5th July 2013
I received a reminder from parents.com that it is time to start planning my baby’s first birthday. “What?!! It is 3 months away and I have to start planning now?”
“Oh wait. She is almost 1 years old and my tummy is still flabby.” *Sob*
I had a mild depression and forgot about birthday planning altogether.

Birthday themes from babble.com

19th July 2013
Now all these kids party themes blog posts are really getting to me, as if mocking the fact that I still haven’t started on Lauren’s birthday. Although I have a background in events management, I haven’t really organised many personal events, or birthdays for that matter. Except for my wedding. Luckily THAT went pretty well.

I still like to brag on the fact it only took me (well, both of us) 5 months to plan, and it was done remotely as well. We were in Singapore and wedding was held in Sydney. I haven’t been to the venue till 1 week prior. And hubby was there for the first time on the actual wedding day. Yeah, I like to think I am so spontaneous like that. That got me into browsing wedding photos mood and birthday planning has to wait for now.

16th August 2013
Got an invitation to a friend’s kid’s 5th birthday party in a week’s time. Damn, I better get started on Lauren’s. Where do I start? Birthday theme? What happens at baby’s first birthday? Maybe I’ll get some inspiration at the party.

We couldn’t catch any fish at Zach’s fish theme party. Even Lauren is giving up on me.

20th August 2013
I finally got around to ask Nick for his opinion. Luckily for me, he had it all planned out – the menu, the time and choice of venue! So that usual, he is the idea man and I’m the executor. We are going to order a whole roast pig. Yes, the whole thing, head to tail. Just like when the Chinese get married; the groom family has to send a whole pig over to the bride’s family home as part of the dowry. Or the other way round. I can’t remember, so obviously I didn’t get a pig! But my daughter is about to get one.

Yes, the whole roast pig is the centre of our menu. Partly because the hubby loves “siew yok” and we are Aussies. We like to assemble our own food, just like making your own sausage and bread at any typical Aussie bbq. The idea is to get our guests to slice whichever part of the pig they want, put in into a crusty bread roll, add in pickled carrots, sliced cucumber, coriander and chilies. Basically assembling a roll on their own. The roll would be similar to a Vietnamese Bahn Mi. Instead of chicken/spam meat, it will be roasted pork meat. And look similar to this:

22nd September 2013
The next big thing is the cake. I know Winner from OneToughCookie from my Zouk days. I have seen enough beautiful cake photos on her facebook page. So I knew straightaway I wanted a cake from her. I dropped Winner a message on FB, and said I’ll leave it up to her creativity to come up with something great. She agreed, promised to do some research and get back to me. So cake, done!

Next I wrote a run sheet for the event on Excel. I believe in writing everything down, so I won’t missed anything. Once it is written and checked, it is done. I don’t worry or stress over it. This is how it looks like.

So there it is. The things I have to get done in 2 weeks. done. Wish me luck.

Be sure to return to find out how the party turn out. Oh, and please let me know if you think I have left out anything on the run sheet. Ciao to call the roast pork guy now.