Birthday Cakes August 25, 2008
Posted by Kinetic Gal in How-To Tips.Tags: Birthday, Birthday party, cake ideas, cakes, Singapore
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For ANY birthday party, the birthday cake is always one of the focus (besides the kid himself, of course!). Depending on how you want the party to be remembered, there are always various different cakes for the occasion! Having been to so many different birthday parties, let me just share a few interesting ones that i remember with you!
1. The photograph-printed birthday cake!
The cakes are in this case, custom ordered as the parents had sent in the birthday kid’s photographs to the cake shop. Several shops in SG do offer this, but it is pretty expensive!
2. The Cartoon themed cakes
These are the normal cakes that you see with cartoon prints and so on. Kids love these but they sometimes fight over the cartoon figurines on the cakes, so be forewarned!
3. The 3D Figurine Cake
These cakes never fail to WOW people when they are taken out. Some are in the form of the barbie doll 3D (yes, i have seen one like that before!) while some are in the forms of cars, trains etc. The only thing to note is that these kind of cakes do pose a challenge to however is cutting the cake as they tend to have odder shapes (eg, i have had once when the parent was having a headache trying to divide the cake, because the cake was triangular in shape)
4. Ice Cream Cake
One of the hot favorites of the ice-cream lovers. Perpetually all kids LOVE ice-cream, so they are guaranteed to come back for a second serving. Take note however that young kids are advised not to take too much ice cream cake, and ice cream cakes have to be kept in the freezer up to the point when it has to be cut. Sometimes it takes a fine balance indeed for I have seen parents struggling to cut the ice cream cake as it was frozen too hard too.
5. Cup cakes
These are less commonly seen. Most of the time, parents prepare a slightly bigger cake for cutting, but give out the cup cakes instead. The cup cakes are mostly decorated nicely with smiley face and creative decorations. It is a good idea to have these if they are a lot of kids since it will be much easier to give out the cake and save the hassle of cutting and dividing the big birthday cake! (Save the birthday cake for family members!)
Well, that’s about it that I can recall from the parties that I have been hosting. Occasionally too, there are some two tiered birthday cakes, but those are rare, only if there are a lot of kids around! Sometimes, it is good to ask your kid for his/her preference for the cake, since it is afterall his/her birthday! As long as everyone ends up happy and had fun, all’s good! 
Some Ideas and Suggestion on Party Location August 17, 2008
Posted by Kinetic Gal in How-To Tips.Tags: Birthday, Birthday party, Children, ideas, Kids, original ideas for party locations, party venues, Singapore, suggestions
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Where are some of the places to hold a good birthday party? Sometimes, parents do come up to us after shows, asking about some suggestions, so here we have some suggestions from the wacky mind of Kinetic Gal! (Don’t worry though, the suggestions are very much sane! ) Here i have four suggestions that you can consider, with the pros and cos listed, as well as some things to look out for. The list is not comprehensive and only list basic birthday party locations.
1. Home! If your house is big enough, why not consider having it there and then in your home?
Pros: Easy for arrangement and of course, it is a familiar environment!
Cons: Cleaning up may not be that easy!
Things to note: Do try to figure out in advance where the food, entertainment and games area should be. As far as possible, they should be separate so that kids won’t be knocking into adults holding food and etc..
2. Function Room (either of your estate, or a rellative/friends’ estate)
Pros: Relatively big area to work with, rates are cheap and you get a good nice area to set up.
Cons: Time restrictive and again, you do have to pack up the area!
Things to note: Nothing much really, unless the rooms are near to houses, then you might want to note that you will have to control your noise level! 
3. Restaurants
Pros: You get food in one area, and there’s no need to clean up!
Cons: Not much entertainment going on for the kids! You also have to ensure restaturant has a stage if you wish to hire an entertainer or no one would be able to see anything!
Things to note: More suitable for older kids. Younger kids appreciate havng space to run around, restaurant setting may be just a tad too restrained. Look also for a more family oriented restaurants! They are more likely to be able to accede to your requests and things that you need.
** Certain restaurants (like Hard Rock Cafe) actually has a separate room that may be able to be booked for birthday parties. If so, these are actually ideal as they have a less formal setting, and more likely then not, a space that is specially catered for the entertainers!
4. Country Clubs
Pros: Good, family centred clubs are great in this aspect! Most people do expect parties to be going on and kids are allowed quite a free run around the area as long as no one knocks into stuff. Most of stage (or staging can be provided) so you can be assured that the entertainers have got a good spot to perform. You can arrange for club in-house restaurants as well and sometimes you can have packages for these events. Plan it well and it can be even fair-like and a hot talking point amongst your little kids’ friends for weeks.
Cons: Higher end clubs can be pretty expensive!
Things to note: Include instructions and maps in your invites! Some clubs are not that accessible and not everyone know how to reach the place! Also, if it is a high end club, you might want to include dressing information as these clubs will be stricter. You do not want unhappy friends who are turned away due to attiring problems!
5. Chalets
Pros: Fantastic for kids with huge number of friends, and good activities to keep the kids occupied all day long!Throw in a BBQ which everyone loves and it will definitely be a memorable birthday party!
Cons: Extremely hard to arrange for space for entertainer to work!
Things to note: Chalets are mostly in the further out regions, so you might expect lower attendance! Otherwise, there might be more kids leaving early and you should be prepared that many kids will be in and out of the place and you may not be able to track everyone. This might be of a concern if kids are still young. Recommended more for kids ages 10 and above.
There are of course some othger places still, that include: Kid’s gymn, swimming pool (take note for this… Safety is a huge consideration!), theme parks, zoos, gardens, beaches (again, take note of safety concerns) and many more! But really, if you’re lost and trying to plac for a birthday party, why not give a good and qualified kid’s party entertainment company (like Mighty Magic Factory!) a call and speak to the persons over the phone. They will more likely than not, be able to give you some suggestions according to the birthday party that you are planning for!
Ideas to Plan and Organize a Science Themed Party August 9, 2008
Posted by Kinetic Gal in How-To Tips.Tags: Birthday party, crazy science theme party, fun, how to, ideas, Kids, organize party, Party, science theme, Singapore, wacky
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Studies may be boring to some but definitely not all kids find science boring! In fact, if your kids like science, planning a science themed party may be a great idea. Science themed party can be a great hoot and fun to plan too! Kinetic Gal (moi!) is a science student myself, so here are just some quirky and fun ideas from yours truly for a wacky science party!
Invitations
For invitations, you can use some lemon juice on paper. It is afterall a science principle that you are using for the invitations! It can be pretty cool for the kids to try to get the words of the invitation only after heating the invitations. If you think that heating of the invitation may be dangerous (adult supervision is advised!) another thing to consider is the writing of the invitation in ultraviolet ink. Send the invitations together with the ultraviolet pen (and light included) and let the kids have fun with the UV pen as well! Of course, remember to specify in the invitation that it is a science themed party and remind everyone to come in their best crazy scientist costume!
Decorations
For a science themed party, hanging up decorations would be difficult to theme to science. However, it is possible to make the place a lot more ‘science-lab’ like with crazy meters hanging around. One of the more fun things to do for a science theme party would be the cups and plates for food. Instead of regular cups and plates, have some plastic conical flask with a nice capillary tube (straw!!) for drinks! Use petri-dish like plates (or even test tubes!) for your jellies and agars! Some of these items can be found in novelty stores and can be fun to have.
(Picture from Wikimedia Commons)
Entertainment
For science themed entertainment, we can have some fun science ‘experiments’. Have a goo-making competition! Much like how Harry Potter does his brewery of his magic potions, the children attending the party can have ‘science potion classes’. How to conduct this ‘science competition’ is really up to you! If you’re fretting because you have no idea how and what to use, simply do a quick search online and you will find a lot of resources with regards to this! Of course, even though it is a science themed party, not all entertainment must be so ‘experiment’ oriented. Remember the science fiction novel Frankenstein? For the party, have a competition with some materials provided for the kids (split into groups) to come up with a best looking Frankenstein! A costume competition is always a hit with the kids, and this is just a little twist on the traditional dress-up competition!
Besides this of course, you can hire an entertainer who can customize his/her show to the science theme. Just like in Mighty Magic Factory, we can have customized shows to science themes if requested!
Whatever it is, have fun with the science theme party and let your creativity juices flow!!
Kinetic Gal’s Brief Guide to Balloon Decorations! August 3, 2008
Posted by Kinetic Gal in How-To Tips.Tags: balloon decorations, Balloons, Birthday, Birthday party, Children, Kids, Singapore
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Kids are always fascinated by balloons. They are fascinated by the colours, and the fact that balloons float (though some do not!). As it is, not just kids love balloons! Kinetic Gal (moi!) love balloons too! And today, I will be writing about some tips to which kind of balloons to use for your party!
Types of balloons that one can use for decoration ranges from the most basic 10″/18″ round balloons, to various shaped balloons and aluminium foil balloons and so on and so forth! Most times, the round balloons are mixed with a mixture of a few foil balloons (for the backdrop with happy birthday wordings). 260 balloons are mostly used for balloon sculpturing so if you want to have loads of balloons for the kids to take and play with, that kind of balloon would be suitable.
Sometimes, you have little kids and toddlers at the party, and they would want balloons too. If that is the case, prepare several foil balloons that can be easily blown up but will not burst nor deflate easily. These balloons are easily available at party supply stores and are a great safe balloons for the young kids.
For some very basic balloon decorations, helium balloons are the best. If you are looking at doing the balloon decorations yourself, you do not really need to crack your head over where to find helium balloons. Locally, if you need just a small bunch of helium balloons, spotlight at Plaza Singapura actually sells the helium tubs you need for blowing up helium balloons. If you really wish to do the balloon decorations yourself, mixing some helium balloons with non-helium ones would be the most cost-effective and still, impressive decorations you can have!
For decorations with non-helium balloons, ribbons and strings would be your best friend! Get creative with the ribbons and make full use of low pillars, vents etc from the ceiling! Tying ribbons across and using these ribbons to hang the balloons actually gives the illusion of floating balloons. Hang your balloons at curtains, pillars, doors etc! Sometimes, you may want also, to use double sided tape instead of ribbons, but do be careful of the walls and wallpaper as they sometimes leave marks.
As with most decorations and party games, one of the most important thing to the decorations would be creativity! You are only limited by your creativity! So unleash your creativity, have fun designing the decorations (with your child even, if you wish!)! But of course, if you find all of that a hassle, your best solution would be to find a professional party outfit like Mighty Magic Factory who can help you with your party decorations, entertainment and even food if necessary all at one go!
