It seems like it was only a few months ago (12 perhaps) that our daughter turned five. Now we find ourselves scrambling to organize another birthday party while trying to work, feed the twins, change an endless stream of diapers, and eek out a few hours of sleep (and the burping, we must not forget the burping). In the past, because Reina has so many friends and space is limited at home, we have actually organized two birthday parties on different days; one in Chinese and another in English. The idea was to find an easy way to logically divvy up the tide of children even though there was always some overlap. It worked quite well for the past couple of years, but always left our home trashed for a few days while we worked to clean it all up. I recall balloons lurking about in dark corners for months afterwards.
As with everything in our lives, this year the birthday party will be different. We finally decided to farm out the fun and rented a space at Fundazzle for two hours where Reina and a bevy of her pals (foreign and domestic) can eat some cake and burn it off before going home and leave the mess for the staff to handle. Rent for a birthday space is RMB300 upstairs along the wall (the private room in the back is RMB500). It’s not much more than a table and chairs (presumably for the parents to sit on), but we don’t expect the kids to hang out much there. Figure 10-15 minutes to eat cake and an hour and 45 minutes for coats and bags to sit on chairs.
Admission for each child is an additional RMB35 and parents are an extra RMB15 each. For those interested in renting a clown or hiring someone to do face painting, Fundazzle can provide those options as well. We figure the ball pit and climbing structure are incentive enough for our crew, so we skipped the extras. Instead, we opted to pay for everyone and forgo handing out goody bags at the end of the party. Even Reina has expressed that she is more interested in having fun with her friends than getting a bunch of presents and this way she gets to treat everyone, with a bit of help from Mama and Baba.
To learn more about Fundazzle, you can check out my past review here and detailed comparison to the Family Box here.
photo by SUI
