Magic. Fantasy. Animals. Friends. Laughter. Squeals. Excitement.
That was how we celebrated Big Bee's 9th birthday party - together with 20 boisterous, articulate and very bold classmates and good friends, 2 little cousins (Val and Chloe), her grandparents and us.
We had both been planning this party for a while, exploring different party options and discussing what she wanted. Being an opinionated young lady who always knows what she wants, she highlighted that she wanted to invite this particular magician whom we had seen performing last Christmas. Although she was usually quite the skeptic and cynic, even she was amazed by his feats when she witnessed his performance last year. I remembered we discussed his mind-blowing tricks for days on end thereafter. Furthermore, his magic shows incorporated a lot of little cute animals - all unharmed and pretty happy - so Big Bee was even more impressed.
So, it was a simple magical party that she wanted - with her best friend, very good friends from kindergarten and close P3 classmates. The guest list was drawn up by her, invitations were extended by her to all her friends, rsvps were collected by her and doorgifts were meticulously selected by her. Organising a birthday party for a big kid is indeed easy for the parents :)
On the day of her birthday, she was beside herself with excitement. Soon enough, all her friends streamed in and I had never seen another bunch of more outspoken and precocious young ladies! It was a drop-off party, so there were only 2 parents around - and maybe that explained why the girls were so rambunctious and uproarious!? Throughout the party, I had to calm a few of the more assertive ones, especially when they were over-zealous during the magic show!
After some truly active free play amongst themselves, the magic show started with 30 minutes of magic workshop which I thought was rather dull, but Big Bee assured me that her friends loved it as they could learn magic tricks. The workshop was rather interactive, with the girls coming up to conduct magic tricks, but I found the poor assistant magician being overwhelmed by some rather domineering girls!
When the main magic show started, the atmosphere was sizzling with stunned and fascinated girls with gaping mouths and stupefied gasps. There were advanced tricks with fire, lights, animals and many others that we found impossible to break his code! All the guests, including the adults, were awed. After the party, Big Bee told me some of the girls were slightly frightened of the magician Joe, because they are worried that he might change them into animals!
Joe the magician put up a magnificent 2-hour show for us, inclusive of a cake-cutting finale, as well as an individual photoshoot of all the guests with the 3 main animals - a cute furry bunny which all the girls absolutely adored, a sunny canary and a snowy white dove. His magic show was also highly interactive, where the whole family and most of her friends had the chance to help perform some tricks on stage too.
The highlights were undoubtedly the photoshoot and the fact that the kids can pet the animals and play with them. Joe had 2 assistants with him, and they were all absolutely friendly and chummy with the kids too. I really appreciated them hosting Big Bee's party, and she certainly enjoyed herself to the maximum.
Gradually, as with all fun parties, guests gradually streamed home, but Big Bee continued her party with 2 of her best friends Rachael and Lizzie in our home, playing and yakking merrily all the way till 6.30pm!
From her cheery grins and animated chatting, I could tell she was blithe and delighted. Happy 9th birthday, my darling Big Bee. You will forever be my baby, despite the fact that you are fast reaching my height!
You can read about her own account of this party in her blog here :)
2 comments:
So cool to be able to pose with birds on your head.
viv: Haha, yes, the girls love it - although, some were freaking out too, cos the birds were either sitting on their heads like their hair is a nest or pecking around the backs of their necks. Yewww!
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