Harshul's First Birthday Party
>> Tuesday, September 30, 2008
It was an evening to remember. Harshul turned ONE on August 26th this year. So we decided to throw a party to celebrate this major milestone.
After much searching we decided on a venue. It was hard to find since we were particularly looking for Saturday evening. So it was going to be Mayuri Indian cuisine in Santa Clara on 27th of September. Now that the venue and date were fixed, I could start inviting people.
This time I took the easy route and used Evite to invite people. That's where the trouble started. That's because Evite just then launched their new version. I was thrilled to use it because they were letting me customize the Evite. I liked the idea of customizing since I enjoyed doing that. So instead of using their old version I chose to use their new version of evite. God was it buggy. I'm not sure why Evite decided to release it to public without testing it well. There were lot of instances where some of them did not receive the evite and many other bugs. The most worst of all was failure on evite's part to send out the reminder 2 days before the party. I did not anticipate that one. That threw us off completely. So because of that reason alone at least 40% of people missed the party. When you put so much effort in organizing a party we want to be sure that people show up. It really bugged me.
Anyways the theme for the party was brown and blue. So I went all out on that theme. I made a birthday banner in those 2 colours. Then I made a bunch of number 1's again using the same theme and used them for centerpieces along with balloons. Since the chocolate coloured balloons were not available in the regular party stores, I ordered them online. So the centerpieces were 2 blue and 2 chocolate brown balloons tied together with the number 1 stapled to the tie. If you see the pictures you will get some better idea.
After much searching we decided on a venue. It was hard to find since we were particularly looking for Saturday evening. So it was going to be Mayuri Indian cuisine in Santa Clara on 27th of September. Now that the venue and date were fixed, I could start inviting people.
This time I took the easy route and used Evite to invite people. That's where the trouble started. That's because Evite just then launched their new version. I was thrilled to use it because they were letting me customize the Evite. I liked the idea of customizing since I enjoyed doing that. So instead of using their old version I chose to use their new version of evite. God was it buggy. I'm not sure why Evite decided to release it to public without testing it well. There were lot of instances where some of them did not receive the evite and many other bugs. The most worst of all was failure on evite's part to send out the reminder 2 days before the party. I did not anticipate that one. That threw us off completely. So because of that reason alone at least 40% of people missed the party. When you put so much effort in organizing a party we want to be sure that people show up. It really bugged me.
Anyways the theme for the party was brown and blue. So I went all out on that theme. I made a birthday banner in those 2 colours. Then I made a bunch of number 1's again using the same theme and used them for centerpieces along with balloons. Since the chocolate coloured balloons were not available in the regular party stores, I ordered them online. So the centerpieces were 2 blue and 2 chocolate brown balloons tied together with the number 1 stapled to the tie. If you see the pictures you will get some better idea.
Also I made some cupcakes in the brown and blue and packed them in some plastic bags and gave a couple to each kid in their goody bags. Talking about goody bags, again I was lucky to find these beautiful gable boxes in my colour theme. Every child was happy to get one of those goody bags.
Since it was a first birthday party we wanted some older kids to perform. So there were 4 different performances. The first was by Sindhu. She danced for an old Hindi classic, "Apalam, Chapalam". Everybody enjoyed the performance. My mom especially liked the song. She did a great job. Next Hrishika and Ashi performed for a medley of 2 songs, "Mauja Mauja" from Jab We Met and "Maria Maria" from movie Partner. This was the first time Hrishika ever performed for a Hindi song. She did a great job. Both the girls were so well synchronized, I was extremely pleased with their performance. Also their outfits were adorable. Next Sindhu and Vinay performed for a song they learnt at their school. Followed by Vinay and Teja's performance for a medley of 5 songs which culminated with the "Pappu can't dance" number for which Hrishika, Sindhu, Ashi and Gowtham joined in. It was a memorable performance. Thanks to all the kids for their hard work and effort.
This was followed by cake cutting. I ordered 2 cakes for the party from Satura cakes. This place was recommended by my friend Veena. I ordered a Satura short cake and a Chocolate souffle. Both the cakes were very yummy. Harshul enjoyed cutting the cake. This was followed by dinner. Everybody enjoyed the food and the cakes.
This was followed by cake cutting. I ordered 2 cakes for the party from Satura cakes. This place was recommended by my friend Veena. I ordered a Satura short cake and a Chocolate souffle. Both the cakes were very yummy. Harshul enjoyed cutting the cake. This was followed by dinner. Everybody enjoyed the food and the cakes.
The dinner was followed by some DJ music to some popular Hindi songs. Everybody was on the dance floor. Hrishka and Ashi danced for hours. Finally by 11:30 p.m we started winding down. By 12:00 at night we left for home and called it a night.
Happy Birthday my dear Harshul!!!
Read more...
