Presenting you , Nanma's 3rd birthday party. The theme was her current favorite book - "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. Our little flat was decorated with colours and pictures from the book and the cake was the caterpillar of course! I baked vanilla cupcakes with green butter cream frosting for the caterpillar's body and a small round vanilla cake with red buttercream frosting for the head. On the menu, we tried to have food from the book and got as close as we could with our small budget and locally available resources. 
I went out looking for party hats. They cost between Rs.4-8 per hat and I thought that was a waste considering they're never used after the party and invariably are too flimsy and break within the first few minutes of wearing. Instead I bought thin, metal hairbands and used sparkly pipe cleaners and twisted them around it to make antennae! 
My darling father-in-law and cousin Soumya helped make the butterfly for the wall.
I used tissue paper to make colourful pomanders that were strung across our teensy weensy living cum dining room. I learned how to make them here. Of course, I cheated and used less paper.
Our little home had more people that we've ever had before, but I think we managed quite alright for that! Here's nanma blowing the candles off. Look at the faces of the kids around her...so cute!
You should have seen her go at the cake with the knife... such a pro at cake cutting! 
And then it was time to bond with her friends and cousins over food! Notice the mat they're sitting on? It was a gift when Nanma was a newborn by our beloved Moses Thatha. 
She managed to sneak in some cuddle time with her Chennai Ammachy. Nanma is wearing a dress handmade by her ODC Ammachy aka my mom! 
After food, the kids moved on outside for some craft fun. I had saved cardboard egg cartons for a couple of weeks to make caterpillars. 
Of course it was MESSY !!! But we managed to clean up afterward. Thank you SO much Soumya for helping me clean up! 
After our guests had left, the closest family stayed on. Here are Nanma and her cousin Ahana showing off their dance moves! Waka Waka!
Over all it was a lovely evening. Planning the party was stressful but it was "Happy Stress" as I call it!
Wow...that surely is a wonderful bday....Nanma looks lovely..the caterpillar cake looks gr8 too..god bless
ReplyDeletedeepa..that caterpillar idea was just great. Loved all the decorations :)
ReplyDeleteBirthday wishes to nanma
Happy Birthday Nanma! May you continue to bring joy and smiles to all around you! and good job with the cake idea Deepa! :)
ReplyDeletesuper super super! Hope to see you all as a family at the EMFI conference in October - please come over to Mahabalipuram!
ReplyDeleteWell done Deepa.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I'm dreading when my daughter gets older is birthday parties! My mum always had such imaginative cakes for us too... but it's not just that... it's managing all the little kiddies in a small place! Well done.
Looks like you all had a great time. God bless Nanma.
As a kid, I always whined that my mom make the regular round / rectangular cakes while some bday parties I went to had the fancy "shape" cakes.... I got a fancy "shape" cake for my 11th bday - my mum baked a rectangular cake and my dad cut it out to become an "11". :P Bambi's birthday cake looked looovely! now i want one ALL OVER AGAIN !!
ReplyDeleteLovely party..lovely cake..erm..lovely everything!:) Isn't Nanma a rockstar! Belated happy b'day to her!:)
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteWonderful blog & good post.Its really helpful for me, awaiting for more new post. Keep Blogging!
Birthday Cakes in Chennai