Birthday Blast: Micky Mouse Ruled the House

Another birthday come and gone. Another birthday party planned and executed. The same old Mamma, in her tired, fuzzy-headed avtaar with swollen feet, blurry vision, pounding head and happy, happy heart.


The Mickey Mouse theme was chosen by me. Not the YO, who doesn't really have any favourites yet. Well actually, that's not totally true...being a devoted younger brother in every sense, he adores Ben 10, but I just had (let me rephrase that), my EO just had a Ben 10 party a month ago; and besides, what does my little tyke really understand about a little boy transmogrifying into an alien at the push of a really bulky watch? And thus, with these absolutely logical and practical reasonings goading me on, I settled upon another rational thought, "This'll be the last time I get to choose, after all from next year it'll be what he wants." And so I decided to go with sweet, adorable Mickey. After all, thanks to Ben 10, the Power Rangers and the Eon Kid all around, our faithful friends from our childhood, like Mickey, Goofy, Donald and the gang, Winnie the Pooh and Noddy are oft forgotten.


The house was decorated with red, white and black balloons with matching ribbons curling from the balloon clusters. Balloons. That's all you need to transform a home into a birthday party zone. Balloons. And the kids of course.


And said kids started trickling in from 5.30 onwards. By 5.55, the house was shaking with peals of laughter and stomping feet. It was obvious that the ball pool that I had had assembled was not enough to contain such a massive load of energy, and so began the puppet show. Now, I had organised the same puppet show last year and I was worried whether the older gang of kids (read the EO and friends) would enjoy it or not...since in recent times I've noticed their attention flagging after the first ten minutes or so at friends' houses. But I really didn't let that worry me too much since I had chosen it for the YO and his new set of school friends and boy am I glad. They all enjoyed it and to my immense delight, and yes surprise, the older kids had a blast too! They danced along with the puppets, recited the rhymes and then had an animated chat with the ventriloquist's monkey. Unfortunately, two or three of the big kids said some un-nice things to the puppet which upset me and I did tick them off for that. I know it was a party and everything, but that doesn't excuse the potty talk.

After the puppet show, I packed the 'babies' off to the ball pool again and played some really fun games and races with the elder lot. I am happy to say that the races were a hit and the children wanted to do them over and over again and I was only too happy to oblige. There was a balloon race, a carry-the-plastic-ball-on-a-paper-plate-to-the-finish-line-without-dropping-it race and a run-with-the-paper-plate-clenched-between-your-teeth-and-pass-it-on-to-your-partner-who-has-to-run-back-with-it race. Fun, I tell you and I urge you all to try them out sometime at your future parties!

After all the fun and games, it was time to cut the cake. I couldn't find the candles, so unfortunately we had to do with just one. And of course someone set off the party popper before the cake even made it out of the kitchen! Also trying to get the husband, elder brother, cousins and grandparents around the table at the same time proved to be very challenging because my YO and the Niece were busy sampling the gorgeous, chocolate Mickey Mouse cake laid out in front of them. Barring these minor hiccups, we sang, cheered, cut the cake and fed it to all.

After that, the MIM and YO burst open the khoyi bag which generously showered its load of precious gifts and toffees upon the masses eagerly scrambling beneath.

I planned a Chinese menu with veg hakka chow, veg spring rolls, momos (both, veg and non-veg), a sweet garlic chicken gravy and veg manchurian gravy. Of course there were chips, potato smilies, chocolate-icing biscuits and cold drinks too.

The YO's three classmates who turned up came accompanied by an elder brother or sister, near the EO's age and that thrilled me no end. What really floored me was when I introduced my EO to one such elder brother, explaining who he was and my 'little' big boy put out his hand and said, "Hi! I'm A******. What's your name?" Aww! When did you grow up, my baby? When I was not looking perhaps?

And speaking of babies, my other little one, the one in whose honour the whole shebang had been planned, had a BLAST!! I can not emphasise how much he enjoyed the whole day! He felt like Prince For A Day and rightly so! He got lots of phone calls throughout the day and he responded to each and every 'Happy Bithday' with his own 'Appy Budday!' He stayed up well past his bedtime and refused to get out of his birthday party clothes...a lovely denim set and T-shirt which made him look like quite the little cowboy! The only things missing were boots and a cowboy hat! He ran around with his curls bouncing on his head, laughed, screamed and danced like every child should on his/her birthday.

Another great thing about the party was that there was a party-within-a-party, where the grandparents group had settled themselves around the ball pool and they were having a roaring adda session with booze supplied by my bartender MIM and fresh snacks by yours truly. The live entertainment was provided courtesy the little ones frolicking about the pool. Even after it was packed up and taken away by the party planners, they generously kept the entertainment going by swinging into an impromtu jam session. Bangs, clangs, screeches galore!

All in all, a happy occasion made happier by the fact that the kids, and especially my YO, enjoyed themselves from start to finish!