Louie's First Birthday Party at Polliwogs Suntec City

Time flies for our family. Can you believe that Louie is already one year old already? I didn't until I was reminded by Facebook memories that around this time one year ago, my wife was still heavily pregnant while we happily went places with the 3 older kids. Then my wife asked, so where are you going to have Louie's birthday party? That caught me off guard.

I had been very busy with work lately and was probably harboring the secret thought of maybe not having a party this time round. After all, I think my friends (and even myself) already have birthday party fatigue! But on second thoughts, I think Louie wouldn't be too happy when he grows up knowing that he didn't have a 1st birthday party like his older siblings. Hence I decided to so something different this time.

We held "RC" parties for the first 3 kiddos, Steffi, Leroy and Stacci. But that involved the booking and decorating of the premise, the selection and ordering of the buffet and after the party is over, we even had to wash and clean up the place. And then there is also preparation of goodie bags for the kids and thinking of ideas to keep the kids occupied. In short, there are lots of work involved and I was the main contractor of works. Lots of time required. We went the easy way this time, by booking Louie's first birthday party at Polliwogs! No need to think about what to food to order for one would have to order from their menu. No need to crack my head and think about kids entertainment for there would be a party host to take care of that. And I have no worries that party guests would find it boring, for which kid would find Polliwogs boring? 

So what exactly do I need to do then? I just need to select the party package, finalize the number of kids and adults attending the party, choose the food from the menu and then wait for the big day to arrive! For Louie and us, the big day was last Sun and we woke up really early at around 8am to get ready to leave the house for the party at 10am. Unfortunately one cab doesn't fit all of us and I ended up having to take bus / MRT separately with the 3 older kids on my own. We still made it there way before the party and ended up having to wait for the shutters to be up. That was how excited we were for our first birthday party at Polliwogs!  Louie is no stranger to Polliwogs Suntec City for we had already brought him there (together with his siblings of course) when he was only 6 months old! Check out our review then.

The big room that we got to use exclusively for 2 hrs. 

It is of course beautifully decorated and there's no need to do anymore

Buffet table is also set up and ready for the food to be served!

No worries about getting into the wrong room too, for the name of the birthday kid is also prominently displayed!

So what would you expect for such a party? Let me run you through the activities of the day in chronological order -

• For us, we like to be present to welcome our guest, but I think you can just arrive anytime before the party starts. There would be a registration area for party guest to sign in. Take note though, that you only need to write down the kid's name and D.O.B. Accompanying adults need not sign in for there are no additional charges (unless its >2 adults per child in total).

• Hang around the party room for the host and assistant host will be starting the fun activities for all the kiddos about 30mins into the 2-hr time slot selected. Otherwise everything would be too rushed. It would be good to advise your guests to come early so that the kids don't miss out on the all the fun!

• It will then be followed by the food and refreshments. Please note that package caters specifically for the kids only and if additional food is required for the adults, one can always order extra at additional charges like I did. Do note that the food variety is quite limited and is western / finger food catered for the western taste such as pizzas and spaghettis. One doesn't really go for the food at indoor playgrounds anyway right?

• And then we shall have the cake-cutting and in our case, Polliwog even arranged for one of their cute mascots, Poco to grace the event FOC, Although some of the kids probably wouldn't know who Poco was, but they all went wild nevertheless! It was great fun! Cake is not provided hor, so you better prepare your own cake.  We got ours from our favorite bakery, Emicakes!

• Before we know it, our 2 hrs was up and we had to vacate the room for the next party. There were some leftover food and drinks for our party and the helpful servers offered to bring them out to the dining tables outside. It would be great if you could look for some empty tables outside before the end of your party. Otherwise you may be caught off guard when you need to leave the room with your bags and food.  

• Of course the party doesn't end here, for play time would be throughout the entire day for the guests! My kiddos played till 6pm and that made it a total of 8 hrs of non-stop fun and monkeying around. In fact, many of our guests stayed back as well!

Your guest just needs to show the invite and sign in the kiddos.  You can choose to let the host do this but I prefer to be around to welcome my guests!

Then the kids would be whisked into the room to have some great fun!

Playing statue sure is fun, with everyone taking part!

And playing choo choo train too!

The younger kids also get to ride the magic rainbow!

Only the younger ones though. If not the fabric will break in no time!

Limbo rock was another hot favorite that got everyone dancing too! Look at Leroy!

Would like to thank all our close friends and family for taking precious time off to attend Louie's birthday party. We hope you all had great fun (like Steffi, Leroy, Stacci and Louie), especially all the kiddos and we trust the kids all had a good night's sleep that evening.  Also many thanks to Polliwog in extending a discount for the birthday package for Louie. It felt almost effortless on my part, in making the party a success!

From my own experience, my kiddos doesn't eat much when they are having fun and I ended up with excess food for everyone as I had ordered extra for the adults too.  So you might want to take note of that.

Poco came by to say hi and grace the birthday party! All the kids loved her!

Even Stacci was really happy and wanted lots of photos with Poco even though she is usually afraid of mascots.  Poco must have looked really friendly!

Thank you all our friends and family! It would never had been a success without your presence!

And lastly, a wonderful family photo, and we left with great memories at Polliwogs!

P/S: We were offered a discount for Louie's birthday package, but all opinions and photos are mine and mine alone. And no, I definitely wasn't paid.

My sister-in-law blogged about the party too! Find more hilarious photos and videos of the kiddos here.