Blakes 1st Sesame Street birthday

Talofa fellow Islanders. This week is Samoan language week and I really want to use some more Samoan in this post. Talofa means hello. Faafetai means thank you. So hello and thanks for reading.

My nephew Blake turned one and we had an awesome party on a budget! In the Island culture its pretty normal to have a big first birthday and invite all your friends and family. This was more of an informal party.

So we had everything at Cornwall park in the Royal Oak/ Onehunga area. We didn't need to rent a room anything so saving money on that!

Its a beautiful park. We set up between the playground and the field so the kids had plenty of options to play where we could supervise.

I really recommend buying the $15 Chinese mats you can find in the shops in Mangere, Otara, Otahuhu and Papatoetoe. Its so much better then sitting on the grass.

Kids don't need themed food! Its a first birthday not a 21st birthday. Just keep it simple. We had people bring a plate and provided the bbq and dessert. Having the table was really useful and don't forget the glad wrap/ plastic wrap to protect the food.

Birthday boys big bro sitting on the special chair. We tied balloons to a string so people could see where the birthday part was. I must say that a lot of little kids wanted to join our party.

I bought a bubble machine as my present and everyone went nuts. It blew some big bubbles. I got it for $25 at Kmart and I need to grab another one.

My aunty provided the lolly/ candy bar. The kids were sugar crazy. Maybe you could substitute some healthy snacks like grapes, carrot sticks and apple slices. 

Washing baskets and containers to store our drinks. Nothing fancy. Easy to transport. 

We made the cupcakes ourselves. And we printed out the cupcake toppers and sellotaped to a toothpick and voila! Instant 'sesame street' cupcakes.

Our birthday boy hugging his Elmo toy. We all had a really great time. It was a party not only for kids but for adults too. The only thing 'Sesame Street' was the dessert table. Everything else was just colourful and thats all you need. No kids going to come up to you and be like "Hey where the **** is the sesame street bro?" Its all good. And you save money buying colourful decorations and not branded decor. You can do this for a lot of different parties.

Faafetai tele ma ia manuia (Thank you) and I'll see you next time.