A Birthday Celebration at Play

Though we had an early doctor-themed birthday party with our families back in Canada a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be nice to get a few of our Kuwait friends together for a real birthday celebration after a long summer apart.  Since we’d already done the big party thing, I knew I wanted to keep this one small, super low-key, and easy to put together, which preferably meant not hosting it in our apartment {oh the disaster that can be created by a clan of little ones in a short amount of time!}  While I did consider hosting it on the beach at the Hilton, it’s simply too hot to do that right now – even early in the morning.  So when the opportunity to have it at Play {a fun indoor play space in the city} came up, we jumped on it!  We love Play and visit regularly, so we already knew that we could expect a fun {and clean!} play space that all of our guests {aged 18 months to 6 years} would enjoy.

We arrived about a half hour early, reserved a string of tables just outside of Play, and put out some cute woodland animal themed plates, cups, and napkins from Ikea’s Överlägsen collection (Kuwait | US)… Not my usual party style, but they fit the ‘easy’ bill perfectly and Miss G thought they were great.

We also set out these simple, but fun party favours – homemade vanilla scented play dough in silicon cupcake cups with sequin sprinkles and a star-shaped candle – and called it good.

Before long, our friends began arriving and it was time to play!  Now when we visit normally, us moms are usually in the play area climbing and running and playing alongside our little ones, but because we pretty much had the place to ourselves to start off and our kids were doing so well together, many of us snuck in a cup of coffee and some adult chat before heading in – bliss!

The kids had a wonderful time playing together, and as always – the balloon room was a huge hit.

After the kids had had a good long play and were sufficiently sweaty and hungry, we invited them all out for some food, which was once again kept very simple.  We’d brought along a big tray of fruit, a big tray of veggies, some water, and juice boxes, then ordered some falafel, hummus, and pita from our favourite falafel spot in the mall.

Then it was time for cupcakes!  Once again, I made the yummy {wholewheat sugar-free} dark chocolate zucchini muffins I passed off as cupcakes at Miss G’s doctor party, but this time with melted dark chocolate and fresh strawberries on top.  This time around, I baked them in cute paper cups Miss G and I found at a local grocery store, but when I got around to trying one tonight, I noticed that the cups gave the cupcakes a bit of a plastic-y taste – ew!  Cute, but definitely not worth it!

Despite the cupcake mishap, the morning turned out absolutely lovely!  It was super low-key, super low stress, and everyone had a good time, which was exactly what was hoped for.  Best of all, our girl got to catch up with lots of the little friends she missed so much this summer!  Here’s to being four!

Are you following us on Facebook and Instagram yet?

We’d love to have you!