I don't know about your culture, but over here, we are big on 21st birthday parties.
But after that, birthdays pass in a blur and the lone candle replaces the rest as one tries to forget her age. And then, sometimes birthday songs are shushed.
"please don't sing it, shhhhh. not here, we're in a restaurant sheesh!"
Personally, I still like birthdays celebrations and have no problems revealing my age. (I'm er.. -does mental calculations. 25?) But after the age of 21 where the whole year was just filled with frantic present-buying and themed parties of friends and classmates, it has been pretty dead on the birthday party front.
And so I was pretty excited to get a birthday invite last Sunday!
Although I didn't know the birthday girl (I do now, hello Stacey!), and that she was 14 years younger than me, and that I was really there to conduct a workshop.
But still. yay! ♥
It got off to a rocky start though, more attendees turned up than the confirmed number of participants. There was no way I was going to disappoint anyone by turning them away (it was a birthday party!) and JY whisked me home to get more materials. (thank goodness JY drove!)
It didn't help that I lived on the other end of the island so it was still forty minutes to and fro. It was one of the most stressful car-rides I've sat in. Again and again, I was mentally checking off what I needed to grab from my house and kicking myself for not bringing more materials.
Important lesson learnt, always prepare more materials than needed.
-nods grimly.
A few of them pointed at the display of food miniatures I always brought along to my workshop and started asking. "Is this real? Can I eat it?"
I still got a kick from seeing their shocked expressions when I told them they were made of clay and weren't real food. And then I realised I had to spread the word around to not eat the donuts they were making afterwards.
While rehearsing for the workshop (yes I have to do that everytime!), I made a basket of donuts too. Call me girly, but pink and white can hardly go wrong.
But of course, I provided the participants with basic colours like red, blue, green so that they could mix their own colours for the decorations. Not everyone's a pink lover haha, just look at their colourful donuts in the photo collage below!
The birthday girl's mother prepared 3 prizes and told me I had to judge and pick the 3 loveliest baskets of donuts in the end.
It was my first time judging anything hoho, and I dawdled for some time before I could pick the winning donuts. Some of them arranged little smiley faces, it was all so cute and creative.
Yup, as you can tell I stopped growing when I was 12. :(
I also made a donut pendant for Stacey so that she'll always remember her donut-filled 11th birthday party. Too bad I forgot to take photos of it, I took a chance on her not being a pink-hater and sprinkled pink and white icing balls on one side of a chocolate-frosted donut, and arranged the letters in her name on the other side.
Happy birthday Stacey! ♥
