Whose Birthday is it, Anyway?

Our younger son turned a year old recently, one whole year!

So I started planning his birthday party about 2 months ago. Have it at home? No way, I’m not having 15 children tearing about (and up) my house. Be a fair parent and have it at Megakidz where his Abang had his birthday earlier this year? No, too expensive for a 1year old who wouldn’t understand what’s going on. So we compromised and headed to McDonald’s.

It was great fun. The adults had a decent lunch and the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves, evidenced by the plastered-down-from-sweat hair.

They had a party room and nice little play area for the children. The staff were great with children and managed to herd all the little ones into the party room for their Happy Meals. While the children were happily chomping away, the staff got together some things for the party games. Once everyone was ready, they started the classic party game – Musical Chairs. (I was at a party once at the birthday girl’s house and they had ‘Musical Cushions’. Same concept, but takes longer to sit down.)

In our case, the birthday boy was too busy running around McDonalds and too young to play the game anyway. So all the older children, Abang included, gathered around those bright red chairs to play the game.

How predictable the outcome was, that my 9 year old nephew – the oldest and biggest child by far – should win the game. Size does matter, especially to nudge little competitors out of the way!

The next game involved nothing but luck and the ability to pass the ball to the person next to you. The children were arranged in a circle and when the music stopped, the person holding the ball is out of the game. Oh, look. The 9 year old boy is the first one out. Who would have guessed? The final 2 were Abang and one of his second cousins, a girl. Well, what do you know? Abang won this game! The staff must have remembered who’s paying the bill…

When the time came to cut the birthday cake, who should sit on the Birthday Chair but Abang. The staff politely tried to talk him out of sitting there.

“Abang, why don’t you stand next to Adik? Then he can sit on the Birthday Chair.”

“But Abang having my birthday with Adik.” No sign of letting The Chair go.

I step in. “Hey! I have an idea! Let’s have both of you sit down together.” Adik is squirming away, not keen to sit anywhere, while we try to sort out the cake cutting sitting arrangement.

Eventually I have to hold Adik while he stands on The Chair and Abang is sitting facing the cake. As expected, Abang blows the candle out. But a-ha! I managed to put the plastic knife in Adik’s hand and “help” him cut the cake.

Finally, one part of the party that the birthday boy actually participated in!

Later at home, Abang had a really good time opening up the birthday presents and playing with them too. My sister, the seasoned mother-of-two-boys sent me an SMS the next day: “How’s Abang enjoying Adik’s presents?”

I couldn’t agree with her more! Whose birthday is it anyway?