Ethan’s Birthday Celebration in School

The day Ethan had been looking forward to finally arrived.  We had wanted to have his birthday celebration in school on his actual birthday on January 31st, but one of his teachers would not be around then, so we decided to have it the Friday before his birthday, i.e. on the 28th.

This time round, we bought the party gift packs well in advance, and I already had them packed up days before the event.  Ethan had wanted a Mickey Mouse themed party, so we got stationery sets according to theme and placed them in party packs.  Ethan wanted party hats too, so we got some to match as well.

There was a reason we didn’t put any edibles in the party pack.  All the candies, chocolates and sweets were going into this piñata!

I spent days (and nights) making this piñata, and yes…Ethan specifically wanted to have one at his celebration.  Initially I planned on making a piñata where the kids would take turns to hit it till it broke, but decided instead on making a pull-string piñata.  It was a less violent alternative to the piñata game, and the kids would not be *tormented* by the fact that they were hitting their favorite characters on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse…(well, that and also because my balloon piñata burst the first time I set it up. LOL)

Anyway, this Mickey Mouse birthday cake pull-string piñata had a trapdoor underneath the bottom layer, and I fixed the ribbons in such a way that only one ribbon would open the trapdoor, releasing all the goodies.

I managed to keep the piñata a surprise from Ethan until the day of his birthday celebration, and he was thrilled to see it that morning.  Made my day when he exclaimed that he really loved the piñata, and that it was beautiful! 🙂

So Pete and I arrived in his school and brought all the stuff up to his classroom.  First his teacher requested Ethan to pass the party hats round.

And then it was birthday cake time.  Ethan had also spelled out exactly how he wanted his cake, and this year, it was my utmost pleasure to be able to bake and make the cake for him.

As soon as the cake was put on the table, 21 pairs of little feet rushed to the table to take a look at the cake.

And someone’s party hat very nearly fell into the cake…

We sang Happy Birthday in English, Mandarin and BM, and then Ethan blew the candle and cut the cake.

I was so touched when a few kids came to ask me for second helpings of the cake 🙂

Every child that is celebrating his/her birthday will get to sit in the teacher’s chair and give out party packs, and that’s exactly what Ethan got to do.  Look how happy he is…

The final part of the birthday celebration was the piñata game.  Daddy had to stand on a chair and hold it up for the entire duration of the game.  After the teacher had explained the rules, the kids each took turns to pull on a ribbon.

And here’s the one who managed to yank open the trap door! 

Unfortunately somehow the candy and goodies got stuck in the trapdoor and I had to manually jiggle it so everything would tumble down.

And as soon as the goodies came tumbling down, sheer havoc ensued as all the kids rushed to claim whatever they could get.

Here’s Ethan with whatever goodies he could get…

… and the piñata that (thankfully) stayed intact during the game, finally fell apart when the party was over!