Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Birthday goodies in school

Ryan loves to pretend that he's a mouse. He will insist that I address him as a mouse, and he will squeak like a mouse to respond. It's been going on for some time now. Before this, he was a worm. I don't know why he doesn't choose more exciting animals, but there you have it. Anyway, a mouse is good. There's Mickey Mouse, Jerry the mouse (from Tom and Jerry), the mouse from the tale of The Gruffalo, etc. Plus Ryan was born in the year of the Rat, so he really is a mouse.

Anyway, one day in January, I told him that I'd make him a tail. I wasn't thinking of his mouse persona actually; I just thought that having a tail would be fun. He was very excited at the idea and so I started planning and researching on how to make it happen.

Around the same time, Richard and I were discussing how best to celebrate our little love's birthday. Initially we planned just to take the day off work/school and spend the day with him. The week before his birthday, however, his teachers asked us if we would have a celebration in school. They said that his birthday was the only one around that period and it would be lovely for the children to have a celebration together with some chocolate cake with sprinkles on top. Of course we said yes, which meant a little change to our plans was required - Ryan had to go to school after all and we had to get a big birthday cake!

We still wanted to spend the day with Ryan so we arranged with the teachers to have the celebration around noon after which Ryan would leave early with us. When I was discussing the party plans with Ryan's teacher, she told me that if I was planning on bringing goodie bags, I needed to make sure that they did not contain nuts. I told her that I had not decided to give out any goodies at all but, if I did give out any goodies, they wouldn't be sweets or nuts or anything like that. She was so grateful to hear that - so take that as a tip for parents: the school is not enthusiastic about parents distributing food, unless it's chocolate cake!

Actually I wanted to bring in the cake, do a quick song, blow out the candles, cut and eat, and get ourselves out of there to enjoy the rest of the day. I had no plans to give out any goodie bags. But our discussion got my creative juices flowing and, coupled with the tail discussion I was having with Ryan at the time, I decided to make tails for everyone!

Ryan's tail was the first one I made. It's actually the prototype but when I asked him to try it on, he absolutely loved it and refused to take it off the entire day. And of course, he calls it his "mouse tail", even though I don't know of any mouse with a tail like this.


The next few days yielded these; the last one was finished the morning of his birthday.


The children absolutely loved them! They all sat down and eagerly waited to be called upon to select a tail and, gosh, the smile on each child as his/her chosen tail was pinned on was just priceless. They even wore the tails to the canteen for lunch after the class party and I understand that some of them wore their tails for the rest of the school day. Even if the interest lasts for just one day, I'm happy at the thought of having brought one day's worth of happiness into each child's life. 

Each child had one, plus I made one extra for one of the teachers (she has a young daughter). Each tail can either be clipped on with the attached clip or pinned on with the attached safety pin.

Here're some photos of the cake ceremony. Both the cake and the cupcakes were from Le Patissier. We bought the little party hats too.



After the cake was cut, the children all sat around in a circle (tails on) and ate their cake/cupcake while sending messages to Ryan. Each one would put their hand up and when called upon, would volunteer some words like "I love you Ryan" or "Happy Birthday Ryan!". Oh, it was just so sweet.

The cake was decorated with, what else, the alphabet. Richard asked them to put Ryan's name separately on different shapes and after the party, we left the shapes in the school office for the office staff and the principal, who do a wonderful job at the school.



Let me tell you, the tails raised Ryan's social standing a few notches - Ryan was an absolute rockstar that day. We wanted to get him out of school right after the party, but the children all gathered around him and shepherded him to lunch with them at the canteen, all of them marching there with their tails on, with the other classes looking on curiously. Richard and I had to wait till lunch was done, and even then, it was tough to get Ryan out because he had to do the movie-star exit - waving to everyone, giving out hugs and kisses for all. It was an amazing day for him at school.

While we are on the topic of tails, I wanted to also share this tail that I made for Ryan's friend, Brayden. Brayden loves dinosaurs and so I thought he'd get a kick out of a dinosaur tail (in this case, a stegosaurus tail). The dino tail is constructed differently from the tails that I made for Ryan's birthday. It is a lot bigger and a lot heavier, which is just the way a dinosaur tail should be.


We met up with Brayden and family shortly before Ryan's birthday. We went to Bishan Park and after that to dinner at Thomson Plaza. Here he is, walking around with his tail at Thomson Plaza.

I guess he can use it as a cushion/bolster if he gets tired of playing with it, huh?


Tomorrow, I'll share the rest of Ryan's birthday with you. Just a teaser for now - we went to IKEA!

3 comments:

Sue said...

Just read this post! What a memorable and lovely 5th birthday!
Happy Birthday Ryan :)
And Mummy, you are amazing!*salute*

Pinkie Pirate said...

Thanks Sue!

Terri said...

Always brimming with fun ideas! You and Richard must have Peter Pan in your DNA hehe

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