On December 19th, Anna Claire Spitzer turned 7. This, however, was just the culmination of a week of festivities starting with her birthday party on Sunday the 14th.Kid's birthday parties in Singapore are notoriously expensive (try $700-800), so when Anna said she wanted to have her party at home and frost cookies, I didn't hesitate to comply. Now in the U.S., you don't give a second thought to running to Target and the local party store to pick up part
y plates, invitations, gift bags, balloons, craft supplies, etc. and to order a cake from the bakery or Baskin-Robbins. Unfortunately, obtaining these items is a little more difficult in Singapore. If there is a party store, I don't know where it is. I saw a few party supplies at the Toys R Us, but they weren't very nice and were expensive. And the local bakeries don't make desserts like we're used to. Asians generally don't like things very sweet, so their cakes, while beautiful, taste strange to us. And you can find craft supplies, but there is only one true craft store in the whole city, so that means driving downtown and fighting the traffic and dealing with the crazy parking garages.
y plates, invitations, gift bags, balloons, craft supplies, etc. and to order a cake from the bakery or Baskin-Robbins. Unfortunately, obtaining these items is a little more difficult in Singapore. If there is a party store, I don't know where it is. I saw a few party supplies at the Toys R Us, but they weren't very nice and were expensive. And the local bakeries don't make desserts like we're used to. Asians generally don't like things very sweet, so their cakes, while beautiful, taste strange to us. And you can find craft supplies, but there is only one true craft store in the whole city, so that means driving downtown and fighting the traffic and dealing with the crazy parking garages. 
So, I improvised! Anna made her own invitations. I used a combination of plates and napkins left over from previous parties. I did venture downtown to the craft store to buy ornaments to paint and managed to get enough for the party (they didn't have many and these were very picked over). And for the first time ever, I made my child's birthday cake myself from scratch. It was actually a cupcake cake and it turned out very cute if I do say so myself!The girls had a scavenger hunt, frosted Christmas cookies, and painted ornaments and a good time was had by all! (And with the money I saved on the party, I bought an antique chinese chest the following week!)
Later in the week on Thursday, Anna got to celebrate her birthday with her classmates. I brought in some frosted Christmas cookies, which we all worked on the night before. And then on Friday, she finally officially turned 7 and got to open some more presents from us.
Whew! And then I had 2 days to get ready to leave for Australia and Christmas........
1 comment:
Happy Birthday Anna! We got your Christmas card in the mail...loved the top 10. I'm sure you guys are getting more aquainted with the area and seems like the kids are having fun. Loved the picture with the dolphin! HOw amazing.
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