birthday party

Dinosaur Themed Garden Party for a Three Year Old

 ZAYD TURNED THREE!  Alhamdulillah 

We hosted a simple dinosaur theme garden party at home. As always, I used smart ways to bring the theme alive that don’t break the bank.

{Read my blog post for ideas on how I throw parties on budget with max fun!}

Here are the elements for the party with a few close friends:

Plates & matching crockery. This has a great impact. I bought a package this time including decor, so it was all in one no need to search for different items (and forget stuff!)

Table setting and food : We had roast beef sandwiches for hungry carnivores, savoury muffins, honey pancake rollups (made by my friend Ayesha- Martha Stewart recipe- yum) , dino eggs (grapes) for herbivores

                                         

Sugar free cake, iced with whipped cream (very tricky to work with as cream doesn’t whip stiff in Turkey!)

Mom’s Tea & treats: Sugar-full cupcakes for Mama saurus + tea/coffee

Snacks: Selection of healthy-ish nibbles for pekish dinos

Water Play: We had water balloons which was great fun and ideal for our summer heat to cool down.

Grateful that it went off well, (managed their minor moaning in the morning till friends arrived!). He says he loved the “cake” and “presents”  so mission accomplished! Alhamdulillah

Is your little one into dinosaurs yet?

Taskeen
Productive_Muslim_Mom

Lockdown Birthday : Family Zoom Party

PART TWO: FOURTH BIRTHDAY ZOOM PARTY 

With our family split across 3 countries, the best way to have everyone join in our celebration was through a family zoom party! Never did I think I would get dressed for a screen appearance but there you go! 

This was the covered pancake stack & party table (Remember to set up a great zoom backdrop!

Pancake Stack cake Recipe-  #sugarfree and #colourfree I used the recipe from @tableforfivedubai but left out the sugar.
Use a large frying pan so there’s space to flip.
Sandwich each pancake with unsweetened cream and fresh strawberries 
The cream is coloured with natural beetroot powder (post coming soon)
Decorate & eat!

Stacking in progress! sandwich with cream and strawberries.

Inside the stack once cut. Very exciting for the kids. Delicious treat for everyone.


Since we had a cake for part one of her birthday (see previous post), it was great to do something different for this occasion- thanks to @zaakira1 for the inspo and on the job help as I flipped and stacked pancakes in the morning!

Have you had many zoom parties? Let us know below or on Instagram!

Taskeen
Productive_Muslim_Mom

How to throw a kid's birthday on budget- lockdown style

We recently had my pre-schoolers (ie no longer toddler!) fourth birthday celebration. Alhamdulillah

Given the lockdown context, and observing social distancing we did it in two parts : a small party at home with 2 friends and a family zoom party during the weekend. Double the fun, double the cake!  

We were sad not to have our usual bigger crowd to share in her happy day but given the cold weather we had to host indoors and therefore kept it safe with just 1 family to join us this time. And let’s face it, my two little ones make a party by themselves already! Having it at home also meant zero venue costs and fortunately I have the space to host this way.

She chose the theme : Kitty cats which was cute and easy to work with.

My aim is to keep costs low, and fun factor high! I enjoy the little touches to bring a theme together and have also realised that keeping it simple makes it more enjoyable for the kids as they can enjoy all the elements – and easier for me (to not get overwhelmed and also enjoy the preparations!)

I rarely spend more than 100 TL a pop by being smart with decor, re-purposing elements each year and making most things myself. So here is what we put together this year :

Cat themed tableware

Top Tip: Use plates/cups/serviettes as an essential part of the decor to bring the theme alive!

I have found that theres nothing more fun for kids than to eat their favourite snacks from cute colourful plates- on party day and beyond. Therefore, I choose to spend my money on matching serving tableware (this time I got it all from Partidunyasi)  and often keep extra stuff for special snack time on another day.

For decor I printed these letters from this website to make a sign. We blew balloons and I printed a cat sign to add to a frame which I placed on the table as well. 

Lets talk about the cake – the highlight of the day! Delicious #sugarfree cake made with bananas , sweetened only with honey. I used whipped cream to cover the cake, and crackers, cranberry’s and raspberry for to complete the kitty’s face. I added kitty cake toppers to match the colours. As the cake contains no refined sugar – its challenging to work with so I have to get creative! Firstly, it doesnt rise as much as regular cake so I use a cake stand for height. Secondly, no sugary buttercream to easily cover dents and give a smooth finish – so I used unsweetened whipped cream instead and even did a crumb coat to cover the cake better! At least it resembled a kitty cat and together with everything else was well received by the kids – and of course I’m not stressing about sugar highs or lows after!

Also on the menu was “fishy snacks” (crackers as a savoury snack) & boxed milk (kitty’s favourite). Given we had had pizza for lunch earlier, this was just right to keep the kids satiated and full of energy for more play and excitement in the afternoon.

For activities : I printed and made kitty masks (free printable from here) which were a great hit! All you need is string/elastic, stapler and a stanley knife to cut the holes for the eyes. I also had a pin the tail on the cat game prepared but we didn’t get to it – saved it for later! I like to the traditional party games so we also did musical chairs which is always loads of fun for the kids.

Lastly, I used this invite (from google) to send digitally to her friends and used the same one for the family zoom party (next post)

So you seem its really to easy to throw a kids party (and stay sane in the process!)by keeping things simple and using whats available like free printables and things you have on hand already. 

Lastly, home brewed karak chai made by my dear friend Sabreen, a perfect way to end a beautiful birthday 😻

Next post: Part two : Family Zoom party

Productive_Muslim_Mom