Ewan turns Six: Press Start To Play
Let's-A-Go!
My baby boy has turned six. That's so hard to swallow. I am not looking forward to him graduating from Kindergarten because the following years of formal education is going to be a harsh one. Even if we wanted to make schooling fun, it'll still be an uphill climb with tears and quarrels on homework or extra-curriculum practices. Which sane kid will enjoy the lifestyle of being a Singaporean student in our competitive Singaporean-styled education system? All I can do for now is to give him the most carefree childhood he can ever ask for before Primary One. Hence, no academic enrichments even if I think it will prepare him better for primary school. Come what may. We will handle it when it comes.
My baby boy has turned six. That's so hard to swallow. I am not looking forward to him graduating from Kindergarten because the following years of formal education is going to be a harsh one. Even if we wanted to make schooling fun, it'll still be an uphill climb with tears and quarrels on homework or extra-curriculum practices. Which sane kid will enjoy the lifestyle of being a Singaporean student in our competitive Singaporean-styled education system? All I can do for now is to give him the most carefree childhood he can ever ask for before Primary One. Hence, no academic enrichments even if I think it will prepare him better for primary school. Come what may. We will handle it when it comes.
With that, play! I am that mom who knows best how to give them the best play experience. It wasn't difficult to come up with a party theme. We had always window-shopped at Timezone Vivo City [I do not encourage gaming in pre-school] and Ewan had always begged me to let him play. Once, twice and by the third, he knew the answer was no. So the question changed from, "Can I play?" to "Mommy! Let's go Timezone. See only!" Just like how we go Toys "R" Us to "see only" if it wasn't Christmas or Birthday.
When I brought up the idea of celebrating his birthday at Timezone Vivo City, Ewan squealed with delight! He counted down the months, weeks and then days.
The new space that Timezone acquired in Vivo City is now located on the second floor where the cinema is. We window-shopped again one day and I noticed a swell party room! If they have a party room, there must be a party package. That got me entering their website on the spot to check out the birthday offers.
The Birthday Party Package at S$800 for 10 kids includes:
- 1 birthday present for the birthday kid
- 3 hours of party room usage
- 3 hours of play
- 1 party host
- Online invitation cards
- Unlimited Yellow Reader Games
- 5 Attraction Games [Rainbow Reader Games]
- 1 Goody Bag per kid
- Balloons and Candies
If the basic package is inadequate in your opinion, you can top it up with magic show [S$400], face painting [S$180], glitter tattoo [S$180] and more!
Oh the basic was more than sufficient for us. I don't see how we can contain the children in the party room with all those games beckoning them on the outside!
Simply call and quote “MMLITTLEE” at Timezone Vivo City to get 10% off your Birthday Party Package at S$576 for 10 kids for the rest of 2018. Email vc@timezone.com.sg or call 6251 0798 to book.
Mamma Mia!
Because this is a milestone year, I broke the rules of celebrating only with his three cousins. I told him he could invite anyone he would like and he was quick to decide - "John and Joshua only".
"Only two Ewan? You can invite as many friends as you want you know?" I encouraged.
He thought no further and his guest list was decided. Nearer to date, I asked again. Well, you know? Kids may change buddies and or add new best friends in their relationships along the way. Ewan stuck to his plan but included one more [just one more], Sean, to his birthday invitation. My son is so selective! I was surprised but if these three boys are all that he needs to make him the happiest kid in town, then these three boys it shall be.
The only theme I could think of when you scream ARCADE was Super Mario Bros and it was not too difficult to find products to match the overall theme. Goody bags as usual have no sweets so it was made up of socks, pens, Uno themed cards and nano blocks. Then came the dressing up part where we put the kids into Mario themed costumes to better identify them in the sea of gamers at Timezone Vivo City! Trust me, when it is free play time, it was so hard to find all eight of them.
Costumes are from My Mini-Me.
THE GAME PLAN - The party host brings the children on their first group game which is Bumper Cars and thereafter, releases them for Free Play where they will be let loose into the wild of arcade madness. After a while, they will be gathered back again to Mini Bowling for another group session. I didn't think it would be possible to bring the children back into the party room again for indoor games and cake cutting after spending all their time on the outside but the party host was confident she could get that organised. Just trust the host!
Did it happen? Yes! All the kids were back in the party room but it was only protocol for Ewan because I asked him to. He whined, “It’s my birthday! I want to choose what I want to do and that is, arcade games!” We played one indoor game, sang him his birthday song and off he dashed into the gaming section again. He didn't even eat his cake!
So be warned! When the children run all over the place, they are all separated. The party host is not able to baby-sit the whole group at one time so parents can take this opportunity to be involved by playing with the children!
I find it, comparing to the other home parties I've organised, this one's a little disorderly. That's because the kids are too excitable to follow any rules! The trick is, NO RULES! Let them be and let them play. The disordered nature is part of the fun really. Instead of holding your children back, watch them instead and you might learn things about them you never once knew. I made the mistake to keep order and had rules for Ewan. At one point, he cried because he didn't want to play indoor games and we kind of demanded he do it just to go with the flow of the itinerary. I felt lousy. It was his birthday so why am I not being chill about it!
Press Start To Play!
Just go play Ewan. Just go play.
The smiles and laughter on his face were proof that he had one of the best birthdays ever. I asked his cousins who celebrate every birthday with us, "Out of all of Ewan's birthday parties, which is the best?"
Everyone responded in unison, "TIMEZONE!"
Unfortunately, it wasn't quite a smooth afternoon at Timezone. The children were given one Powercard each but they couldn't tap to play on any machine. Something went wrong with the programming and they needed more than just reseting the Powercards to get it to work. I understand that glitches happen because Murphy's law really do exist! Before we jump into the puddle to point fingers at poor organisation skills, we should think about technical issues that are unforeseeable.
What did the staff at Timezone Vivo City do to salvage the situation? They sent someone to run around with all the children with a master card on hand, tapping game machines after game machines until these eight kids got their own personal Powercards that work.
We got to keep these Powercards for future top-up use. The tickets they won were all credited into it and before we left, we redeemed gifts at the store! It was no surprise all of them chose snacks and drinks instead of toys.
Ewan's voice was hoarse by nightfall. His eyes were bright the whole time we were at Timezone and he was shouting for his friends to join him in the games. He had a swell time.
Because I just came back from Seoul the night before, I have to give thanks to Hanzhi of The Joy Troopers and Kai Lee of Cativating Cake and Cupcake for settling the backdrop and cakes for Ewan. I knew I didn't have to remind them of the date and I knew they will turn up helping me more than they are paid.
Hanzhi put together such a cute three-dimensional backdrop with Star, Bricks, Coins, Tunnels and Bullet, I admired it by taking lots of photographs! Because I had to be in kindergarten to celebrate Ewan's birthday with the whole K2 year, I left Hanzhi alone at Timezone to put it up. Trust.
And when I saw the cake Kai Lee made, it was how I had imagined it to be and more! I told her to simply print a star on a paper and cut it out to stick on top of the cake where the question mark box sits. Instead, she made a fondant star and a three-dimensional mushroom just in case I liked the mushroom better! Say what? Why so proactive Kai Lee? I give credit to the extras she threw in for us as passion. It is so hard to find passion, not just people who do what they love for a living. I'm fortunate to know such people in my circle of friends.
I kept the same birthday theme for Ewan's class celebration before we head out to play at Timezone too. We are given more time than just five minutes for K2's birthday celebrations because well, it is the final year. I decided to celebrate it with the whole K2 level of 36 children but because it is already the start of school holidays, it wasn't full attendance.
Instead of the usual piñata and pre-packed goody bags, I decided to put all the goodies in a Mario-themed question mark box for the children to lucky dip their gifts! There will be five fun fact questions we will ask the class; questions about Ewan they all should know by now after being friends for five years. The first five children who answers correctly will get to dip three presents and the rest of his friends will then queue up to put together their Mario gift bags.
Kai Lee baked a different cake for the school. It is a pull-out cake made up of many mini cupcakes and it reads "6" from the top! Beautiful! I gave her full reign to design whatever cake she wanted and she made a Mario Kart Wii theme! I was impressed and I was appreciative of all the help she rendered to me at school. Kai Lee's children went to the same pre-school as mine and that's how we met. She knew the school inside out! The rules, the game plan, the teachers and so, makes the perfect person to have for our school parties actually.
30th May flew off in a jiffy and we are welcoming June in no time.
Happy Birthday Ewan! Till the next milestone.
Game Over!
Read Ewan's other Birthday Celebrations:
- First Birthday, 2013
- Second Birthday, 2014
- Third Birthday, 2015
- Fourth Birthday, 2016
- Fifth Birthday, 2017
Because this is a milestone year, I broke the rules of celebrating only with his three cousins. I told him he could invite anyone he would like and he was quick to decide - "John and Joshua only".
"Only two Ewan? You can invite as many friends as you want you know?" I encouraged.
He thought no further and his guest list was decided. Nearer to date, I asked again. Well, you know? Kids may change buddies and or add new best friends in their relationships along the way. Ewan stuck to his plan but included one more [just one more], Sean, to his birthday invitation. My son is so selective! I was surprised but if these three boys are all that he needs to make him the happiest kid in town, then these three boys it shall be.
The only theme I could think of when you scream ARCADE was Super Mario Bros and it was not too difficult to find products to match the overall theme. Goody bags as usual have no sweets so it was made up of socks, pens, Uno themed cards and nano blocks. Then came the dressing up part where we put the kids into Mario themed costumes to better identify them in the sea of gamers at Timezone Vivo City! Trust me, when it is free play time, it was so hard to find all eight of them.
Costumes are from My Mini-Me.
Did it happen? Yes! All the kids were back in the party room but it was only protocol for Ewan because I asked him to. He whined, “It’s my birthday! I want to choose what I want to do and that is, arcade games!” We played one indoor game, sang him his birthday song and off he dashed into the gaming section again. He didn't even eat his cake!
So be warned! When the children run all over the place, they are all separated. The party host is not able to baby-sit the whole group at one time so parents can take this opportunity to be involved by playing with the children!
I find it, comparing to the other home parties I've organised, this one's a little disorderly. That's because the kids are too excitable to follow any rules! The trick is, NO RULES! Let them be and let them play. The disordered nature is part of the fun really. Instead of holding your children back, watch them instead and you might learn things about them you never once knew. I made the mistake to keep order and had rules for Ewan. At one point, he cried because he didn't want to play indoor games and we kind of demanded he do it just to go with the flow of the itinerary. I felt lousy. It was his birthday so why am I not being chill about it!
Press Start To Play!
Just go play Ewan. Just go play.
The smiles and laughter on his face were proof that he had one of the best birthdays ever. I asked his cousins who celebrate every birthday with us, "Out of all of Ewan's birthday parties, which is the best?"
Everyone responded in unison, "TIMEZONE!"
Unfortunately, it wasn't quite a smooth afternoon at Timezone. The children were given one Powercard each but they couldn't tap to play on any machine. Something went wrong with the programming and they needed more than just reseting the Powercards to get it to work. I understand that glitches happen because Murphy's law really do exist! Before we jump into the puddle to point fingers at poor organisation skills, we should think about technical issues that are unforeseeable.
What did the staff at Timezone Vivo City do to salvage the situation? They sent someone to run around with all the children with a master card on hand, tapping game machines after game machines until these eight kids got their own personal Powercards that work.
We got to keep these Powercards for future top-up use. The tickets they won were all credited into it and before we left, we redeemed gifts at the store! It was no surprise all of them chose snacks and drinks instead of toys.
Ewan's voice was hoarse by nightfall. His eyes were bright the whole time we were at Timezone and he was shouting for his friends to join him in the games. He had a swell time.
Yahoo!
Hanzhi put together such a cute three-dimensional backdrop with Star, Bricks, Coins, Tunnels and Bullet, I admired it by taking lots of photographs! Because I had to be in kindergarten to celebrate Ewan's birthday with the whole K2 year, I left Hanzhi alone at Timezone to put it up. Trust.
And when I saw the cake Kai Lee made, it was how I had imagined it to be and more! I told her to simply print a star on a paper and cut it out to stick on top of the cake where the question mark box sits. Instead, she made a fondant star and a three-dimensional mushroom just in case I liked the mushroom better! Say what? Why so proactive Kai Lee? I give credit to the extras she threw in for us as passion. It is so hard to find passion, not just people who do what they love for a living. I'm fortunate to know such people in my circle of friends.
I kept the same birthday theme for Ewan's class celebration before we head out to play at Timezone too. We are given more time than just five minutes for K2's birthday celebrations because well, it is the final year. I decided to celebrate it with the whole K2 level of 36 children but because it is already the start of school holidays, it wasn't full attendance.
Instead of the usual piñata and pre-packed goody bags, I decided to put all the goodies in a Mario-themed question mark box for the children to lucky dip their gifts! There will be five fun fact questions we will ask the class; questions about Ewan they all should know by now after being friends for five years. The first five children who answers correctly will get to dip three presents and the rest of his friends will then queue up to put together their Mario gift bags.
Kai Lee baked a different cake for the school. It is a pull-out cake made up of many mini cupcakes and it reads "6" from the top! Beautiful! I gave her full reign to design whatever cake she wanted and she made a Mario Kart Wii theme! I was impressed and I was appreciative of all the help she rendered to me at school. Kai Lee's children went to the same pre-school as mine and that's how we met. She knew the school inside out! The rules, the game plan, the teachers and so, makes the perfect person to have for our school parties actually.
30th May flew off in a jiffy and we are welcoming June in no time.
Happy Birthday Ewan! Till the next milestone.
Game Over!
Read Ewan's other Birthday Celebrations:
- First Birthday, 2013
- Second Birthday, 2014
- Third Birthday, 2015
- Fourth Birthday, 2016
- Fifth Birthday, 2017
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A stay at home mum, blogging to widen her social life.
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Children Birthday parties among kids are some of the best and the children love celebrating them. You will need to plan well if at all your kid's party is to stand out and be impressive in all ways.
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