Our twins turn 5 years old today. It feels like a big milestone – one step closer to being full-fledged big kids, yet still with a foot in the little kid world.
I often find myself marveling at their suddenly long legs, new vocabulary and thoughtful commentary on the world around them. It’s bittersweet of course, but mostly it’s a delight to watch them grow more and more into themselves every day. It’s definitely something worth celebrating.
This year our kids were a lot more aware of the whole birthday thing and have been getting excited for their big day. We’ve already been to three whole-class birthday parties this month. Now it’s our turn…
Our last two birthday parties were low-key DIY affairs, held at our house in Dili, East Timor. With no party stores to speak of, I spent weeks sourcing supplies – procuring goody bag contents, decoration-making materials, cake ingredients, and creative birthday presents from every corner of the city.
I became a pro at finding hidden treasures in unexpected (and often dusty) places – from back corner display cases to tin-roofed roadside stalls. I stayed up late with my glue gun and got up early to bake. Armed with a great no-melt frosting recipe (essential in the tropics), I was ready to go.
One year, I was worried about the start of the rainy season and rigged up some tarps to be on the safe side. Just as we started the scavenger hunt, as if on cue, the skies opened up and the rain bucketed down in torrents. Parents took turns pushing the water out of the makeshift roof with a broom as kids biked, danced and laughed in the warm downpour. “This was the best party ever”, said one small friend, as he headed home in his underwear.
In Jakarta, things are very different and party planning is a big deal. Although we’ve been to a number of simple celebrations at home, we’ve also participated in the full-on Jakarta party experience – often involving hired venues and entertainment, incredible food spreads (with adult and children’s buffets) and personalized gifts for every partygoer (lunch boxes, towels, bags, etc.).
Here, the possibilities are endless. Party organizing companies offer magic shows, acrobats, face painting, snow machines, dog shows, professional MCs, sound systems, fancy backdrops, chocolate fountains, challenge courses, mini rides, carnival games, art projects, and much more.
And the cost can be hefty – I came across one deluxe package with a price tag of over $2000!
It’s hard to compete with such a dizzying array of party options, so I prefer to stay true to my homemade sensibilities and do most things myself. Once again I find myself trailing around a new city doing party recon…pricing paper goods, checking out the baking aisles, and printing invitations. But, it came together and I’m genuinely excited to celebrate with new friends and neighbors this weekend.
According to my son, “the best part about our birthday party will be having our friends play at our house.” It’s a good reminder of what’s important.
For their actual birthday, we’re planning a quiet celebration at home after school – a trip to the playground, dinner, cake and presents mailed from around the world. I will take some time to reflect on each of them in writing, something I like to do each year. Beyond that, we haven’t created any special birthday traditions in our family yet, but I would love to introduce something fun, especially since our kids share their big day.
What are typical birthday celebrations like where you live? Do you have any special family traditions?
This is an original post to World Moms Blog by Shaula Bellour in Indonesia. Shaula can also be found on her blog, Notes From a Small World.
Photo credit to Andrew Eick. It holds a Flickr Creative Commons attribution license.
I prefer simple home based parties too, Shaula. Our boys get to have bigger celebrations the years they turn 5,10, 15 and 21 otherwise they have a choice of a few friends and a paid activity or more friends and hanging out at home. I cringe at the idea of spending large amounts of money on children for these kinds of events, when they more often enjoy the simple pleasures of things like dancing in the rain!
Thanks (as always) for commenting, Karyn. I think we’ll have to count this year as a bigger celebration since we had 25+ kids in the end! But I like the idea of marking the special milestones and keeping things simple in other years. I’ll be keeping this in mind for #6! Luckily I have a whole year to recover/prepare 😉
Oh my! Planning birthday parties is a headache for me! I’m really not a very creative person so I prefer to ‘outsource’ if I can but like in Jakarta, we have similar services in Singapore and yes, they can come with hefty price tags. To us, it’s not an issue of affordability, but what sort of values do we want to impart to our children. To teach them to live extravagantly, or to know how to spend money wisely. Thankfully, my son is still young and he hasn’t start making any sort of demands yet. But when that day comes, God bless me with the wisdom to know how to teach him to find the right balance between wants and needs.
Great point, Ruth – I agree that the bigger picture message is really important. Even though our celebration was a relaxed at-home affair, I have to admit that I cringed a little when the kids tackled their mountain of presents after the party. They were delighted but it felt like too much to me. It’s hard to get the balance right, but I’ll keep trying. Thanks for commenting!
We also do homemade parties and they are usually very small personal affairs. I can so relate to running around looking for elusive supplies. One tradition that has become a big hit with us is having the kids help make their own pinatas. Since they take a few days to make it is a great build up to the party.
It’s good to hear that someone else can relate to the party supply hunt! I really love the piñata idea. Though they are popular here I skipped it this year and think it would be really fun to do our own for their next birthday. Thanks for sharing.
My eldest turns 3 in December, and confession: he’s never had a birthday party. We are simply not celebratory types. Each year so far, we take pictures and take him out to play (more so than usual) and that’s about it! Perhaps this year, he’ll actually understand that there are such things as ‘birthday parties’ and want one 🙂
Happy birthday to your twins!
Thanks for the birthday wishes. I think it’s great to keep things low-key for as long as possible on the party front. Our kids had their first birthday party at 3, but it was mostly because all of their preschool friends had organized something similar. Peer pressure! I will confess that we haven’t really done Halloween yet…and I’ll keep skipping it until they figure it out! Thanks for reading, Alison.
This year when my daughter turned 5, we had her party at a children’s art studio. She wanted a “Flamingo Princess” themed party, something that she had created in her head. I bought plastic flamingo yard ornaments, and she decorated them with jeweled stickers, some of her play jewelry and little crowns. I made crowns for all the girls — I borrowed a glue gun from a friend and attached little flamingo ornaments and hot pink feathers to play crowns. Their goody bags were dress up faux jeweled rings. At the art place, they were instructed to create paintings of a flamingo princess.
We were able to keep the party more manageable this year because we only invited girls, and we kept it to only girls in her class. But Dee — I realize that you can’t do just girls or just boys because you have one of each!
I hope all goes well for you, Dee!
Jen 🙂
I love the art studio idea and planning the party around a theme generated by your daughter. Sounds like a lot of fun! And manageable too, which is great. Party themes can be tricky with boy/girl twins, so I usually try to keep things neutral. This may change in the future, especially if we start doing separate celebrations. Lots to think about! Thanks for sharing.
Since my kids are already 19 & 16 years old and I have one of each gender, we’ve done it all! 🙂
Our “tradition” is that we go out to dinner as a family on the actual day of the birthday (usually to a “family friendly” restaurant that sings some form of “happy birthday” & makes a bit of a fuss of the birthday boy / girl).
The actual parties have been very similar to what Karyn described – so we’ve had the “at home”, “sleepover”, and “at a party venue” as well as “ten-pin bowling”, “lazer quest” etc type of parties.
This year was the first time I ever did a “Surprise Party”! My daughter’s 16th birthday fell on Mother’s Day, so it was easy to convince her that nobody would come to a party cos they had to celebrate with their moms! 🙂 I roped in my daughter’s friends & my sister-in-law to help me organise everything and (most importantly) keep the secret. It was a huge success! 🙂
It’s great to hear about all of the different types of parties you’ve done – some good ideas. I like your family dinner tradition and may have to try that next year. Your daughter’s surprise party sounds fantastic – well done! My friends organized one for my 16th birthday and it’s still quite a special memory. Thanks for commenting, Simona.
It sounds like Jakarta is very similar to NYC. We have endless choices from sports to art to museums to parks, and since we live in a small, rather cramped apt, I have opted to shell out the big bucks for the kids parties. The most ridiculous one, was my son’s first. My mother insisted on planning (and paying) the entire thing. It was at a kid gym, and she added every extra she could find. She bought hundreds of balloons, extra time with extra entertainment for the kids, a ton of food for the kids and adults….I’m embarrassed to say how much it cost her at the end! Since then, I have taken over the party planning and although they are always outside, I have insisted that they are less costly and more about the child and having fun.
Wow, that’s quite a first birthday party! I’m sure your mother (and son) loved it and you have some great party pics for years to come. But yeah, I agree that’s it’s important to focus on the fun factor and keeping things grounded. My nephew just celebrated his first birthday with a friends/family picnic in Central Park, which seemed like a relaxed and easy way to do things. We don’t have great parks here, but we are lucky to have lots of outdoor space at home, which made things much easier. We all work with what we have and I’m sure you plan a great party!
Happy birthday to your twins Shaula! I kind of play it by ear each year. My youngest is only 2, so she hasn’t had a party yet. My oldest loves arts and crafts, so every party she has had (3 to date) have been with some sort of art theme…and all small, with just her closest handful of friends.
In terms of tradition, we go for a treat at a local yummy donut shop on birthdays.