Ally turns two!

Parties for kids are a really tiring affair. And anyway, we're told kids younger than four can't really appreciate it anyway. But we decided to have one for Ally's second birthday to let her know she was still special even with the new baby around.

We kept to all the rules parenting books prescribe for a successful 2 year old's party.

1.Keep it small and limit it to adults the birthday kid is familiar with. Here's a group shot.



I guess it's still quite big by some standards, but not by us since Ally's first month and one year bash had many many more. Don't ask me why but my dad got all excited with Ally being the first grandchild and decided to invite, like the whole world. Anyway, we're lucky to actually have a number of friends with children in the same age group so the party is always pretty well attended!

2.Keep entertainment simple and make sure there are enough toys to go around since this is the age where "everything is mine!" For this bunch of 2 year olds and under, I just scattered some groovy toys around:


22-month old Joshua backing out in his BMW.

Bubbles are always a hit.



And these really cute helium filled pets!





They don't come cheap at $16 each from the Concourse party shops. I managed to bargain down to $12 each. Still expensive but worth it lah. You've got to see them up close. They're from Japan and designed so well they're weighed down just enough by little paper legs so that they can be pulled along like pets. Ally fell in love with them at a friend, Gor Gor David's party so I just had to get them this time. Each kid got to bring one pet home with them.

Finally we kept the party short and sweet. Everything was wrapped up in two hours and by 630pm, everyone had gone home. Only the two ribena drunkards Ally and cousin Rachel were left behind, gulping down their favourite drink...



and creating a ruckus on the piano after.