in it! We don't call her a tadpole for nothing! Obviously that meant, that her ideal birthday would be spent in the water.
The infinity pool on our roof was the first choice. But that venue, in all it's glamour and exquisiteness failed to delight the caterer in me, due to the unavailability of an adjoining kitchen/ wine-cellar etc. And an ice-box would have only partially helped, given the heat here. Thus, we decided to move the party downstairs where a wading pool for babies/ toddlers, a regular Olympic sized pool and a jacuzzi tub, with a party room/ outdoor garden-deck and a full-service kitchen would provide for all the party-hosting essentials easily.
The party was to be a short two-hour affair (from 5 pm to 7 pm), considering the limited time-span that kids who are Zoe's age have in general, for anything. Even within the two hours - the idea was to be in the water, swimming/ paddling/ floating whatever - for half the time, followed by a quick change of clothes for everyone, before cake-cutting/ other festivities. The food & drinks were limited to home-made appetizers, juices, wine & beer. I had to carefully craft a menu that would work for both - children & their parents; thereby cutting out the need to cater differently for different age-groups (A parenting policy we've strictly followed with Zoe this far; to have her eat what we eat. Given our constant travel agenda, this helps us tremendously when we're on the road and minimizes baggage too. Besides, who has the patience or the time to cook separate meals for kids everyday?) The venue decoration was minimally simple - with Zoe's favourite balloons and paper flower lanterns, all of which the kids could take back with them at the end, thus causing minimum wastage.
4. The theme for the favours, in keeping with Zoe's year(s) gone by - was of course 'Travel'. Conceptualizing and more importantly researching/ collecting items that would make for appropriate favours is what took me the most time. Often, on my 'market research' trips to put these together, I'd miss NYC, purely on account of the familiarity I have with that city and it's vendors, knowing exactly where to go, when trying to find something. In Singapore, this was not the case. Limited online information, made me do a lot of ground-work on my own - to draw up a valuable resource for myself, of related vendors in the city. In the process of my hunt, I found hidden 'mom & pop' stores, that had no presence on the internet, but worked fantastically for my theme.
(Since, I plan on giving out similarly crafted/ theme favours at Zoe's two other parties in the near future - I will refrain from describing them in detail here, just to keep a small element of 'surprise' alive, for those recipients and their parents)
For now, I am just thrilled that the Singaporean guests and their parents - a big bunch of avid travelers themselves - seem to have found these highly effective, going by their feedback.
5. All the planning paid off and the party turned out well. The guests came, saw and conquered the food like never before. For the first time ever, in the history of our house parties, there were no leftovers! (Not sure if that means that the food was superb or that it was barely enough, but I am going with the former assumption! After all, it couldn't have been 'bad' food for sure, if it all got lapped up this quickly, right?)
The kids enjoyed the pool/s and it took some persuasion to get most of them out of the water. The cake catered from Awfully Chocolate, was to die-for and had a sweet little pink airplane drawn on it, much to the excitement of the 2 year old and her love for the flying-machine! In the end, we wrapped up the 2 hour long party, about 4 hours later.
The birthday girl had tired herself out with all the swimming/ dancing/ general madness that are so typical of her demeanor, essentially more so, when she is in the company of more than just the three of us (her parents and nanny). Add to it - this turned out to be the evening when she had the maximum amount of sugar ever. We - her parents, let her - not being our usual 'restrictive' selves, since it really was her day! But rest assured, as much as it was 'her' day, it was also the 'only' day she was going to get a taste of this much sugar/ chocolate at a time - mainly because we, her lazy parents would rather curb her intake than have to deal with the aftermath! Although seeing the sugar rush did give us an idea - that we might perhaps be able to use it to our advantage, to reverse her jet-lag in our impending tri-continental itinerary. Holding that thought for now...
A few hours later, with the birthday girl sound asleep, Hubster and I finally got to put up our feet. With mindless TV playing in the background, red wine chocolate truffles in one hand and a glass of Bordeaux in another, we said 'Cheers' to a job well done, over the past two years! Zoe's main birthday party was behind us.
In the next few days to follow, I will be putting together plans for her two other birthday parties - an ambitious undertaking on my behalf, considering I'd be remotely planning them, but one that I am happy to see through, with a little help from some good friends, a.k.a CPO's - i.e Chief Planning Officers in both cities (London & NYC) who have volunteered to help organize mini-celebrations in their own cities.
Until the next one, thanks for reading and see you on the other side!
Love,
Shweyta
1. Zoe's 1 of 3 birthday parties (each one to be held in a different continent/ city/ country) is scheduled for the weekend that's coming up. This one will be in her current home - Singapore.
Party-planning/ event hosting has always been my thing and especially when it comes to any of our (MD House) parties or events, I am always more than glad to take charge. Be it location-scouting, menu-planning, catering all the food, designing and putting together party-related favors - the works - I do everything myself, rarely seeking help from other professional party-planners/ caterers at times - depending on the availability of time to plan the event.
Hubster, on the other hand - is the exact opposite. He hails from the club of 'Outsource task-masters' - the kinds who'd rather hire a event-planner/ order the food/ hire cleaning and wait staff and then show up as a guest at his own party. Nothing wrong with that; after all to each his own, but it's noteworthy to observe how absolutely POLAR our personalities are, when it comes to this aspect!
So naturally, that makes me, the mutually-designated In-house social events manager, who conceptualizes, plans and executes entire events, all by herself. Going solo - in this department works superbly for me, since I get complete creative freedom, with occasional participation from him (upon invitation); to bounce off ideas or pick one of two food options per se. (Actually, it'd be a lie if I said he's never been part of the planning crew. The few times that he has been, especially in the 'cooking/ baking' department - it's been his recipes that have kept people coming back for more! Due to the absolute lack of free-time in his current profile at work, off late, i.e since we've moved to Singapore, he has been more of a guest and less of a host, at our own events!)
For me too, with a full-time gig, this planning effort would usually have required a lot of extra hours/ nights to be put into it. But with my current freelance professional status - where I get to pick the projects I want to work on, I happily get to be the master of my own schedule, thus having enough time to pursue this party-planning penchant of mine.
Naturally, the daughter's birthdays serve as prime occasions to unleash into full-fledged party-planning. Last year we had a wonderful first birthday celebration for her in Bryant Park in Manhattan at Le Carousel; where we rented out a carousel for a few hours and handed out specially catered/ assembled picnic baskets that doubled up as favours for each guest, which seemed to have been a big hit, going by the guest response/ feedback.
This year, the plan is to take the party across three continents/cities/countries, much in keeping with the little one's nomadic status of life this far - of 'Tri-city living'!. Given our current "trav-a-holic" status quo in life, this is totally do-able. Obviously one of the three cities had to be NYC - our home of choice! Thus the search for an interim city (someplace in Europe - a stop-over city preferably to break her jet-lag) had to be picked. Spain & Turkey battled neck-to-neck on the list, purely since Hubster and I haven't been to either. But then these involved a lot of 'de-touring' considering we will be flying out of Singapore. Thus London, got settled upon since it offers a natural stop-over destination on account of frequent flight connectivity both to Singapore and NYC - our points of origin and destination. And so got picked, the three cities in which Zoe celebrates her birthday this year - Singapore, London and NYC, in that order!
These three parties are to be held over the course of the first three consecutive weekends in July, which would mean Zoe would turn two in London, as that is where we would be, on July 13th - her actual birthday.
Trust my Mom to come up with yet another idea, saying we should wrap up the celebrations by doing one last party in Mumbai, on the last weekend of July - thus making the entire month a big global celebration for the little one! Hubster likes that idea too and so there's no saying Zoe's whimsical parents won't just jump on the plane to Mumbai, to do just that! Considering our current lives are packed with a lot of 'last-minute' itineraries these days, you never know....
2. She may be turning Two this weekend, but what is more important is that we were turning Two ourselves - as her parents. And that being no mean milestone by any standard whatsoever, we went ahead and treated ourselves to a relaxed spa evening, mid-week. Given that we live in Asia, going to the spa, is not really an indulgence anymore, as much as it is a way of life. Yet, this was different, since Hubster and I were going together for a Spa date after what seemed like ages, given our rarely-converging time schedules. Somehow the planets aligned to get us together for this one, that too in the middle of the week!
3. Left upto Zoe, she would go jump in the pool every single day of her life - that is how much she loves being in it! We don't call her a tadpole for nothing! Obviously that meant, that her ideal birthday would be spent in the water.
The infinity pool on our roof was the first choice. But that venue, in all it's glamour and exquisiteness failed to delight the caterer in me, due to the unavailability of an adjoining kitchen/ wine-cellar etc. And an ice-box would have only partially helped, given the heat here. Thus, we decided to move the party downstairs where a wading pool for babies/ toddlers, a regular Olympic sized pool and a jacuzzi tub, with a party room/ outdoor garden-deck and a full-service kitchen would provide for all the party-hosting essentials easily.
The party was to be a short two-hour affair (from 5 pm to 7 pm), considering the limited time-span that kids who are Zoe's age have in general, for anything. Even within the two hours - the idea was to be in the water, swimming/ paddling/ floating whatever - for half the time, followed by a quick change of clothes for everyone, before cake-cutting/ other festivities. The food & drinks were limited to home-made appetizers, juices, wine & beer. I had to carefully craft a menu that would work for both - children & their parents; thereby cutting out the need to cater differently for different age-groups (A parenting policy we've strictly followed with Zoe this far; to have her eat what we eat. Given our constant travel agenda, this helps us tremendously when we're on the road and minimizes baggage too. Besides, who has the patience or the time to cook separate meals for kids everyday?) The venue decoration was minimally simple - with Zoe's favourite balloons and paper flower lanterns, all of which the kids could take back with them at the end, thus causing minimum wastage.
4. The theme for the favours, in keeping with Zoe's year(s) gone by - was of course 'Travel'. Conceptualizing and more importantly researching/ collecting items that would make for appropriate favours is what took me the most time. Often, on my 'market research' trips to put these together, I'd miss NYC, purely on account of the familiarity I have with that city and it's vendors, knowing exactly where to go, when trying to find something. In Singapore, this was not the case. Limited online information, made me do a lot of ground-work on my own - to draw up a valuable resource for myself, of related vendors in the city. In the process of my hunt, I found hidden 'mom & pop' stores, that had no presence on the internet, but worked fantastically for my theme.
(Since, I plan on giving out similarly crafted/ theme favours at Zoe's two other parties in the near future - I will refrain from describing them in detail here, just to keep a small element of 'surprise' alive, for those recipients and their parents)
For now, I am just thrilled that the Singaporean guests and their parents - a big bunch of avid travelers themselves - seem to have found these highly effective, going by their feedback.
5. All the planning paid off and the party turned out well. The guests came, saw and conquered the food like never before. For the first time ever, in the history of our house parties, there were no leftovers! (Not sure if that means that the food was superb or that it was barely enough, but I am going with the former assumption! After all, it couldn't have been 'bad' food for sure, if it all got lapped up this quickly, right?)
The kids enjoyed the pool/s and it took some persuasion to get most of them out of the water. The cake catered from Awfully Chocolate, was to die-for and had a sweet little pink airplane drawn on it, much to the excitement of the 2 year old and her love for the flying-machine! In the end, we wrapped up the 2 hour long party, about 4 hours later.
The birthday girl had tired herself out with all the swimming/ dancing/ general madness that are so typical of her demeanor, essentially more so, when she is in the company of more than just the three of us (her parents and nanny). Add to it - this turned out to be the evening when she had the maximum amount of sugar ever. We - her parents, let her - not being our usual 'restrictive' selves, since it really was her day! But rest assured, as much as it was 'her' day, it was also the 'only' day she was going to get a taste of this much sugar/ chocolate at a time - mainly because we, her lazy parents would rather curb her intake than have to deal with the aftermath! Although seeing the sugar rush did give us an idea - that we might perhaps be able to use it to our advantage, to reverse her jet-lag in our impending tri-continental itinerary. Holding that thought for now...
A few hours later, with the birthday girl sound asleep, Hubster and I finally got to put up our feet. With mindless TV playing in the background, red wine chocolate truffles in one hand and a glass of Bordeaux in another, we said 'Cheers' to a job well done, over the past two years! Zoe's main birthday party was behind us.
In the next few days to follow, I will be putting together plans for her two other birthday parties - an ambitious undertaking on my behalf, considering I'd be remotely planning them, but one that I am happy to see through, with a little help from some good friends, a.k.a CPO's - i.e Chief Planning Officers in both cities (London & NYC) who have volunteered to help organize mini-celebrations in their own cities.
Until the next one, thanks for reading and see you on the other side!
Love,
Shweyta
No comments:
Post a Comment